This proverb reminds us that fear of the Lord leads us to act in ways which keep us safe. Those who fear the Lord avoid doing things which lead to death.
The psalmist points out that God’s plan does not always look glorious while it is unfolding. It certainly did not look glorious to Joseph when he was sold into slavery, nor later when he was thrown into prison for something he did not do. Nevertheless, God had a clear plan that worked out to Joseph’s benefit. It is worth thinking about how things might have turned out if Joseph had not remained faithful through the difficult times. I don’t know what would have happened, but I am convinced that God’s plan for the descendants of Israel still would have worked out. Joseph, however, would not have ended up in such an exalted position.
I cannot help but feel for the father in this story. His son was dying and there was nothing he could do, except ask Jesus for a miracle. I am not sure I can truly identify with how he felt, how completely powerless. It was his job to take care of and protect his child. He begged Jesus to come with him and heal his son. Jesus told him to go home, his son would live. The way Jesus said this was almost dismissive, almost, “Go away. Leave me alone.” Nevertheless, the father believed and returned home. The man had faith, and acted on that faith, even though Jesus did not give him any “warm, fuzzies”.
There is a lesson for us from the other side. Jesus was having a bad day. He was tired and frustrated. He was feeling put upon. Nevertheless, He recognized this father’s pain and gave him what he truly desired, even if He did not soothe his feelings in the process. Sometimes, it is enough to meet people’s needs, even if we are a little prickly while doing so.
This part of the Book of Ruth is a true love story. As a man it is quite clear to me that Boaz asked his foreman about Ruth because he thought she was attractive. Yet there are hints that he would have behaved similarly if he had not found her attractive, just with a less personal touch. On the other side, there are hints at the beginning of today’s passage that Naomi and Ruth could have continued to live on the assistance provided by Naomi’s friends and relatives. Yet Ruth was not willing to laze around and live on other people’s largess. She chose to work as, and where, she could.
As I said, this is a true love story. But it is not a story of starry-eyed lovers. Boaz took the time to establish that Ruth was more than just a pretty face. Ruth took the time to discover that Boaz was more than just a meal ticket. This is a love story we would do well to encourage young people to emulate.
I have been using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study for almost a year. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I started writing this blog because the only way I can get myself to read the Bible everyday is to pretend that I am teaching someone about what it says to me. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
After Naomi and Ruth arrived in Bethlehem, Ruth asked Naomi permission to gather grain behind the harvesters of anyone who would allow her to do so. Naomi granted her permission. By chance one day, Ruth was gathering behind Boaz’s harvesters. Boaz was a relative of Naomi’s dead husband. While she was there, Boaz came out to his field to monitor his harvesters. He asked his overseer who the young woman following his harvesters was. When he was told she was Ruth, Naomi’s daughter-in-law, he instructed his people to treat her with respect. He then approached Ruth and told her to stay with his workers and to feel free to drink from the water jars filled by his men for his workers. Ruth asked him why he was being so kind to her, to which Boaz replied that he had heard of all she had done for Naomi.
At mealtime during the harvest day, Boaz invited Ruth to eat with him (or possible just to share in the meal he provided to his harvesters). When she returned to gathering, Boaz instructed his men to allow her to gather among the sheaves and to intentionally leave some stalks behind for her. Ruth gleaned a rather large amount for someone collecting what the “official” harvesters missed. In addition to the grain she gathered, Ruth brought home to Naomi some of the food leftover from the meal Boaz had given her during the day. Naomi immediately wanted to know whose field she had worked that day. When Ruth told her that it was Boaz’s field, Naomi told her to continue in his fields because Boaz was one of those related to her dead husband with the responsibility to watch out for them (and the corresponding right to the ancestral fields which had passed to her husband). So Ruth stayed close to the women who worked the harvest for Boaz while living with Naomi.
When the harvest was finished, Naomi told Ruth to put on some perfume and her best outfit and go down to the threshing floor where Boaz would be threshing his grain. However, she should avoid letting him know she was there. At the end of the day when he had finished eating and drinking, Ruth was to not where he lay down. Once he fell asleep, Naomi told Ruth to uncover his feet and lay down. In the middle of the night, Boaz woke up and as startled to discover a woman lying at his feet. He immediately asked who she was. She told him who she was and asked that he take on the role of guardian-redeemer, offering herself to him. Boaz is flattered by her attention, but tells her that there is another more closely related to her father-in-law. Boaz tells her to stay the night and in the morning he will see if the other man wants to fulfill the role of guardian-redeemer. Boaz tells Ruth that if that other man does not wish to fulfill that role, than he, Boaz, will do so. In the morning Boaz had Ruth leave the threshing floor before anyone knew she was there and gave her a large amount of grain to take to Naomi.
When Ruth told Naomi the results of her night, Naomi assured Ruth that Boaz would resolve the issue before the end of the day. Boaz brought the city elders and the guardian-redeemer to the city gates. In front of the city elders, he told the guardian-redeemer that Naomi was going to sell fields which belonged to their relative, her dead husband, and suggested that the guardian-redeemer buy them. The guardian-redeemer said that he would until Boaz told him that in order to do so he would need to marry Ruth. The guardian-redeemer told Boaz that in that case, he could not do it and Boaz should do so. Boaz made sure that the city elders took notice that he had followed the correct forms. So Boaz took Ruth as his wife and after a short time she bore him a son named Obed.
After spending two days in the Samaritan town, Jesus continued to Galilee. As He traveled through Galilee, Jesus came to Cana. There a government official from Capernaum approached Him and requested that He come and heal his son, who was desperately ill. Jesus expressed what appears to be frustration at the constant requests for healing. The man responds to this apparent rebuke by begging Jesus to come before his child dies. Jesus told the man to go, his son would live.
The man took Jesus at His word and headed home. While he was still on the way, his servants came to him and told him that his son was better. The man asked them what time the recovery began. When they told him the time, he realized it was at exactly the time Jesus had told him his son would get better. As a result of this the man, and his entire household, believed in Jesus. Do we take God at His word and go? Or do we want Him to give us more substantial signs?
Today’s psalm recounts how God worked with the Israelite people to mold them into His people. Are we willing to allow God to mold us into His people? Even if it means going through the sorts of trials and tribulations that the Israelites did? The thought frightens me, but I am unwilling to accept the alternative.
How wonderful that these proverbs come up today while the revelation of something I’ve been working on is fresh in my mind. I have often said that we as Christians do not truly fear God enough. I have long felt that to be true, but there was always something missing in my explanation of what I was getting at, the idea was incomplete. Then this weekend we had the Light of Hope Ministries team lead a series of meetings at our congregation. At one point I brought up my thoughts about how we should have fear of God and in his response Steve Lapp mentioned fearing to disrespect the Lord. I am not sure to what degree what I heard was the thought he was expressing and to what degree it was God speaking solely to me and me hearing something beyond what Steve himself was saying. But what came to me was that when the Scripture talks about fearing the Lord, it is talking about being afraid to disrespect the Lord. We should be afraid, in a hide under the table kind of way, of doing anything that might be perceived as disrespectful by God.
Which brings us to today’s proverbs. The first tells us that those who fear the Lord will be secure. Those who are careful to honor the Lord in what they do, who are careful to never show disrespect to Him, will be secure in all of their ways. The second tells us that fear of being disrespectful towards God, leads us to behave in a manner that is like a fountain of life, both for ourselves and for others.
The story tells us that Ruth “found herself working in a field that belonged to Boaz.” This is how God often works in our lives. We find ourselves in a situation where, if we behave according to God’s laws, good things will happen to us. Ruth comes into this field and works hard gathering from the grain missed by the harvesters. Boaz takes note of her and offers her kindness over and above that required by law. When Ruth asks after the reason for his kindness, he tells her that he has heard how she has looked after her mother-in-law. This story works out because Ruth was faithful in the small things and worked hard at the things that came her way. Boaz, also, had good things happen for him because he was faithful in small things, being kind and generous, doing more than the letter of the law called for.
King David, and through him Jesus, is a descendant of this union. It is interesting to note that Boaz is a descendant of Rahab and going further back, Tamar. Rahab was a prostitute in Jericho who helped the Israelite spies escape that city before its conquest. Tamar was the daughter-in-law to Judah, who played the prostitute with Judah after her husband dies and Judah failed to marry another of his sons to her. The importance of these women in the narrative of God’s plan to bring the Messiah is indicative of how God works in ways other than what man would do. If humans were making up a mythology about the ancestry of King David (and through him of the Messiah), they might have included one of these women (Ruth being the most likely candidate), but not all three. A human made up story would have made these women more virtuous and more heroic.
Jesus returns to Galilee and is welcomed because many had seen what He did in Jerusalem. A government official comes to Jesus because his son was sick. Jesus expresses frustration with the people constantly seeking signs and wonders. The official responds with the plea of every parent, “Please don’t let my child die.” Jesus takes pity on him and sends him home telling him his son is healed. The man believes Jesus, but when he discovers that his son started showing signs immediately after Jesus said that he would live, he, and his entire household, believed in Jesus. It was one thing to believe Jesus when he said that the boy would live. It is yet another to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. Do we today as Americans believe in God’s miraculous power? Why do we not see more miracles? Certainly part of it is that our society does not believe in miracles, so there are very few non-believers who would come to believe because of miracles. But part of it is, also, that many of us as Christians do not really believe in miracles and we are afraid to ask for miracles from God because we are afraid that they won’t happen. I am as guilty of this as most. I pray that God will overcome my fear to ask for miracles.
This psalm tells of how God sent hardship on His people, yet made provision for them to weather the hardship. But it does more than merely tell of the hardship and God’s provision. It tells us that God used the hardship to guide and shape His people so that they would learn to be faithful and follow His commands. We must learn to recognize how God is guiding and shaping us through the hardships He sends our way.
When we have appropriate fear of God, nothing else can inspire fear. I don’t know if you have ever experienced it, but when you are afraid of a major threat, you will easily ignore lesser fears. If you think you are being chased by a bear, you are not going to go out of your way to avoid a stinging insect. The same thing applies here. If we truly understand God’s magnitude and thus have an appropriate fear of Him, nothing else can frighten us because we will perceive them as being a lesser threat than failing God. Beyond that if we have an appropriate fear of God, we will follow His commands, which will result in our being secure. By fearing the Lord and obeying His commands, we will avoid those actions which bring us harm.
