The Scarlet Cord by Joan Wolf

From the publisher:
“Within one of the Old Testament’s most famous battles lies one of its most tender love stories.
Hidden within the battle of Jericho is the story of Rahab, a beautiful and brave young Canaanite woman who aided the Israelites by hanging a piece of scarlet cord from a window. This act of faith changed her life by placing her in the genealogy of Christ.
Rahab is the beautiful youngest daughter of a Canaanite farmer, taken to Jericho for the pagan New Year celebration so that her father can find her a wealthy spouse. Sala is the only son of an Israelite merchant, in Jericho as a spy for Joshua’s army. Their love would have been destined for heartache, were it not ordained by God.
When Rahab finds favor with the king, and is to become his ritual bride, she abandons the pagan gods who have abandoned her and pleads with the One True God of the Israelites for deliverance. With her prayer answered, she vows to deliver Jericho to Joshua, risking her life to do so.
Motivated by love and empowered by a new faith, Rahab saves her family, and secures her future as one of the most important women in the Bible.”

Joan Wolf created an engaging Biblical fiction story.  The historical knowledge of the Canaanite religion helped to create the mood toward the situation and how Joshua had to deal with it.  I appreciated the author’s note at the end of the book and how she struggled with the “jihad” idea and wanted to deal with it as best she could.  I applaud her honestly and her struggle as an author.  I do think that the Bible calling Rahab a harlot was not just a culture thing however, and although I appreciate what Wolf did, I found it more off base Biblically than I would have liked.  Overall it was an interesting read and I look forward to more of Joan Wolf’s books.

I received this book free from BookSneeze for my honest review.