Monday - Ruth 2 - God is in Charge of Chance

As luck would have it, the Moabite widow named Ruth stumbled upon the very man who had an important legal responsibility toward her (Ruth 2:3). His name was Boaz. He was a wealthy Jewish farmer from Bethlehem of Judah. He was free to marry her. God knew it. Ruth did not. It was an accidental encounter as far as Ruth was concerned. But, it was providentially planned by the Almighty. With no perceivable leading from God, with no vision, with no dream, with no prophecy, with no command - Ruth ended up in exactly the right spot. Now, that doesn't mean that Ruth's faith did not play a part in this event. Her previous decision to follow Naomi from Moab to Israel was her part in the situation. But, God superintended and directed from behind the scenes to put this beautiful and romantic story into place.

In keeping with the principles of her new faith, Ruth went out as a very poor foreigner to collect leftover grain in the fields around her mother-in-law's hometown (Leviticus 19:9 & 23:22 and Deuteronomy 24:19). What she had in mind was the sustenance of her mother-in-law and herself. What God had in mind was much more glorious though. God intended to bring a very special blessing upon Ruth as a reward for her faith (compare Deuteronomy 23:3 with Matthew 1:1, 5 &16).  God orchestrated many things in getting Ruth into the Messianic bloodline. It was not coincidental (unless you are willing to admit that God is even in charge of coincidences).  But, space will not allow examination of every detail, but read Ruth carefully, looking for God’s interventions.

Saturday - Ruth 1 - The Platform upon which Greatness Stands

Dr. J. Vernon McGee once said, "On the black background of sin, God writes the bright story of salvation." This chapter commences the sad story of the demise of an Israelite family.  Yet, although there is indeed death and despair in this story, there is also a special injection of God's grace into the drama.  Watch for it!

Naomi is one of the 2 main characters in this story (well, 3 really - Boaz is even more important than Naomi and Ruth in the prophetic implication of the book). Anyway, Naomi and her family left Canaan during a time of famine, but she returned from Maob without her husband or her children. She did however return with a very special daughter-in-law: Ruth.

Less noble is Orpah and Naomi in this narrative.  Orpah (Naomi's other daughter-in-law) didn't have the same faith that Ruth had. When the offer to return to her people and to her gods was presented to her, she took it. Now, God's mercy toward Naomi was great... but did she fully appreciate it? Later she would indeed arrive at that higher plane of understanding and gratitude, but she wasn't there at this point in the narrative. Take notice of how she very nearly blamed God for her misery (Ruth 1:20-21)!

Friday - Judges 21 - By Hook or by Crook

Essentially the nation of Israel realized that they had almost completely wiped out an entire tribe. Not surprisingly, they regretted this and determined that by whatever means necessary they were going to make sure that they found a way to preserve the tribe of Benjamin. And truly, since there were only 600 surviving men of Benjamin, the matter was very important.

So, how was it to be done? Well, once again, take notice of the fact that Israel was in a time of political unrest and of spiritual meandering (Judges 21:25).  In other words, don't expect their response to be too awfully noble. Now, in their earlier zeal the 11 tribes had covenanted among themselves not to allow their daughters to marry the men of Benjamin.  Obviously, they felt like they had to live up to their vow, so... what could they do for the 600 bachelors (or widowers)?

Ironically the nation had made another vow in their early zeal against the tribe of Benjamin. They had declared that any group in Israel that did not contribute to the justice waged against Benjamin would pay for their negligence with their lives. So, when they discovered that there had been no representatives from Jabeshgilead, they killed those Jews and saved their virgin daughters alive. To be precise, they found 400 virgins from Jabishgilead to give to some of the surviving Benjaminites. The rest of men of Benjamin were told to kidnap wives for themselves during a feast dance in Shiloh. That was their solution. The tribe was "saved" from extinction through a quirky and unorthodox plan of murder and manipulation.

Thursday - Judges 20 - Israel's Second Civil War

The pieces of the body of the dead concubine (from chapter 19) had the desired effect. The nation of Israel gathered in mass to bring justice.  They essentially assembled to fight against Gibeah and ultimately against the whole tribe of Benjamin.  Although the people of Benjamin won the first 2 battles against Judah (the tribe of Israel which was selected to fight first), on the 3rd day they were deceived and soundly routed. Except for 600 men, the whole tribe of Benjamin was utterly wiped out. Justice had prevailed and the evil men of Gibeah were dead. Had the rest of the tribe delivered them up to be judged, they could have escaped with their lives, but because they were willing to harbor and defend unrepentant perverts, God destroyed them with the men of Gibeah.

The harsh reality of this passage is that sometimes the only option that remains in dealing with certain people is hard justice. Especially when it comes to dealing with groups of people, unfortunately there is always a Rubicon that can potentially condemn them (Ecclesiastes 8:11).  This is even seen in the patience of God against the whole of humanity. As time passes we aren't getting better and better... we are getting worse and worse. The day will come when the only remaining viable option will be an unleashing of the wrath of God against all wayward nations. Ultimately, only the annihilation of evil will suffice.  The same God who exhibits unending love also possess unwavering justice. Anyone who rejects His love will eventually find themselves tortured by His holy justice.

Tuesday - Judges 19 - Gruesome Realty

Some philosophers question whether evil even exists.  But, the existence of evil is not in question. It would be no more or less legitimate to examine whether trees exist. Evil is imminent. It is in our history, our neighborhoods, our bloodlines and our hearts. Sometimes in an affluent society some folks may occasionally wonder if we are all that bad. Humanism postulates that humanity is basically good and can be improved through education (among other things). But, chapters like this demonstrate for us perhaps a little TOO vividly that evil is both very real and incredibly and intensely dangerous.

Take note of a few of the sordid details of this story.  Notice that for the 3rd time in as many chapters, the author of Judges alludes to the fact that the nation had no leader during this time period. Clearly they needed one though.

Notice also the wayward ways of the nation and how their spiritual debauchery manifested itself everywhere. The Levite in question here had a concubine - that was sin. The concubine left her paramour to become a prostitute - more sin. The concubine's father was strangely happy to meet the jerk who had previously cheapened his daughter - not a wholesome or a righteous response at all. How about the 5 days that these 2 men spent eating, drinking and making merry. Such leisure might not always be wrong if it is spaced out appropriately, but if it comes to define a man's life as a habit, surely it must show that an individual (or a society) has gone astray (Ezekiel 16:49 & Luke 12:19-20).  These things are the tip of the proverbial ice burg.  Read the chapter itself for the worst of the sordid details of the rape, murder and dismemberment of the Levite’s concubine.

Monday - Judges 18 - No Deliverer; No Direction

The sad commentary on the condition of Israel continues to intensify. Dr. McGee aptly described the depravity of Israel as a time of "compromise, corruption and confusion." As we have already noticed in the previous chapter, they were leaderless. They were so far from God. They had gone astray and were declining, moving even further from Him.

Now, even though this incident appears to be small and obscure relative to the whole nation, it did affect a lot of people from several different tribes, and I think, more importantly, represents for us the kinds of things that were going on all over the land of Israel at that time. Notice the names of the tribes that were directly involved in this incident. Dan, Ephraim, Levi and Judah were all affected to some extent. Not only that, there are 2 references to the longevity of the effects of this incident (Judges 18:30-31).  The impact was a lasting one.  And, it all started with Micah's mom wanting an idol.

Finally, notice some of the contradictions of the Jews against themselves that are revealed to us perfectly in this text. Dan went to expand his territory but he took it from other tribes rather than from the Canaanites. The hireling preacher was willing to bless strangers in God's name even though he had no actual access to the God of heaven (Judges 18:6). He was a priest in an idolatrous man's house. The lifestyle of the people of Laish was a contradiction in and of itself: careless, quiet, secure, isolated, leaderless, "liberated" and none of those descriptions were meant to be complementary.

Saturday - Judges 17 - Supreme Confusion

This section of Judges seems to be primarily intended to show us how people's doctrines and practices can become very strange indeed when those people do not have a good strong leader showing them the right path. Truth is, if you end up confused and with more questions than answers while reading these passages, well, that is apparently the whole point. Israel sank into an amalgamation of deep sin and spiritual ignorance.  These chapters give a few illustrations of just how bad it got.

In this chapter a man named Micah took a large sum of money from his own mother, but when he admitted to her that he was the culprit, she blessed him in God's name and told him that she had dedicated it to God for the construction of an idol. What? That makes no sense at all. And, of course, it shouldn't! Micah was polytheistic and lost. He was ill informed and superstitious. He "made" one of his own sons a priest and then later hired a stray Levite as his priest. Is that the way priesthood works? Hardly! The culture was a strange mixture of truth and error, monotheism and polytheism, sin and religion, good and evil, kindness and cruelty.  Supreme confusion in Israel.  How sad.