Rebekah

Lately I have really been excited about Biblical Fiction especially because of authors such as Mesu Andrews, but also Jill Eileen Smith. Right now, Revell Books is doing an incredible job on these cover images and it's extremely difficult not to just grab it and dive in as these women come right off the page.

Reading the scriptures in the Bible gives each reader a different insight into the individual characters such as Rebekah and Issac. Depending on your background and things that develop in your imagination you can see these “people” differently. For me, whenever I think of Rebekah, I've always thought of the woman that deceived her ailing and elderly husband. She has never had a good light in my mind, although I know she is a special part in Christian history. However, I have never once thought about who she was as a person... before the moment when she did what she did and encouraged her son Jacob to deceive and steal the birthright of his elder brother by minutes (or whatever the exact older age a twin brother might have could be). Jill, as an author opens the Bible up ever further with wonder and provokes a desire for further reading.

It was Mary Connealy that ever changed my views and reading experience with “bad guy” characters showing how redemption is beyond possible and isn't that even more so true in Bible characters? Rebekah comes onto the fiction-stage of this novel as a young vulnerable woman just trying to find her way and she is perfectly relate-able. I never would have pictured this possible light into her life, but after opening the door it's hard to close it back. It's one more thing that makes me wonder and sit back in awe in the what-ifs and wonder about the women that lived before us. Who knows what their thoughts were in a hard moment and what led them to where they went. It's a story that makes me think.

Thanks to Revell Books for providing a copy for review.
“Available February 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”

posted: http://creativemadnessmama.com/blog/2013/02/16/rebekah/