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0:20 Welcome to a new week of the Daily Blade. 0:22 So every now and then there's a piece of art that so closely captures the thoughts and feelings going on inside of a man's heart and soul, like even thoughts and feelings that he didn't know that he was capable of or even aware were even present. 0:34 Well, if you're a father with a son or sons, the 2006 novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy certainly brings up some of those feelings. 0:42 And so this is true as well for the film adaptation starring Vigo Mortensen that came out in 2009. 0:47 So if you're not familiar with The Road, it's this kind of post-apocalyptic narrative that follows a father and a son. 0:53 And even in the novel and the movie, it's just like man and boy. 0:56 That's that's they don't even have names. 0:58 And you're following them in their quest for survival. 1:00 So all the animals are gone, the earth is scorched, and there are these roving bands of like these gangs of cannibals, right? 1:07 So it's kind of insane. 1:08 And it's about as bleak a setting as you can imagine. 1:11 And neither the father nor the son is even named in the road, like I said, and so they're simply referred to as man and boy or father and son. 1:18 So it's, you know, maybe even hard to connect with them, you would think. 1:20 And we don't really know the exact age of the boy, but the context clues give us a range of about eight to ten years old, so pretty young. 1:27 And I read the book for the first time not long after my second son, Elijah, was born. 1:31 And I just re- uh re-watched, I guess recently, the film from 2009. 1:36 I just watched it for the first time since I was in college. 1:39 And one thing that struck me almost immediately while watching the film is that there is a tremendous amount of biblical themes and parallels that come through the incredibly brutal nature of the novel and film themselves. 1:52 So this week I'm going to unpack some of those biblical themes that we see. 1:56 I'm going to be using quotes and scenes as depicted in the film. 1:59 Uh, and with each of the scenes, I plan to take you through a heavenly father parallel and also an earthly father parallel for us to consider. 2:08 So obviously, if you've never read the book nor seen the film, there will be some spoilers this week. 2:12 So for all the dads out there with sons listening, I would highly, highly recommend you go and at least watch the film this week, if not read the book before you consume the episodes on the Daily Blade this week. 2:23 But early on in the film, the father says to the son, Gotta keep carrying the fire. 2:29 And the son responds with the question, What fire? 2:32 And then the father simply says, The fire inside you. 2:36 Now, the fire in kind of the road parlance is moral identity or spiritual vitality and the thing that makes this father and son different from the bad guys that we see depicted in the novel. 2:49 And it's, you know, that's the gangs, the cannibals, those guys. 2:52 So let's talk about the heavenly father parallel here. 2:55 So I first thought of the fire of God's presence. 2:58 So we see God in the fire of the burning bush as described in Exodus three, and we also see the presence of God in the pillar of fire in the wilderness that was leading the Israelites through the desert. 3:08 We see that first introduced in Exodus thirteen. 3:10 And then we see this scene as described at the beginning of Acts 2. 3:15 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3:25 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 3:30 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 3:37 So, guys, this is where we first see the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 3:41 Okay, so this was the helper that was sent after Jesus' ascension. 3:45 This is the helper that he promised us. 3:46 And then if you go to Hebrews chapter twelve, likely written by the Apostle Paul, we see this in verses twenty-eight and twenty-nine. 3:53 Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. 4:05 So, thematically speaking, in Scripture, we see God depicted as a physical fire. 4:10 And we are giving the, we are given really the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which is like a fire, and our God is described as a consuming fire. 4:18 So back to this father and son. 4:20 The father, even considering their circumstances, is trying to inculcate values into his young son. 4:26 And certainly he's trying to teach him how to survive and how to make sure that the boy can survive and potentially thrive in his absence. 4:32 But beyond just survival techniques, he is teaching him about the indwelt, really an indwelt morality as we see described in Romans 1. 4:41 And look, there are several points in the film where the little boy questions the father and asks, Are we still the good guys? 4:48 Like he just keeps checking in. 4:50 And this is one of the deepest, if not the deepest lines in the whole narrative. 4:54 Are we still the good guys? 4:55 He's constantly checking in to make sure that they are on the same heading and that they have they have the same values that they had before, right? 5:03 And now we have the earthly father parallel before we wrap. 5:06 A father's job is to keep pointing his son back to what makes them them. 5:12 So the values, the faith, the identity. 5:14 So like when the world goes dark and the boy forgets who he is, a good father says, Remember who you are. 5:20 The fire is still in you. 5:22 And really that's the calling for every father listening to this. 5:25 I mean, first of all, your main job as a Christian father is to make sure there is so much gospel kindling around your son that when God does his work through the Holy Spirit, it doesn't take but a little spark to ignite the truth of the gospel in the heart and soul of your son. 5:40 And also your job in a way is to construct a multitude of roads that lead your sons back to their heavenly father, back to the source of the fire that's inside them. 5:50 Because that is where they can forge real identity. 5:53 It's not as simple as us versus them or good guys versus bad guys, or you know, a father and a son versus a gang of cannibals. 6:00 This is about righteous and unrighteous. 6:02 And the only way we as depraved sinners can be righteous is if we receive the free gift of grace and the imputed righteousness of God through the work of Christ on the cross. 6:11 So, men, you gotta keep carrying the fire.