“Redeeming Love” by Francine Rivers is a powerful, fresh re-telling of Hosea, a small prophetic book in the Old Testament. Rivers passionately and originally modernises the story of Hosea’s wife, Gomer, and her unfaithfulness to him, which is a clear depiction of the relationship between God and Israel. Rivers brings to life the character of Angel – a young woman in 19th Century America thrown into prostitution at an early age as a result of a chain of unfortunate events.
Angel, born and raised originally as Sarah, becomes embittered through her lot in life, and she soon comes to expect litte else. Unwanted and rejected by her own father, let down by her mother and sold to a dominant and loathesome man at the age of eight, Sarah endures great sufferings that no child should have to encounter and abruptly and painfully learns the “God’s truth about men“. Thankfully, we’re not made to actually lift the words from the page with our own eyes, the travesty is only alluded to, although this is certainly distressing enough.
A few years later, we see Angel as a young prostitute in California – the best in her field. She’s beautiful, she’s alluring, she’s the most expensive. It keeps her alive, well dressed and well fed. But it’s all she knows; it’s all she’s good at. She can’t make room for the possibility that there could be more to life. It was about survival, and she was doing just fine. Until Michael Hosea comes along.
A godly, unmarried man, Michael Hosea sees Angel on one of her constitutionals with her bodyguard and is told by God that she’s the woman he’s meant to marry. Reluctantly, but faithfully, Michael Hosea eventually spends all his gold dust just to be able to talk to Angel, to persuade her to come away with him and marry him.
Rivers goes on to delve into the complex relationship between Michael and Angel. As a reader, you get dragged into every element of the story, you relate to Angel’s pain, you sympathise with Michael’s impatience and you hope, with all your heart, that there will be a happy ending.
A rollercoatser of twists and turns, “Redeeming Love” will shock you, depress you, encourage you, challenge you and tug on your romantic heartstrings. Ultimately, it all boils down to God’s workings within Angel and using Michael to guide her to Him. Her journey is a beautiful mixture of sadness, hope and redemption.
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