Reading 3: Desperation and Dedication

by on March 25, 2018
➡ Average Reading Time: 3 minutes

Read Me First | Read Me Second | Read Me Third

About Ruth
Desperation and Dedication
The beginning sentence of the book of Ruth places it during the period of the Judges (Ruth 1.1). It tells the story of three characters: Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz. Remember, the period of the judges was a cycle of breaking covenant generation after generation. It is pictured in Scripture as a dark time in the life of Israel. Two points can be discerned from Ruth. First, we can make choices to live life to its fullest even when others around us choose to live life in decline. Or, to say it another way, we can choose to live in a different story than the one our culture presents us with. Second, salvation history will not be detoured by humankind’s choices.

The word which is often translated judge in the Old Testament does not always have a clear meaning. It conjures a picture in this present century of a person seated behind an elevated desk wearing a black robe swinging a gavel. On each occasion in the book of Judges, as Israel broke Covenant stipulations, God raised up a judge, not a legal expert, but a charismatic military leader who was empowered by God to fight against an enemy.

Judges describes the occupation of the Promised Land as undertaken by individual tribes or sometimes one tribe working with another64 and includes the interval of time when the tribes of Israel, having entered the Promised Land, are learning to live together as well as living with their neighbors while in the midst of hostile nations on their borders. We must think of Israel during this period of time as a loosely bound group of tribes that were held together by the Covenant made with God. It was a theocracy. God was king. The first part of Judges pictures a cycle through which the tribes would orbit as they broke Covenant with God. The phrase “did evil in the eyes of the Lord” might be understood as a technical phrase which means “breaking Covenant.” Several of the dates of the Judges overlap66 because often more than one tribe would be in the cycle at the same time. What the book of Judges presents for its readers is a concept that was developing in the history of Israel about what would happen to them if they did not keep the stipulations of the Covenant.

There is a pattern to Israel’s failures that appears several times:
O pposition to God
R etribution of God
B eseechment to God
I mpartation of Deliverance by God
T ranquility with God

So What?
Judges may be a demonstration of what occurs when there is no recital and recommitment in each generation as seen at the end of Joshua (Joshua 24). Each generation must remember what God has done and recommit to his faithfulness. It also points toward the concept that when one lives in God’s EPIC Adventure, i.e., keeps his Covenant, God is pleased. When one chooses a different story to live in, well, things can get out of hand.

From: God’s EPIC Adventure. 128-129. © 2007. All Rights Reserved.

Wife of Elimelech and mother-in-law of Ruth (Ruth 1:2 through 4:17). She went with her husband to the land of Moab, and after his death returned to Bethlehem. When greeted on her return, she told the women of the town to call her, not no omi (“pleasantness”), but marah (“bitterness”), “for,” she said, “the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.” She advised Ruth in her dealings with Boaz, and afterward nursed their child.

The name may mean “my joy,” “my bliss,” but is perhaps better explained according to the traditional interpretation as “the pleasant one.”

From: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Public Domain.

Boaz

A wealthy Bethlehemite, kinsman to Elimelech, the husband of Naomi. He married Ruth and redeemed the estates of her deceased husband, Mahlon (Ruth 4.1). Boaz is mentioned in the genealogy of Christ, Matt. 1:5.

From: Smith’s Bible Dictionary. Public Domain.

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Read Me First

 

Throughout these sessions, I have used the word ecclesia (singular) for the usual word church and ecclesiae (plural) to indicate a church in a particular geographic place, i.e., the ecclesiae at Corinth, meaning the whole of the many smaller ecclesia that met in homes in Corinth. This is to distinguish between the Institutional Church model (IC) and ecclesia that meet in cities and towns around the world. The ecclesiae written about by the authors of the Second Testament were not the same as what the “church” has become over the years of its existence. Usually, but not always, folks think of a church as a place where they go to a building and set in rows of pews and listen to music and sometimes sing and listen to sermons by a pastor or senior pastor. The ecclesiae of the Second Testament time did not invoke this model.

 

I have discovered over the years that if you want to try and change minds about something special, you have to venture out and reword it in order to grasp a foothold for a new refreshed understanding of the idea presented by the word. Such is the case between "church" and "ecclesia."

 

Happy Reading!

Read Me Second

 

Referenced verses in the text of this study are not used to prove some point of view. They are merely markers where the subject matter is referenced by other books and authors. To gain a larger view of each quote, a serious student of the Holy Writ would take the time to view the reference and see what the background is. The background provides tracks on which the meaning of a text rides. So knowing the context of a referenced passage would help the reader to gain a more thorough understanding of an author than just the words quoted and marked by a verse number that was not a part of the original author's text, which as you might remember was performed on the text in a random fashion many years later.

 

Happy Reading!

Read Me Third

 

The verses that are referenced in these sessions are not meant to prove a point. They are simply pointers to where the idea being written about may have a correlation. In order to see if they accomplish the thesis presented by the original author, a student should read, at a minimum, the chapter in which the verse is found as well as trying to ascertain what the original author may have meant to say to the original audience.

 

Of course, this is a lot of work but it is beneficial work. If one does not understand what the author meant when it was written and the audience could not have understood by what was written, then the words on the page can mean anything that a present reader may assign as a meaning, thus distorting what God was inspiring for the original writer to write to the original audience to hear.

A great and recent book by N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird entitled The New Testament in Its World would be a wonderful addition to your reading helps.

 

Happy Reading!

Jesus Followers

 

There are many synonyms to use for the word believer, which is the most common word for a person who has "converted" to follow Jesus. I have chosen "Jesus follower(s) or follower(s) of Jesus instead of the word believer in these presentations to allow the reader an opportunity to move away from the idea of believer which conjures up the possible thought of "ascent" to a set of doctrines that have been assembled by different groups over the centuries and show up in this day and age as a set of statements posted on web sites and other written material. These sets of beliefs are suggested by many as the ones that one should ascent to so that upon death the one who assents can go to heaven, i.e., just believe and you are good to go. Jesus followers/followers of Jesus suggest an action that one should take. Remember, Jesus told his disciples to follow him. Yes, belief is important, but one must move beyond belief to action.

 

(See "Discipleship" Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels. 182-188.)