part 4 of “At The Movies”
I am sure this is a familiar movie to all. I am sure we all watched the 1994 animated version of The Lion King with our kids or as kids. Then we all watched the 2019 live-action remake with our kids. The two versions of the movie aren’t that much different in the storyline, but they do depict some things a little different. So because this movie is probably the most familiar one we have looked at in this series, but I am still going to give a summary of the movie.
The movie follows a quest for the throne. Mufasa, the current reigning king of Pride Rock, has a son named Simba. Simba is heir to the throne. So Mufasa takes Simba on a tour of the Pride Lands and Mufasa tells his son all about ins and outs of being king. Mufasa tells Simba that he will one day rule the land.
Scar, Mufasa’s brother, is not too happy about all this. Scar wants to be king. He doesn’t come to the birth of Simba and he even gets Simba in trouble after he encourages Simba to go to a place that his father had told him not to go. Scar had sent Simba there so that he would be killed by the hyenas that lived in that area, but Mufasa saved him. So Scar decides to kill Mufasa instead and make it look like an accident.
Scar takes Simba to gorge and tells him to wait there for Mufasa. While Simba is waiting, the hyenas start a stampede of wildebeest and cause Simba to run for his life. Meanwhile, Scar goes to Mufasa to inform in that Simba is in the gorge with the stampede. Mufasa runs to save his son and is successful. But as Mufasa is trying to climb out of the gorge, he calls out the Scar for help. Scar leans in appearing that he is going to help but instead throws Mufasa off the side of the gorge killing him. Scar later finds Simba next to his father and blames him for the death. Scar tells Simba to run away. Scar sends the hyenas after Simba to kill him, but Simba escapes.
Simba is later found by Timon and Pumbaa. They invite Simba to come and live with them. Meanwhile, Nala, Simba’s childhood friend, has left the Pride Lands in search of food. Simba has to save Timon and Pumbaa from her and Nala recognizes him. Nala tells Simba that Scar and the hyenas have taken over the Pride Lands and that Scar is king. She tries to encourage Simba to go back to the Pride Land and fight for the throne. Simba initially gets mad at Nala, but ultimately decides to go back.
Simba challenges Scar, but Scar briefly turns the Pride against him by making him admit that he killed his father having been told by Scar that it was his fault. A fight breaks out and Simba falls over the edge of a cliff but is able to hang on. Scar then reveals that it was him who killed Mufasa. Simba overpowers him and makes him confess to the Pride. Scar and Simba have another brief fight and Scar is tossed off of a cliff. Scar survives the fall but is attacked and killed by the hyenas.
Simba takes the throne, the Pride Lands are restored, and Simba makes Nala his queen.
When I see this movie and see these two brothers, I am reminded of a similar story in the Bible.
We find the story in Genesis 4 and just like The Lion King it centers around two brothers and one brother’s jealousy of the other. After Adam and Eve got kicked out of the Garden of Eden they had two sons named Cain and Able. We get a little information about them.
“When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground.” - Genesis 4:2b NLT
So I get a picture of Cain being this muscular and rugged type of man. He was out in the fields working planting crops and weeding the fields. Able on the other hand was a shepherd. He watched over the flocks and made sure they had what they needed. I can picture him also being somewhat muscular because he was the defender of the flocks.
The time came for Cain and Able to present and offering to God. Cain brought “some of his crops” to God for an offering. While Able brought “the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flocks” to God as an offering. God accepted Able’s offering and rejected Cain’s. This made Cain very angry [1]. God asked Cain:
“‘Why are you so angry?’ the Lord asked Cain. ‘Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.’” - Genesis 4:6-7 NLT
God is telling Cain that he needs to get his anger check before he does something that he would regret. Cain was angry out of jealousy that God did not accept his offering. But God wanted Cain’s best, not just something thrown together because he had to make an offering. This is what God meant by saying “you will be accepted if you do what is right”. But then God issued a warning to Cain telling him that he needed to get himself under control or he would do something bad. Cain ends up going out into the field with his brother where he kills him [2].
Jealousy gets a hold of us all from time to time. We can become jealous of someone’s success, car, house, grades, clothes, the way their spouse treats them, the way their kids act, the fact that they have kids or any other number of things. Jealousy can make us act in bad ways. Now I know we aren’t going to kill anyone out of jealousy, but we can do other hurtful things. We can be mean with our words and actions to the coworker who got the promotion instead of us. We can be mean with our words or actions to the classmate who got an A on the test but didn’t need to study. We can be mean with our words or actions to the person who always is wearing the best clothes because they can afford them. We can be mean with our words or action to someone because they are expecting a baby and we haven’t had any luck or just can’t have any children. The list can go on and on.
But just like God warns Cain, He warns us as well. God is warning us what jealousy can do to us if we let it eat away at us. Scar let jealousy and anger over not being king eat away at him until he killed his brother to get what he wanted. Cain let jealousy eat away at him for an unknown amount of time until he finally let his brother to the field where he killed him. If we let jealousy eat away at us long enough, we can start to do some things we would have never thought we would do.
God tells us this in His words to Cain that we need to get jealousy and anger under control or bad actions are close by. I am reminded of this verse found in Proverbs and I am going to end the post with it…
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” - Proverbs 4:23 NIV
[1] Genesis 4:3-5, NLT
[2] Genesis 4:7-8, NLT
Comments