The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I am old enough that I grew up with only “over the air broadcast tv” until after I went away to college.  For most of my growing up, we only had the three network channels - ABC, NBC, and CBS (and yes, I was my dad’s remote control).  I remember how excited I was in High School when this new channel, Fox TV, started broadcasting. To be fair, at night we also got PBS (we couldn’t get it during the day due to the distance I suppose), but it was only good for Star Trek and Dr. Who re-runs on Saturday night.

I went away to college and my dorm had cable outlets in each room (there were not any cable choices in those days, but we did get 30 channels including this brand-new channel - MTV).  So, I had access to the plethora of 30 channels when I moved into my dorm room.  My parents got cable about 6 months later when they extended the cable line beyond my parents house (remember my parents house was in the rural part of the county and the suburb part was  slowly encroaching on it bringing with it city services like water and cable).

I remember how excited I was the first time I saw the Thriller video.  It was amazing and distracting having 10 x the number of channels I was used to.  My freshman year (my dorm was coed by floor.  So my floor, the basement, was all guys.  The next floor up was all girls and so on.), the guys celebrated on Sunday night by watching TV together.  Most of the time we watched this faith healer guy who used to slap people in the head to “heal” them.  It made an interesting social interaction with refreshments.  I missed part of these social events because I worked every weekend and by the time I got back to the dorm (if I didn’t leave home the next morning), it was 8pm or after.

However, I remember a couple of special movie nights.  The first one was watching “Apocalypse Now.”  Except for the one famous line - “I love the smell of Napalm in the morning” - I never became engrossed with the movie.  The other movie, I have watched dozens of times.  In fact, I have watched it so many times in our 40 years of marriage that my wife knows when I have it on by the music or even a snippet of dialogue from the movie (and she doesn’t care for the movie at all).  That movie is “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.” There is just something about one of the great spaghetti westerns with the accompanying music score that pulls me in.  None are more irresistible than GBU.  The three main actors all went on to have extensive acting careers.  But none were more famous than Mr. Eastwood.

The restored version movie is right at 3 hours so when played on a commercial station, it runs for a good 4 hours - quite the investment in time.  I have seen it so many times that I can pick it up from any point in the movie as long as I get to hear the music at the end.  In fact, if I could distill it to the “going to work” scene at the end and the closing few minutes, I’d be ecstatic.

The Good

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” - Matthew 12:33-37 ESV

The Bad

“After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me this vision: behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. And the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.” Then the word of the Lord came to me: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up. I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. “But thus says the Lord: Like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat Zedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.” - Jeremiah 24:1-10

The Ugly

“After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, and behold, there came up out of the Nile seven cows, attractive and plump, and they fed in the reed grass. And behold, seven other cows, ugly and thin, came up out of the Nile after them, and stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. And the ugly, thin cows ate up the seven attractive, plump cows. And Pharaoh awoke. And he fell asleep and dreamed a second time. And behold, seven ears of grain, plump and good, were growing on one stalk. And behold, after them sprouted seven ears, thin and blighted by the east wind. And the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump, full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream. So in the morning his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh.” - Genesis 41:1-8 ESV

Just remember, our ideas of good and bad are relative and are not significant to God.  To God, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  We deserve separation and eternal punishment by God.  It is only by his grace that the elect are saved.  Praise God if you are one of them.