Book Recommendation - Of Fire and Lions

One of the genres I've recently truly come to love is Biblical Historical fiction. I love how an author can dig in their research into the details of culture and context and bring a story to life for me. As a side note, this does NOT replace scripture reading for me - by any means. But it enlivens it for me. When I next come across the passage covered in the book while I'm reading my Bible, new details stand out to me, and I can picture the scenes and the characters better - because it's been brought to life. One of my favorite books in this genre is Mesu Andrews' new release, Of Fire and Lions (which releases today!), which tells the story of Daniel. Daniel is a pretty short book in the Bible and those of us who have been in church since we were tikes have always known the story of Daniel and the Lions Den. But there was so much more to his story that led up to that time. And with the book being so short, I've always read the timeframe as being short. But he lived a lot of years in those short chapters.

Some things I've pulled from the author's blog posts leading up to today's release:

Things we know from scripture - Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were from the tribe of Judah. They were descended from royalty or nobility (served in the kings government). They were handsome, without physical defect. They were intelligent - quick to understand and well-informed. Old enough to be knowledgeable, but young enough to be pliable. They would reach the age of manhood (12-13) by the end of their training as they were to be qualified to serve in the king's palace. They were taken from Jerusalem to Babylon (before the siege) and were stripped of everything Hebrew, including their names (Daniel became Belteshazzar, Hananiah became Shadrach, Mishael became Meshach and Azariah became Abednego).  This was with the intent to make them Babylonian nobility instead. When Daniel and his friends arrived in Babylon, they resolved not to defile themselves and showed humility by asking permission to have a different diet than the others in their training class. The author speculates that this early test where Yahweh came through and after 10 days made the 4 of them look healthier and stronger than their counterparts gave them courage to keep serving Yahweh in a pagan land. In their experience, Yahweh lived in the temple in Jerusalem, residing atop the Mercy Seat on the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies in the temple. This proved to them that Yahweh was able to be with them, even if they could no longer go to the temple.

Where the author speculates - the book is primarily written from the vantage point of Daniel's wife. Scripture does not indicate whether or not he had a wife, this was something that could be contrived. The prophecy to Hezekiah that some of his relatives would be taken to Babylon and made Eunuchs was what the author originally believed, but after further research, she found that this term also described Potiphar (the Egyptian Joseph worked for in Genesis 39), who most definitely DID have a wife. In his case, a Eunuch was  a "chief official". Since the person who would know Daniel best would be his wife (assuming he had one), she chose to use that definition. The author also made Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah brothers - and cousins to Daniel (their mothers were sisters). She did this so that they had an existing relationship and this assumes that they would be tutored together in the royal court. She also makes Mishael and Azariah twins - simply because her daughter had twins during the writing of this book and it seemed like a fun idea! She also made Daniel the son of a single mother. Since he displayed the maturity that he did, she gave him additional responsibility that pressed that.

Because this book was about a time in scripture and had the overwhelming theme of God coming through for you even when you're surrounded by sin, it was very quote-able. I loved the graphic above with one of those quotes in it!

In addition to the novel, there were 2 short story prequels that were made available to anyone who receives the author's newsletter. She also has a link on her facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/MesuAndrews/ (or you can sign up for her newsletter here: https://mesuandrews.com/mesus-blog/). You can also get additional history in the time period in her novella "By the Waters of Babylon", which is part of a Psalm series with 2 other authors. Finally, there is a 7 day devotional that goes along with the story through the  YouVersion app: Search it out in “Plans”! DANIEL: 7 LESSONS FROM BABYLON. http://bible.com/r/3kF ⁣.

This was was one book I would strongly recommend, especially if you want a greater understanding of the scripture in that time period, bearing in mind the fictional elements of course. My full review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2542793292?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1