Abraham & Mayor of Casterbridge

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Danielle and I celebrated our 14th anniversary. In the picture, you can see Danielle laughing at one of my many funny puns. 14 years of putting up with my bad jokes says a lot about her virtue of patience! She is the best!

We had another important anniversary. Our family started our 5th year in reading through the Bible. By God's grace, we disciplined ourselves to do a reading daily. If we miss a day, we make it up. In reading through the entire Bible, I have been pushed away from the narrower areas in the Bible with which I was familiar and forced to read many other books that are rarely preached or taught. This has been beneficial since it has given me a more comprehensive view of God's character. It has also added additional questions and forced me to re-analyze many of my past assumptions.

One of the presents I gave my wife was a DVD of the Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Harding. The story is about a poor farmer who in a drunken state decides to auction off his wife with their baby girl. When he comes out of his drunken state he tries to find his wife but it is too late. Instead, She shows up 20 years later. He is now rich and successful. He tries to make amends, but he is not able to overcome the wrongs of his past or to find happiness.

I found the Bible has a similar story in Abraham's (or Abram) treatment of his wife, Sarah (or Sarai). While they were in Egypt, Abraham was afraid that his life would be in danger because other men may try to kill him to seize his beautiful wife. Therefore to protect himself Abraham presented Sarah only as his sister. This was technically true because Sarah was his half-sister (same father different mothers). His deception left Sarah as fair game to the advances of the Egyptians. Abraham who should have been protecting his wife, was instead asking his wife to put herself at risk to protect him. The Egyptians interested in Sarah gave presents to Abraham to win his favor to their proposals for Sarah. Incredibly, Abraham accepts these gifts which signals his willingness to potentially barter Sarah away or at a minimum to go even further in compromising the situation of his wife. Before this goes any further, God mercifully intercedes for Abraham, stops the whole affair, and does Abraham's job of protecting his wife Sarah.

In contrast to the Mayor of Casterbridge, who falls because of his earlier transgressions, Abraham with God’s help goes on to be the Father of One Nation, Israel and by faith in the Lord Jesus, the Father of Many Nations.

Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. (Galatians 3:6-9)

It is wonderful to see how God takes those who are of little value to the world and creates heroes by his wonderful Mercy. Consider how God took Abraham who was faithless in Eygpt and made him one of the key examples of faithfulness. Or consider the Apostles, who were mere illiterate fishermen, but became the leaders of the religious revolution that would sweep the Roman Empire.

Let us be faithful and pray that in the coming year that God would call many of us by faith to do great works in the name of his wonderful Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.