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Aug 7, 2008
God's Faithfulness, Our Obedience, and His Redemption
Read Psalm 103 and skim over Ruth 1-4 again
I said on the first day of this study that the golden thread that runs through the book of Ruth is God's faithfulness and our obedience to him. God was faithful to Naomi even though she was in Moab, a widow bereft on both husband and sons. She ends the book with a grandchild on her lap that would be grandfather to King David and be in the line of Christ. Ruth goes from widowhood to motherhood as well as being grafted into the family of God. She was obedient to what she knew about the God of Israel and the God of Israel was faithful to her. Both Naomi and Ruth went from famine to fullness.
Redemption means a rescue or ransom. It has come to mean salvation. The word redemption or some variation of it is used 120 times in Scripture. First-born sons in Israel were redeemed (Exodus 13:13-15); donkeys and tithes could be redeemed (Leviticus 27:30-33); property and slaves could be redeemed (Leviticus 25:14-17, 47-53). Of course, the greatest redemption comes when Jesus Christ redeems us from the curse of the law so that by faith we might receive the Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:13-14). He has redeemed us from the dominion of darkness and has forgiven our sins through his death (Colossians 1:13-14).
My favorite psalm is Psalm 103, which promises that God will redeem us from the pit and crown us with love and compassion. I wonder when David wrote this psalm if he was thinking of his grandmother and great-grandmother who each experienced that redemption in their lives. God's faithfulness is manifested in his redemption of his children. The faithful are those that know the commands of God and obey them (John 14:20-21, Daniel 9:4). I don't mean to imply any kind of "good works" mentality. We don't earn our redemption through obedience. We obey in gratitude for our redemption.
Obedience, commands, and law all have connotations that feel confining, but that should not be the case. The commands are given to the redeemed so that we will not only know God's will for us, but also that we enjoy the freedom that we have within the safe boundaries God has given us. There was a study of children playing in both a fenced and an unfenced playground. With the fence, the children played all the way to the fence (even on the fence) even when the best equipment was in the center. When the fence was removed, the children huddled together near the center even when the best equipment was toward the edges. The fence greatly improved the children's freedom of play. God's law greatly improves our freedom to live as we are meant to live as his redeemed children.
Ruth is all about redemption, with Boaz being the Christ-like figure in the story. You can tell the Gospel story using the book of Ruth. As you skim back over the book, see God's redemption plan play out. He is faithful. Naomi, Ruth and Boaz are all both faithful and obedient and finally Ruth is redeemed by her kinsman-redeemer. I love happy endings.
I want to thank all of the people who contributed to the study of Ruth over the last five weeks including all of the writers: Doris Cheshire, Bill Driscoll, Mary Reilly, Laurie McAfee, Marcia Lebhar, Sarah Hall, Oren Reedy, Roy Batterman, Neil Lebhar, Cheryl Gonzales and Sam Pascoe. I especially want to thank Doris Cheshire and Laurie McAfee for their editing assistance. If you missed any of the study, it is all available on Redeemer's website (www.redeemerlives.net). Isn't it so cool that we are the Church of THE Redeemer?
Jeanne Higgins
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