In the third year of Cyrus: By this time, the first wave of exiles had returned under the leadership of Ezra (Ezra 1-2).ī. I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.Ī.
#Michael river bible full#
In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. The message was true, but the appointed time was long and he understood the message, and had understanding of the vision. In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a message was revealed to Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar. (1-3) Introduction: Daniel’s state of heart. "Redeeming Love" could have tried to reach a broader audience but settles for preaching to the choir.Daniel 10 – Circumstances of the Final Vision A. The biggest problem is that the most touching moments are hammered so hard.
#Michael river bible movie#
But the other characters are barely sketched-in props, the storyline is wildly melodramatic, and the movie is at best casual and at worst an endorsement of lynching (guilty) people accused of crimes. It's impossible not to root for them, and Lewis somehow makes Michael’s near-saintly patience and gallantry seem human. Whether innate or learned, there are narrative beats familiar from most mainstream stories that make “Redeeming Love” uncomfortably unbalanced for audiences who are from other faith traditions or secular.Ĭowan and Lewis make a very appealing couple, warm and natural even with the most heavy-handed dialogue.
Those from more fundamentalist traditions will be more at home with the “ Hell House”-style fascination with (and amplification of) the sins of the world and the eternal damnation that is the consequence. The relentlessness of the litany of tragic pain and loss inflicted on Angel, including incest, suicide, theft, abortion, child molestation, abandonment, sex trafficking, arson, and much more, may come across as unsettling to those not schooled in this specific form of Christian storytelling. There will be more abuse and more healing before, well, see the title. Though she goes with him to the farm, she tells him she will only “play along until I pay you what I owe you.” He is so gentle and respectful that she begins to trust him, and so she leaves because she cannot be the woman she thinks he deserves. He does not give up, though he wryly admits, “The next time I pray for a woman to share my life I’m going to be much more specific.” Finally, he gets her to marry him. She is so traumatized that she is incapable of responding to kindness or even simple decency. He goes to the brothel and pays for her time but just talks to her. Michael is a farmer who prays for a wife. One of the other young women from the brothel tells her, “You’ve got to hope for something more in this world.” Angel says she gets by because “I never look back and never look forward.” That is not exactly true as there are a bunch of flashbacks as she does look back, giving us several flashbacks to see the horrific abuse she has suffered. We first see her gazing dully out of the window as behind her a man puts money on the table before he leaves. I already pointed out the lack of ambiguity, but just to be even clearer, in the spirit of a movie that really spells everything out, it begins with a bunch of people panning for gold in the muck, one jubilantly finding a shining nugget.Īngel is the most sought-after prostitute in the town, so prized that there is a daily lottery to be with her. As Shakespeare said, though, the heroine in this story is “more sinned against than sinning.” She is called Angel (the angelically lovely Abigail Cowen) and the man who will help her find redemption is Michael Hosea ( Tom Lewis).
First there will be sin and then there will be redemption through prayer. The title makes it clear that there will be no ambiguity about where it is going.