Meeting Amanda Bedzrah
A year ago this month, I walked into my first Association of Christian Writers’ conference in London, and I met Amanda Bedzrah. We’d chatted before online, mostly because I’d been recommended her as a good beta reader for The Wanderer Scorned, and I’d asked her to read it. She hadn’t read the book yet when we met, but she wanted to chat about my use of 1st person narration because she was considering using this point of view for her next novel. And so, I first encountered her ideas about taking on a very famous Bible story from a different perspective.
Amanda is an ambassador for vulnerable women. She is the founder and CEO of Empower a Woman, a registered UK-based non-profit organisation that is set up to meet the needs of vulnerable women. She also runs Activate the Real You an online ministry that has been set up with the mission “To point Christians to Jesus so He can Rebuild, Repair, and Revive those who are hurting and broken-hearted.”
And her experiences of finding revival in Jesus through her own pain speak out through her fiction as well as her memoir, non-fiction and her work outside of writing.
A burden for Bathsheba
Amanda confesses in the back of her book that she had a real burden for Bathsheba and wrestled for many years with the need to tell the story from another point of view. The point of view of the woman herself (hence our conversation about using 1st person POV in writing.) As she rightly states, David’s actions in 1 Samuel 11-12 are hard to accept because we know so much about David – he is revered as The Great King, The man after God’s heart, The one from whom Messiah would come. For David to do something as awful as what he did to Bathsheba is totally out of our comfort zones. So, many have tried to explain it away or dumb it down.
Yet, Amanda takes the view that the taking of Bathsheba was not consensual adultery but rape. And I am inclined to agree with her. Good people can do terrible things. And God’s judgement on David shows with absolute certainty that David was to blame for what happened. Bathsheba was the innocent party. There was no ambiguity in the pronouncement of Nathan the prophet, who described the taking as akin to the slaughtering of a little lamb, and David’s actions had ramifications for generations to come. They may have been common amongst kings in his time, but that did not mean they were acceptable to God.
Powerful writing
Amanda is a very powerful writer who does not ‘mince her words’. She has taken a risk with this novel, and I have to admit, I was nervous about it. I was nervous about how she would portray the story. I knew how she viewed David’s actions from our conversation and there were parts of her previous novel, Leah, that I had been uncomfortable with. Yet what I found in this book blew me away.
Mourning over malice
Amanda was not afraid to portray David’s sin in stark terms – yet she did this not with malice but with mourning. Though we hate David’s actions, we are not left hating David but feeling instead deep sorrow that he fell so far. In addition, we realise the horror of Bathsheba’s experience not through graphic description but through delicate details woven into the text – cuts from a ring, fear of entering Uriah’s chamber, and recognition of the room in which it took place. The text is extremely moving and authentic. It spoke to my soul whilst never feeling like it was too much to handle.
And those very things which Amanda stands for – rebuilding, repair and revival through a relationship with God – shine through the story even as Bathsheba must marry the man who abused her and murdered her husband. I’m not sure I’d ever considered before what that must have been like!
A faith journey
We do not know from scripture much about Bathsheba’s personal faith, yet in Amanda’s retelling, Bathsheba clings to her God, relying on him for her needs. She fights with Him when she – understandably – feels unable to do what he asks of her. She is broken to the point of death when her baby dies. Amanda deals honestly with how hard forgiveness is and how delicately fine the line can be between love and hate – something I also consider in The Wanderer Reborn.
And yet, there is hope, there is revival. The Lord deals steadfastly with her through the pain, in a way that I have experienced myself. We do not always receive answers in this life, but we will receive comfort if we will trust Him. For sure, in the end, Bathsheba has great privileges and an important legacy, but it is hard-won through much suffering.
The thing with Biblical fiction…
We don’t know if, historically, it happened exactly the way Amanda portrays it. This book is fiction, just like my account of Cain’s story, and neither of us make claims to have authority beyond the Bible verses our imaginations ran away with. Yet, Becoming Queen Bathsheba is believable. Far more believable than claims that Bathsheba was complicit. I am glad that Amanda wrote this book. It is not an easy read, but it is an important one. Women are abused left, right and centre in this world. And, make no mistake – our God hates it. I am honoured to know someone like Amanda who has the courage to stand up for those women and help them.
Becoming Queen Bathsheba is available to order from all good bookstores and online here:
My reviews are my honest opinion. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
To learn more about the author, visit her website https://amandabedzrah.com