Thanks God. We'll take it from here.

(Without Reservations, 1946, John Wayne, Claudette Colbert, Don DeFore)

I am a movie buff.  By that, I do not mean that I know trivial details and backstories about actors, directors, studios, etc.  I simply mean that I enjoy movies like most people.  But unlike most people, I am a huge fan of old classics.  By "old classic" I am talking about movies that date back to the 1930s.  By no means does that indicate I don't also like recent movies.   Like millions of other people around the world, I anxiously awaited all the new releases of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit trilogy, and (almost all of) the Marvel Universe movie releases.

Some of my favorite old classics include:

The Prisoner of Zenda  - starring Ronald Coleman  (1937)

The Adventures of Robin Hood  - starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland  (1938)

Arsenic and Old Lace  - starring Cary Grant  (1944)

The Black Shield of Falworth  - starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh  (1954)

Friendly Persuasion  - starring Gary Cooper, Anthony Perkins, and Dorothy McGuire  (1956)

Rio Bravo  - starring John Wayne and Dean Martin  (1959)

Hatari  - starring John Wayne  (1962)

The Three Musketeers  - starring Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, Michael York, and Raquel Welch  (1973)

The Four Musketeers  - staring the same cast  (1974)

...and I could fill up a month's worth of posts including others from my collection of several hundred DVDs and more still that I don't own.   And if you know me, then you know my level of interest in a subject prevents me from having "a favorite" of anything.  I simply can't narrow down to a single movie, song, novel, food, etc. that I prefer above all others.  So the list above doesn't represent any particular preferences.  

For this article, I want to bring attention to just one movie in particular.  It is a cute World War II era romcom released just months after the war ended.  It was called  Without Reservations  starring John Wayne, Claudette Colbert, Don DeFore released in 1946.  

If you like romcoms, in Without Reservations you will witness and appreciate the same quirks, antics, tensions, and uniting common in popular romcoms today just with a time-period aspect to the setting.    

John Wayne was cast as Captain Rusty Thomas, Don DeFore as Lieutenant 'Dink' Watson, and Claudette Colbert was cast as Christopher Madden.  Rusty and Dink are Marine pilots headed home for some leave-time.  Chris, an author of a popular book, is travelling to Hollywood to meet with producers on adapting her book for a film deal.  By chance, they are traveling on the same train and meet up.

A passenger on the train is reading the book, and during discussion with Chris, Rusty makes it known that he dislikes the book.  At that point, Chris decides to hide her identity and goes by the name Kitty Kloch.

True to form, Wayne's character Rusty is a rough and tough man's man: a tall, handsome, charming, and fearless Marine captain.  He viewed the hero of Chris' book as not measuring up.  In one particular scene in which the three are discussing Kit's book, Rusty explains why he dislikes it.  Part of his explanation to her was: 

Have you heard of some fellas, who first came over to this country?  You know what they found?  They found a howling wilderness, with summers too hot and winters freezing.  ... Did they have insurance for their old age, for their crops, for their homes?  They did not.  They looked at the land and the forest and the rivers.  They looked at their wives, their kids, and their houses.  Then they looked up at the sky and said, 'Thanks God.  We'll take it from here.'  They were men!

Wow!  It brings strength, determination, and grit.  What a line, eh?

Well, actually no.  

I used to really love that line.  It certainly had all the ear marks of being a powerful and rousing line! ... right up until the end.  But if you read it again carefully you'll see the last seven words espouse something else:  the dismissal of God.   "Thanks God.  We'll take it from here."

The implication of that script dialogue is that God helped these men in the hardships they faced that led them to leave their original homes, preserved them from death and destruction on a months-long ocean journey aboard sailing ships, provided them with wives, children, and new homes, and may other sorts of dangers.  Then once "settled", they had no more need for God.

Pride.

"Thanks God. We'll take it from here."  This is part of the warning from the history of ancient Israel in the records of the Old Testament.

ISRAEL

After being led into the promised land and pushing out the evil nations guilty of all sorts of abominable sins, for more than 300 years the Israelites would rebel against God's covenant with them.  They would turn away from God in favor of the gods and practices of the nations God had them conquer and destroy.

And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years.  And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash.  And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.  And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.  And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt.  They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them.  And they provoked the Lord to anger.  They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.

    - Judges 2:8-13

God would then allow their enemies to overrun and oppress them.

So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them.  And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.

    - Judges 2:14

They would be oppressed by their enemies until they would remember their need for God and cry out to Him to save them.  God would hear their cries, raise up a judge to overthrow their enemies, and then rule for a period of time.  

In that period, God raised up as judges: Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, and most famously, Samson.  Israel would be rescued, follow God, then fall back into disobedience following their own desires.

Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them.

    - Judges 2:16

But when that judge died, Israel would sink right back into their rebellious ways.  That is just like the Israelites in the wilderness constantly blaming Moses for their hardships and longing for the "comforts" of Egypt where they had cried out from harsh oppression.

Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge.  For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.  But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.

    - Judges 2:18-19

"Thanks God.  We'll take it from here."   Hey A.I., what's another way of wording that?

"No need for further help, I'll handle it."

"That's enough, I'll take it from here." 

Imagine how you would receive it when someone that you have just helped and preserved through unfavorable odds and great dangers, both realized and potential, and they say "Ok, I got it from here. See ya around."

God hates pride not from a selfish or emotional position although He is the sustainer and giver of all good things.  He hates pride because it is a heart issue of mankind that turns that heart away from holiness.  That is why He warns against a prideful heart.

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

    - Proverbs 16:18

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.

    - Proverbs 11:2

One's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.

    - Proverbs 29:23

 

But He gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  [...]  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

    - James 4:6, 10

And it wasn't just the Israelites that suffered spurning God's blessings. 

NEBUCHADNEZZAR

Nebuchadnezzar had a warning dream in the early part of Daniel chapter 4.  The warning was that his haughty heart, his pride, and his arrogant claim that his glory, power, and wealth as self-gained rather than as the gifts that God had granted him would result in a great fall.  In the latter half of the chapter, it came to pass immediately upon the king's utterance:

All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar.  At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” 

- Daniel 4:28-30

HAMAN

The book of Esther has another example.  At the beginning of the book, the Persian king, Ahasuerus, is holding a banquet and when "merry with wine" summoned his queen, Vashti, in order to present her before the people as if a trophy.  Vashti refused and refusing a royal order was unlawful.  She was removed as queen, and at the prompting of advisors, a nationwide search for a new queen was held.  Among those taken was a young Jewish girl named, Hadassah who had been raised by her uncle, Mordecai.  Hadassah was also known by her Persian name, Esther.  Mordecai wisely told his niece to not reveal her heritage.

After this, two major events took place.  First, after a time, Esther was selected from among all the other candidates by king Ahasuerus to be his new king.  Second, Mordecai uncovered a plot to assassinate king Ahasuerus, and relayed it to Esther, who then relayed it to the king.  The matter was investigated and found to be true.

In Chapter 3, Haman, an official of the Persian king Ahasuerus, was promoted to second-in-command under the king.  Pride filled his heart so that when the Jewish man, Mordecai, would not bow to him, Haman then sought to destroy all Jews and not just Mordecai himself.  Haman poisoned the king against the Jews by telling him they all kept their own laws and ignored the laws of Persia.  Haman also sweetened the pot by offering a great wealth to the king's treasury for the right to seek their destruction.  Ahasuerus gave Haman the power and resources to destroy the Jews.

Spoiler alert!  He doesn't succeed.  If you are reading this and don't know the details, read the book of Esther.  It's only 9 full chapters and a single paragraph for Chapter 10.

But my point is that Haman's pride almost led to the complete genocide of Israel, but for a godly man (Mordecai) and a godly woman (Hadassah/Esther).   Now to be clear, it was completely Satan's influence on Haman to execute a plan Satan has attempted several times throughout history before and since, small and large scale, to keep the  "seed of the woman" from Genesis 3 from coming and crushing his head).

TWO OUTCOMES

Nebuchadnezzar found humility.

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored Him who lives forever,

 

        For his dominion is an everlasting dominion,

             and His kingdom endures from generation to generation;

         all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,

             and He does according to His will among the host of heaven

        and among the inhabitants of the earth;

             and none can stay His hand

         or say to Him, “What have You done?”

At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me.  Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.

    - Daniel 4:34 -37

Haman expected wealth and prominence and royal esteem, but found himself raised in a different manner.

Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “Moreover, the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing at Haman's house, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Hang him on that.”  So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the wrath of the king abated.

    - Esther 7:9-10

"Thanks God.  We'll take it from here."   Wrong position of the heart.   

WATCH YOUR HEART

We should not only be grateful for God's provisions and protections, but we should realize that ultimately He is the only provider and protector and we couldn't even exist without His grace and mercy.

Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’

    - Deuteronomy 8:17

Thanks God.  Lead me on from here.

- - -

- - -