Pearl in the Sand

October 23, 2014

Title: Pearl in the Sand
Author: Tessa Afshar
Publisher: River North
Pages: 310
ISBN: 978-0-8024-581-0
Publication Date: April 24th, 2010

Synopsis:
Can a Canaanite harlot who has made her livelihood by looking desirable to men make a fitting wife for one of the leaders of Israel? Shockingly, the Bible's answer is yes.

Pearl in the Sand tells Rahab's untold story. Rahab lives in a wall; her house is built into the defensive walls of the City of Jericho. Other walls surround her as well--walls of fear, rejection, and unworthiness.

A woman with a wrecked past; a man of success, of faith...of pride. A marriage only God would conceive! Through the heartaches of a stormy relationship, Rahab and Salmone learn the true source of one another's worth and find healing in God.
Review:
Tessa Afshar has such an amazing story telling ability. There is a beauty in her writing that is hard to find sometimes. She takes well known stories from the Bible and keeps their integrity and works a beautiful story around it with a possibility to how it might have been.

We don't know much about Rahab, other then she was a prostitute who helped the Israelite spies hide when they came to scope out Jericho and in doing so, they saved her and her family. There isn't a lot to her story, but we do find out later in Jesus' genealogy, she played a greater role as an ancestor in His line, one of the great grandmother's to King David and so on. Once a prostitute and now apart of one of the greatest stories.

Tessa Afshar was able to bring Rahab to life in a way that you hurt for her and hoped the best for her. As a young teenager, Rahab is forced into prostitution by her parents to keep them from starving. She lived this hard life, but was able to carve a safe life that allowed her to keep her distance when she wanted to. Rahab was a strong and intelligent woman. Her hurts felt real from her past sufferings that seemed to haunt her, but she was a woman that kept her head high and had a wonderful faith that shone through everything.

Salmone was a character that took a little bit of time to warm up to. He was a warrior and leader in the tribe of Judah, so he had a heavy burden to carry. With that burden, he was a bit hardened, but as the story progressed and he got to know Rahab as a person and not as her background, I started to warm up to him. And like life, his change didn't happen over night, you wanted it to, but he had to learn and grow.

I read In the Field of Grace (about Ruth) before this story and I enjoyed seeing the little connections. You don't have to read them in order, but there are small connections, since these two women played such a big part in the genealogy of Jesus, I liked how it brought them together.


Too Read
4 out of 5


2 comments

  1. This was the first Tessa book I read and I loved it! I have Ruth's story in my pile and can't wait to read it! Glad you enjoyed this one :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jamie, This was a very good story. I have to say though, Ruth's story is my favorite so far. :-)

    ReplyDelete

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