Unveiled: A beautiful, accessible devotional book

Major Sarah King (William Booth College) reviews Unveiled: Women of the Old Testament and the Choices They Made by Clare Hayns.

Unveiled is a beautiful, accessible and at times humorous devotional book. The 40 women depicted include well-known women of the Old Testament such as Sarah, Miriam and Ruth.

In addition, the reader is introduced to lesser-known figures, such as Rizpah, Shiphrah, Puah and – my personal favourites – Jael and the daughters of Zelophehad.

The book is ordered around themes such as motherhood, prophetic women, bad girls and #ThemToo. Within these themes, different stories are told, with each devotion following the format of picture, synopsis, reflection and prayer.

Hayns brings the Bible stories to life, helping readers to see themselves in the women’s lives and challenges. In doing so, she articulates some of the hard questions that arise when we read stories from ancient cultures about how women were treated and mistreated. 

She is quick to point out, however, that plenty of Old Testament women used the agency they had to make a difference to their families and communities.

These reflections helped me make real connections between then and now. Some of Hayns’s comments made me slightly uncomfortable, and it felt at times as if she was transposing 21st-century values to ancient cultures that worked in very different ways to ours. 

However, I valued this sense of discomfort, which made me question assumptions and think about how and why I think differently. In the main, though, I found the reflections to be beneficial, and it was really good to be reminded of lesser-known women of the Old Testament.

Part of the beauty of this book are the illustrations by Hayns’s son, Micah, who creatively portrays the subjects. The illustrations help the reader imagine the women as real people, rather than just words on a page. 

As such, the book contains food for thought and visual delight and could make for a great gift.

• Unveiled: Women of the Old Testament and the Choices They Made is published by Bible Reading Fellowship.