Late in 2011 I was leaving my parents house after a visit with the family. As I was standing in the entry way I noticed a book on the top of a stack of books. It was titled "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ". It was a small paperback, quite old, not in great condition overall, but it caught my attention. I had been thinking about reading more classic literature in 2012 and thought maybe I'd start there. After all, it was sitting there staring me in the face! My mother said I could take the book, which I did, and the rest is history.
Ben-Hur was written in 1880 by Lew Wallace. Lew Wallace has an interesting history himself, but that's another story. It was America's top selling novel from the time it was written until 1936, when it was replaced by "Gone With the Wind". After reading it myself, I can understand why.
The first handful of pages was a little slow, I had to adjust to the older english and new vocabulary, but I never had the chance to look back. The story quickly gripped me for many reasons....
It was set in "Bible Times", the time period that the Christ walked the earth. It is a fictional novel but does a great job of basing the setting and surrounding events on facts. The integration of a fictional character with real events was intriguing to me and actually shed some new light on history for me. It gave me a new excitement for reading the Gospels. Jesus walked this earth as a man while being fully God. The way that impacted those alive in the world at that time is amazing. The book provided good historical context as well. It wasn't all entirely new knowledge but presented in a moving story the facts meshed well and really set in for me.
The story includes true love, pure joy, utter despair, redemption, losing all, finding everything, hate, passion, happiness, sadness, anger, revenge, temptation, murder, and salvation, to name a few things.
It starts with an intriguing narrative about the Wise Men from the East who came to find the Christ after they had seen his star. In the following chapters Ben Hur is introduced as a young man, follows significant events in his life, and eventually culminates in an exciting chariot race where he meets his childhood friend, now his nemesis. Eventually Ben-Hur is challenged regarding his life goals and eventually comes face to face with the Christ, just as he unknowingly had as a young man. His life is changed forever.
Although the primary character is Ben-Hur, it's exciting to see the theme of Christ throughout. I am so glad that the story of Jesus Christ, his coming, his life, his death, his resurrection, and our redemption is true.
God often uses little things in our lives to grab our attention. That was this book for me. As mentioned before, simply reading that book has renewed my vigor for reading the Bible, specifically the Gospels.
To God be all the glory!!
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