Mesu Andrews is a Christy Award–winning, bestselling author of Biblical novels and devotional studies, whose deep understanding of and love for God’s Word brings the Bible alive for readers. Her heritage as a “spiritual mutt” has given her a strong yearning to both understand and communicate biblical truths in powerful stories that touch the heart, challenge the mind, and transform lives. Mesu lives in Indiana with her husband, Roy, where she stays connected with her readers through newsy emails, blog posts, and social media.
In this interview, Mesu talks with us about her latest novel, Brave.
FF: Your book, Brave: the Story of Ahinoam, kicks off your new series titled King David’s Brides. Can you tell us a little bit about where this series will take readers?
I hope this book, like all my books, takes readers to their Bibles, where they can discover what parts are biblical Truth, what might be Jewish history, and what came from my imagination. The King David’s Brides Series is based on 2 Samuel 3:2–5 and the six wives who bore David’s first six sons. (And I always include an Author’s Note in the back matter to give readers insight into which parts of the story are Truth, fact, and fiction).
FF: In truth, the Bible doesn’t share much about Ahinoam besides that she was the mother of David’s eldest son. Why start the series off with Ahinoam’s story rather than another one of David’s wives?
There are two Ahinoams mentioned in the Bible. One is Saul’s wife, and some commentaries pose the possibility that she is the same Ahinoam that David married. In 2 Samuel 12:8, Nathan the prophet delivers God’s judgment on David for taking Bathsheba while she was still married to Uriah (one of David’s Mighty Men). Speaking for God, Nathan said to David, “I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms.” Some translations say “your master’s wives into your care.” I believe simple math rules out Saul’s wife as David’s Ahinoam. Saul became king at age thirty and ruled forty-two years—dying at age seventy-two. Ahinoam is the only wife mentioned for Saul and was likely the mother of Jonathan, Abinadab, Malki-Shua, Ish-bosheth, Merab, and Michal. Saul acquired a concubine (Rizpah) later in life, likely because Ahinoam could no longer give him children. Saul’s Ahinoam would have been well past child-bearing years by the time David married the six women who bore his first six sons, mentioned in 2 Samuel 3:2-5. Besides, would David really have married Jonathan and Michal’s mother?
FF: So, why write about this unknown Ahinoam, a Jezreelite?
Because we discover later in 2 Samuel that she’s the mother of one of David’s troublemaking sons after David reigns in Jerusalem. Three of the six sons mentioned in 2 Samuel 3:2–5 commit heinous crimes as adults. Am I saying it’s their mothers’ fault? Not at all! However, I do believe the six wome who raised their firstborn sons together in Hebron formed the foundation of David’s royal household. Who were they, and how did they relate to one another during those seven years before David built his cedar palace in Jerusalem? David was a different man while fleeing from Saul in the desert than he became after his fame spread from his luxurious palace. I believe his wives may have been just as God-focused and tenderhearted in those early years of complete reliance on Yahweh—before their newborns made them rivals.
FF: Many of your novels are told from a female POV. Why do you choose to emphasize their perspectives in your stories?
First, because the Bible was written during ancient cultures that were mostly patriarchal (male-dominated) in nature. We seldom hear Old Testament stories from the women’s perspective, so I try to put myself in my female characters’ skin and imagine how I would feel, think, and respond in both action and words if I were in that situation. Which leads to the second reason: I’m female! It’s easier to relate to my female protagonist. I do, however, enjoy writing strong male characters. In every book, I write a lead female protagonist but also a strong male character, and my hubby is a great help with that. He reads all my rough drafts before publication to catch any “unmanly” thinking, phrasing, or reactions. Not only do modern men and women think, speak, and act differently from one another, but the cultural differences of 3,000–4,000 years ago makes writing ancient Israelite male and female protagonists even more tricky. For that reason—and many more—I’m so thankful for great editors who have taught me so much. By the way, men never giggle, no matter what era or culture!
FF: All of your biblical fiction novels take place during the days of the Old Testament. Why is the Old Testament so special to you?
I came to believe Jesus was real through the Old Testament. Though I’d grown up in an evangelical Christian family, I walked away from faith in God when I was young (see question/answer below). I’d only learned Scripture in chunks; a story here and there, a verse out of context to argue this point or that. When Roy, a guy I’d known in high school, who was also not following Jesus, returned to our hometown from a Christian college in Texas, he came home VERY different. It was annoying. When I told him to stop the pretense, he said, “This is who I am now. I belong to Jesus.” I rolled my eyes but listened when he told me that the Bible was one single story—a love letter addressed to me. He showed me Jesus in Genesis 3:15 and pointed out the Crimson Thread of His redemptive story all the way to Revelation. A month later, he proposed. Six months later, we married. Forty years later, we’ve got two grown daughters and eight grandkids—and we love to tell that story.
FF: You’ve described yourself as a bit of a “spiritual mutt” in the past. Can you share what you mean by this and how it has affected your faith and resulting ministry?
My mom is Charismatic. Dad was a Quaker. My grandma and grandpa were ordained ministers in the Pilgrim Holiness Church, and then became part of the Wesleyan Church. See? Spiritual mutt. From my earliest childhood memories, I remember our family dinners as a battlefield, and Scripture was the weapon of choice. By the time I was ten, I knew a lot about the Bible, but it was just a jumble of verses with no continuity or real meaning. So, when Roy returned from one year at a Christian college, totally changed, and told me the Bible was a single story, I was stunned. In that moment, I finally realized that the Old Testament was essential to understanding the New Testament. Roy showed that God had been pursuing ME since Creation. There was no more “God of Wrath” in the OT and “God of Love” in the NT. There is only one true God in the Old Testament and the New, and I’ve been studying, speaking, and now writing about Him ever since, praying others will also see the Bible as a love letter written especially for them.
FF: Your previous novels have been praised for impeccable research and vivid storytelling. Can you set the scene for this first book and the time period in Israel’s history when it takes place? How does this affect the story?
King Saul was Israel’s first king. He began as a humble donkey farmer, but pride made him disobey God, so Samuel the prophet announced that Yahweh had taken His Spirit from Saul and had chosen “a man after His own heart”—years before David was born (1 Samuel 13:14). Brave begins in the thirty-fourth year of King Saul’s reign and seven years after Samuel the prophet has anointed David to succeed Saul on Israel’s throne. The Bible doesn’t say whether Saul knew of David’s anointing, but likely not. During those seven years, David served Saul in a number of positions: the king’s personal musician and armor bearer (1 Samuel 16:21–23); as captain of Saul’s bodyguard (1 Samuel 22:14); as a commander in Saul’s army (1 Samuel 18:5); and as husband of Saul’s daughter, Michal (1 Samuel 18:27). With every “promotion,” David won more public favor, and Saul grew more jealous and insecure. However, Saul’s eldest son, Jonathan, loved David as a brother from the moment Yahweh knit their hearts together, even though Jonathan, as Israel’s crown prince, would never inherit Israel’s throne. The story begins with Saul’s attempt to pin David to the palace wall with his spear. David flees but returns to Gibeah to see Jonathan a last time and make a covenant with his best friend at the Stone of Ezel (1 Samuel 20).
FF: Your main character in Brave, Ahinoam, hails from Jezreel with her metalworking father. What else should readers know about Ahinoam? Where do readers find her at the beginning of this story?
Most biblical references to Jezreel point to both a city and valley in the fertile northern area of Israel. However, many scholars believe that David’s first wife is from the small village of Jezreel nestled in the Judean hillside: “The southernmost towns of the tribe of Judah . . . in the hill country . . . Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Juttah, Jezreel, Jokdeam, Zanoah, Kain, Gibeah and Timnah—ten towns and their villages” (1 Samuel 15:21, 48, 55–57, emphasis added). I had written a short story about Ahinoam as David’s wife in 2021, so I knew I wanted her to be feisty and throw daggers. For Brave, I wanted to make her a Kenite—a descendant of Jael, the God-fearing woman who drives a tent peg into the Canaanite general’s head while he’s sleeping (Judges 4). After David’s heart is broken by leaving Michal in Gibeah, and he gives up everything he’s earned while serving Saul, he needs a unique woman with grit and beauty to turn his head. Only later (halfway through the first draft) did I discover that the word Kenite means metalworker, which is what I’d already written into the story as Ahinoam and her father’s occupation! That’s when I knew for sure that the Lord was guiding my research and plotting!
FF: On the flipside, where do we find David at the beginning of this series?
MDavid has just fled the best life he’d ever known. Success in battle. Loved by the king’s beautiful daughter. Included in Michal’s family—her brothers, sister, and their spouses—in the Gibeah palace complex. After Saul threw his spear at him, David runs to the safest place he knows: Naioth, home to Samuel and his school of prophets. Yet Saul sends assassins to kill David even there! Yahweh protects David by anointing the assassins with His Spirit, so all they can do is lie on the ground and prophesy! Then Saul himself goes to Naioth, and the same prophetic Spirit falls on him. David escapes back to Gibeah, where Jonathan can’t believe what his father has done. Yet after mentioning David, who is absent from the family’s feast table, Jonathan himself is almost skewered by his father’s spear. David and Jonathan seal a covenant of friendship, and David begins his seven-year odyssey as a fugitive, in which he finds both friends and enemies and acquires two wives who are as different as the sun is from the moon.
FF: Other authors have also written novels focused on the life of David and even the women he married—after all, he is an integral figure in God’s story, as told in the Bible and a man after God’s own heart. What sets Brave and the rest of the series apart from these other novels?
I love to write about the more obscure women of the Bible, and I’m a voracious reader of biblical novels. I haven’t yet found a series about David’s wives in Hebron: Ahinoam, Abigail, Maakah, Haggith, Abital, and Eglah. When we look at those names, Abigail is the only one who gets more than a quick mention as “the mother of” in Scripture’s permanent record.
The fact that their names are included in the Bible’s eternal story is significant enough for me to wonder who these women are and why they’re memorialized. As mentioned earlier, I LOVE research. I research the Bible and biblical information first. But I go deeper, researching rabbinical texts to learn the oral Jewish histories that have been passed down for millennia. I want to write about the women whose lives aren’t fleshed out in the Bible but whose stories have been kept alive in the Jewish family of faith. I wrote about Job’s wife simply because I wanted to know her real name. I wrote Gomer’s story because everyone focuses on faithful Hosea—but what about the broken woman who continually and willingly returned to prostitution? I wrote about Solomon’s beloved shepherdess (the object of his adoration in Song of Songs) because I wanted to know who this one woman was who had snagged the heart of a man with seven hundred wives! Do you want to know the primary question that drove me to write about the obscure women of the King David’s Brides Series? I’m wrestling with this question: Why did David marry multiple wives when he knew God explicitly commanded against it (Deuteronomy 17:17)? I don’t have all the answers when I sit down to write. I discover new treasures from God’s Word WHILE I write and share them in the story. I hope my readers grasp those hidden treasures and discover a few personal insights that haven’t occurred to me!
FF: What do you hope readers gain from reading Brave and the rest of this series?
I hope readers will see many types of courage in Brave’s pages. In the beginning, Ahinoam believes she must join David’s army and use her daggers to prove her bravery. When readers come to that final sentence of her story, however, I hope they’ll realize—as did Ahinoam—that there are many ways that we choose to be courageous or shrink back. Those times when we allow fear to hold us captive, we need only take a little step of faith and cry out for rescue. Our Savior is never far away, and He’s greater than any foe or fear we face.
FF: Can you share with us what you’re working on next?
I’m so glad you asked! I’m getting to know Maakah, David’s third Hebron wife and the protagonist for the second book in the King David’s Brides Series. As the daughter of King Talmai, Maakah seems to be David’s only “royal” bride. She’s a Geshurite, which makes her a Gentile (non-Israelite), so she likely didn’t worship Yahweh—at least not at first. My main questions to wrestle with in Maakah’s story are 1) Why would David marry a pagan (or a woman who grew up worshiping other gods)? and 2) How do I rectify the discrepancies I’ve found on Geshur’s location? Second Samuel 27:8 indicates it was south of Gath on the way to Egypt, but archaeological findings place it northeast of Galilee beneath the New Testament city of Bethsaida. You’ll have to wait and see how Maakah’s story ties together biblical Truth and historical facts with my God-directed imagination!
Brave-The Story of Ahinoam
King David’s Brides Series #1
Mesu Andrews
Bethany House
Genres: Biblical Fiction, Historical Romance
Release Date: October 1, 2024
ISBN-10: 076424261X
ISBN-13: 978-0764242618
Book Summary:
In the tumultuous world of ancient Israel, Ahinoam—a dagger-wielding Kenite woman—flees her family farm with her unconventional father to join the ragtag band of misfits led by the shepherd-turned-warrior David ben Jesse. As King Saul’s treasonous accusations echo through the land, Ahinoam’s conviction that David’s anointing makes him Yahweh’s chosen king propels her on a perilous journey to Moab and back into Judah’s unforgiving wilderness, only to encounter more hardship and betrayal.
Amid the challenges, Ahinoam forges an unexpected bond with David’s sister and gains respect among David’s army through her knowledge of Kenite metalworking. Though some offer friendship, Ahinoam, scarred by past relationships, isolates to avoid more pain and refuses to acknowledge her growing feelings for the renegade king. As Ahinoam’s heart grapples for footing, King Saul’s army closes in, and Ahinoam must confront the true meaning of love, loyalty, and courage. Is she brave enough to trust new friends and love Israel’s next king?
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