The vivid and eye-opening dream of John Bunyan’s, called The Pilgrim’s Progress, brings a brutal reality to the reader that causes them to reflect upon their own lives. The book of Tobit within the Apocrypha also briefly emphasis some of the same key points from Bunyan’s dream, which are that walking the straight and narrow path to God can be difficult at times. The Pilgrim’s Progress however goes deeper into the topic by introducing several characters such as Passion, World, and Good-Will to help point out some of the ways we might be falling short in our walk with God. Analyzing this vivid dream and Tobit chapter 13 when Tobit praises God, we can see a parallel between the two readings that challenge us to examine our own lives.
Tobit says, “If you turn to him with your whole heart, and with your whole mind, and deal uprightly before him, then will he turn to you, and not will not hide his face from you”-(Septuagint 13:6). After Tobit’s son returns, he rejoices and praises God. There was a phase of discouragement and at some points he believed his son to be dead. By staying fully devoted God and not letting his earthly discouragement get the best of him, Tobit believes God treated him fairly and returned his son. Similarly, Christian from The Pilgrim’s Progress also struggles to keep his eyes fixed upon the Lord. Towards the beginning he says, “My wife and children saw me at the first, and called after me to turn again; also, some of my neighbors stood crying and calling after me to return; but I put my fingers in my ears, and so came on my way.”-(Section 63). This paints a perfect picture of what it is like to turn away from the world and focus on God. Christian had to blot out the distractions by physically putting his finger’s in his ears. This relates to how Tobit says, “Turn to him with your whole heart…” The act of turning towards something also means that you are simultaneously turning away from something else. In Christians case, he had to turn away from his family and neighbors because they were hindering him from God.
So once we are turned to God, then what? Well according to Tobit and The Pilgrim’s Progress, we must walk a straight and narrow path. Meaning that we can’t just turn towards God once, we must make it a daily decision. Christian has an encounter with Good-Will where he his told, ” Yes, there are many ways butt down upon this, and they are crooked and wide. But thus thou mayest distinguish the right from the wrong, the right only being straight and narrow.”-(Section 67). Meaning that it is easy to do the wrong thing because the “path” is wide. However the narrow “path” is turning towards God and making the right decisions. Tobit outlines this when he says, ” For he does scourge, and has mercy: he leads down to hell, and brings up again: neither is there any that can avoid his hand.”-(Septuagint 13:2). He is describing that same narrow path that Good-Will was talking about. Except what Tobit is eluding to is that it is hard to stay on this path. Saying, “He leads down to hell, and brings up again…”
This path won’t always be easy, but nothing good ever came easily.
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