to begin with, this post is not about frustration you make up in your head, but frustration about the fictional stories (and the true ones) that we read...
i really love reading historical biblical fiction. redeeming love and a lineage of grace are two of the best books i've ever read. also enjoyable are historical fiction books about believers (see lori wick's tucker mills series as an example).
enter pearl in the sand by tessa afshar, which i found sitting on the coffee table, begging to be read.
it is a retelling of the story of rahab, the lady from jericho who saved the lives of the hebrew spies and then moved into israel after jericho's wall came tumbling down.
oh. my. goodness.
this book is simply wonderful. i read it twice this weekend (which isn't really that unusual since i've been known to watch the same movie back to back in one day). and i'm in the middle of reading it again right now. if you like redeeming love, you will probably like this book too.
the characters come to life on the pages of this book -- their feelings, struggles, joys, and how the events around them happen.
and after i read it twice, i found myself wanting to reread the biblical account of rahab. i went to joshua and read about the spies and the wall. the account ended something like, "rahab and her family live in israel to this day." that's it. nothing more anywhere in joshua. in fact, the only other times we see rahab (that i could find) are when she's mentioned in matthew as salmon's wife in the lineage of Christ and in hebrews when she is praised for her faith.
with nothing else there, i was frustrated! and then i got frustrated with the book i was reading for doing such a great job of bringing this story to life (even if most of it is conjecture).
i wanted to know more of her story -- how she came to have such faith in God while living in jericho, the difficulties she faced assimilating into jewish life, how she came to know salmon, her life as a former prostitute of jericho turned israelite, how her family really reacted to her actions, if she was still alive to know ruth when boaz married her and what she thought of that situation....so many questions about her story were presenting themselves that i found myself talking to God about meeting rahab in heaven and talking to her then!
as frustrated as i was, i know that the parts of the story God wanted us to know are included in Scripture. even with the little amount of her story told, we see a woman who has great faith and courage, a woman who truly understood what it meant to lay down her life and lose everything to follow God. i know that is the important part of her story, because that is what God chose to share with us.
but sometimes....i wish there were more details about these stories. maybe one day :)
i really love reading historical biblical fiction. redeeming love and a lineage of grace are two of the best books i've ever read. also enjoyable are historical fiction books about believers (see lori wick's tucker mills series as an example).
enter pearl in the sand by tessa afshar, which i found sitting on the coffee table, begging to be read.
it is a retelling of the story of rahab, the lady from jericho who saved the lives of the hebrew spies and then moved into israel after jericho's wall came tumbling down.
oh. my. goodness.
this book is simply wonderful. i read it twice this weekend (which isn't really that unusual since i've been known to watch the same movie back to back in one day). and i'm in the middle of reading it again right now. if you like redeeming love, you will probably like this book too.
the characters come to life on the pages of this book -- their feelings, struggles, joys, and how the events around them happen.
and after i read it twice, i found myself wanting to reread the biblical account of rahab. i went to joshua and read about the spies and the wall. the account ended something like, "rahab and her family live in israel to this day." that's it. nothing more anywhere in joshua. in fact, the only other times we see rahab (that i could find) are when she's mentioned in matthew as salmon's wife in the lineage of Christ and in hebrews when she is praised for her faith.
with nothing else there, i was frustrated! and then i got frustrated with the book i was reading for doing such a great job of bringing this story to life (even if most of it is conjecture).
i wanted to know more of her story -- how she came to have such faith in God while living in jericho, the difficulties she faced assimilating into jewish life, how she came to know salmon, her life as a former prostitute of jericho turned israelite, how her family really reacted to her actions, if she was still alive to know ruth when boaz married her and what she thought of that situation....so many questions about her story were presenting themselves that i found myself talking to God about meeting rahab in heaven and talking to her then!
as frustrated as i was, i know that the parts of the story God wanted us to know are included in Scripture. even with the little amount of her story told, we see a woman who has great faith and courage, a woman who truly understood what it meant to lay down her life and lose everything to follow God. i know that is the important part of her story, because that is what God chose to share with us.
but sometimes....i wish there were more details about these stories. maybe one day :)
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