05/06/2019 DAB Transcript

Ruth 2:1-4:22, John 4:43-54, Psalms 105:16-36, Proverbs 14:26-27

Today is the 6th day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. Sorry I sounded so surprised that it was the month of May. I didn’t mean to. It’s just that these are my first words of the day and I don’t have all my inflections, you know, I’m not all woke up yet. Probably cause I haven’t had a sip of my Wind Farm coffee. Hold on. There. Now. Now we’re in good shape to take the next step forward in our adventure through the Scriptures this year. And yesterday we began the book of Ruth. And, so, we finished the book of Judges and entered the book of Ruth. Today we will conclude the book of Ruth before continuing forward in the Gospel of John in the New Testament. So, we’re reading from the New English Translation this week. Ruth chapter 2 through chapter 4.

Commentary:

Okay. So, Ruth was a Moabite woman, which would put her in modern day Jordan, across the Jordan River, and her mother-in-law, Naomi, was a Hebrew and their fates brought them together because of loss. Naomi’s husband and two sons died in the land of Moab where they had gone because of famine, which left Naomi a widow in a foreign land, a bitter pill to swallow for sure. And one of the sons happen to be the husband of Ruth. And, so, when Naomi decided to take her bitterness and return to her homeland Ruth wouldn’t leave. And this allegiance was remarkable because Ruth was leaving everything behind that would give her any hope for a future or any kind of identity and devoting her life to Naomi. And, so, when they arrived back in Israel Ruth’s story of devotion had significant weight among the Hebrew people because it’s such an honorable thing, but…so a good reputation doesn’t always put food on the table. And as we read, Ruth began to work in the fields gathering what was left over or dropped by the harvesters and we saw this provision made in the Mosaic law when we were moving through that territory. So, now we are actually seeing is scenario where this is helpful. So, Naomi realized pretty quickly that Ruth was working in the fields belonging to one of the close relatives named Boaz, a close relative of her deceased husband. And ironically the traditional site of these fields for gleaning, they still exist near Bethlehem today and they’re synonymous with the shepherd’s fields where shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks by night and the angels appeared to them when Jesus was born. And shepherds are still using these fields today even though they’re kinda surrounded by urban sprawl. So, as the story goes, Boaz was very kind to Ruth as she gleaned the leftovers from his field and he began to kinda provide for her. And it didn’t take too long before Naomi kinda of saw maybe what could happen here. And, so, she then guided Ruth through the process of showing that she was available to Boaz while keeping her dignity and it worked. Boaz and Ruth were married as we read today and then when Ruth conceived and gave birth to a son named Obed, Naomi’s grief, the bitterness, the marrah of her life was replaced with joy. And then Obed would grow up and become a father himself and his son would be named Jesse and then Jesse would grow up and become a father himself of several sons, one of which became King David. It’s a beautiful story, how God arranged the lives of Ruth and Boaz, and Naomi and how He turned famine and death and loss into abundance and joy and redemption. So, we can sure find heartbreak and bitterness in this story, but we can also see how character and dignity and loyalty and trust in God lead toward a new life, rather than deeper into the bitterness, deeper into the darkness. So, no matter how bitter things might be right now, no matter what it is we’re facing that is bringing bitterness into our lives, this story isn’t over. And if we’ll take what we’re learning here from Ruth, if w’’ll be people of character in spite of it, and faith in spite of it, then we’ll be following this path and remarkable good can come out of tremendous hardship. King David came from this tremendous hardship and, as we mentioned yesterday, through King David came Jesus.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for this story and this reminder to persevere and to persevere without complaining, like to persevere as if the story isn’t over and we’re simply waiting for the page to turn. Often our bitterness will keep us stuck on the same page reading the same lines over and over and repeating the same progression when actually our loyalty and our character and our faith in You will allow the page to turn. So, come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

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And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.