Robinson Crusoe

Have you ever felt isolated, as though you were by yourself on a deserted island? How do you think that you’d react if you were? Who would you turn to for help?

Robinson Crusoe spent over twenty-eight years on this island, all but five of them entirely alone. He was fortunate enough to be able to bring provisions out of the shipwrecked vessel, including arms with which to shoot game to keep himself alive. He taught himself many skills such as gardening, making a canoe, and tending a flock of goats that he captured and tamed, out of sheer necessity. He further learned to grind grain and make bread, churn butter, and make cheese. But how did he sustain his mental and spiritual state?

There were a number of Bibles in various languages on the ship that he was able to salvage. Never a religious man, he began to read the scriptures and little by little he began to believe and develop a deep faith. For many of the first years he felt despair and depression, thinking often why this had happened to him and how he could possibly escape this prison. Gradually though, he began to see God’s plan and to be thankful - thankful for saving his life, thankful for leading him to provide shelter and care for himself, thankful for bringing him to a life of faith. Very much like Betsie ten Boom in The Hiding Place, he could see why God had things happen the way they did. In her case, she could be thankful for the fleas that infested the living space so that the guards would leave the prisoners alone at night and thus enable Betsie and Corrie to read the Bible and pray with the other prisoners. In Robinson Crusoe’s case he was able to understand why he survived so long, ultimately saving the life of Friday and many others who ended up in his sphere.

Daniel Defoe (c.1660 – 1731) was a writer of fiction, non-fiction, pamphlets, and poems, and he was a merchant, journalist, and spy. Indeed, his own life rivaled the adventures of Robinson Crusoe, his first novel published in 1719. Brought up as a Presbyterian dissenter (dissenters were all those who were not members of the Church of England), religion played a large role in Defoe’s life and his fictional characters often lived lives that were not saintly, but who came to repentance. Captain Jack and Moll Flanders are other examples.

What about our own deserted islands? How can we find repentance and accept – even embrace – God’s will for us in these uncertain times? Robinson Crusoe gives us marvelous advice – spend time with the Bible getting to know and love our Lord.