THE ENEMY WITHIN 25 to God’s righteousness and biblical wisdom. He had forsaken godly values and corrupted his ways seeking material over spiritual gain. Moreover, he repeatedly refused to forsake his ways and turn to God when he met the natural consequences of sinful choices. Yet Crusoe also recognizes that such foolishness is hardly unique to himself. “How incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is,” he declares, “to that reason which ought to guide them . . . that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent; nor ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which only can make them be esteemed wise men.” Lost– then Found Thus, through a long series of misfortunes—resulting from his own rebellion against God’s law—Crusoe finds himself stranded on an uninhabited but remarkably abundant island somewhere in the Atlantic. Alone, Crusoe is forced to reevaluate his life’s ambitions and see the folly of his sinfulness, which has not only left him separated from all human society but from God as well. Though understandably despairing at first, he begins to see his circumstances, and even the misfortunes that produced them, as evidence of divine providence in his life. The grace of God in spite of Crusoe’s vulnerability on the island causes him to view his condition as blessed rather than cursed. Repeatedly, the survivor’s improbable resourcefulness is outdone by remarkably good fortune. The ship on which he ran aground in the storm remains intact long enough to allow him to recover essential tools and provisions to make his survival possible. Later, another ship is stranded on his coast with no survivors but containing weapons and supplies that prove critical to his success. Salvaged grain turns out to produce reliable annual harvests once Crusoe realizes, quite by accident, that the soil and climate are suitable. He even discovers native goats on the island, which he domesticates to further improve the quality of his diet. And he is preserved through events that could have been life-threatening, such as a serious bout with tropical disease and a terrifying earthquake.
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