Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot
Week 7: Chapter 10 — The Response of the Wives
Read Chapter 10 of Through Gates of Splendor. Key Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:7-18; Philippians 4:11-13.
Previewing Week 7 of Through Gates of Splendor
Read 3 of 7 discussion questions below. Unlock the complete 14-week guide when you’re ready.
This chapter is in some ways the most astonishing in the book — not the deaths, but what the wives chose to do afterward. Here we see that the story of sacrifice did not end with five men on a sandbar.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.How did each of the five wives respond publicly and personally in the immediate aftermath of their husbands' deaths? What commonalities do you notice in their responses?
2.Elisabeth Elliot did not leave Ecuador. She stayed — and would later live among the very people who killed her husband. What do you make of that decision? What would you have done?
3.Second Corinthians 4:7-10 speaks of 'jars of clay' carrying a great treasure — and being 'struck down, but not destroyed.' How does the posture of the widows embody that paradox? What is the 'treasure' that sustained them?