He Chooses the God of His Father

He was convinced, however, that he needed some more powerful help than his military forces could give him, because of the wicked magical enchantments that the tyrant practiced so diligently. So he sought divine help. He counted the possession of arms and a large army as of secondary importance, but believed the cooperating power of God to be invincible and unshakable. He considered, therefore, on what god he should rely for protection and help. [a]

While he was thinking this over, it occurred to him that of the many emperors before him, those who had rested their hopes on a multitude of gods and served them with sacrifices and offerings had first been deceived by flattering predictions and oracles that promised them every success, and in the end had met an unhappy fate, while not one of their gods had stood by them to warn them of the wrath of heaven hanging over them. But the one man who had followed an entirely different course, who had condemned their error and honored the one supreme God all his life, had found him to be the Savior and Protector of his empire and the Giver of every good thing.

He reflected on this and weighed it well. Those who had trusted in many gods had also fallen by many forms of death, without leaving behind them family or children, stock, name, or memorial among men, while the God of his father had given him demonstrations of his power and very many signs. He considered further that those who had already taken up arms against the tyrant and marched to the battlefield under the protection of a multitude of gods had come to a dishonorable end. For one of them shamefully retreated from the contest without striking a blow, and the other was killed in the middle of his own troops and became, as it were, the mere plaything of death. Reviewing all these things, I say, he judged it folly indeed to join in the empty worship of those who were no gods, and to stray from the truth after such convincing evidence. And so he felt bound to honor his father’s God alone.