I was interested, in my reading this morning, to come across the phrase “Chariots of Fire” (2 Kings 6:17). It caught my eye because the other night we happened to see the movie of that name.
The movie — I’d heard the song, of course, but never seen it — actually deserves a review of its own. A tale of two men: one struggling to fit into society, another struggling to be separate. Although he’s also trying to fit into a narrower society — the society of children of missionaries — and struggling to live out the things his faith instructs him to.
Dorothy Bass once said Sabbath-keeping is the only one of the 10 Commandments that people brag about breaking. Contrast Eric Liddell’s Sabbath-keeping with today’s prominent football-playing Christians, who not only play on the sabbath, but really work on it … although they are often showy about their religion: praying after TDs, and so forth.
It’s not my job to judge others, but if it were, I couldn’t judge them in this area; I feel convicted myself. Sabbath-keeping is one of my growing edges. If I approach Sunday as worship, I certainly approach it as work too. That’s bad enough, but I am spotty in treating Saturday or Monday as Sabbath.
But the question is not whether I felt convicted — anyone can do that. It makes us feel good and close to God. The question is whether I will do anything about it.
All that aside, however, it’s puzzling why the movie has that name. In the Bible, the horses and chariots of God invisibly surround Elisha and his servant to protect them from the Arameans. The servant sees them only after Elisha prays that his eyes might be opened.
How often are we surrounded by God’s horses and chariots of fire? How seriously do we look for them?