The Scribe is the fifth book in Rivers’ Sons of Encouragement series. It tells the fictional story of Silas. I think that I enjoyed this book the least of all the books in this series. We know so little about Silas’ life that this book seemed extremely speculative. Other fictionalized accounts by Rivers (of Aaron, Caleb, Amos, and Jonathan) were much more grounded in Biblical fact because there is simply more written in the Bible about these men.

This book is fourth in the Sons of Encouragement series. In this series, Rivers writes a Biblically based, fictional account of some of the lesser known men in the Bible. The Prophet is the story of Amos. Reading the book was encouragement for me to re-read some of the minor prophets, like Amos and Hosea. Rivers stays true to the message that God gave Amos, and also uses the story to explain the culture and times that Amos was living in. This book would be excellent to read in conjunction with an in-depth study of Amos.

The Prince is the third in Francine Rivers’ series entitled Sons of Encouragement. In this series, she writes biblically based, yet fictional accounts of the lives of Biblical men. (In previous books in the series, she has written about Aaron and Caleb.) While The Prince focuses on the life of Jonathan, I found Rivers’ explanations of why Saul behaved the way that he did more interesting. Basically, Rivers believes that while Saul had good intentions in the beginning, he failed to immerse himself in God’s law and to seek the Lord’s will in making his decisions. Because of this, his kingship was doomed to fail. It was a good reminder for me of the importance of staying rooted in a personal relationship with God and with his Word.