Ordinary Women of the Bible Books
On Photine’s daily trek to Jacob’s well, one step forward is another step back into her past as she relives the dismal events of her life. All she knows is brokenness, much like the waterpot she carries on her head. Rejection from those who used to be her friends is now commonplace. Failure should be her name. After all, who else in all of Samaria has gone through five husbands? And now she no longer sacrifices for her sins. Why bother when she’s just going to commit the same act every single day? She no longer cares. Then one day, a day that started out like all the others, she meets a man at the well who offers something she had all but given up on. Hope. Hope for healing… Hope for forgiveness. Hope for new life. Can she dare believe that His promises are meant for someone so broken? Someone so lost? Someone like…her?
A Mother's Sacrifice-Jochebed's Story is the first book in the Ordinary Women of the Bible fiction series. You probably know something of Moses—the man who God entrusted with the Ten Commandments. Now discover the remarkable story of his mother. Stroll the ancient halls of an Egyptian villa and walk the dusty paths of a slave’s village and witness God’s governing hand on two mothers. This captivating story begins when Jochebed gives birth to Moses, just moments after the Pharaoh issues an order to kill every newborn Hebrew male. How will Jochebed hide her precious son? Does his only chance for survival lay with the Pharaoh’s own daughter? Can Jochebed convince her to raise him to worship the one true God?
When Jewish Sailor's wife Tikva received word, more than a decade ago, of a family tragedy, the shock of the news sent her into premature labor, and she delivered a stillborn son. From that time until this, despite chasing after a multitude of healers’ promises and spending all she had on torturous treatments, she hasn’t been able to stop the resulting hemorrhaging. The doctor she saw today, like all the others, had given her lofty promises of a cure but turned out to be yet another charlatan. Defeated, Tikva returns home to her aged mother-in-law, who has heard tell of a miracle-working Rabbi visiting their province. Does Tikva dare hold out one last hope for healing?
After losing her parents, husband, and child, Zlata is left dependent upon her in-laws who regard her as nothing more than a servant. Worse still, she is left with a heart overcome by bitterness. But then she hears a new teacher speaking. He says that she is blessed although she is poor and in mourning. She thinks this Yeshua might be the madman that her father-in-law, a Pharisee, claims Him to be. Yet she can’t stop seeking Him out and listening to what He has to say because His words are making her feel whole again. Then her father-in-law threatens to turn her out if she seeks out Yeshua one more time. Will fear hold her back or will she dare to trust Yeshua by giving God everything she possesses?
After Tabitha loses her husband to the sea, God gives her the unexpected gift of a son and a new faith to follow the resurrected Messiah. Tabitha thrives amongst her community of believers in the sea-side village of Joppa. There, she teaches widows, and a slave girl named Korinna, how to sew while she makes her living as a seamstress. She loves her adopted son, but when his recklessness threatens to destroy their entire community, Tabitha’s heart breaks. Only a miracle can bring Matthias back to her and all those who care for him. A miracle, perhaps, from beyond the grave.
AFTER YEARS OF CHILDLESSNESS, Raya has come to accept barrenness as her lot in life…. Until, one day, she meets a man (but no ordinary man) who tells her she is going to have a son and he is to be a Nazarite, set apart from birth to serve God. The prophecy is fulfilled, and nine months later Raya gives birth to Samson. Samson changes Raya’s life, and she loves her son with all her heart. She teaches him about God and instills the ways of a Nazarite into his mind—and hopefully his heart. But as the years go by, Raya’s heart aches as her beloved son breaks each of the vows he promised to keep. Can Raya pray her prodigal son back to the Lord? Is that even possible? What will she do if he never returns? If she never sees him again? Was she right to trust God? Is God stronger than Samson’s stubborn will?
COMING FROM GENERATIONS OF MIDWIVES, it was only natural that Shiphrah follow in her family members’ footsteps. However, her journey as a midwife is not as simple as she’d hoped. Torn away from her family as a child and sold as a slave, Shiphrah struggles to find her place and her freedom. But things change after she saves the lives of her master’s wife and their child during a difficult birth. Now free, Shiphrah can truly fulfill her calling and, perhaps, even gain a family of her own. And yet, change is coming, and events take a dark turn when the king of Egypt demands that the midwives see to it that all male Hebrew babies die. As one who helps bring life into the world, how can she obey this cruel edict? With the help of El Shaddai, can Shiphrah find the courage to do the right thing?
Zipporah, an obscure shepherdess, is unaware that her marriage to an intriguing stranger is part of the Lord’s plan to rescue His people from the chains of slavery. As her new husband attempts to master survival and shepherding skills in the harsh Midian desert, Zipporah struggles to trust both him and the Lord. An encounter with the Living God reveals who she is to Him and thus a choice. Can Zipporah find the strength and courage to see the Lord’s plans through—and trust Moses when he needs her most?
As the daughter of the high priest of On, Asenath has a solid vision of her future. Her education with the royal scribe is a luxury not usually afforded to women, and even though she is betrothed to the pharaoh’s half-brother, she has dreams of something more. But everything changes when the pharaoh has troubling nightmares that only a prisoner named Joseph can interpret. Suddenly, Asenath finds herself married to this foreigner, who demands that no god but his own be worshipped in his house. Despite her fears, Asenath is touched by Joseph’s kindness and humility, even as he steps into his newfound power. Can Asenath trust the God of Joseph and forsake her old deities? Can she learn to love this stranger from another land, a stranger with scars from a painful past? As a famine sweeps across Egypt and the surrounding lands, Asenath and Joseph find themselves face-to-face with the men who caused Joseph’s suffering. Can Asenath embrace the power of El Shaddai and help her husband forgive? From generation to generation and every walk of life, God seeks out women to do His will. Scripture offers us but fleeting, tantalizing glimpses into the lives of a number of everyday women in Bible times-many of whom are not even named in its pages. In each volume of Guideposts’ Ordinary women of the Bible series, you’ll meet one of these unsung, ordinary women face to face, and see how God used her to change the course of history.
With a prophet for a father and a professional mourner for a mother, Atarah has always known the power of words and of song. But her joyful praises are silenced when she is captured in a Syrian raid along with Tavi, a young man who loses his freedom trying to protect her. However, in Damascus, Atarah soon discovers that their new master, Naaman, isn’t the monster she expected—and that her songs glorifying the Most High have a profound effect on his household. When Naaman shows signs of leprosy, which could spell the end of his career and destroy his family, Atarah tells him of a prophet in Israel who could banish the disease with a word. Though Naaman’s enemies hope for the worst, Atarah trusts he will encounter the power of the Most High. But by faithfully serving a master who serves Israel’s enemy, has she cut herself off from her people forever? Or will the One True God use her to teach a new song of praise to His children?
Zarah’s husband, Noah, has been preaching about the coming destruction of the world for years, as he builds a monstrous ship in the middle of his grain field. But Zarah, Noah’s wife and mother to their three sons, does not hear from God the way Noah does. Her hidden past, as a captive in a pagan temple, has led her to believe she is damaged and unworthy. Why would God speak to her? But then, son Shem’s wife, Salbeth, is abducted by the same cult of the pagan moon-god that Zarah once belonged to, and only she can find a way to bring the girl back home. Can Zarah prove her worth to her family by confronting and confessing the dark secrets of her past and rescuing Salbeth before the rain begins, and the world as they know it comes to an end?
Pursued by a King: Abigail's Story is the 7th book in the Ordinary Women of the Bible fiction series. A sense of unease settles over Abigail as she learns of her father's choice for her husband. Something about the way Nabal of Maon looks at her makes her uncomfortable, but no amount of pleading can convince her father that there is more to Nabal than what they see. Abigail is sentenced to a life with a volatile, unpredictable man. When David, the rumored next king of Israel, approaches Nabal seeking the customary kindness of strangers, Nabal turns him away, incurring the future king’s wrath. Abigail must be swift to act in order to save her household. Nabal collapses, never to rise again, upon hearing the news of David's wrath and Abigail's actions to appease the future king. And when David’s men appear at her doorstep with an offer of a new life, Abigail must choose between returning to her father’s home, or embarking on the adventure of a lifetime.
Daughter of Light: Charilene’s Story is the 16th book in the Ordinary Women of the Bible fiction series. As the Romans and the Jewish Council conspire to persecute followers of the Way, Philip’s four prophetic daughters flee by ship from their beloved home in Caesarea. Charilene, the youngest sister, dreams of a Roman legionary in desperate need of help, and his urgent call haunts her along their tumultuous voyage to Ephesus. God leads Philip and his daughters to the beautiful, broken city of Hierapolis, but their journey is far from over. In spite of the opposition, the sisters use their unique gifts to share the good news about Jesus until tragedy shakes this city’s core. What Charilene discovers below Hierapolis changes everything. She must work closely with her sisters to rescue those—including a Roman legionary— who’ve been wounded in both body and soul.
The Reluctant Rival: Leah’s Story is the 17th book in the Ordinary Women of the Bible fiction series. The moment Leah set eyes on Jacob ben Isaac, she was in love. Unfortunately, Jacob preferred her younger sister, Rachel. But when her father hatched a plan that would make Leah Jacob’s wife, she agreed due to her love for him—and fear of Jacob’s brother, Esau. Now, over a decade later, she is one of four wives vying for Jacob’s attention—and the only wife who follows his God. Throughout the years, the boundaries between the four women have been clear. That is until Rachel births her first son, and Leah her first daughter. Joseph and Dinah are the darlings of Jacob’s camp and the newest tension between rivaling sisters. Leah fumes when she discovers Rachel teaching Joseph and Dinah about pagan gods. Will Rachel’s relentless devotion to false deities poison their children—and perhaps the whole family? Can Leah keep her sister from destroying Jacob’s faith in Elohim?