Inside the Hearts of Bible Women

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CHRISTIAN LIFE

Applied Christianity: Handbook 500 Good Works

You Can Be a Hero Alone

Worship Changes Since 1st Century + Worship 1sr Century Way

The Best of Alexander Campbell’s Millennial Harbinger

Inside the Hearts of Bible Women-Reader+Audio+Leader

The Lord’s Supper:  52 Readings with Prayers

BIBLE TEXTS

Revelation: A Love Letter From God

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FUN BOOKS

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TOUCHING GOD SERIES

365 Golden Bible Thoughts: God’s Heart to Yours

365 Pearls of Wisdom: God’s Soul to Yours

365 Silver-Winged Prayers: Your Spirit to God’s

SURVEY SERIES: EASY BIBLE WORKBOOKS

→Old Testament & New Testament Surveys

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HISTORICAL RESEARCH BIBLE

for Novel, Screenwriter, Documentary & Thesis Writers

HISTORICAL NOVELS & STORYBOOKS

Series of 8: They Met Jesus

Ongoing Series of 8: Intrepid Men of God

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Christmas: They Rocked the Cradle that Rocked the World

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Series of 10: A Child’s Bible Heroes

Series of 8: A Child’s Bible Kids

Series of 10: A Child’s Bible Ladies

GENEALOGY: Climb Your Family Tree w/o Falling Out

Volume I & 2: Beginner-Intermediate & Colonial-Medieval

Northern Lights Publishing House

ISBN  978-1-948462-95-2 –

Copyright © 1994 Katheryn Maddox Haddad 

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishers.

Printed in the United States

In Praise of

Inside the Hearts of Bible Women

VALERIE CARAOTTA.   This is a unique book indeed  that takes  Biblical characters with real happenings and mixes fictional script to help the reader understand better the emotions  that could have been attached to the surrounding happenings. Do not discount how fictional writing and reality can co-exist because this book is one such example that will expand your understanding and depth of each individual. Centered on the women of the Bible, I can attest that this will be a Bible reading like no other. I love the Author's unique style and the questions that follow that make it an incredible discussion piece for small group teaching.

Katheryn Maddox Haddad wrote this to help women understand some of the problems and challenges they face today and thousands of years ago. Here is a little sample of what you will find in this book.

As you enter SARAH'S world you will experience the multiple locations, exhausting travel, and arduous waiting for the promised offspring. The story of LOT'S WIFE centered in unbelief will really cement her in a profound way as will his daughter's deception in tricking Lot to bear them children.

Feel the heartbreak of REBECCA in her later years over her sons: She fought away her threatening bitterness. God was not answering her prayers. She did not know whether to pray for Jacob's return, or Esau's moving away, or the two meeting each other in traveling by accident...all she could do is groan.JOB's WIFE learns a lesson on faith after being rattled in seeing Job and all they had disappear.

Though you are familiar with the book of RUTH author Haddad will add a new visual perspective as Ruth approaches Boaz according to Jewish custom. You have not run after the younger men...instead it was to me...He wanted to shout to the whole world. The principle of sowing and reaping will be displayed in David's family as you read the account of TAMAR's rape. It's more than a rape and shame but heart issues that affect family dynamics.

I had to give this work a 5 star rating as it stretched me to depths I will long remember. This author has other books that are well worth exploring.

* * * * * CLARE JANE WALIGORY. It is a good book to read for more information concerning the women. The Bible stories in this book are written in language as if the women were alive during modern times. It brings to light many of the problems that affected women in times past, as well as in today's world. It is a good book to read alone for more information concerning the women of the Bible and also would be an excellent book to use in a women's Bible study. I highly recommend it.

**** - Author brings a fresh insight into the lives of women from the Bible - Bookgirl

I’ve read many books about different women in the Bible. Katheryn Maddox Haddad has an unique perspective on many of the well known women and also includes some of the lesser known women of the Bible. She brings a fresh insightinto their lives. At the end of each chapter are discussion questions that are sure to make you think. Overall I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more by this author.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Other Books by the Author

In Praise of Inside the Hearts of Bible Women

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

1 ~ Moving Again (Sarah)

Packing

Traveling

Settling In

2 ~ Homosexual But Not So Gay (Lot’s Wife)

Protecting our Morals

Compromising Morals

Losing our Morals

3 ~ Not My Children (Rebecca)

Family Confrontations

The Irreversible Act

Falling Apart

4 ~ Unbearable Loss (Job’s Wife)

Loss of Possessions

Loss of Loved Ones

Loss of a Personal God

5 ~ The Second Time Around (Ruth)

Letting Go

Single Again

Readjusting

6 ~ Abused (Abigail)

Enduring Abuse

A World of Abuse

Abuse and Affliction - The Triumph

7 ~ Spirituality (Witch of Endor)

The Susceptible Ones

Masquerade or Mystique

If It Were True

8 ~ Violated (Tamar)

Innocent Trust

Betrayal

Evasive Consolation

9 ~ Unfaithful (Gomer)

Beginnings of a Shaky Marriage

Coping With a Tumultuous Marriage

Salvaging an Impossible Marriage

10 ~ Beauty and the Beast (Esther)

Commoner

Queen

Heroine

11 ~ Wheel Spinning (Martha)

Getting Prepared

The Agenda

Selfless Giving

12 ~ True to the End (Priscilla)

The Price of the Search

The Price of Sharing

The Price of Salvation

THANK YOU

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HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Inside the Hearts of Bible Women was written to help God’s women understand some of the more serious problems and challenges facing us in our modern age which were also faced by us thousands of years ago.  Conversation and narrative have been added to help the reader imagine what it might have been like to walk in the shoes of these Bible women. 

You will notice ENDNOTE numbers throughout the text.  They indicate discussion questions at the end of the chapter that apply to that section of the narrative.

Three sets of Discussion Questions represent three parts of the woman’s life:  (1) The woman before the problem arose; (2) being hurled into the throes of the problem; (3) her efforts to pull out of the problem. These three parts should be covered in three separate class sessions.

Unbeknown to the group, a seemingly stable woman may be going through these problems right now, and needs your suggestions. If someone becomes unusually quiet, do not try to get her to participate; she may be absorbing the suggestions the rest of you make and thinking through which ones to try in her own life. 

Many problems covered in this book are not normally discussed openly.  But we should not pretend such problems do not exist (James 1:24).  Furthermore, we should not wait until, God forbid, we ourselves are thrust into such a problem to decide how best to handle it.

Let us prepare ourselves now while we are thinking clearly.  Let us march confidently into that unknown future, our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of truth (Ephesians 6:15).  With this, we can courageously and assertively face anything!

1 ~ Moving Again

(Sarah)

Sarah carefully picked up the treasured stone tablet wrapping it and each of the others meticulously in separate sheepskins. One had been left to her family by Noah and told of the terrible flood that destroyed the earth. Others told of the actual beginning of the world as told to Noah by Seth, one of the sons of Adam and Eve. Noah was 86 years old when Seth died.

She wondered about the times Seth must have taken young Noah down the road a few miles from Ur to where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers meet. It was desolate by then, but at one time it had been the garden of God - the Garden of Eden.

Finally, she came to the genealogy tablets, and wrapped them as respectfully. She spotted the name of Enoch easily, because he never died. When Noah was 31, his great grandfather suddenly disappeared off the face of the earth.

Animals were still friendly in the days before the flood and before people ate meat, so he couldn’t have been killed by an animal. And no trace of his body could be found. Finally, the dumbfounded family had to admit that God took him directly to the paradise of heaven without ever experiencing death. Noah had been as much influenced to serve God by Enoch as he had by old Seth. So next to Enoch’s year of birth, his year of death was left blank. Seth just carved in the symbol of heaven.¹

Then there was Noah himself. Noah had died when Sarah was 48 years old. Of course, at this time, everyone in the world was a direct descendant of Noah. How she wished she could talk again with Noah and his wife. How she missed them both. 

She and Abraham seemed alone now in their belief in only one God. Even their father, Terah, worshipped these idols. Noah and his wife had felt alone too when people all around them worshipped stone gods they’d made. How they grieved. Even after the open gesture by God of his displeasure with sin through the flood, Noah’s grandchildren still went back to worshipping stone gods made by their own hands. Only one out of his three sons seemed to try to honor Jehovah as the only true God, and that was Shem.

Shem was still alive. Sarah and her husband wanted very much to meet him someday. He had moved to the west coast and seemed so far away. In his absence, his descendants had not been very loyal to Jehovah God. Abraham and his nephew Lot were the only descendants of Noah and Shem left who worshipped Jehovah.

Sarah finished packing the tablets, and turned her attention to other details of the trip ahead. They were getting ready to move away from Ur for good.²

She didn’t want to move away from her friends, her other brothers and sisters. She didn’t want to move away from the area that once was graced by the Garden of Eden. She didn’t want to move away from the home of Noah. What about his memorial? Who would take care of the marker after they left? Would anyone care? Sometimes she felt that she and her husband were the only ones left who even cared about Noah any more.

Sarah took a deep breath and reminded herself that God would take care of everything in his own way. Hadn’t he spoken with her husband personally? As she worked, she allowed her mind to wander back those few weeks before....³

It must have been the middle of the night when she heard it.

Sarah! It was a whisper, but it definitely aroused her out of sleep. Sarah, wake up!

She sat up in bed, trying to see in the direction of her husband’s familiar voice. What are you doing up?

He came closer to her and took her hands.

You don’t even have your night clothes on. Where have you been?

Abraham had an oil lamp with him, and set it down near them. The flickering light made his face seem to glow. That was a strange appearance.

Sarah, he.... he....

She put her hands on his shoulders and fixed her eyes on him. What is it? What did this person do?

Sarah, he was not a person. He was God!

She could not speak. She knew her husband too well to question his truthfulness. She had heard of God speaking directly to people in generations past. Hadn’t he spoken directly with Noah?

I was meditating this evening as usual. I couldn’t get those stone gods out of my mind. How could people think something they made controlled their lives? How could they betray a loving Creator for a cold lifeless statue?

Sarah kept wishing he would get to the point.

And while I was thinking of the love I felt for our Creator, I heard a voice. His voice.

She smiled.

"He called me by name. ‘Abraham. Abraham.’ I looked around. There was no one. ‘Abraham.’ I got up and walked around the courtyard. I walked outside and checked around the walls. I went back in to the courtyard and took the steps to the roof top. No one there. No one anywhere. It wasn’t a trick.

So I went back to where I had been meditating and looked up into the heavens. In a few Moments I heard it again. ‘Abraham.’ This time I didn’t move. And although my heart felt like it was beating out of my chest, I very quietly and steadily answered, ‘Yes, Lord. I hear you.’ For a brief Moment I caught myself feeling self-conscious for speaking into the sky. But it didn’t last.

’Yes, Abraham,’ he said. ‘I, the God of Adam and Seth and Noah, am calling you.’

Lord, what is it you want? I am your servant. Whatever you say, I will do.

’Abraham, leave your country and your people.’

Leave them? Leave the land of Eden?

’Go to the land I will show you.’⁴

Oh Abraham, God actually spoke to you. But where did he say to go?

He told me to go to Haran, and from there he would tell me where to go after that.

Haran? The city named after your deceased brother?

Yes. We will all go there. And we’ll take our aging father so we can take care of him. And of course we’ll take Lot. Lot will be thrilled to live in the city bearing his father’s name.

Still trying to grasp the sudden upheaval in their lives, Sarah groped within her mind for pertinent questions.

What will we do with our home?

Give it to our other brother’s oldest child.

Well, what about all our flocks and servants?

We’ll take them along.

When? When will all this take place?

Just as soon as we can get everything packed up. You will begin packing tomorrow. And I will wind up all of our business here.

That will take us weeks.

So we will take weeks. We will take all the time we need. For we may never return.

Never return?⁵

With that Sarah’s mind returned to her packing. One of her maids came into the room about that time and asked what she should do next. Sarah put her hand to her forehead, pushed her hair out of her eyes, and thought a minute. She gave further instructions, and then went to another room to begin packing there. Never return? The words kept coming back to her. But, of course, it wouldn’t be like they were among strangers. After all, they were going to the town of her half-brother. There were relatives in that city. And Terah will be so thrilled to live there and bask in the glory of his elder son. She smiled. So will Lot. He’ll love the attention. They’ll probably make him mayor.

By tomorrow they should be ready to go. Sarah had been helped by her relatives as much as they could do, but often they ended up crying and not getting anything done. So she told her brothers and sisters to go on home and just visit during the evenings when there wasn’t any packing to do.

But now there was not much left around to entertain with. And there was so little time left. So Sarah went around her house checking on all the maids to make sure they would be kept properly busy while she was gone. She put on her shawl and headed for her older sister’s home.

Dear Sister, she cried when she arrived and they had put their arms around each other once again. I don’t want to leave you. What am I going to do without you? You’ve been so much like a mother to me - ever since our own mother died.

Now Sarah, you’re much too old to feel that way about me. You are a grown woman and so beautiful. You are lucky to have a husband who loves you as Abraham does. Go along with him. He will establish another home for you. He will be good to you. You will even have children someday, I am certain.

Maybe I can come back and visit you.

Oh, my dear little sister. You know that may not be possible. But perhaps whenever a caravan goes between our two cities, we can find out from the people what each other is doing.

I want to go. I know it is the right thing. But I am so torn. I don’t want to leave so much of my family behind.

Abraham is your family now. Remember, you must be willing to leave your father and mother when you are married. And besides, you know I will always be with you in spirit. We all will. And we will pray for you too.

Will you pray to Jehovah for us? Not to statues? Please?

This was not the time to rehash old arguments of just who was God and who wasn’t. So her sister said she would.

Promise?

Promise.⁶

Sarah walked back to her home one last time. She walked through the now-empty rooms. How could she even say good-bye to her house? It was like a part of her family too. Silly? Yes. But that is how she felt. How could she say good-bye to it too? She decided thoughts of a new home somewhere else would help.

Last week they had made their last visit to the former site of the Garden. This evening before the sun set, Abraham and Sarah walked out to the graves of Noah and his wife. They stood there looking at Noah’s great monument. They thought of his traveling alone amidst the unknown, frightening waters. But he had had nothing to be afraid of. The waters were not his enemy; they only lifted him up.

Neither one slept that night. Long before dawn they woke up their household help, and told them to get ready to leave. Just as the sun was whispering a quiet good-morning, they made their way through the gate of their family home for the last time. Sarah looked back. As they passed familiar sights of their growing up, she tried to etch them each one permanently in her mind. Finally, they reached the gate of the great city of Ur, and went through it.

A few days previously, Abraham had set up a camp out a little way from the city. There he had gathered his huge herds, his herdsmen, and his foremen. He had a small army to protect them along the way. Tents had been assembled there, and everything that would be needed for the journey. They would be living as nomads for a long time.⁷

It was over 500 miles to Haran. They had to go slow to allow the sheep and cattle to graze. They had to stop in time for the tents to be pitched before dark. And while that was being done, the women needed time to bake bread for everyone to eat. That in itself was monumental since there were about a hundred people in their caravan. Once it was dark, not much of anything could be done. Besides, they would need all the rest they could get for the next day’s travel.⁸

Each morning it was a harder struggle to get up. Sarah was so tired of all the sand and heat. Often on those hot days she would look over to her right across the Tigris River which they followed, to the snowy mountains beyond. How she longed for its coolness. Little did she know....

Among their stops was Babylon, the great city surrounding the giant Tower of Babel. She stood awe stricken at the sight of the ancient tower. Later they passed through Akka which, like Babel, had been named after a son of Ham, the second son of Noah.

As the weeks passed, their northward journey along the Tigris River took them right to the foothills of those luscious cool mountains. They stopped in Ashur and then Nineveh, also named after Ham’s sons. Their indescribable beauty was marred by the idolatry and human sacrifices. She was anxious to leave those places.⁹

After some time, they veered away from the waters of the Tigris and headed northwest right into the mountains of Ararat. Some 150 miles and three weeks later, they saw ahead of them their new home. It was Haran.

Sarah made a better adjustment to her new home than she’d expected. Although the climate was just as hot and dry as Ur, when winter arrived she enjoyed the snows.¹⁰

Sometimes she and Abraham would travel to some of the nearby towns where people talked readily about the ark in the Ararat mountains higher up. They had left Noah’s grave behind, but she felt a certain specialness about this land where Noah and his family lived for a while until they could build up their herds and return south to the land of Eden where they’d first entered the ark. Also, it took Noah’s family some time to gain the courage to leave the high country and believe that God meant it when he said he wouldn’t make it flood like that ever again.

It made Sarah feel so much less a stranger in the new land to hear people speak so often of Noah and his dedicated wife and sons. Besides, she had something in common with Noah’s wife. She had been barren as Sarah was. She gave her husband no sons until he was 502 years old - far later than the average man back then had sons. Even though they lived much longer before the flood, the age of most child-bearing was around 100.

How that dedicated wife must have felt during the long lonely years of empty arms, feeling so much hopeless shame before her husband’s and parents’ family. But Noah had been as patient and loving and good to her as Sarah’s own beloved Abraham. Sarah knew she had to be just as patient.

The years passed. And after ten barren winters, old Terah died. Sarah wondered whether they had fulfilled their purpose in leaving their homeland - perhaps to get Terah away from the idolatry there and remind him of Noah’s rescue by the true God. Perhaps now they could return to Ur and she could see her friends and brothers and sisters again. She became excited at the thought.

Time had muted the memory of the first arduous journey. She was very lonely for her loved ones left behind. How many were still living? How many had died? How many new children were there? So many questions. She wondered, and longed to go back home now.¹¹

Sarah, Abraham whispered one evening in the shadow of the mountains melting into blackness.

Yes, my husband.

He looked into her clear ebony eyes, so full of love for him. Remember Noah telling us of God speaking to him and telling him to do a strange thing?

Yes, I do remember. He was to build a ship on dry land. God told him He would provide the water.

And did God do it, Sarah?

Of course He did. At this point she smiled, for she now realized he was leading up to something. It was so cute the way he would gently lead her up to a point he thought she might have second thoughts on. What was it this time? Going back home? She bet that’s what it was.

Did Noah know where the ship was supposed to take them? Now she wasn’t expecting that question. Noah didn’t know where he was going, but they knew.

No. He just obeyed what God told him to do, and believed he would know his destination when God was ready.

And Sarah, remember Noah’s wife, barren for so many years?

He seemed to be changing subjects in mid-air. Just what was it he was leading up to?

Oh, indeed I do remember. And Shem, righteous Shem, one day was to be her son of old age, far past the time of bearing.

Now Sarah, listen carefully and think before you answer. Do you believe God could do those same things today as He did then? Think.

She didn’t have to think about it. That’s all that had kept her faith going all those years, knowing what Noah’s wife went through. Yes, I know He can. He is all-powerful and all-knowing. He is our creator, and is the life source of all things.¹²

Sarah, we are about to repeat history!

What? Do you mean God brought us up near the old Ark to use it again? Her voice mixed with excitement and apprehension.

Abraham couldn’t help but smile even in the middle of such a serious conversation. No, my lovely wife. But something just as spectacular.

What do you mean then? Please explain.

Abraham’s voice became solemn again. Sarah, God spoke to me again last night. It was just as plain as your voice is now.

What did He say?

He told me to take our household and nephew Lot and go to a new land.

Will Lot want to leave the city founded by his father?

I am sure of it. For what is ahead for us is not just a city, but a land, an entire nation!

What are you saying?

God said He would make of me a great nation, and through my descendants - our descendants - bless all the families of the earth. You will not be barren much longer!

Oh if that were only true! It is true! I know it is!

Yes, it is true, for God spoke it.

Where is the new land? Let us go to it soon!

We are to travel south, cross the Euphrates River, and keep going until we reach a Great Sea, larger than the one near Ur. We are to continue south along its coast until we reach the land of Canaan, named after the youngest son of Ham, Noah’s second son.

Tomorrow we will begin to pack! she announced enthusiastically.¹³

And so, Sarah moved again. Her elation over finally being a mother, even though 65 years old, gave her extra strength to make the trip. It ended up being just as far as the journey from Ur to Haran ten years earlier, but her heart was involved this time.

It is a good thing she had that enthusiasm, because she was older now and the trip was harder on her. Of course, she didn’t have to leave behind a city she’d lived in all her life, and close relatives, and the house she’d been married in. This was easier. But the dust stirred up by the traveling animals seemed to stick in her nostrils more than they had before. Her joints seemed to ache a little more. She longed to get settled and on with her life and her new family.

Her ecstasy began to wane considerably when they arrived at their destination months later. What was supposed to be lush and fertile and flowing with milk and honey turned out to be dry and as barren as her own breasts and womb remained. What had happened to the promise? It had drifted away with the sands.

They settled awhile in Shechem, a place about midway into the land of Canaan. Abraham worshipped God there, and God appeared to him once again.

To your offspring I will give this land.

Despite what the land looked like, both Abraham and Sarah were thrilled to receive those reassuring words from God. Sarah was anxious to settle down at last. She directed all the tents be set up carefully, for they were to be there a very long time. She didn’t know when they’d be able to build a house. The tents would have to do. But then, they were very fine and large, and she found no problem in setting up housekeeping among them.

At first Abraham thought the famine would leave, but it did not. So one day he came home and gave the word.

Sarah, we will have to move on.

But why?

God has let us know this will be our land someday, but for now we’ll have to leave it. Otherwise our herds will die and so will we.

Sarah had mixed emotions about this move. It had been their promised land, but it certainly was dry. Sometimes she wondered who else in their right mind would want it. Perhaps it would get better with time.¹⁴

So she packed everything back up, had the tents taken down, organized the caravan, and they moved once again.

They made their way slowly through the hills and down into the sandy valleys. A few weeks later they arrived in an area just north of Salem. There they learned that Shem lived in Salem and was a priest of the most high God. This excited her. Perhaps God meant for them to live closer