Scroll down to see and play Audio.
Good Tuesday morning to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
If all is according to plan the conference in Thailand where I have had the privilege of opening God’s Word to a gathering of special people ends today, and I am scheduled to catch a midnight flight to return home. However, as I write this, the Coronavirus is spreading like wildfire and I wonder how that might affect flights leaving Bangkok and even the possibility of quarantine of travelers like me?
When you look into your future and you consider the unpredictable things which you cannot control, where do you anchor your faith, your hope, your confidence? Hebrews 7:19 says “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure…”
Do you have a well grounded hope that anchors your soul my friends? As I write this, I am not able to guarantee to my wife Dawn that I will be allowed on that Bangkok to Seoul flight or onto the next two flights that should eventually land me in Florida after about 30 hours of travel. At each stop, it’s possible the authorities may say that due to the Coronavirus and where I’ve been these days, that I must be detained… where, for how long?
Of course I pray and hope that will not happen. But I have an anchor for my soul in the storms of life and that hope is Jesus and all He has accomplished for us and in us. That hope is God’s unfailing Word. That hope is the unchangeable, incomparable, Almighty God and His sovereignty over all! And that, my friends, is what I point my dear wife to, as she waits for my return from Asia. So I ask you, each and all of you, wherever you are in the world… what is the ‘anchor for the soul’ which you hold on to when you cannot guarantee the future?
In our Scripture reading today, we’re in the Old Testament story of Ruth and Naomi, and let’s see what we can learn from these two widows, living in Bethlehem about 1100bc, as they look into their very uncertain future?
Join me in the story in Ruth 2:20, where Naomi has just heard Ruth’s description of her first remarkable day gleaning barley behind the harvesters in a field owned by a man named Boaz, and the kindness of Mr. Boaz to Ruth. Remember Ruth was daughter-in-law to Naomi and both had lost their husbands while in Moab. They’d only been back in Bethlehem a few days and were just beginning to find how to live in this new but painful normal as widows.
The word “Bethlehem”, by the way means “house of bread”! It was a town surrounded by fields which were cultivated for grain good for making bread. But famine had struck many years before, causing Naomi and her family to leave. God had restored the rains, the fields had been planted, word had come to Naomi in Moab that there was again the hope of “bread in Bethlehem”, so she and Ruth had returned. Let’s join their conversation and see how Naomi responds to Ruth’s remarkable report.
“The LORD bless him!’ Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing His kindness to the living and the dead. That man is our close relative; is is one of our kinsman-redeemers.” (Ruth 2:20)
Who is the “He” that Naomi refers to as having continued to show kindness? Is it Boaz or is it God or both? I believe Naomi is first giving great praise and thanks to God that HE has continued to show her great kindness after the death of her husband, in that she had two good married sons who cared for her. And then as they died, God placed in the hearts of her daughters-in-law a great love for Naomi, to help her. And one of them Ruth, even has come back with her to Bethlehem to care for her in her old age!
But Naomi is also thanking God that Ruth had that day experienced the watch-care of God as He led her into a field of Boaz, and led Boaz to take note of her and both protect her and provide abundantly for her. And Boaz was not simply a farmer with fields full of grain, he was a relative of Naomi’s deceased husband!
My friends, it’s very important that we watch for and identify the ‘fingerprints of God’ in the circumstances of our every day life, as God works for His glory and your good and your growth! Even in difficult times… are you working on developing that alertness to the details of God’s involvement in your life and are you thanking Him my friends? That is an important spiritual skill to develop and to teach our children! It’s way too easy to overlook God’s involvement in the small details of our lives!
As I mentioned yesterday, God’s design for His people Israel, was that they would in many ways be different from all other peoples on earth, and in their relationship with God would be a model for all peoples. Israel, God’s chosen people, living under the guidance, protection, and provision of God, and in obedience to His laws, would draw other people to see the great benefits of living in relationship with the one, true, Almighty, Holy God. The commandments, and precepts, and principles for living, which God gave Israel, covered every conceivable aspect of life.
Psalm 19:7-11 says: “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, that much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. By them is Your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”
One of the areas of life for which God had given specific instructions to His people was the matter of family life and how families should care for widows. Yesterday I showed you that harvesters were to leave some of the stalks of grain around the edges of the fields, so the poor and widows could have them. Deuteronomy 25:5-10 is another specific guideline from God, for the care of widows. Here God said that if a man dies leaving his widow without children, the dead man’s brother should marry her, to care for her and have children with her, and her firstborn son should bear the name of the widows dead husband, so as to carry on the family name. The name given to this brother who married his dead brothers’ wife was a ‘kinsman redeemer’.
This concept of a ‘kinsman redeemer’ was very strong in Israel, for family ancestry was a key element in the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his sons, the tribes of Israel. Thus as we continue reading in Ruth and Naomi’s story, Naomi says of Boaz: “That man is our close relative, he is one one of our kinsman-redeemers.” Suddenly Naomi has great hope! Surely he will help them, it is his obligation as a follower of the God of Israel.
As we read the rest of chapter 2, do you see how Boaz made provision for Ruth to continue gleaning through both the barley & wheat harvests? That would have been several weeks and gave Naomi & Ruth time to establish some stable foundation for their lives, at least for the near term. Is this a picture of how God has provided for your needs, my friends, even before you and I knew the need?! Think about that… when the farmer was planting the seeds in this field, God was beginning to stir in Naomi’s heart a desire to return to Bethlehem, and God timed their arrival just at harvest time!!
God did the same for you and me. Long before we knew we would need a Savior, God sent Jesus to be our “kinsman redeemer” and rescue us from our sin and eternal condemnation.
Tomorrow we’ll see how Naomi, as grateful as she was for the short term help from Boaz, was thinking longer term, as we go into chapter 3. For today, I urge us all to thank God for His daily involvement in our lives and especially thank Jesus for being our “kinsman redeemer”!
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.