Bread of Angels
Page 1
PRAISE FOR NOVELS BY TESSA AFSHAR
Land of Silence
“Readers will be moved by Elianna’s faith, and Afshar’s elegant evocation of biblical life will keep them spellbound. An excellent choice for fans of Francine Rivers’s historical fiction and those who read for character.”
LIBRARY JOURNAL
“Fans of biblical fiction will enjoy an absorbing and well-researched chariot ride.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“In perhaps her best novel to date, Afshar steps out of her typical Old Testament for an exquisitely heartfelt glimpse into the New. Building off one beautiful word in the biblical narrative, she grants a familiar character not only a name, but also a poignant history to which many modern readers can relate. The wit, the romance, and the humanity make Elianna’s journey uplifting as well as soul-touching.”
ROMANTIC TIMES, TOP PICK REVIEW
“Christy Award-winner Afshar has woven a compelling backstory for the Gospel account of the woman with the issue of blood. . . . Heartache and healing blend beautifully in this gem among Christian fiction.”
CBA RETAILERS + RESOURCES
“An impressively crafted, inherently appealing, consistently engaging, and compelling read from first page to last, Land of Silence is enthusiastically recommended for community library Historical Fiction collections.”
MIDWEST BOOK REVIEWS
“This captivating story of love, loss, faith, and hope gives a realistic glimpse of what life might have been like in ancient Palestine.”
WORLD MAGAZINE
“No one brings the Bible to life like Tessa Afshar.”
DEBBIE MACOMBER, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Land of Silence is a biblical novel in a category all its own. Moving, believable . . . This inspiring, uplifting story encouraged me at a heart level. A wonderful story—not to be missed!”
JILL EILEEN SMITH, bestselling author of The Crimson Cord
“Tessa Afshar’s captivating and emotive story is about one first-century woman’s pain and struggle. But the hope she describes is real and for you and me today.”
CHRIS FABRY, bestselling author of War Room and The Promise of Jesse Woods
“Tessa Afshar’s novels draw you in so that you’re both captivated and changed by the power of story. Land of Silence is no exception. You’re in for a treat with this one—enjoy!”
SUSIE LARSON, national speaker, radio host, and author of Your Beautiful Purpose
In the Field of Grace
“Afshar writes unforgettable biblical fiction.”
ROMANTIC TIMES
“This is one of my favorite books of the year. Beguiling, exciting, romantic, and a much-needed reminder of the Creator’s steadfast faithfulness, even to those the world deems undeserving.”
NOVEL CROSSING
“Once again, Tessa’s seemingly effortless talent breathes new life into this beautiful love story and makes it come alive.”
RELZ REVIEWZ
“Tessa Afshar breathes new life into the old, stale story we think we know and cracks the door wide open for a beautiful story of a tragic life turned upside down by forbidden love and immeasurable grace.”
JOSH OLDS, LifeisStory.com
Harvest of Gold
“Afshar has created a treasure of a book. Brilliant characterization, adventure, intrigue, and humor coupled with deep emotional impact garner a solid five stars.”
CBA RETAILERS + RESOURCES
“Engaging. Inspiring. Heart-stopping and heart-rending. A fabulous biblical novel that sent me straight back to God’s Word!”
MESU ANDREWS, award-winning author
Harvest of Rubies
“The Bible’s ancient Near Eastern context is the setting for an engaging story of pluck, friendship, and faith.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“There is so much depth to Harvest of Rubies that readers will happily drown in its message of God’s unfailing love and mercy while diving headfirst into the captivating plot and precarious romance. . . . This is a great read!”
BOOKREPORTER.COM
“Afshar brings readers biblical fiction with mysterious twists and turns . . . that fascinate and claim the reader’s full attention. The story will have you laughing and crying.”
ROMANTIC TIMES, TOP PICK REVIEW
Pearl in the Sand
“This superb debut should appeal to readers who enjoyed Davis Bunn and Janette Oke’s The Centurion’s Wife or Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent.”
LIBRARY JOURNAL, STARRED REVIEW
“A riveting and compelling book. . . . Fantastic research and stellar writing make this one you don’t want to miss!”
ROMANTIC TIMES, TOP PICK REVIEW
“Pearl in the Sand is a lovely story, vividly written, and is sure to please devotees of biblical fiction.”
TITLETRAKK.COM
Also by Tessa Afshar
Pearl in the Sand
Harvest of Rubies
Harvest of Gold
In the Field of Grace
Land of Silence
Visit Tyndale online at www.tyndale.com.
Visit Tessa Afshar at www.tessaafshar.com.
TYNDALE and Tyndale’s quill logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Bread of Angels
Copyright © 2017 by Tessa Afshar. All rights reserved.
Cover illustration copyright © Shane Rebenschied. All rights reserved.
Cover illustration of geometric pattern copyright © Serge Zimniy/Shutterstock. All rights reserved.
Back cover linen texture copyright © trompinex/Adobe Sock. All rights reserved.
Designed by Ron Kaufmann
Edited by Kathryn S. Olson
Published in association with the literary agency of Books & Such Literary Agency, 52 Mission Circle, Suite 122, PMB 170, Santa Rosa, CA 95409
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version,® NIV.® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Bread of Angels is a work of fiction. Where real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales appear, they are used fictitiously. All other elements of the novel are drawn from the author’s imagination.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Afshar, Tessa, author.
Title: Bread of angels / Tessa Afshar.
Description: Carol Stream, Illinois : Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., [2017]
Identifiers: LCCN 2016052542| ISBN 9781496423108 (hc) | ISBN 9781496406477 (sc)
Subjects: | GSAFD: Christian fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3601.F47 B74 2017 | DDC 813/.6—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016052542
Build: 2017-03-02 15:09:23
Yet he commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven,
and he rained down on them
manna to eat
and gave them the grain of heaven.
Man ate of the bread of the angels.
PSALM 78:23-25
To Beth an
d Robert Bull, true friends and beloved companions for life
CONTENTS
Bibliography
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
Preview of Land of Silence
A Note from the Author
Acknowledgments
Discussion Questions
About the Author
PROLOGUE
AD 51
I HAVE NEVER SERVED as a soldier, yet I have the strange sense that most of my life I have stared down the blade of a sword, the face of my adversary haunting me. My friend General Varus once told me that Roman soldiers prefer to use the single-edged sword they call the makhaira for the killing stroke: having a short blade forces them to come close, so that as your body gives way to the thrust of that unforgiving edge, all you can see is the face of your assassin. You forget the world, you forget the ones you love, you forget hope and lose your fragile grasp on any remnant of a fight lingering in your heart. You see only the visage of your adversary.
I know what it’s like to have a makhaira at my throat. I know my enemy’s face. I know the scent of his breath, the stinging quality of his speech, the poison of his taunts. He has cut me more than once with his short sword. I know his name.
He is called Fear.
He has hounded me from the time he first found me in a meadow, clinging to my father’s hand. My enemy has a singular talent for hounding.
Do you remember what you whispered in my ear that day by the river? When I bent my head to straighten the strap of my shoe, you leaned over and said, “No one shall separate you from the love of God. Not trouble or hardship or danger. Not even the makhaira.”
I almost broke your nose, I sat up so fast; do you remember?
How did you know? How did you know that I saw the image of Fear more vividly than I did the face of God? That he always seemed more real, more powerful, more immediate than the creator of the sun and the moon? That I could only perceive God from behind the shadow of Fear, that I always felt a little separated from his love?
You have asked me what made me trust God with such alacrity, so ready to jump into that river to die. To leave behind the old, tired self and rise up new.
I think it started with your words. The notion that God’s love could overcome the makhaira, so that even the thrust of Fear’s sword could not rob me of God’s healing presence.
Or perhaps I mistake the matter. Perhaps my journey began long before that, when I still lived in Thyatira and believed my future firmly planted in that dear soil. Perhaps I would never have stepped into that river if God had not first stripped me of home and hope. My future had to be destroyed before I would be willing to set foot on the path that led to a new future. A better one than I could ever have thought or imagined.
Do you remember, dear Paul, telling me of your frustration before coming to Philippi, when you sat in Troas, bewildered by the doors God had closed in your face? You were ready to crumple your maps and forget your intentions; your journey had wrecked your careful arrangements more than once. First the Spirit forbade you to enter the province of Asia so that you were forced to abandon the comfort of a good paved road in exchange for the challenges of a narrow dirt track, and then, when you tried to push through into Bithynia, once again he prevented you from following your plans.
So you sat in Troas, twice thwarted, studying your maps and scratching your head, wondering where you were supposed to go next.
If you had gone into the province of Asia as you intended, you would have come upon my old home. But you would not have found me there, for I had left Thyatira long before. It was your vision that brought you to me on that riverbank. Was it only a year ago?
God in his grace drove you to me by the force of his Spirit. How laughable our plans sometimes seem in the light of eternity. How blessed when they are destroyed!
The moon shines too bright this night and I cannot sleep. My head is full of distant memories—shadows and ghosts of what once was. They make me smile and weep. They make me see the hand of God.
I will never send you this letter, which does not even have the courtesy of a proper greeting. But thoughts of you fill my heart, dear Paul, and since you are too far away, I find solace in speaking to you through this epistle.
I lost everything when I was scarcely a woman. I lost everything and found God. But it wasn’t until you came into my life and told me the Truth that I found peace.
ONE
TWENTY-SIX YEARS EARLIER
AD 25
Their clothing is violet and purple;
they are all the work of skilled men.
JEREMIAH 10:9
PURPLE YARN HUNG from thin trees, swaying in the breeze like odd-shaped fruit; dark-lavender fabric the color of old bruises spread over two rough-hewn stone benches, drying in the sun; a large plum-colored mosaic of geometric designs dominated the otherwise-plain garden. In the shade, a massive vat the size of a diminutive Roman bath sloshed with purple dye so dense it looked black except when a ray of sunlight found its way over the surface, illuminating its true color.
The mistress of this purple kingdom, a young woman in loose, patched clothing, hunched in front of the vat, her forehead damp with perspiration. She had prepared the formula as her father had taught her. It was time to soak the linen. Her father usually conducted this part of the process. His was the genius that had created the dye in the first place; his the skill that turned ordinary yarn into lush, purple beauty. Lydia had never gone through the process of dyeing without his help. Her father was the dye master. She merely acted as his assistant, a role she relished. The thought of dyeing the wool alone made her grit her teeth.
Eumenes was late. He should have arrived over an hour ago.
Lydia wiped the sweat trickling down her temple and stared into the vat. She thought about the unusually large order they had to fill within the next two weeks. There was no time for delay. Every hour counted if they were to make a prompt delivery.
Her stomach ch
urned as she considered their narrow schedule. Most of their local clients suffered from a strange inconsistency. They had no qualms being late in their payments to an honest merchant, but if their merchandise arrived a few days after the promised date, they acted as if the world were ending. Demanding all manner of reparations, they threatened to blight the merchant’s truest treasure: his reputation.
When the two orders had arrived, one on top of another, Lydia had objected to her father, demanding that he delay at least one. “It is too much,” she had said. “We cannot accomplish it all in such a short time.”
He had laughed at her objections. “You despair when we have no orders, imagining that we will grow impoverished and lose our home. When we do receive two perfectly good requests, you worry that it is too much and we will fail to meet expectations. You must make up your mind, Daughter. Which is it to be? Shall we starve or perish of overwork?”
Lydia found that she had no problem dreading either eventuality, which did not help her present situation. Where was her father?
She fetched several of the hefty baskets overflowing with linen yarn from their workshop, located in the eastern end of the garden. The baskets were heavy—too heavy for a sixteen-year-old girl. Lydia gritted her teeth and half dragged, half carried them, one shuffling step at a time, until they were within easy reach of the dyeing vat.
On the other side of the garden, a three-minute walk from the workshop, lay their modest home with its three rooms, its crooked walls, the leaking ceiling that her father never had time to fix, and the fading furniture that no amount of purple could transform into a semblance of riches. But it was theirs, and she never felt so secure anywhere in the world as when she was nestled within the safety of its walls with her father nearby.
Lydia set the baskets of prepared linen in neat order near the vat, like naked babies ready to be bathed. In truth, she knew what to do. More than once her father had given her permission to complete the task without him. “Your problem is not lack of knowledge,” he had said again and again. “It is lack of confidence. You fear you might fail. I trust you will succeed.”
She cringed every time he suggested it. “In my ignorance, if I make a mistake and ruin a batch of dye or yarn or a perfectly good length of fabric, who will pay for my error? You know we cannot afford costly mistakes like that.”