BELOVED, Book 3 in The Prophet Trilogy, releases in just two weeks. As I wrap up a series that has come to mean a lot to me, I wanted to share where it came from.
Of course, no book comes from one thing alone. Stories develop when a lot of smaller streams flow together into something that develops a current and carves out a place for itself.
The Prophet Trilogy came out of years of reading and studying the Bible, with a more recent spate of studying the OT prophets more intensely. (I got tired of never knowing what they were talking about, so I started reading commentaries.)
It also came out of the popular trend these days of expecting Jesus to return imminently or else expecting judgment to come.
I do of course realize that Jesus may return at any moment and that judgment may, in fact, come. But it bothers me a little that we seem to see that as the first option, rather than the last.
Sometimes I feel like we are quicker to shake our heads and pronounce doom on our society than we are to actually PRAY for it, to believe that God is a God of mercy and compassion, long-suffering and slow to anger, who is not willing that any should perish but wants all to come to the saving knowledge of Christ.
Maybe it’s easier to believe in a God who can send earthquakes and economic catastrophes than it is to believe in a God who can change hearts — who can turn a whole cultural tide through a few faithful people who pray, and sow, and speak the truth.
It was while mulling over all of that one day that I read the book of Joel, one of the OT minor prophets. Joel is full of extremely detailed, terrifying visions of a judgment to come, vivid and assured. Read it in the King James: who can stand before the power of all those “shalls”?
But what particularly struck me was that AFTER these predictions, we read this:
“Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him?” (Joel 2:12-14, KJV).
Those verses are the heart of The Prophet Trilogy. I started thinking about what it would be like to have received those prophecies of Joel’s, but then to have that challenge: No matter how sure these prophecies sound, God may yet change course if we do.
The characters in the trilogy all have this prophecy of doom hanging over their heads, but they respond in different ways.
The two “prophets,” Kol Abaddon and his apprentice, Alack, are very different in how they deal with it. Alack becomes a prophet in the first place because he wants to save his people. If there’s any hope at all of turning the tide, he wants to help do it. So he comes at the whole thing with hope right from the start.
By contrast, Kol Abaddon (whose name means “Voice of Destruction”) dismisses any idea that things will change and the judgment be held off. Over the course of the story, it becomes clear that Kol Abaddon’s certainty of this comes out of his own heart — for personal reasons, he wants judgment to come.
It’s not until he’s willing to save his people that he begins to realize the Great God is willing to do so as well.
If you haven’t yet read The Prophet Trilogy, start with Book 1, ABADDON’S EVE. The other two books are COMES THE DRAGON and BELOVED (coming tomorrow!). I hope you enjoy them!
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