Tag: Ruth

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Lenten Devotional, Day 27: Invitation to Bethlehem

The Book of Ruth is saturated with symbols. Bethlehem is a picture of the Church and Moab is a picture of the world. When Elimelech leaves Bethlehem–the house of bread–and goes to Moab, he is leaving the Lord God and the covenant promises.

“So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab.”

Bethlehem is the land where God’s name dwells. No matter how difficult it may be, there is no refuge apart from God’s presence. In the Old Covenant, God chose to dwell in particular places. To leave such places, no matter how dire the problems, is to leave God himself.

God is never divorced from the people he redeems and the house he saves. In fact, he invites us to stay in Bethlehem (the house of bread) where goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life.

Prayer: O great God, we too often seek the houses of sin instead of the house of bread. We threaten to leave your presence at the first sign of discomfort. Do not let us run to false houses in times of trial, but to sit at your right hand forevermore, through Christ our Lord, Amen.

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Left Over Food

A parishioner, Ben Calisch, made a helpful connection between two narratives. The first is from Ruth’s account. Ruth 2 where we read:

So she sat down beside the harvesters, and he handed her some roasted grain, which she ate until she was satisfied. She kept what was left over.

Ruth receives abundant kindness. She is filled and still has more left over. Her cup runs over. Her Groom provides for her when she is hungry and needy and when she is full there is more.

In the Gospels, Jesus does the same as the new Boaz. In Mark’s account, after having fed 5,000 people, we read:

All of them ate and were filled. 43 Then the disciples picked up twelve baskets full of leftover bread and fish.

Like Ruth, the people were filled and there was leftover. Jesus provides exceedingly more than we can ask or think.

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This Worldly

Here is a short section from our upcoming commentary on Ruth:

The Christian hope is very this worldly.  It’s future worldly, but it’s not other-worldly.  It’s this world that’s going to be redeemed.  It’s this body that you’re in right now that you’re going to inhabit for all eternity.  It’ll be transformed and glorified, but it’s your body that is going to be raised up on the last day.  And that’s the Christian hope:  that the very body that has borne the curse of sin will now bear the full weight of blessing and glory and splendor and majesty. And we’ll see how all this is worked out through this theme in the following chapters.

 

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A Glimpse into the Ruth Commentary

Here is a little sample of our labors on Ruth; hopefully to be sent to the publisher before the end of the year:

Ruth also shows the world just what she needs.  In a sense, in this book Israel is in the position of Naomi and Ruth.  Where are Naomi and Ruth at the beginning of the book?  They’re without a king; they’re without a husband; they are left desolate and destitute.  The story of Ruth is proof that God will not abandon his covenant bride but will provide for her ultimately by giving to her a greater Boaz and a greater David, a greater Kinsman-Redeemer, and a greater King who will do in reality what Boaz and David could only do in type and in shadow.

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This world is not my home…or is it?

Those who follow me on twitter may see several tweets with the hash-tag #Ruthproject. The Ruth project is a new work I am working with a fellow pastor from Birmingham. We are working on a commentary on Ruth. But this will not be just a normal, exegetical work, it is actually a pastoral and theological labor focusing on the nature and goal of redemptive history. We will focus on the content of Ruth’s majestic love story, but also detailing why Ruth serves as a miniature picture for all of God’s history.

We will offer a theological framework for how we are to look at redemptive history and how God is working in it. The commentary hopes to be practical, pastoral, and layman-friendly.

Here is a quote from the introduction:

What you believe about the future shapes how you live in the present.  If your final expectation is just to go and dwell forever in ethereal heaven, compare what your world view and your practice would be to someone whose final hope is of dwelling in a renovated and perfected physical creation in a resurrection body.

Lord-willing we will be able to provide a manuscript draft to our publisher by the end of the summer. Our goal is to have it published by the Family Advance Conference in November.