Book Club : Captvating

Written By Jen
I invite you to join me in reading Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge.  I have found this book is speaking to deep roots in my heart.  It is adding words and insight into many of my actions and thoughts of myself as a woman.  Honestly, I don't really analyze my identity as a woman often.  Maybe because that would make me feel vulnerable, someone could see my weaknesses and even worse, take advantage of them.
I enjoy the way the John and Stasi write.  I fell in love with this book in the beginning when they say, “After years of hearing the heart-cry of women, I am convinced beyond a doubt of this: God wants to be loved.  He wants to be a priority to someone.  How could we have missed this?  From cover to cover, from beginning to end, the cry of God’s heart is, “Why won’t you choose me?”  It is amazing to me how humble, how vulnerable God is on this point.  “You will find me,” says the Lord, “when you seek me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13).  In other words, “Look for me, pursue me—I want you to pursue me.” Amazing.  As Tozer says, “God waits to be wanted.”  They go on to remind us “That God yearns to share a life of beauty, intimacy, and adventure with us. “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3).  Wow, God longs to be desired and so do I.  He is honest with his desires.  I am amazed that God identifies with this longing with in me.  His honesty seems like a better plan than all the things I do to pretend that being desired isn’t important to me.  This pulls on deep roots on my heart and as I read on my soul in really deep places is nourished.
The book talks about when God creates Eve, he calls her ezer kenegdo.  “It is not good for man to be alone, I shall make him (an ezer kenegdo)” (Gen. 2:18 Alter).  Alter, a Hebrew scholar, translates it “sustainer beside him.”  John Eldredge goes on to explain, “The word ezer is used only twenty other places in the entire Old Testament.  And in every other instance the person being described is God himself, when you need him to come through for you desperately.
There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens to help you...Blessed are you, O Israel!  Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is your shield andhelper and your glorious sword.
(Deut. 33:26,29, emphasis added)
I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from?  My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
(Ps. 121:1-2, emphasis added)
May the LORD answer you when you are in distress: may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.  May he send you help.
(Ps. 20:1-2, emphasis added).
We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. (Ps. 33:20, emphasis added)
O house of Israel, trust in the LORD—he is their help and shield.
O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD—he is their help and shield
You who fear him, trust in the LORD—he is their help and shield.
(Ps. 115:9-11, emphasis added)
John Eldredge comments, “God calls us to a life involving frequent risks and many dangers.  Why else would we need him to be our ezer?”
That was a great lesson on the word ezer!  It was amazing to me to see how God used it when creating Eve and then how He embodies the role of ezer.  With this new insight I am honored to be an ezer.  This book has been full of rich lessons that sink deep into my roots and nourish my soul on being a woman.   Would you like to read it with me?  If you do, find this post under 'Book Club' and come back and let me know what spoke to your heart and mind in this book.  I would love to hear from you so we can encourage one another.  Happy reading!
Thank you John and Stasi Eldredge for encouraging me.
John and Stasi Eldredge, Captivating (Nashville, TN; Thomas Nelson, 2005),  p.29-32.