The Devil and Daniel Webster

We watched the 1941 film "The Devil and Daniel Webster". The story is about a poor farmer who sells his soul to the devil for wealth. The devil comes to claim payment after 7 years. There is a LOT interesting parts of this story. It starts with a simple premise. Jabez Stone is struggling with everyday struggles that seems to him that everything that can go wrong does go wrong.

In this movie, the devil is everywhere, or at least temptations are everywhere. And it seems that no harm will be done by participating in those temptations......until the devil comes to collect.

This movie illustrates the ease with which we fall. In the movie, Daniel Webster is the hero. He goes to trial to prove that Jabez Stone did not commit breach of contract because the contract was signed based on a lie, that Jabez's soul was not something to worry about.

What is real about the ideas presented in the movie is that temptations are and the devil is everywhere. Temptations seem so innocent when presented to us. It seems that they cannot be harmful to anyone. But we know that they are. We also know that the real hero is Jesus, not Daniel Webster.

I suggest that you watch this movie sometime. We watched it on TCM. It is available from NetFlix. It is definitely worth your time. Watch for all the traps. Watch for the interesting special effect, keeping in mind that the movie was made in 1941.

Father, thank you for Jesus. Thank you for giving us ways out of situations where temptations seem to abound. Help us to recognize that even innocuous ones have consequences. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

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