Feeling her heart
It has been my good fortune to purchase and read a terrific book, one that made The New York Times best-seller list in only a few short weeks. The title of the book is “The Women of the Bible Speak” by Shannon Bream. This book contains the wisdom of 16 women who are scattered from one end of the Bible to the other.
The reason for the title “You Can Feel Her Heart” is because there are parts of the book, especially in the chapter about Hannah, you can actually feel Shannon’s heart because she is so emotionally involved from similar experiences in her own life.
If you are a student of the Bible, you already know there is so much there for any person who is searching for a better life. I have read the Bible all the way through 25 times.
The women featured, in this order, are Sarah, Hagar, Rachel, Leah, Tamar, Ruth, Deborah, Jael, Hannah, Miriam, Esther, Rahab, Mary, Martha, Mary the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene. What a collection of fantastic women. If you have ever thought that the women of the Bible did not really matter, you definitely need to read this book. Just keep in mind, there would be no fantastic men if there were no fantastic women.
First, just a word about the author: Shannon Bream is also the author of “Finding the Bright Side”, the anchor of Fox News at Night, and the Fox News Channel’s chief legal correspondent. She has covered landmark cases at the Supreme Court and heated political campaigns and policy battles from the White House to Capitol Hill.
From my own experience, there are certain women, chapters and stories that I love more than others, such as the story of Ruth, the only non-jewish woman to have a book named for her. She and Naomi, her mother-in law, return from Moab to Israel after the famine had ended, and Naomi encouraged her to remain in her homeland.
This is when Ruth makes her famous statement: “Don’t urge me to leave you or turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die, I will die. And there I will be buried.” (Ruth 1:16-17A.) Ruth later marries Boaz and becomes an important part of Jewish history.
The other stories are all good, but my favorite is about Hannah. This is where I feel the author’s heart. Hannah marries Elkanah, and he has two wives. His wife, Peninnah, has children, but Hannah is barren and Peninnah taunts her. Hannah goes to the Tabernacle and vows to God, and to Eli the Priest, that if He will give her a son, she will dedicate him to God to serve all the days of his life. God does and she does, and this sets the wheels in motion for her son, the Prophet Samuel, to anoint David as King of Israel. And the rest is history. The flag of Israel has the Star of David on it – a reference to this Biblical king.
In addition to these fantastic stories, Shannon Bream talks about her own life and the parallels that personally speak to her. In all my years of writing, this was different for me. Not to be redundant, it was almost like you could feel the author’s heart as she shared these touching stories. This book is so good. Peace!