The Awakening
The Jail
As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place, where was a den;1 and I laid me down in that place to sleep: and as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and, behold, I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back.2 I looked, and saw him open the book, and read therein; and as he read, he wept and trembled; and not being able longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable cry, saying, What shall I do?
His outcry.
Scriptural References
- [Isaiah 64:6]
- 6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
- [Luke 14:33]
- 33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
- [Psalms 38:4]
- 4 For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
- [Habakkuk 2:2]
- 2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
- [Acts 16:31]
- 31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
- [Acts 2:37]
- 37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
Commentary 1
- Mr. Bunyan was put into Bedford jail for preaching the gospel. We live in happier times, when none are permitted to interrupt us. May we prize and improve our liberty, and be thankful for it! While he was in prison he wrote this book, and many other valuable treatises, which have by the Lord’s blessing, administered edification and comfort to many who were then unborn, and will doubtless be serviceable to many who shall live after us. Thus by his confinement he became more extensively useful. The Lord will always so restrain and manage the wrath of men, that the methods by which they attempt to hinder the success of the Gospel shall in the event promote it.
Commentary 2
- The awakened sinner, who sees his own righteousness to be as filthy rags, his soul in a state of wrath and wretchedness, turns his face from his own house, from himself, from all his false hopes and vain confidence, for refuge; takes his Bible in his hand, to direct him where he shall flee for refuge and salvation. The more a sinner reads therein, the more he is convinced of e wretched state he is in, and of his necessity of flying somewhere for safety; though which way to escape he yet knows not.
In this plight, therefore, he went home, and refrained himself as long as he could, that his wife and children should not perceive his distress; but he could not be silent long, because that his trouble increased. Wherefore at length he brake his mind to his wife and children; and thus he began to talk to them: O my dear wife, said he, and you, the children of my bowels, I, your dear friend, am in myself undone, by reason of a burden that lieth hard upon me; moreover, I am for certain informed that this our city will be burned with fire from Heaven; in which fearful overthrow, both myself, with thee, my wife, and you, my sweet babes, shall miserably come to ruin, except (the which yet I see not) some way of escape can be found, whereby we may be delivered.3
This world.
He knows no way of escape as yet.
Commentary 3
- It is observable that real convictions arise from a belief of what God has spoken, and the divine authority of Scriptures. When death and judgment are brought near to the conscience, and the awful consequences of standing before God are set before him in such a light, then it is that all other inferior concerns are swallowed up in the care of the one thing needful. Awakened sinners are either scorned or pitied by their nearest friends; and their pity is almost as hard to bear as their scorn. The means they propose for relief do but aggravate their soul’s distress. What can company, amusement, or physic, do for wounded spirit!
At this, his relations were sore amazed; not for that they believed that what he had said to them was true, but because they thought that some frenzy distemper had got into his head; therefore, it drawing towards night, and they hoping that sleep might settle his brains, with all haste they got him to bed. But the night was as troublesome to him as the day; wherefore, instead of sleeping, he spent it in sighs and tears. So, when the morning was come, they would know how he did; he told them, Worse and worse;4 he also set to talking to them again, but they began to be hardened. They also thought to drive away his distemper by harsh and surly carriages to him. Sometimes they would deride, sometimes they would chide, and sometimes they would quite neglect him. Wherefore he began to retire himself to his chamber to pray for, and pity them, and also to condole his own misery. He would also walk solitarily in the fields, sometimes reading, and sometimes praying; and thus for some days he spent his time.
Carnal physick for a sick soul.
Commentary 4
- Saving convictions cannot be shaken off, nor can they be cured, but by the blood of Christ; it requiring as much to satisfy an awakened conscience as to satisfy the justice of God.
Now I saw upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he was, as he was wont, reading in his book, and greatly distressed in his mind; and as he read, he burst out, as he had done before, crying, What shall I do to be saved?
Scriptural References
- [Acts 16:30,31]
- 30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
- 31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
I saw also that he looked this way and that way, as if he would run; yet he stood still,5 because, as I perceived, he could not tell which way to go. I looked then, and saw a man named Evangelist coming to him, who asked, Where fore dost thou cry?
Commentary 5
- This endeavoring to run, and yet standing still, is a lively representation of that earnestness, anxiety, and perplexity, which usually accompanies a deep conviction of sin. What would he not willingly do! But he can do nothing. What would he not give! But he is as poor as he is miserable. The way to salvation, though so clearly revealed in Scriptures, yet can only be discovered by divine teaching;—there must be a voice behind, saying “this is the way; walk in it;—and this way is Christ.” But naturally, we are as blind to this way, as we are impotent and wretched.
He answered, Sir, I perceive, by the book in my hand, that I am condemned to die, and after that to come to judgment,6 and I find that I am not willing to do the first, nor able to do the second.
Scriptural References
- [Hebrews 9:27]
- 27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
- [Job 16:21,22]
- 21 O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!
- 22 When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
- [Ezek. 22:14]
- 14 Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it.
Commentary 6
- Fools make a mock of sin; but when a poor soul takes his estimate of sin from the word of God, enlightening his conscience, and considers what an awful thing it is to stand before God, it is a burden too heavy for him to bear.
Then said Evangelist, Why not willing to die, since this life is attended with so many evils? The man answered, because I fear that this burden that is upon my back will sink me lower than the grave; and I shall fall into Tophet. And, Sir, if I be not fit to go to prison, I am not fit, I am sure, to go to judgment, and from thence to execution; and the thoughts of these things make me cry.
Scriptural References
- [Isaiah 30:33]
- 33 For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.
Then said Evangelist, If this be thy condition, why standest thou still? He answered, Because I know not whither to go. Then he gave him a parchment roll, and there was written within, Fly from the wrath to come.
Conviction of the necessity of flying.
Scriptural References
- [Matthew 3:7]
- 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?.
The man therefore, read it, and looking upon Evangelist very carefully, said, Whither must I fly? Then said Evangelist, pointing with his finger over a very wide field, Do you see yonder Wicket gate?The man said, No. Then said the other, Do you see yonder shining light?7 He said, I think I do. Then said Evangelist, Keep that light in your eye,8 and go up directly thereto, so shalt thou see the gate; at which, when thou knockest, it shall be told thee what thou shalt do. So I saw in my dream that the man began to run. Now, he had not ran far from his own door, but his wife and children perceiving it, began to cry after him to return; but the man put his fingers in his ears, and ran on, crying, Life! life! Eternal life! So he looked not behind him, but fled towards the middle of the plain.
Christ and the way to him, cannot be found without the word.
Scriptural References
- [Matthew 7:13]
- 13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
- [Psalms 119:105]
- 105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
- [2 Peter 1:19]
- 19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
- [Luke 14:26]
- 26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Commentary 7
- A convinced sinner must sink into despair but for the reports of the gospel. He hears there is a Savior but his thoughts of him are very confused. He cannot yet be said “to see the Son”, but he embraces the word of God as true; he renounces all hope in himself, and follows the “shining light;” waiting in the use of means, not to qualify himself for mercy, but that Christ may be revealed unto his soul.
Commentary 8
- THE SHINING LIGHT
- My former hopes are fled,
- My terror now begins;
- I feel, alas! That I am dead
- In trespasses and sins.
- Ah! Whither shall I fly?
- I hear the thunder roar;
- The law proclaims destruction nigh,
- And vengeance at the door.
- When I review my ways,
- I dread impending doom;
- But sure a friendly whisper says,
- “Flee from the wrath to come.”
- I see, or think I see,
- A glimmering from afar,
- A beam of day that shines for me,
- To save me from despair.
- Forerunner of the sun,
- It marks the Pilgrim’s way:
- I’ll gaze upon it while I run,
- And watch the rising day.
- My former hopes are fled,
Christian looks for a way of escape outside the City of Destruction.
– by Michael Wimmer. The Pilgrim’s Progress: From This World to That Which Is to Come (Crossway 2009)
