Ruth - 3rd Chapter

Ruth chapter 3

When we last caught up with Ruth, she found favor in the eyes of Boaz. He wanted to make sure that she was treated well and got an extra part in the harvest. God treats us the same way. He offered his only Son, not some angel. He gave us his real Word and Holy Ghost that we might have a clear path and comfort. God made sure we have handfuls of purpose if we accept it.

Naomi wants what is best for Ruth and gives her the advice she feels is best. She wants Ruth to present herself in the best way possible, if not a little bold. It is easy to question the method that Naomi wants Ruth to use, but we see that because of Ruth's clean heart and Boaz's righteous demeanor, it turned out the way the Lord would have it. Before we think that she is too forward, there are two things on her side. One, she is not doing this secretly. She is in a place of harvest that has many people in it. Also, Jewish law had provisions for widowers so that the next of kin would marry the widower if possible.

The Lord will no doubt take us as we are and save us from sin and hell, but notice that Ruth washes and dresses up before she goes down to see Boaz. I think at the very least, we ought to wear something nice and clean when we present ourselves to the house of God. We would make sure we were dressed up if we were going out to a nice place to eat, or if we were going to a wedding. How much more important is the house of worship than a 'night out'? If God has blessed you with dress attire, where else should you wear it?

After Boaz was asleep Ruth laid at his feet. It frightened him awake and she told him who it was. She was straight forward telling him that she wanted him to take her for a wife according to the law. He wisely was worried about giving off the wrong impression, and he also knew of another kinsman that was closer to Elimelech by law than he was. He did appreciate that this young, hard working woman wanted Boaz and not someone else.

He tells her to leave so that people might not talk and speak more about the meeting than actually happened. He doesn't let her leave empty handed though, as he gives her another portion of the harvest. Jesus does not let us walk away from prayer if we stay long enough for his encouragement. Jesus will give us a worthy portion if we seek him long enough.

As Ruth returns to Naomi, Naomi is elated to hear about all that has happened. She encourages Ruth that Boaz will not rest until the matter is resolved with the nearest kinsman. When fellow saints come to us with a story, let us always try and be encouraging toward them if at all possible.

2nd Week of October Ruth Chapter 2

Ruth chapter 2

The first verse tells us that Naomi's husband had some rich people in it, and one of those was Boaz. Ruth tells Naomi that she is going to glean in the fields of other people and it says not by design but by happenstance she ended up gleaning in the field of Boaz. Now we know that God does not, nor ever dealt in luck, and this was guided by the very hand of God. If Ruth never would have made the effort though, there wouldn't have been a blessing.

Boaz comes in from Bethlehem and asks his reapers how the it goes with their work. A good and faithful servant of God is always looking out to see if any of God's people, or some lost soul needs help. Boaz is curious of the woman he sees gleaning and they servants tell him it is the Moabitess woman the daughter-in-law to Naomi.Ruth keeps her humbleness (as we all should) and does her part. Boaz seeing her eagerness to work and her contrite spirit tells her to go to no other field to glean. He then tells his servants to drop some handfuls of purpose that Ruth may pick them up. How often does God drop handfuls of blessings and purpose our way that we might enjoy them?

Ruth had a good report and it spoke to Boaz in volumes. He knew her heart not only by her actions, but also by the report of her. As Christians we should all have a good report. After Ruth comes home with such a great haul in her harvest Naomi is curious as to who's field she got such gain. Ruth tells that it is from Boaz's field and Naomi is over joyed at the working and care of God's great hand.

Notice as the chapter ends that Ruth is not immediately saved from her poor state. She works through not only the barley harvest but the wheat harvest as well. We ought to remember that the Gospel Way is long and has many hard days in it, but in the end, God's blessings far outweigh any price we might pay in his service.

1st Week of October Ruth Chapter 1

Ruth chapter 1

As we move from Judges to Ruth, the time frame is still the same. This all happens in the time of the judges in Israel. Within Ruth there are several promises about the coming king; not only David, but Jesus as well. Added to this, we have the hope of the Gentiles in these stories as well, because Boaz is the descendant of Rahab, and Ruth is a great-great grand mother to David. How gracious God is to include the gentiles into his grace plan.

We start off with a famine in Bethlehem-Judah. We don't know if the famine is in all of Israel, but it is where Elimelech lives. Elimelech takes his wife Naomi and his two sons Malhon and Chilion with him into Moab. Now that God has given his people a promised land, I doubt Elimelech is doing this with the blessings of the most high. If he is, why wouldn't God approve of all his people leaving and going to another land. This is not like Abraham and Issac who were only temporarily in the promised land.

Down to Moab they go, and their young sons take wives of the daughters of Moab which is definitely against their law. When you are around people for long enough, you start to become like those people, and that is exactly what happened here. Either by God's judgment or to show his great hand, Elimelech and not long after Elimelech's sons die. Now Naomi is left in a strange land with no means to support herself and two daughter-in-laws with mouths to feed. Knowing that she has a long hard road in front of her, and an uncertain future, she tries to discourage her daughters from going with her back to Bethlehem. Both the daughters out of fresh feelings and love say they want to continue with her. Naomi wants to make sure that they mean what they say. This is exactly how God may treat us in our lives. We may say that we want to serve him, and want what is best from him in our lives, but when pushed, sometimes we falter. To commit not only to Salvation, but to a life for Christ is not the easiest of roads. It is a road full of joy and fulfilled promises, but it is not always an easy road.

After further prodding, we discover that Orpah is more inclined to go back to her own people. Ruth though, in the 16th verse, says what every Christian should say in their hearts and openly. That they will serve God and follow his path no matter what may come. Ruth saw a glimpse of something in her mother-in-laws religion, and was not going to give it up for nothing.

Matthew Henry says something about this occasion that I really like. "It is an evidence of a discontented, distrustful  unstable spirit, to be weary of the place in which God hath set us, and to be for leaving it immediately whenever we meet with any uneasiness or inconvenience in it. It is folly to think of escaping that cross which, being laid in our way, we ought to take it up. It is our wisdom to make the best of that which is, for it is seldom that changing our place is mending it."

When Naomi comes to Bethlehem, she is recognized immediately. She now wants to be known for sorrow and not pleasantness. Her life is now a shame to her, and she no longer lives in her former families' glory. Oh, but we find out what is to come to her and Ruth. God has riches untold for those that wait on him.

Final Week of September Judges 21

Judges chapter 21

I want to make it clear that I have enjoyed going through the book of Judges. Within this book lies many of my favorite histories between Gideon and Sampson. I believe all of God's word is good for edification and encouragement. The final chapters though are somber and disheartening. I am aware there are still lessons to be learned and to hold these stories in remembrance may very well keep us from serious trouble.

Given these facts, this final chapter doesn't appear to offer much consolation in the choices made by the Israelites. All the tribes swear that they will not allow their daughters to marry into what is left of the tribe of Benjamin. I don't see anywhere that they were commanded by God to do this. If you notice, they swear among themselves, then go to God for advice. That was the wrong order back then, and that is the wrong order to seek God now. Go to God in prayer before you make your decisions, not the other way around. Then, when they see that the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead didn't come out to fight with them, they decide to go kill off the men of that city so that those woman can be wives to Benjamin. It also does not say that this was God's plan, it is just what they decided to do. God spoke to them when they went to battle against Benjamin, but he's not talking to them now, and I'm not so sure they would be listening.

So after this spectacular plan to kill off the males and married woman of Jabesh-gilead there is not enough 'virgins' for the remaining men of Benjamin. Make sure that if you make plans and leave God out of it, whatever is accomplished in the end, won't be enough to satisfy the need. Only God fulfills peoples lives and purposes for their lives. The tribes decide then that they will take the virgins that come out to dance at Shiloh at the time of one of the Holy days. Notice, that these people whom are going to be 'robbed' of their daughters are part of Israel so you would think that this breaks their vow. Well, in Numbers the 30th chapter are the commandments about vows. This doesn't indeed brake the letter of those commandments except that the Israelites who will have their daughters taken obviously won't know about this vow. It is more or less a sham, but they get to keep letter of the law so they think it is fine.

You can clearly see by all of this why God sent his son to die for our sins and make it a matter of faith and not works. You can always play tricks and find ways around laws, but you can not find a way around the feeling of the heart. God knows our very thoughts.

4th Week of September - Judges 20

Judges chapter 20

Once again we see a gathering of Israelites to war in Mizpah. No doubt this area was not only at hand for the battle ahead of them, but a good gathering point for armies. We hear of this place when Gideon is about to go to war. You wouldn't have a war that wasn't near the parties involved, but here must have been advantageous if not convenient. All the tribes except for Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead are coming to war.

The Levite from the previous chapter repeats his story and the Israelites decide what they are going to do. They ask for the men who committed this crime, but the inhabitants of Gibeah and the Benjamites as a whole reject the matter. I would only assume they do this out of pride and not out of defense or deference to the heinous crimes that were committed. I hope they denied turning over the men because they felt they were not going to be bullied. I suppose the reasoning doesn't matter in the end, because Israel is going to have civil war over the matter and thousands upon thousand are going to die.

When the two armies are arrayed, there turns out to be only roughly twenty seven thousand men in total for Benjamin compared to four hundred thousand that were united with the other tribes of Israel. I am not sure what the relevance is in the end, but we are told that the men fighting on both sides were great men of war. These were not just unskilled farm hands brought out of the fields and given a spear and told to fight. These are experienced, conditioned fighting men. To me this just makes the story all the more tragic that God's people are using their best warriors to fight each other instead of cleaning up their borders and territories. This would be a far better use of God's chosen people.

The Israelites seek God's council to fight. Notice that God does not tell them that they will win the battle, he just commands, or gives them permission to go. Remember, that these men that started this whole affair are evil, but the remaining dwellers in the land of Canaan are not without guilt or blame. Israel is doing what is 'right in their own eyes'. None of this was God's will for his people. God doesn't want mankind to war against itself, but he will deliver one or the other. God sent his son not to condemn the world, but to save it.

The Benjamites give the rest of Israel a bitter defeat. Considering the the numbers it is hard to imagine, but Israel didn't send their entire force at first. Israel asks council of God again, and they get the same answer, and the same result on the battlefield. No doubt this is discouraging to the tribes, but God has his plans. They go to inquire again, and this time the Lord not only tells them to go, but says that he will deliver the Benjamites into their hand.

This time, they use their defeats as a ploy to get the defenders of Gibeah to run out after them and then after feinting defeat, they turn to fight their foes. More men come from lying in wait and even more men come from hiding to burn the city and totally put the Benjamites to ruin. All are killed of the Benjamites but a remnant.

These last chapters of Judges are not always pleasant to read, but I believe there are lessons in them for God's people. I like how Israel used their defeats to setup a plan to overcome their enemy. We would do well to learn from our mistakes, defeats, and chastening of our Lord to make ourselves better Christians.

3rd Week of September Judges 19 Adult Sunday School Class

Judges chapter 19

We find out in the 28th verse of the 20th chapter that the events in the next three chapters take place not long after Joshua dies. Phinehas, Joshua's grandson is ruler over Israel at this time. This is not a shining moment for Israel, and the story here is one so horrible that you don't hear of stories much worse even in our wicked day. In my understanding of the story there are really no blameless people here. Every corner of the tale has some moral lapse that should be apparent. I'm not saying we're any better in our time, but in much of the history in the Bible, there is usually someone who is at least on God's side. Here it seems that everyone is out for themselves.

A man known only as a Levite from Ephraim takes a concubine against God's purpose for man and wife. This concubine then decides to sleep around on her 'mate', and leave and go live with her father. Out of shame or stubbornness we don't know. After four months of her absence the Levite goes after her. Where she is, and where the Levite's home was, wasn't all that close. He may have had many emotions while she was gone, but finally a cooler forgiving mind prevails and he journeys to go get her at his father-in-law's house.

His father-in-law seems genuinely happy to see him and they have a three day party. As the Levite thinks it is time to leave, he gets up to go and the concubine's father stops him and insists on him staying longer with more wine and food. After the fifth day, the Levite goes, even though it is too late to travel. Isn't this how we are sometimes? We procrastinate and fiddle until it is too late before we finally decide to do the task that must be done! Obeying human nature sometimes has a heavy price as we are about to find out.

The Levite is travelling with a servant, his concubine, and two donkeys with plenty of food for their journey. His servant says they should stay in Jebus because it is so late, but he says no, we'll have none of that, we'll stay with our own people further up the road. One can't help but wonder if the story would be any different if  they had lodged in Jebus. The Benjamites had a city called Gibeah and the Levite wants to lodge there. The only problem is when they get to Gibeah, no one will receive them, which happens to be against Jewish law not to receive a traveler. Finally a man coming from the field after work sees them, has compassion and finds out they are kindred people from the same part of the country. Things are looking up or so it seems. They make merry and eat and drink into the night.

Here the story goes south quickly. Unbeknownst to the Levite and his gracious host, there were some evil men watching for something evil to do. They picked this new stranger as there target for entertainment, and they didn't have anything good in mind. After trying to force themselves into the situation, the host decides to give out the concubine instead of his new friend to the evil men. They then have their way with her all night and let her go crawling back home when they are through with her in the morning.

This is a bad situation that seems to me to get worse by the moment. Instead of the Levite having compassion on the woman that sacrificed herself so that he might not be violated, he tells her to get up so they can be on their way. I understand that he would want to leave before things got worse, but I don't care what time in civilization this is, you couldn't help but have some compassion for this women in her state. I'm sure she was bruised and bloody, along with what psychological wounds she might have. Her injuries were bad enough that she died from them, so I would assume injuries were apparent on her body.

He finds out she will never go with him again, because she is dead. So now this heartless sinful man decides to carve up her body and send it to all the tribes in Israel to get justice. This is a story that makes the case that if two wrongs don't make a right, lets try three, four, five or more wrongs to see if that will make the situation improve. Of course, more sin doesn't make us any holier to God. Only Christ and his righteousness through the cross does away with sin.

The men from Gibeah were evil and should be punished. The Levite was wrong for taking a concubine, wrong for waiting too late to travel, wrong for having no compassion on this woman, and sinned again by what he did to her corpse. Israel truly was doing what was right in their own eyes.

1st Week of September Adult Sunday School Class Judges 18

Judges chapter 18

We have at the start of this chapter the tribe of Dan going out to seek and find an inheritance. While on their journey to spy out a new land they come across the Levite who is the priest to Micah. The reading of the chapter makes you believe that they know him and recognize his voice. So as the Levite explains to the choicest of the tribe of Dan how he came to be there and what his job is. So the men of Dan ask if their mission will be prosperous. They want this Levite, who is not a priest in the manner the law provides, to ask God whether they will succeed in their mission. We have to remember that this is a time in Israel when everyone did right in their own eyes. Micah's priest tells them they will do well and they depart.

When the spies go out and see a good piece of land occupied by the seemingly careless Zidonians, they know they have an opportunity to claim their own land. They give this good report back to the elders in Eshtaol and Zorah. The elders of Dan decide to get six hundred men together to go down and take the land form the Zidonians.

Along the way back to take their inheritance, they pass by Micah's home in Ephraim. They meet the priest and tell him that they would be happy if he would be their priest over their company, and oh by the way, wouldn't that be a greater honor than being priest for just one man? He takes them up on their offer, so this priest not only disregards God's laws as priest but also has a vanity problem. He has agreed to be the priest of Micah for an agreed payment and now leaves him without a second thought.

Of course none of this sits well with Micah and he chases down the army of the Danites to see why they have done such a things as this. The Danites don't like Micah's tone, regardless of his justification, and tell him more or less to watch his mouth around them. Micah new he was not strong enough to take his priest and idols back by force and he wisely went home.

The soldiers from Dan go down to Laish and lay waste to the inhabitants of the city. These particular Zidonians were separated from the rest of their people who lived further away. The city was conquered and the name changed to Dan in honor of their father. After they settle into the land they make the golden images part of their worship for years if not centuries. It is interesting that the Zidonians were defeated in large part because they were so far away from the rest of their own people. Now, the tribe of Dan suffers in their relationship to God because they are separated by distance from the customs and laws of their own people.