“Now Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.”
I’m really loving this story of Ruth.
In it is yet more and more of what God has been speaking to me about my life.
Ruth behaved according to LOVE not ambition. She loved Naomi. Forgive me, but an old widow whose womb had nothing to offer her.
Now Orpah, who is that?!? She’s there for a moment in time. She had the power to become… the right to become… but when given the opportunity, she left what was being made available to her through her mother-in-law, Naomi, and went back to Moab… where she could find a husband in her homeland be among her own people.
But Ruth, we read the words of Boaz in chapter 2:
“The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!””
I see 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 here. A call to a righteous life that is marked – not by ambition – but by simply loving my brothers and sisters in Christ.
I see John 1:12…
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,”
This truth that God is making so vivid to me… I know his voice. He is being empathetic about something!
I’m finding that as I try to pursue it with others that defensive reactions are occurring… there is a withdrawal, a backing away from me, as they enter their house, close and lock the door, and declare their doctrine to me through its closed, cold wooden echoes.
“We are saved by grace alone!”
They shout!
But I’m not arguing against that at all. I’m not even musing here… I’m trying to listen.
And by the fact that I have respect for them, I am able to hear their caution. I don’t want to go astray from the truth of salvation as Grace alone. I want to hear what God is saying to me.
“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”
There it is! So plain! So perfect so final! It is in the introduction of Paul’s letter to the “…saints in Ephesus…”
It is a pattern of how the Jews taught, that they rehearsed the history in order to get to the part where correction is needed. Laying down the common ground, where all can agree, and then speaking about the things that needing to be made clear.
In Hebrews we see the same thing happening,
“About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”
2 Timothy 1:9
Philippians 2:12
“Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.”
Ruth 4:19-22 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/rut.4.19-22.ESV
Running Down Vimy 