Part 2 of 3
Crushing Snakes 1 and Crushing Snakes 3
Did you watch the music video after reading the last post? Did you see where the artist and the film makers drew their inspiration from? I hope the topic of end times did not deter you from watching this video.
I want to leave you with a balanced perspective of both intrigued if you disagree with the interpretation or challenged if you believe in a literal interpretation.
It’s time to play a game I like to call, “How Well Do You Know Revelation?” We will see many other verses outside Revelation, but this book is heavily used for its apocalyptic descriptions.
As noted in the last post, the title of the song is a reference to creation, the fall and future redemption.
The opening scene has a bird flying in the air as we are taken from the clouds down into a bloody battle scene that bodes many questions.
The first image used of the bird landing on a dead body can be taken from Revelation. It says, “…and all the birds were filled with their flesh.” Revelation 19:21b.
This is a little out of order of the text, meaning this verse takes place after Jesus comes back and the flesh the birds eat are those who were on the opposing side. However, there are probably flesh eating birds already on the scene.
The other thing we notice is a humanoid type army covered in black armor. This army is trying to gain entrance into a stone type fort where we see three characters backed into a corner, prepared to defend themselves with what looks like Rey’s clothes while on Tatooine at the beginning of Star Wars VII.
This situation is what we find is a result of culminating events that started in Revelation 12 with the story of Satan being cast down to earth. We read in Revelation 16:14-16
“14 For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. 15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) 16 And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.”
This is the setting of Crowder’s video, the battle of Armageddon is actually a place in modern day Israel. Satan ammasses an army of all the earth’s kings, or those in power. This army is getting ready to fight a battle to wage war with God and his people
The scene that unfolds is amazing and provides a great visual of what the end of this battle could look like using modern day animation akin to the japanese art called Anime.
I was wondering how much of the battle at Armageddon was going to be played out. Most second coming depictions, whether it be art, movies, or writing ends when Jesus comes back and the rest is left to the imagination. However, here we find the entire point of the video is to show Jesus in all power and majesty play His role in the apocalypse.
Our three survivors who are holding out in this fort, with the gates being hammered against suddenly look up at a bright light in the sky. Giant falling blasts of fire stream through the sky and with a bright light hit the ground. What emerges are the heavenly forces ready to wage war against Satan’s army.
In Revelation 12 we read of the story of the dragon waging war with the angels before he is cast down to earth. The events in Revelation seem to depict a past event and a recreation of the Genesis 3 curse about enmity between the serpent and the offspring of the woman. All this to say, angels and demons do wage war in the spiritual realm and at Armageddon, we get to see the end result
The angels, draped with white and gold amor, swords, great white wings, and gold battle helmets, stand in the middle of the army. The animation has their faces covered by shadow and I think this was a great choice. The focus is placed on their role and not what they might look like. It makes them more mysterious and mighty.
These warrior angels of seven, almost mentioned in Revelation 19:15, form a circle and a bright light comes down from the sky. This is where I knew things were about to go one of two ways. Amazing or cheesy depending on what the animators were going to reveal.
We read in Revelation 19:13 and 15 about what John saw in his vision about the glorious arrival of Jesus, riding a white horse. The description in the Bible is hard to take literally because it mentions, “His eyes are like a flame of fire, on his head are many diadems…he is clothed in a robe dipped in blood…then from his mouth comes a sharp sword.”
The creators made a smart decision to show this unravel in parts instead of all at once. As far as storytelling, it is easier to understand the double meaning this way rather than trying to take the timing literally.
Several things happen as we see the enemy and our three survivors look into this bright light. Immediately we see a soldier throw down his weapon and bow down. I took this to be a reference to Philippians 2:10-11 and Romans 14:11 who are quoting Isaiah 45.23 that “Every knee shall bow and tongue confess,” as Paul states it to the Philippians, “That Jesus is Lord.” Specifically in this same letter it states that the bowing will be by, “Those in heaven, and those on the earth and those under the earth.” Under the earth seems to be a reference to demonic forces and why we see in the video the army bowing before the appearance of Jesus.
The animators show us the legs of the white horse, the feet of Jesus and a hand reaching down to pull forth the dead body that was laying before the three survivors revealing this was one of their friends. This also brings up another moment found in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.”
This is our greatest hope that we as Christians hold onto and look forward to. With the great and glorious second coming of Jesus, those who have died in Christ will be resurrected. Our bodies will be made new.
The boy, brought back to life, looks up and the camera turns to the hand reaching out in focus with Jesus’ face out of focus to do a quick reveal from the hand to Jesus. Then the focus is reversed and Jesus’ smile catches the eye. I immediately noticed two things, Jesus had deep red eyes, flames of fire, and more interestingly, a golden key in the shape of a skull, around his neck…
(To Be Continued)
After writing this scene by scene commentary, and only getting to 1 minute into the video with the above descriptions, I decided to split this into two. This series has now turned into 3 parts, all to wrap our heads around Crowder’s Crushing Snakes: Showdown ft. TAYA music video.
In Truth & Love,
Matthew J Diaz
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A Look at “Crushing Snakes” Part 2
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