Then Naomi said, “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.” -Ruth 3:18 When Ruth showed up to Boaz at night, the story reaches an important tension point. How would he respond to an immigrant woman offering herself to him as a wife? He could have said no. He could also have bypassed the process and taken her as his wife at that moment. But he didn’t.... Read more
11 Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 12 May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” -Ruth 2:11-12 Boaz appears in the story of... Read more
16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” -Ruth 1:16-17 Naomi’s husband and two sons had died while they... Read more
“In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” -Judges 21:25 The book of Judges appropriately ends with the words, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” This phrase offers an important explanation for many of the brutal and sinful acts included in its pages. But these words also offer insight for today. When we do as we wish, or “live and let live” as is often quoted today, disaster... Read more
26 Then all the Israelites, the whole army, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the Lord. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord. 27 And the Israelites inquired of the Lord. (In those days the ark of the covenant of God was there, 28 with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministering before it.) They asked, “Shall we go up again to fight against the Benjamites, our fellow... Read more
“Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Just imagine! We must do something! So speak up!” -Judges 19:30 Judges 19 is so dark and sinister I can hardly write about it. Worse than the most graphic horror film, the chapter chronicles the unspeakable crimes that took place during the days of Israel’s judges. When I ask myself why this account is even in the Bible, a couple... Read more
“They continued to use the idol Micah had made, all the time the house of God was in Shiloh.” -Judges 18:31 Idols have reemerged as an American icon in recent years. From the idols used in “Survivor,” the highly-viewed “American Idol,” or even the infamous idol scene to open the first Indiana Jones film, such scenes have become commonplace in Western media. While we in the West often easily dismiss idols as nonsense, those in the time of the Judges... Read more
10 Then Micah said to him, “Live with me and be my father and priest, and I’ll give you ten shekels of silver a year, your clothes and your food.” 11 So the Levite agreed to live with him, and the young man became like one of his sons to him. -Judges 17:10-11 Forgetting God leads to replacing God. In Judges 17, Micah was so far removed from knowledge of the God of Israel that is made sense to him to ordain... Read more
“Then his brothers and his father’s whole family went down to get him. They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led Israel twenty years.” -Judges 16:31 Samson led the nation of Israel for twenty years. Despite his strength and leadership, he had his flaws as do all humans. His involved a relationship with a prostitute named Delilah and revealing his secret to his strength with her. When... Read more
18 Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord, “You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi. -Judges 15:18-19 Scripture often highlights the contrast between victory... Read more
Holy Writ
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