Friday, September 7, 2012

Book Review Friday




Recently I read This Scarlet Cord by Joan Wolf. Here is a book description from the publisher: "Within one of the Old Testament’s most famous battles lies one of the most tender love stories.

Hidden within the battle of Jericho is the story of Rahab, a beautiful and brave young Canaanite woman who aided the Israelites by hanging a piece of scarlet cord from a window. This act of faith changed her life by placing her in the genealogy of Christ.

Rahab is the youngest daughter of a Canaanite farmer, taken to Jericho for the pagan New Year so her father can find her a wealthy spouse. Sala, the Israelite boy who had once saved her from being kidnapped, is also in Jericho. When the two young people meet again they admit their love for one another, but their different religions make marriage impossible.

Their love story plays out against the background of Jericho’s pagan rites. It is only when the One True God of Israel comes into Rahab’s life—and she realizes what He is calling her to do—that she and Sala can come together.

Witness Rahab as a young woman determined to find her destiny as she follows her heart toward true love . . . and the One True God."

Here is what I thought: I really enjoyed reading This Scarlet Cord by Joan Wolf.It is a retelling of Rahab's life and what happened before the battle of Jericho. In this book, Rahab was kidnapped as a child from her Canaanite family. She escapes in Egypt and a young man named Sala helps her. They meet each other again, many years later, in Jericho. Sala tells Rahab about his faith and urges her to give up her pagan religion. After many stressful events, Rahab does begin to pray to the true God, the God of the Israelites. She hides Israelite spies on her roof, just like in the Bible, and she puts a scarlet cord in her window. Her and her family are spared, and later on she and Sala are married.
This book was a good read, and most of the time it stayed accurate to the book if Joshua in the Bible.
I would recommend this to a friend.

2 comments:

  1. I'm always somewhat reluctant to read "retellings" of real Biblical people, mainly because I'm concerned about accuracy. This book does sound really interesting, though, so I might just read it!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by! I would love to hear from you.