The Shepherd’s Wife was a book whose beauty and impact did not fully hit me until after I had read the last page.
Yeshua of Nazareth has two sisters: Damaris, married to a wealthy merchant’s son, and Pheodora, married to a simple shepherd from Bethlehem. When Pheodora’s husband suffers an unexpected reversal of fortune and is thrown into debtor’s prison, she returns to Nazareth, where she pins her hopes on two she-goats who should give birth to spotless white kids that would be perfect for the upcoming Yom Kippur sacrifice.
In the eighteen months between the kids’ birth and the opportunity to sell them and redeem her husband from prison, Pheodora must call on her wits, her family, and her God in order to provide for her daughters and survive. But when every prayer and ritual she knows is about God’s care for Israel, how can she trust that God will hear and help a lowly shepherd’s wife?
I will admit that it took me a while to read this one, which was surprising since I blazed through the first book in this series. It took me a while to really get into this story (I think this was more my fault than the fault of the book, just because my mind was very preoccupied with other things in life besides reading at the time) but once I did get into the story, I was emotionally invested in the characters and their struggles.
I could sympathize with Pheodora’s struggles with insecurity when she compared herself to her older and more successful siblings. I could feel her pain and frustration when her older, wealthy sister would look down on her for marrying a poor shepherd. I cried with her when her efforts to free her husband from debtors prison continually seemed to be wasted. I even shed some tears over a poor dead chicken! Haha!
By far, the most beautiful aspect of this book, and the thing I have been dwelling on since finishing the book, is the message of it. Pheodora is so caught up in trying to make everything in her life work out on her own that she has no time to even see that the Provider of all her needs is the brother she has known all her life. She has shared a roof with the Son of God, yet she is blind to it and instead thinks God does not care about the poor wife of a poor shepherd and she is better off relying on herself alone. Pheodora’s final realization of the truth of who her brother is is so powerful and touching. This story was one I needed to read right at this moment in my life. Jesus is our provider, our way maker, our ultimate sacrifice, our counselor… our everything.
Ultimately, I give this touching story 4.5/5 Stars, and highly recommend this series to any Biblical fiction fans! I look forward to seeing what Angela does with book three, which will focus on Jesus’ mother, Mary!
**I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
