Meet my new friend, Marilyn Parker. She’s written a phenomenal novel about one of my favorite women in the Bible—Leah, Jacob’s second-choice wife—that I think you’ll enjoy.
Book Description
Two sisters married to the same man. A man who loves only one.
Leah doesn’t want to do it—pretend to be her sister and sneak into Jacob’s wedding bed. She begs her father not to force her into such a marriage. She knows Jacob will hate her for it, and Rachel will never forgive her. And she is right.
Sent by his father, Jacob is to choose a wife from among his uncle’s daughters. He’s drawn to Leah by her kindness and her faith. They forge a friendship, and he considers that she might be the better choice. But Leah is a plain girl, and Rachel takes his breath away.
When Jacob awakens to find he has spent his wedding night with Leah instead of the woman he chose, he tells her, “You’re my wife. There’s nothing I can do about that now. I will provide for you. I will do the things a husband must do, but you will never have my love, Leah. Never!”
His heart tells him that Leah was forced to deceive him. But his mind will not forgive her.
Betrayed by her father, rejected by her husband, and her relationship with her beloved sister broken, will Leah be able to keep her faith in the God of Abraham through the many tragedies to come?
Will Jacob see Leah—the wife he didn’t choose—for the woman she truly is?
Will these two wives of the patriarch mend their relationship before it’s too late?
My Review
🙂🙂🙂🙂½ Smiles
I was hesitant to read this or any story about Leah because I have a special place in my heart for the heartbroken and second-choice wife of Jacob. The Bible tells us Jacob earned his name, which means “deceiver,” and though God eventually changed his name (to Israel), Bible readers for generations have wondered if Leah might have deceived the deceiver. Jacob had instantly fallen in love with his Uncle Laban’s youngest daughter, Rachel, and worked seven long years to earn the bride price to marry her. But the morning after their wedding ceremony, Jacob woke up and found Leah in his bed! Had Leah been a willing participant in the deception, or had she somehow been forced by her father Laban to deceive Jacob?
Since the Bible gives no clear comment on Leah’s motive or Rachel’s reaction, these two sisters’ lives have been left to our imaginations for millennia! I suppose women who consider themselves ugly ducklings or have felt the sting of a man’s rejection might place Leah on a pedestal. Others, who have a high sense of justice, might consider Rachel the most wounded party in this terrible tale. Men will undoubtedly weep for Jacob—perhaps rightly so—but with so many details left unknown from Scripture’s account and our modern culture so far removed from the ancient Middle Eastern traditions, how can we fully understand the rights, wrongs, emotions, and agendas in this well-known biblical story?
Marilyn T. Parker brings this familiar Bible story into the light of modern-day emotion and understanding with fully-orbed characters and believable responses to the hideous behavior of a twisted family. There’s no sugar-coating of Laban’s dysfunction or Jacob’s deception. Nor are there flimsy excuses for the wrongs done to Jacob’s wives and children. Each real person in the historical narrative of Scripture proves they were human. Flawed. Some repented. Some didn’t. Some blatantly sinned, and some were more sneaky about the ways they displeased God and others. This chosen family is as screwed up as my family and YOUR family—yet Yahweh loves them. And He loves mine. He loves yours. A novel that can unravel the Truth and somehow wrap it around my heart to make it feel supported and sure—that’s the kind of book that borders on five smiles. Honestly, it’s the cover I almost couldn’t get past. I hope future titles by this author get a better cover design to attract more readers to the lovely story inside.
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