Hey y’all!
I know it’s been a long time since I’ve last done a book review, so I thought I would change that! Today, I’m going to be doing one on Isaiah’s Daughter by Mesu Andrews. I’ve read several of her books, and have enjoyed each one. I’ll try to start doing some more reviews to give y’all a better idea of what they’re like, but trust me, they’re great! 🙂
Isaiah’s Daughter: A Novel of Prophets and Kings is a biblical fiction novel tracing the story of Hephzibah – Queen of Judah and wife to King Hezekiah. She is a real person and character in the Bible, however, the only difference in this book or the part that brings the fiction element in, is the Scriptures do not say she was the adopted daughter of Isaiah.
Nevertheless, this book is firmly rooted in truth and the Bible. Each chapter references a Scripture at the beginning, that helps the reader to understand at what point the author is getting this inspiration from – something I appreciated.
Being the list-maker that I am, I also loved how before the story even starts, Mesu lists out all the major and minor characters that appear in this story. She tells you which ones are mentioned in the Bible, and which she used the Holy Spirit, discretion, and creative liberty to create; along with, who they are.
I’ve always enjoyed reading biblical fiction, and this one was no different. If you’ve never read a biblical fiction book before, then I highly suggest you check out some of Mesu Andrews! Personally, I find reading them helps the characters in the Bible to come alive further, makes them more relatable, and reminds me that even though they were great men and women of God, they were still human too.
Some characters that you might be familiar with, if you’ve read Scripture, are Isaiah, Micah – also a prophet, King Hezekiah, and his father King Ahaz. There are plenty of female characters as well, but their names might not be as familiar to y’all – Isaiah’s wife – mentioned in Scripture, but I believe not named specifically? Anyway, Mesu does give her a name! 🙂 Along with, the mother of Hezekiah, Queen Abijah and his wife, Queen Hephzibah.
I found it really interesting that in the book, and I’m sure based on what evidence she could find and therefore make an hypothesis/injecture upon, Isaiah was a royal tutor and had royal blood in him. Now, for this blog post I’ve done a little research, and as far as I can tell, the Bible does not mention either of these.
However, I was reading on BBC’s website, in their article on Isaiah, written from a professor at the University of Oxford, and he said,
“What is more, he seems to have had easy access to the royal court (see especially chapter 7), and to be well informed about the affairs of state. It is therefore generally assumed that he came from a family that would have been included in the ruling classes; whether he was in fact related to the royal family in some way is possible, though entirely unknown.
From the way he writes we can see that he was well educated in the best traditions of the time. It is not just his fine use of language which impresses, but also the way that he incorporates insights from the distilled wisdom of the Israelite people. It is probable that such material will have formed an important part of the national curriculum of the time. Only a few families, whose children were destined to follow their fathers into the court bureaucracy or other positions of responsibility, will have received a formal education, including learning to read and write. It looks very much as though Isaiah should be included among them.”
Fascinating!
So, while we do not know for sure, whether or not Isaiah was a royal tutor and/or had royal blood in him, the notion of it is not so far-fetched to be impossible.
Another aspect of her book, that piqued my interest was the names. Many times in the Bible, and I believe, if I’m not mistaken, people took the meaning of their names very seriously. I’ve always wondered why, for instance, with Hosea, God tells him to name his children names that I don’t find very pleasant – ex. Lo-ammi (not my people).
Now, in terms of why God said that, we don’t really know, but one of the characters in the book is named, Ishma, which means something like desolation (y’all will have to excuse this paraphrased explanation, we’re currently in the process of moving, and a lot of my books have been packed, so I’m going from memory here xD).
When Isaiah’s wife wonders why she was named that, Yaira, Ishma’s friend, defends her. She explains that right before Ishma was born, Yaira had just been through a very difficult time, and soon after she came to live with Ishma’s family, the little girl was born. Her parents gave her the name, “Ishma” to remind her that even in times of difficulty, there can still be good things ahead.
Anyway, I just thought that was really interesting!
If you haven’t read Isaiah’s Daughter by Mesu Andrews, I strongly encourage you to check it out! It’s a wonderful book that details the lives of some pretty cool people in the Bible.
~ Southern Dreamer
Southern Dreamer 