Ben Hur

Last night David and I watched a movie, Ben Hur, produced in 1959, starring Charleton Heston. He is a pretty young Charleton Heston at that. I'm sure I must have seen it as a child, but didn't remember seeing it. David said he probably saw it at age 7 or so.

It is set in the year 28 A.D. or so, in Jesus' time. The Romans were ruling over the Jews. It must have been a terrible time for them with so much oppression. Fear was instilled in them to comply to everything the Romans demanded. They had a huge army of soldiers, ready to do their master's bidding.

There is a scene in the movie that is very powerful. Charleton, who plays Judah Ben Hur, is a slave for the Roman government. He has been made a ship's galley slave, who basically was forced to live in the bottom portion of a ship and was put in chains to row the ship; they were whipped at times; he and his fellow slaves.

When these Jews had been rounded up and forced to walk many miles without water, to get to the ship's destination, the master in command had refused to give Judah any water. He had seen that Judah had some fire in him and so had it in for him.

But, Judah fell to the ground and prayed to God to help him. Suddenly, there was a container filled with water presented to him. There is a moment when he looks up and sees who has given him this water. It's a great scene, but I don't want to give it all away. I recommend you get the movie; (our library had it for free.) You should be able to get it there. Enjoy!