November 25, 2008

• Thanksgiving/Christmas: Thoughts on Bible Reading/Ruth 2: Thanking the Lord with Naomi

  Warning: This is a bit of a meandering post...

  A couple notes to those of you who are relatively new to my blog...

  First thank you so much for stopping by and reading! (Also, thank you to all who've been reading for some time now.)

  Second, I'd like to bring you up to speed. In case you hadn't noticed, on my home page you'll find a Bible reading schedule. Just over two years ago, I decided I wanted to read through the Bible systematically. I had read all the Bible before that time but it had been quite a while since I'd done so in a systematic way to be sure I was hitting the entire Bible. In September 2006 I began part way through this Bible reading schedule, which takes you through the entire Bible in three years. You can find other schedules that have you reading the entire Bible in a whole year (about three chapters/day), and for a lot of people that works really well. But I find that the way I read and approach Scripture (I like to chew and digest on small pieces at a time), a chapter a day works well for me since I'm in a couple other Bible studies as well. Anyhow when I end up blogging on a passage that goes along with the current Bible reading schedule (or close to it), I'll usually title and tag it "Bible reading."

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  I pray that all of you remain in the Word of God regularly because as you do so, you will come to know God better. The people of God need to be the people of the Book, of one Book, John Wesley said. One of my prayers for those of you who read my blog is that you would become so immersed in the Word of God so your blood would bleed Bibline (a phrase from Spurgeon). May God continue to give all of us an ever-increasing hunger and thirst for Him and His Word.

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  Now, about the book of Ruth (which was just up on the aforementioned Bible reading schedule)...

  There is so much good stuff for us in this book. We see God intervening to continue the line of Judah, the line of Messiah (Genesis 49:10), through Ruth and Boaz. We see the sovereign God once again at work in a very miraculous and unusual way in the lives of Ruth, a gentile woman, and Boaz, her kinsman redeemer who is a wonderful picture of Christ. I find this all so very wonderful and timely with Advent just around the corner. Remember: No Ruth, no Jesus. No Boaz, no Jesus. What a wonderful reminder for us to reading the entire Word of God (not just the New Testament) so we might trace God's mighty hand working to accomplish His purposes: to bring a Savior to the world in the fullness of time.

  But some of you may say, "But it's Christmas season after all. God became incarnate, Immanuel, God with us, that's in the New Testament. Shouldn't we be reading the Gospel accounts of Christ's birth?"

  Oh, yes indeed, we should be looking into the Gospels and rehearsing that wondrous and awesome time when the sinless God took on the form of human flesh so He might make propitiation for our sins (Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 2:17). My concern is that when Christmas rolls around, as we hear and sing Christmas carols, get out decorations and put up lights, bake and eat our favorite cookies, we are tempted to become sentimental. We want to run and read the Christmas story in Luke (which well we should do), but as we do so we can overlook and miss the story behind the story. The story which God has been writing for generations (indeed since before the foundation of the world) which led to that great day when the Son of God was wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger, the day when the angels sang to the shepherds the good news of great joy, that there was born that day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And today God continues to write and unfold His story in hearts and minds, all so He might display His glory and tell His story of redemption through the lives of men and women and boys and girls, people like you and me. We must look back and see that throughout all of history God has been working to fulfill His promise to send a Redeemer to save us from our sins, the Seed who would crush Satan once and for all (Genesis 3:15), to the day when He will make all things new, when the Church will be presented as a Bride to the Lamb and the King will reign and deliver the Kingdom to His Father and we will live and reign with Him forever and ever and ever!

  About those Gospel accounts: if you check out the genealogies of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in Matthew 1 and Luke 3, you'll find Boaz and Ruth there, and lots of other names. Where'd they all come from? What's the story behind all that? Brothers and sisters, the Old Testament was all leading to the New, to that time when the fullness of time had come, the time that God would send His Son to redeem us, to save us from our sins (Galatians 4:4-7). But how can we really expect to understand God's great and glorious plan of salvation if we aren't reading the Old Testament along with the New?

  Please don't forget that Christianity, that Christmas, didn't begin in the New Testament.  For those of you who haven't read in the Old Testament for sometime (or never have), please open it up. I think it will be one of the best gifts you can give yourself this Christmas season.

  The Old Testament is latent in the New Testament;
  and the Old Testament is patent in the New Testament.
  St. Augustine

  All right, off the soapbox...and on to the book of Ruth...

  As I said, there is so much good stuff in Ruth.[1]

  But specifically about Thanksgiving and the book of Ruth...

  In Ruth 2, Ruth asks and Naomi gives Ruth permission to go out and glean in the fields (see Leviticus 19:10 re: gleaning). Gleaning meant that Naomi and Ruth were poor. After all, their husbands had both died (see Ruth 1). They were hungry. They needed to eat. They needed food.

  As Ruth went out and gleaned, she "happened to come" to the field of Boaz. (I have a couple friends who say there are no coincidences in life, only God-incidences! And indeed this is one of those God-incidences.)

  

  Summer (Boaz and Ruth) by Nicolas Poussin

  As Boaz comes to greet the gleaners, he takes special notice of Ruth. Boaz specifically asks Ruth not to go to another field, and reassures her his men will not bother her. At mealtime, Boaz even invites Ruth to eat with him and the reapers. Ruth ate until she was satisfied and even had some left over. Boaz then told his men not to reproach her and to purposely provide extra grain for Ruth to glean. When Ruth returned home to Naomi at the end of the day, she took all she'd gleaned plus the extra food she had left over from the meal.

  As you read the entire book of Ruth, you can see many parallels between Boaz and Christ...and those are so wonderful.

  But for now, what I want to look at here is Naomi's response to Boaz's kindness to Ruth in Ruth 2.

  First, Naomi responded with thanksgiving for Boaz:

  Blessed be the man who took notice of you.

  Certainly we should be thankful for people who have shown kindness to us and we ought to express our thanks to those people.

  But notice Naomi's thanksgiving didn't stop with giving thanks for Boaz:

  May he [Boaz] be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!

  Naomi clearly understood that the food Boaz provided actually came from the Lord. She acknowledged the kindness behind Boaz's kindness was the kindness of our Lord, His chesed, or hesed, kindness.[2]

  This is the same kindness we find in Psalm 100, "A Psalm of Thanksgiving." This Psalm was one of our main readings during last Sunday's Thanksgiving celebration service. In Psalm 100:5 we read the Psalmist praising the LORD for His goodness:

  For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. (KJV)
  For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

  During this Thanksgiving season (and all the time), as we remember and reflect on all we have been given, it is certainly good and right to be thankful for others and to thank others, but let us not forget to bless the Lord and give thanks to Him from whom all good and perfect gifts come through His chesed lovingkindness to us.

  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1:17.

  Indeed it is right to give Him thanks and praise.

  May we guard against unthankful hearts:

  For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Romans 1:21.

  May we be a thankful people and never forget to
  
  

  Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! Psalm 100:4.

  The Doxology
  (Thomas Ken, 1674)

  Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
  Praise Him, all creatures here below;
  Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
  Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

  ---

  Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

  [1] I would strongly recommend your listening to John Piper's messages on Ruth given at the UCCF Forum September 2008.
  

  Ruth: Sweet and Bitter Providence
  Ruth: Strategic Righteousness
  Ruth: Under the Wings of God
  Ruth: May the Redeemer's Name Be Renowned
   

  [2] Nicolevw recently referenced chesed/hesed in her post Christ Our Substitute. I also wrote about hesed in Steadfastly Continuing in the Gospel.

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