Before anything else, lf you haven't watched 300 yet, you may miss out on a few things in this article. Furthermore, I might spoil it for you. Believe me, I know the feeling. A friend of mine just happened to be too excited about the movie Leon: The Professional that he told me the ending, BEFORE asking if I watched it. That led to me exercising my right to express my... volatile.. opinion.
It wasn't pretty.
300 was. I kept claiming that it was a movie for men - Apart from the many graphic displays of severed limbs and sexual positions that the Greeks apparently discovered (Take THAT, Kamasutra!), it had what I thought were iconic and motivational examples of courage.
300 Spartans chose to make the insane decision to hold off a vast army of invaders. The headcount of the Persian army differed for each historian, but whichever number you choose to believe, you'd still have to agree that the 300 were (add the adjective 'fucking' here if you wish) outnumbered.
One thing that I found amusing were the lines that those loincloth-and-red-caped warriors mentioned before, during, and after they performed their crude (yet very efficient) methods of 'surgery'. I am NOT referring to 'AHWOO!'. Seriously, I have heard that battle-cry too fucking much. Talk to someone about 300, and expect to hear them scream it from the top of their Spartan-hopeful lungs at least once. Try it. It's a lotta fun.
Anyway, the other lines are quite the motivational pieces to a fair majority of people who watched the movie. They were full of vigor, energy, and confidence. I have seen many co-workers and friends adorn their Yahoo Messenger Statuses with quotes such as 'This.. is SPARTA!', 'Fight in the shade', 'Come home with your shield, or on it', 'May you live forever', and 'SAGING LANG ANG MAY PUSO! SAGING'... Oh wait.
Moving on. It seems like most of us admire the resilience of human will when faced with impossible odds. 300 was an example. Captain Nathan Algren based his strategy from the Battle of Thermopylae and triumphed, if only for a moment, in The Last Samurai.
Wikipedia. You know you need it.
Thanks a lot for spoiling 300 and the Last Samurai, Brent. Why did you choose to break my desire to watch semi-recent movies?
Sorry. I was fortunate enough to listen to a Singaporean pastor a few hours ago. His message inspired me to make this article.
I was reminded of a story from the Bible that also involved 300 people. May I provide you with a brief history first.
By the way, if you see any inaccuracies, please tell me.
Before Israel had kings, God had appointed men time after time to perform His will, in forms including but not limited to conquest over enemies of Israel. They were known as Judges, and apparently their stories were chronicled in the Old Testament book called... You guessed it! Judges. Samson, the long-haired ex-boyfriend of a girl whose name was popularized by a Tom Jones song (Before Sex Bomb, ok? Go do some research) was a Judge.
Now in that book was the story of a man named Gideon. We are told that during that time, a majority of the land was under the control of the Midianites and the Amalekites, sworn enemies of Israel. Atrocities such as thievery and idol worship was rampant at the time, and the Israelites were literally living in fear. Gideon was an Israelite who at one time was threshing flour, hidden in a winepress, possibly taking precautions to stay safe from Midianite robbers.
Imagine a game of Hide-and-Seek. When you're still and confident that you're well concealed, your heart would probably skip a beat or two when the seeker (or 'Catcher', if you prefer) suddenly creeps behind you and screams your name to acknowledge that you have been caught.
That's one reason why you rarely see your grandparents play it, I guess.
But apparently Gideon had a very healthy heart. He was caught off guard by God, who assigned him to a task which was equally shocking to a man belonging to the lowliest family of the lowliest tribe of Israel: Tear down the local shrine to a false-god, and offer a sacrifice to the Lord in the same location.
Not long after this was accomplished, the enemies of Israel gathered a vast army together, and God then assigned Gideon to come up with an Israelite army to defeat it.
We are told that the enemy army was just huge. Judges 7:12-13 states that they were 'like locusts - yes, like the sand upon the seashore - and there were too many camels even to count!'. For this article, let us assume that the army consisted of more than 100,000 well-equipped men. You could imagine Gideon's frustration when only 20,000 men turned up to fight for Israel.
It gets better. Gideon's heart is put to the test once more when God tells him that he has too many men. Gideon tells his 'army' that those who are scared to fight may go home. This left his army 10,000 strong.
At this time Gideon was outnumbered by at least 10 to 1. God then tells him that it's STILL too much. What's 'WHAAAT!?' in Hebrew, I wonder?
This time Gideon brought his men to a stream. He was tasked to observe the soldiers as they quenched their thirst. Anybody who dunked their heads in the water was sent home. Those who scooped water into their mouth, watchful of their surroundings, stayed.
After this Gideon was left with an army of 300. What follows is remarkable.
He decided to attack at night, as the enemy was encamped in a valley. In addition to their weapons, the 300 men were equipped with a trumpet, a torch, and a jar. The torches would be kept in the jars. They were placed in strategic locations atop the hills surrounding the valley. When Gideon gave the signal, the 300 would blow their trumpets, break the jars open, reveal their torches, and charge.
The Bible tells us that Gideon attacked when the enemy army was most vulnerable: While they were sleeping, after the change of guards. The disoriented army was caught off guard, scared and confused. This atmosphere of terror in the enemy camp was significantly beneficial to Gideon, who observed that in their confusion, they began to attack each other.
The enemies of Israel suffered a crushing defeat that night.
I admit that there have been a few details here and there that I missed out on; For this matter I strongly urge that you refer to the Book of Judges in the Bible, Chapters 6 and 7.
If you do, pay particular attention to the lines spoken by the characters in this story. Let me post some verses here in this article:
Judges 6:12-14 (The Living Bible Version)(12)The Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, "Mighty Soldier, the Lord us with you!" (13)"Stranger," Gideon replied, "if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles out ancestors have told us about - such as when God brought them out of Egypt? Now the Lord has thrown us away and has let the Midianites completely ruin us."(14)Then the Lord turned to him and said, "I will make you strong! Go and save Israel from the Midianites! I am sending you!"
I have mentioned that God reduced Gideon's army down to just 300. These lines explain another reason why:
Judges 7:2 (King James Version)(2) And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.
Judges 7:7(7) And the Lord said unto Gideon, by the three hundred that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand.
Finally, analyze the strategy behind it. God used Gideon to devise a strategy to produce fear and confusion among the enemies. I know it was God's hand which determined the victory, but I could not help but notice how clever the tactics were. The 300 were divided into three groups, around the valley where the army was camped. There weren't any radios then, so the soldiers only had trumpets to communicate - and intimidate. A half-asleep Midianite may not determine where the trumpets would originate from immediately, and reflex combined with fear would overtake their reasoning before they do. Perhaps their positions enabled Gideon and his men to rush into the camp quickly, armed with swords and torches, as the more stalwart enemy troops were going as far as killing those who were scared so much to lift their arms in a defensive position.
If you observe the lines mentioned in this story you will notice that God did all the talking for Gideon. Gideon doubted his abilities, and God proved that he was the one He chose on more than one occasion (Judges 6:36-40). God was Gideon's source of courage.
As Dr. Toke was talking about how Gideon's army was drastically downsized, he just had to say the number 300.
300 was fresh in my mind because that was the same number of Spartans whom I have read and watched about, who fell while holding the Persian army off at Thermopylae.
Both 300s had impossible odds set before them. One was expected to fail. The other group DID the impossible. I am quite certain that the difference between the 300 that succeeded and the 300 that failed was God's involvement. Was there any talk of taking all the credit among the Israelite 300? Did the Spartan 300 give any acknowledgements to anyone outside of their group? Watch the movie again and tell me if there were any lines.
I don't mean to put the Spartans down. The main point I have is that we have got to take a good look inside ourselves to tell who we serve. It matters. I'd like to think that the 300 Spartans were expert tacticians and warriors who thought of and worked on every possibility, only to be struck by an uncontrollable bit of circumstance in the form of Ephiliates. Reasoning can only take you so far.
The 300 Israelites on the other hand were unexpected heroes, handpicked by a God who apparently is in control of EVERYTHING. There are no possibilities, no speculations. I can tell you right now that God scared the Midianites, through 300 men who chose to face thousands because God who they believed in said so, WITHOUT thinking of glory, WITHOUT thinking of themselves. It was all faith.
I don't know if I mentioned this before, but if I did, let me reiterate that reasoning, or the efforts of man, can only bring you so far. Faith determines true victory.
That, I'd like to think, is the end of this article. However, I would like to add that patience counts as well. Has a question ever tormented your mind for a significant length of time? Have any of these questions been answered? Have you felt that satisfaction - no, that sense of true enlightenment, that sense of VICTORY associated with it?
That's what I'm feeling right now. The same feeling of achievement that Escoffier felt when a spark of brilliance led him to determining that raspberry puree was the sub-piece-de-resistance to his dessert, better known as Peach Melba.
To all of you out there with inner demons, or lingering questions, or tormenting flashbacks, or skeletons in your closet, take solace in the fact that somewhere, somewhen, and somehow, the answers will come.. In His time.
Have some faith. God be praised, and God bless you.