The Damascus Way
By Davis Bunn & Janette Oke
2011 Bethany House Publishers
Third Book in Acts of Faith Series
The Centurions’s Wife,
The Hidden Flame, and The Damascus Way all tell the story of the first
century church beginning shortly after the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. The stories are excellent
because they take the short narratives about the responses of even the disciples
of Jesus Christ and the years following that unimaginable event and flesh them
out with both characters and the environments of that time period.
I hope that you will take the time to read the complete
series, although it is very possible to pick up the relationship of the
characters that are tied throughout the series.
The difficult part for me to keep track was all of the geography,
although through Bible studies mainly, I am familiar with Israel and some of
the surrounding countries, but I am not as familiar with the smaller communities
nor the trade routes which are so important in these stories.
The Damascus Way
is really the telling of the disbursement of the members of The Way (followers
of Jesus Christ) that was growing so rapidly in Jerusalem. The Sanhedrin started a program of
persecution including jailing and killing whole families in order to try to
stamp out this “cult” from the community of Jewish faithful believers. GOD used this move to send His message
through these faithful souls to more communities, not only those under Roman
rule, but also with those with whom the Romans traded via the great merchant
caravans.
At the time of this story, Damascus had become Hellenized
and was used as a Roman stronghold as well as one of the homes of a Herodian king,
although he was not there very frequently.
Damascus was far enough away from Jerusalem, that the population was not
dominated by the methods of the Sanhedrin and was more open to various
religious philosophies. Many of them
accepted the teachings of The Way and overcame their skepticism of the exiles
by the way they walked their talk.
In this episode, we see the daughter of a merchant, Julia,
become acquainted with people of The Way through her father’s business. Unbeknownst to her, her mother is not the
wife of the merchant, but a purchased concubine, although both of them are
treated as royalty within the confines of their home because of his love for
them. His wife by contractual marriage
and two sons live in Jerusalem. Julia
and her old servant become believers of The Way and she falls in love with
Jacob, a young man that works for her father and proves himself not only a
strong, smart, protective and useful employee, but was raised as a follower of The Way.
This book is full of surprises, drama and dangers as were
the times and places. I would highly
recommend it.