One In Jesus

He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul.

Sheep are afraid of running streams. After all, sheep can’t swim. When their coats are soaked with water, they are far too heavy.

And in Judea, the problem is even worse. Much of the water is found at the bottom of a wadi — in the American west they’re called arroyos — dried river beds. When the snow melts in the mountains or rains come, the ground is too hard and dry to absorb the water, and so floods come rushing down the wadi.

Often the rain is too far away to see or hear, and so there is usually no warning of the flood until it’s too late to climb out of the wadi. Continue reading →

This week, we consider David, king of Israel.

Famously, the Bible refers to David as a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam 13:14). But David was guilty of some of the blackest sins in all of scripture. How do we reconcile his failures with having the heart of God?

This question is deeper than a mere turn of phrase. The scriptures paint David as the prototype of Jesus, the Messiah. It’s clear that Jesus was called to reign on David’s throne. The prophets even refer to the Messiah as “David ” (Eze 34:23-24, etc.).

How can a man who committed adultery with Bathsheba and who murdered her husband to cover it up be thought of this way? What was so special about David? Continue reading →

1 Samuel

In 1 Samuel chapters 1 and 2, Hannah, a barren woman, is finally given a child by God — Samuel. In gratitude, she dedicates Samuel to the priesthood, with a prayer. She says,

(1Sa 2:10b ESV)  “The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.”

Hannah is inspired to prophesy that Samuel will bring a king to the people, who will be exalted by God. It’s a true prophecy. Indeed, it’s the theme of the book.

Samuel became judge of Israel following Eli. Eli and Samuel were both prophets and judges, as well as priests. But the people were terrified that their children might serve as judges after them, and their children were corrupt. Continue reading →

We need to start by reviewing a little Hebrew history.

Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the desert. He wasn’t a king. His sons did not assume his position on his death. But he acted as a judge — deciding disputes — and he was famously a great lawgiver, even though the laws he made came from the mouth of God. He was the only government Israel had — speaking in human terms.

Joshua succeeded Moses and led the Israelites in a series of military campaigns to occupy a portion of Canaan.

After Joshua, Israel divided the land among the tribes and allocated plots of farmland to each household. Israel settled into an agrarian lifestyle. They farmed or raised sheep. But they were surrounded by unfriendly nations, had no national government, and so had no national military.

The borders were far from secure and there were large portions of the land that had not yet been conquered — especially the fertile coastal plain, where the Philistines lived. Continue reading →

Is Jesus a kinsman-redeemer?

Countless commentaries and Internet articles see the ultimate significance of Ruth in the comparison of Boaz, as kinsman-redeemer, to Jesus, as our redeemer.

For example,

As we examine the role of Boaz as the goel, or kinsman-redeemer, we can easily see how he, in some ways, pre-figures our own kinsman-redeemer, Jesus Christ. Through his act of redemption, Boaz returns Naomi (Israel) to her land, and also takes Ruth (a Gentile) as his bride. This suggests a parallel with the Church as the Gentile bride of Christ.

I don’t buy the argument that Boaz and Ruth are prototypes of Jesus and the church as groom and bride. That’s not the point of the text, except in the sense that every marriage helps to demonstrate the meaning of Jesus’ marriage to the church. Continue reading →

The house of Perez

(Rut 4:11-12 ESV) Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem,  ¹² and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the LORD will give you by this young woman.”

What’s the significance of Perez to Ruth and Boaz?

Judah was seduced  into having twin sons by Tamar, his daughter-in-law, after her husband died and his brother refused his duties as Levirate husband. Continue reading →

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 is the turning point of the story —

Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? ² Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. ³ Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴ But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do.” ⁵ And she replied, “All that you say I will do.”

This is surely a strange custom! The goal was not to seduce Boaz but to encourage him to become her redeemer and marry her.  This appears to be a Bronze Age marriage proposal.

I mean, why would Naomi insist that Ruth to wash and anoint herself (kind of the ancient equivalent of a bath plus perfume) except to appear as attractive as possible? Continue reading →