{"id":17603,"date":"2015-09-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=2429"},"modified":"2015-09-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T00:00:00","slug":"clinging-to-emptiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/09\/clinging-to-emptiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Clinging to Emptiness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

Christians today often think that the church needs to be powerful and well-ordered to attract notice. This is nothing less than unbelief.<\/p>\n

Think of Ruth the Moabitess, who attaches herself to Naomi when Naomi has nothing (Ruth 1:15-18). Naomi went out of Israel full \u2014 with husband, two sons, everything she needed. While in Moab, she lost everything.<\/st1><\/st1><\/st1><\/st1><\/st1><\/p>\n

The Lord has made her life bitter. But precisely at that moment, when Naomi has nothing and can produce nothing, when she\u2019s reminding Ruth that she can\u2019t possibly produce another husband \u2014 just at that moment of utter emptiness Ruth commits herself to Naomi, and to Israel.<\/p>\n

Naomi says, God has dealt harshly with me. He\u2019s emptied me of everything. And Ruth says, I want your God to be my God. Somehow, mysteriously, uncannily, miraculously, Ruth finds something in a woman who has nothing. Somehow, she knows that the God of empty Naomi is a God of salvation.<\/p>\n

By attaching herself to the empty widow, Ruth finds a place in the family tree of David and of David\u2019s greater Son. Clinging to the widow with nothing, she becomes an agent for the restoration of everything. <\/p>\n

Paul was not thinking only of Jesus and the early church when he said, \u201cGod has chosen the weak things of this world to shame the things which are strong\u201d (1 Corinthians 1:26-31). That\u2019s the story of Israel, and the story of the church.<\/st1><\/st1><\/st1><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christians today often think that the church needs to be powerful and well-ordered to attract notice. This is nothing less than unbelief. Think of Ruth the Moabitess, who attaches herself to Naomi when Naomi has nothing (Ruth 1:15-18). Naomi went out of Israel full \u2014 with husband, two sons, everything she needed. While in Moab, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-ot-ruth"],"yoast_head":"\nClinging to Emptiness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Christians today often think that the church needs to be powerful and well-ordered to attract notice. This is nothing less than unbelief. 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