His Only Son (2023)
2/10
An Honest Review
2 April 2023
I love any stories that show the people in the Bible. They bring the people God used to life and it makes them real to us.

Abraham struggled with God's command to sacrifice his only son through Sarah. The same son God promised to use to make a great nation. Anyone who's familiar with this story can feel Abraham's pain. God bless Helling for bringing to life one of the Bible's foreshadowings of the coming Christ.

But our pastor encouraged our congregation to go see the movie then go online to give it 10 stars. I've heard this same admonition over my many years for several Christian movies. But for the most part they've not been that great. I'm sorry if this offends anyone but there have been very few that have been as good as the old Billy Graham movies from the 70s. That's a long time ago.

I agree with the reviews here that call it foreboding. Sure, Abraham's task was a terrible one to face, but from reading the OT I never got the impression his and Sarah's entire life was one big ball of frustration as this movie portrays. God blessed Abraham beyond his wildest dreams in many ways. But Issac's birth is a small afterthought.

I was looking forward to Sarah hearing God and laughing (just to hear someone laugh at least) but except for a brief movement all we get from Sarah was sadness. The actress who played her was incredible, but her character was unfortunately one-dimensional.

I can agree with a person's desire to spread God's word but I don't have to pretend to enjoy how they go about it. It's not a sin and neither is it a "false review" as one reviewer here imagines. If it's a person's honest opinion it's just that. Take it or leave it.

I enjoy The Chosen because it makes Jesus real and even happy when appropriate. This is a major missing element in many Bible movies and I believe it's inaccurate and a disservice to God. Anofher example is I've only seen one or two paintings of Jesus smiling, most others show Him as somber, sad, or mourning. That's how this movie comes across about Abraham.

But hey, He is risen and His kindness leads to repentance. And I have no doubt Abraham and Sarah had a special relationship with God that brought them joy too. That joy is what's missing in this story and would make God's very unusual command to sacrifice Abraham and Sarah's only son so poignant. It had to have felt strange to them, but their whole life is boiled down to a strange and distant God expecting blind obedience and dirty faces and fingernails.

Abraham had a lot of money at that age so a tattered tent was not even true to the Biblical story. (Recall all that King Abimilech gave him? The way of faith in God isn't easy but His loving kindness set the true God apart from the cruel gods of Abraham's time. That loving kindness is missing in this story.
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