When Shem finds himself being hunted down, with light from flaming torches and chilling taunts piercing the darkness, all he can do as he lies hidden is whisper a silent, desperate prayer into the night air.
After escaping with his life, Shem commits himself to following Yahweh, the God of his father, Noah. But a message of impending judgment is about to change his life-and that of his family-forever.
The plans of Yahweh, however, do not end with either Noah or his sons. Shem's descendants encounter his God again and again. Through the infertility of an elderly, wealthy couple and the call to travel into the unknown. Through a family mired in deceit, jealousy and betrayal. Through a famine and an unlikely rise to power. And as they build their altars to Yahweh on their journeys, His purposes unfold...
Using Old Testament stories and imagined scenes woven around them, Altars of Stone follows the lives of Noah, Abraham, Jacob and Joseph, through characters close to them. The book seeks to enrich both new and established readers of the Bible, with geographical, cultural and historical details throughout. This is the first instalment of The Line of Shem trilogy, which aims to build up an overview of the main characters and themes of the Old Testament, showing how they link together.
'Drawing on her knowledge of the ancient world, Corinne Brixton weaves a story on the basis of the Old Testament narrative, imagining with us how our spiritual ancestors experienced God in a world so different from ours, but equally real. A creative and thought-provoking book.' - Revd. Dr. David Wenham, MA, PhD, Tutor in New Testament, Trinity College Bristol; author of The Parables of Jesus and Paul and Jesus: The True Story