Of Fire And Lions

Mesu Andrews is the CBA best-selling and award-winning author of Love Amid the Ashes and numerous other novels, including The Pharoah's Daughter, Miriam, and Isaiah's Daughter.  Her deep understanding of and love for God's word brings the biblical world alive for readers.  Mesu lives in North Carolina with her husband, Roy, and enjoys spending time with her growing tribe of grandchildren.

Exiles in Babylon.
Captives to deceit.
Will the truth set them free?

Belili wears her children's disdain like a heavy cloak.  The weight of their contempt threatens to crush her spirit, but she has perfected the art of survival.  She first learned it when she escaped death nearly seventy years ago as the Babylonians ransacked Jerusalem and took its finest young people as captives.  Years later she survived among idol worshippers and in King Nebuchadnezzar's court by donning an identity that shrouded her with guilt and shame.
She's kept secrets from Daniel, her childhood friend and the love of her life, but as the Medo-Persian Army invades, the thread of Belili's deception unravels and her tightly wound secrets begin to unfurl.
When tensions mount in the land of their exile, Belili will do anything to keep her family safe even though each step leads them closer to the truth.  Will Daniel die in a pit of lions before she can make things right between them?  Or will the God who rescued Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego save her husband and replace her spirit of heaviness with a garment of praise?

My Thoughts:

"Stop badgering your weak friend on earth and start pleading with our powerful God in heaven."

"Yahweh created the heavens and the earth, He divided the waters of the Red Sea, and He summoned a fish to swallow Jonah.  I think he can reveal a king's nightmare to those who trust Him in Babylon."

Andrews' newest book, Of Fire And Lions, releases TODAY!!  With rich historical detail and careful attention to the biblical narrative, Andrews brings to life Daniel's story and the exile.  I so appreciate the richness of Andrew's novels.  In this book especially, Andrews fills in the gaps that Scripture doesn't reveal with her unique approach employing artistic liberty without compromising the integrity of God's Word as given to us in the canon of the Scriptures.  

"He placed his arm around Belili's shoulders and drew her near.  'We've seen Yahweh do impossible things, which has strengthened our faith to endure more impossible things.  We've grown spoiled and lazy in our freedoms, making us afraid to trust Yahweh for the uncomfortable."

"Can you give up your comfortable routine to live in the tension of God's uncharted plan?"

With lines like the ones above, Andrews poses questions within the story's narrative that jump off the page into readers' hearts engaging them in the story from beginning to end.

 "And last of all, I prayed Yahweh could somehow forgive me for surrendering my whole heart and then snatching it up again."

Andrews paints a vivid picture of Daniel's faithfulness and Belili's (his wife) growth in completely trusting God for all things.  Her journey is wrapped up in our journey of learning to completely lean on and rely on Yahweh; to surrender and not snatch up again, and to defend against an exile of our hearts.

Andrews writing drives readers to study the Scriptures for themselves.  I know I turned the last page of Of Fire And Lions with a greater hunger for a study of the Scriptures.  

*I received an advanced complimentary copy of the book from the publisher.  All opinions stated here are my own.

Happy Reading Ya'll,
Jennifer