Monday, March 9, 2009

How Come Mom never let me watch The Simpsons?

Biblical parallels anyone?



In case you don't care to watch the entire episode (even though it's a good one), it is about how Homer and his family squander away home equity loans year after year to pay for their wild Mardi Gras parties. So their home gets foreclosed and goes up for auction. Their nerdy but lovable Christian neighbor Ned Flanders buys the house at the auction and rents it back to them. But the Simpson family is annoyed by his helpfulness and generosity and finds reasons to hate him and runs a smear campaign against him, calling him "evil", etc. In anger, Ned evicts the family and throws them out on the street. Eventually Ned remembers how much he loves the Simpson family and brings them back and everyone is happy again.

I'm not sure if this was on purpose, but personally, I see very strong parallels to the relationship between the LORD and the Israelites in the Old Testament. The LORD redeems them from the mess they've made for themselves, and after being grateful for a while, they go back to their old ways and resent the very God who saved them. So the LORD casts them into exile, so they realize what they have been taking for granted. But the LORD is always faithful, even when we are not. Praise God for that! And praise Him that we can see His Truth even in an episode of The Simpsons, of all things.

Edit: Sorry the embed doesn't quite fit. That's disappointing. If you really want to watch the episode well, you can view it at the original page on Hulu.

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