Dark Plans Gone Awry
Jesse rose early, dressed quietly, and set out for the forest. The night before, his father had asked him to go to the market. Jesse wanted to please his father, but didn’t want to miss his Audio Bible listening group, so he started out before dawn to be back in time for church. Traveling through the dark forests of Togo was dangerous, but he knew God could protect him.
Nearby, another young man was also preparing for a trip into the forest. The instructions had been quite specific: Kill the boy and take the money from his pocket as payment. It would look like a simple robbery, not a murder-for-hire. Why a father would want to kill his own son was beyond him, but who cares? It was money.
He and his accomplice crouched in the thick underbrush and waited. At last, a boy more-or-less matching the description they’d been given came into view. They attacked and killed him. But when they searched his pockets, they found no money.
At home, their father gasped in disbelief. Jesse was standing in front of him, holding the purchases.
“Here you are father. I think I got everything.”
“Yes son. But . . . how? Where have you been? I thought something terrible had happened.”
“Sorry father. I wanted to go to church, so I hurried to the market very early and then ran home. I put the stuff in my room and went to the service.”
His father turned cold with horror. If Jesse’s back, where was Jacob? Later, his fears were confirmed. Jacob was dead.
"Jesse's God has become my God as well."
Greatly shaken, and seeing the hand of God in the events, the very next week Jesse’s father took his entire family to church for the Bible listening group – and for several weeks after that, until all of them put their faith in Christ. It was only then that their father told the family the truth about Jesse and Jacob.
“As you know, Jesse – as the oldest son – is required to carry on our family’s religious traditions. When he became a Christian, I tried everything to change his mind, but he refused. Desperate, I hired some men to kill him. I sent him to the market through the woods where these men were waiting.
In the morning, I didn’t see him and figured my plan had worked. I pretended that I knew nothing and sent Jacob to check on him, thinking he would find Jesse’s body in the woods. But Jesse returned . . . it was Jacob who was killed. Jesse’s God saved his life.
And now Jesse’s God has become my God as well.”
