I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
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.