I've Been Thinking

The following scene comes from the movie The End of the Affair (1999), starring Julianne Moore and Ralph Feines, based on the novel by Graham Greene. Moore and Feines have an affair in London during World War II. They are at his flat one afternoon, when London is bombed and his flat is hit.

“I’ll give him up forever, only please let him live life,” Moore bargains with God for Feines life, “Let him live, and I promise, I’ll never see him again.” As she finishes the last line, we see Feines in the background, risen like Lazarus. God appears to have answered her prayer.

I have seen this scene referenced several times at Textweek.com, where many movie scenes are referenced for the particular connection to a scriptural theme. This scene is connected to such topics as: covenant, faith, love, healing miracles, prayer and repentance.

The scene came to me because of Sarah/Moore’s promise to God in exchange for something…Maurice/Feines’ life. For me, it connected with a promise that Jacob makes to God (Genesis 28:20-22).

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you.’

For Jacob, perhaps not for Moore/Sarah, it’s a misunderstanding. The God of the promise – the promise to Abraham and Isaac and now Jacob – doesn’t have to be bargained with. It seems to me that one of the great themes of the Old Testament is that God is faithful, even when the people of God are faithless. But, Jacob can’t just trust God.

At one time or another, haven’t we all done this, though? Haven’t we sought to bargain for God’s favor?

Kathryn Schifferdecker has written at Working Preacher:

It seems that Jacob casts God in Jacob’s own image. Jacob would never make an unconditional promise. Jacob is in it for himself and he cannot comprehend a God who would promise something for nothing, so he schemes and bargains with this God of his fathers. The Lord may be the God of Abraham and Isaac, but Jacob will claim him as God if and only if God protects and prospers him.

We, too, often cast our own image onto God. Perhaps, even what we believe to be God’s limitations, are own projected onto God.

But, God’s promise is not conditional. Amen.