A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers
Week 2: The Valerian Household — A World of Wealth and Emptiness
Read the chapters introducing the Valerian family — Decimus, Phoebe, Marcus, and Julia — in Rome. Background Scripture: Ecclesiastes 2:1-11; Colossians 3:1-5.
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As Hadassah enters the glittering world of a wealthy Roman family, Rivers invites us to look past the beautiful surfaces and ask what is actually filling — or failing to fill — the lives of those who seem to have everything.
Discussion Questions
8 questions1.Describe the Valerian family as Rivers introduces them. What are the defining characteristics of Decimus, Phoebe, Marcus, and Julia? What does each one seem to be searching for, even if they couldn't name it?
2.The Valerians are not villains — they are, for the most part, decent, cultured people by Roman standards. Rivers seems deliberately to avoid making wealth and paganism into simple cardboard vices. Why do you think she made this choice, and what does it demand of the reader?
3.Phoebe, Hadassah's mistress, is a genuinely kind woman who is also spiritually adrift, dabbling in various gods and philosophies. How does Rivers use Phoebe to show the difference between religiosity and living faith?
a.What does Phoebe's spiritual searching reveal about universal human longings?
b.How might a modern reader see echoes of Phoebe's spiritual consumerism in their own culture — or their own life?
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