A Lesson Learned: Lineage of Grace
I just finished A Lineage of Grace: Five Stories of Unlikely Women Who Changed Eternity
It reminded me of the saying,
“God doesn’t call the equipped, he equips the called.” -origin unknown
Each of the women in this book were sinful. They were among the least likely to be in the lineage of our forever King. But God turned their weaknesses into strengths. He used their humble, sinful origins because He knew they would accept his abounding grace more freely.
The book is actually a compilation of five stand-alone books written about the women in Jesus’ lineage. Francine Rivers uses biblical and historical background to write the stories of these amazing women in narrative, novel form. Her writing gives these women a voice and, although everything might not be 100% accurate, it gives a fresh perspective and certainly helped me identify with these women.
Here are the 5 women these stories were written about and a short synopsis about each of their lives:
- Tamar: Tricked her father-in-law into sleeping with her after he refused to honor his familial obligation of giving her son’s widow to his brothers.
- Rahab: A prostitute who helped the two spies sent by Joshua to Jericho. Because of her faithfulness, her life was saved by the Israelites when the walls of the city came down.
- Ruth: A Moabite woman who refused to leave her mother-in-law, even when she was justified in doing so. She showed tremendous loyalty and love as she made the journey from Moab to Israel.
- Bathsheba: The infamous rooftop bathing beauty who caught the eye of King David and participated in a scandalous affair. She lost the son born to her from their adultery but later became the mother of King Solomon (among other children).
- Mary: A poor peasant girl who was chosen to be the mother of the Messiah!
Ooooo, I’ll have to check it out!! Sounds great!!! Thanks for the recommendation!
This sounds like a thought-provoking book! I just read a blog post from a Reverend who talked about Rahab, also commenting, “God does not choose the people that would be chosen by human standards” (http://danielhaas.org/2011/07/holy-hooker/). After reading that (and becoming curious about that story because I don’t remember learning about in church) and reading your post, it’s a sign that I need to read more about this topic/these stories. Thanks!
I read this series a few months ago. LOVED it! Francine Rivers is a seriously talented writer and does an excellent job of researching and then making the truth so much easier to relate to.
One of my favorite books! Have you read her ‘Redeeming Love’ book? You will be thinking about it years later…
Lisa, I LOVED ‘Redeeming Love’!!! I read it a couple years ago and it is still one of my absolute favorite books!
This book sounds really interesting, especially the part about Mary. While pregnant with both of my sons, during the Christmas season, I did a lot of thinking about Mary. I used to wonder what pregnancy was like for her while pregnant with Jesus, if she worried that she was doing the right things during pregnancy, was she going to be a good mom, etc. It would be interesting to read this authors spin on having Jesus as a child, I definitely will have to read this book. Thanks for the recommendation.
I’ve only read “Ruth,” but I LOVED it! Really made the story come alive for me!