The Reluctant General + nemokamas atvežimas! | Herb Sennett | knygos.lt

Aprašymas

“The Reluctant General” is unique in that it is a historical novel that is both true to the biblical record and historically accurate. Yet, it is a fictionalized version of the events about how Deborah, the lead judge of Israel at that time, and Barak, a farmer from the tribe of Naphtali in the northern part of Israel, lead an army of ten thousand Israelite farmers and hunters against the greatest army of the known world: the Canaanites. The story involves Barak’s journey from simple farmer to reluctant fighter to heroic general within the milieu of late Bronze Age hardship and cruelty.

Barak struggles with his own frailties and fears while Deborah struggles with the fear of her people to get involved in an impossible war and reluctance of her “general” to lead the army she has called. With nothing apparently to gain and everything to lose, these two people fight side by side to lead a rag-tag army of 10,000 against the well-trained military of over 40,000 men and 900 iron chariots of war.

The horrors and suffering of daily life in ancient Israel are depicted in their historical reality in this exciting novel by Herb Sennett, a retired Florida educator and US Army chaplain. He has brought to life a familiar story based on the biblical account of Deborah and Barak. Sennett retells the events in great detail and historical accuracy based on his own study of the history of the Jewish people.

The story begins with a powerful military commander named Sisera sending out large raiding parties against several villages within the famous Valley of Jezreel that stretches from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River. Sisera leads one of the most powerful armies of the period forcing the Jewish residents to pay exorbitant taxes to the king who ruled the region from the city of Hazor located about ten miles north of the Sea of Galilee.

Although the heavy taxation was reason enough to rebel, the king also sent orders once a month for the general to collect “worthy sacrifices for the Canaanite god Ba’al.” Sisera interpreted that order as meaning the children of the Israelites, as the Jewish people were known at this time. What happened after the people decided they had had enough of Jabin’s cruelty is the heart of this engaging story of a people who have spent the last three thousand years struggling daily to survive.
Reluctant at first to fight, Barak agrees to train and lead an army of ten thousand Israelites against this gigantic army. But he asks the “Judge of Israel” Deborah to accompany him into the battle. He believed that she would inspire the men to fight. Amazingly enough, he was right.

Following the astounding defeat of the Canaanite army at Mt. Tabor, the Deborah and Barak lead their army to conquer the great walled city of Hazor. Once inside the city, they capture and kill the Canaanite king Jabin thereby ending the human sacrifices to the god Baal. The victory over the Canaanites results in forty years of prosperity and growth among the early Jews of the twelfth century BC.