ALL THINGS will ULTIMATELY work ‘TOGETHER’ for our GOOD!
March 19 Bible
Reading: Ruth Chapters 1-4
ALL THINGS will ULTIMATELY work ‘TOGETHER’ for our GOOD!
So
Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; and when he went in to her, the Lord
gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi,
"Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a close
relative; and may his name be famous in Israel! And may he be to you a restorer
of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves
you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him." (Ruth
4:13-15)
In the midst
of the dark ages of the period of Judges, “where
everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25), we are drawn
to the story of one family living in
Bethlehem who also followed the norm and did what was right in their own eyes.
In fact, their decision to leave Bethlehem (“house of bread”) of Judah (“praise”)
and relocate to the foreign Moabite country and live among heathen people had
the worst repercussions possible. The father died, the two sons married Moabite
women, and then the sons also died soon after. The family was now left with
three widows, and what we can see are the unpleasant circumstances and
misfortunes that have befallen in that disjointed family through famine, death and despair (Ruth
1:3-5).
The story
changes track when the older widow (Naomi) decides to return back to Bethlehem "for she had heard in the country of
Moab that the Lord had visited His people by giving them bread" (Ruth
1:6). Naomi (pleasant) returned back
empty as Mara (bitter) for she had
concluded that God had dealt bitterly with her, and His Hand had afflicted (vv.
20-21) and gone out against her (v. 13b). However, we see that God’s Hand was
actually working on her favor with her second daughter-in-law (Ruth) sticking
to her (like glue) and showing extraordinary
kindness to her (1:16-17; 2:11-12).
In the
setbacks of her life, God was actually working behind the scenes to connect all
the dots and the blips in order to weave out a beautiful story with a happy
ending. Soon, the rich landlord (Boaz) showed extraordinary kindness to Ruth by accepting her as his wife (even
though she was a foreign widow, see
2:13-14). Boaz may have recalled that he himself was the son of a heathen
prostitute (Rahab, see Joshua 2:1; Matt. 1:5), and his father had set an
example for him in this process. God had worked in Ruth’s life in a miraculous
way (2:20) giving her a second married
life that she did not normally
deserve. We now see that the Moabitess widow (Ruth) had a prominent place in
the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ, and became the great grandmother of the famous King David of Israel!
When we
examine our own lives, it is possible that when we slice out some phases of our
lives so far, we will find bitter experiences and disappointments that will
make us wonder what is happening and where we are going. However, we should
always remember that God is working behind the scenes to weave everything
together in such a manner that they will have a good result and a happy ending.
God’s daily provisions in our lives should teach us to trust Him even when we
do not know what His ultimate purposes are for our lives. In this context, the
only two things for us to remember are that we
are called according to His purpose and we
love God sincerely by obeying all His
commandments!
