New Project Proposals

Isaiah: Prophet of Intrigue Series

Book #1: Isaiah’s Daughter

Three POVs:

Isaiah – prophet of Yahweh, relative of Judah’s kings.

Aya – prophet’s wife, prophetess, mother.

Hephzibah – orphan girl, captive, adopted daughter of Isaiah, wife of a king.

Synopsis

As the nephew of King Uzziah, Isaiah has battled the perception of royal entitlement since childhood. He grew into manhood under the watchful eyes of God’s prophets in Amos’s school of prophets at Tekoa. His first vision came when Isaiah was just sixteen—the year his uncle Uzziah died and his cousin Jotham ascended to Judah’s throne. Isaiah was called from the prophets’ camp to serve at the palace. During those early years, Yahweh blessed Isaiah with a wife and two sons.

Empowered by Yahweh and having earned Jotham’s trust, Isaiah now serves as King Jotham’s chief foreign adviser. The Ammonites threaten Judah’s north-eastern border, and Jotham decides to make his son, Ahaz, leader of Judah’s army. The young prince has a brilliant military mind and can best any soldier with sword or spear. Isaiah is the only royal counselor who voices concern, fearing Ahaz’s youth makes him vulnerable to pagan influence during his first travels abroad.

Jotham sends Ahaz into battle anyway. Judah is victorious, but Isaiah’s fears prove well-founded when Jotham falls ill and Ahaz’s secret pagan high places are discovered. Now that Jotham is confined to his bed chamber, Ahaz begins reshaping Judah’s worship by building altars on street corners and openly offering sacrifices on hilltops in various cities.

One-by-one, Ahaz removes faithful Yahwists from his advisory council. Some are exiled, but because Isaiah is family, he’s demoted to royal tutor and begins teaching officials’ sons to obey the laws of Moses. Since Ahaz is too busy analyzing the Assyrian invasion of their northern buffer nations, Isaiah focuses on his star pupil—the king’s second son, Hezekiah.

When Judah’s buffer nations—Israel and Aram—ask Ahaz to join a coalition against Assyrian aggression, Ahaz refuses. Assyria invades the eastern cities of Israel, deporting many of their citizens to Nineveh. Desperate, Israel and Aram plead with Judah again to join them.

Before Ahaz forms his reply, Isaiah delivers Yahweh’s message to Judah’s king: “Trust me, and I’ll deliver you from your enemies. Ask me for a sign, and I’ll give it.” But Ahaz refuses both God’s offer and the Israel/Aram coalition.

Realizing the inevitable consequences of Ahaz’s pride, Isaiah sends word of God’s imminent judgment to his friends at the prophets’ camp in Tekoa, where Micah trains the few remaining prophets in Judah.

As expected, Ahaz’s refusal enrages the coalition, and armies invade from the north, taking away 200,000 Judean captives and a great deal of plunder. Isaiah’s family is safe, but the prophets’ camp is destroyed. Micah escapes but his best friend is killed, and Micah’s sister and the little girl she cares for are taken captive. Micah vows to follow the captive’s march and try to free the two girls.

Ahaz calls an assembly in Jerusalem and pleads with the Ammonite god Molech to rescue the captives and then shocks the multitude by throwing his firstborn son into the burning Valley of Hinnom as an offering. The next morning a messenger arrives from Jericho with news that the captives have been returned, and word spreads through Judah that Molech answered Ahaz’s prayer.

Micah finds his sister Yaira among the returned prisoners with a 3-yr-old girl named Hephzibah whose abba was Micah’s dear friend. Ten-year-old Yaira tells the real story of the captive’s redemption—that a Yahweh prophet in Israel, Obed, convinced the soldiers to release them and return much of the plunder.

After hearing of Judah’s losses and the death of his eldest grandson, King Jotham’s heart fails him, and Ahaz becomes the sole ruler of Judah. The new king rains terror on Yahweh’s faithful, driving them out of public worship and into hiding. Isaiah remains a royal tutor, but his lessons are now closely monitored. Micah is displaced from the prophets’ camp and moves in with Isaiah’s family, bringing his sister Yaira and little Hephzibah with him.

Weakened by the coalition’s attack and trying to rebuild, Judah is easy prey for attacks by Edom and Philistia. Ahaz sends messengers to the power-mongering Assyrians, asking for an alliance, but Yahweh stirs Isaiah’s heart with another message for the Judean king. “The Lord is angry with all nations; His wrath is upon all their armies…” And then Isaiah recites the specific nations God will judge: Assyria, Moab, Aram, Edom, and Tyre. Yet, again, Ahaz refuses God’s intervention.

Judah’s king strips the gold and silver from Yahweh’s temple and robs the temple treasuries to secure Assyria’s aid. In return, Assyria destroys Damascus, the capital city of Aram, and Judah becomes a vassal nation to the most ruthless dynasty on earth.

While Ahaz travels, Isaiah teaches the royal students of foreign affairs—as he’s required—but also of integrity and courage, using Abraham, Moses, and David as examples. He teaches laws of social responsibility, of cleanliness, of family loyalty. Only one boy is insightful enough to recognize them as the laws of Moses—Hezekiah, the new crown prince—and he’s wise enough to remain silent. He’d seen his brother sacrificed in the fire and knew only Yahweh could save the nation he would one day rule.

Today’s Question:

(You can answer in the comments below or email me, but please be patient with my slow response. Remember–I’m in Israel! 😀 )

• For those who have read Isaiah’s Daughter, did you notice any differences between the proposed story and what I actually wrote?
• For those who haven’t read Isaiah’s Daughter, would this proposal make you WANT to read it? Or not? Explain.