The Unseen Work of God

Ruth     Proverbs 22     Matthew 12

As I read through the book of Ruth this morning, I am reminded how times change and along with them what is appropriate, the law, and how God works in ways we will never see while in the midst of the experience.

God has allowed judges to rule over Israel for years and some have been righteous, seeking to live life the way God calls us to, but most have chosen to live as they see fit. As we have seen the result is that Israel often finds itself controlled by others and other events that drive them from that promised land. This story happens during one of those times when there is a great famine in the land of promise and the people scatter to find food. Elimelech and Naomi travel with their two sons to the foreign land of Moab where there is food to keep them alive. First Elimelech dies and that means that his sons will become responsible for their mother’s wellbeing. The two sons marry women from the land they have settled in expecting to raise families and to survive until they can return to the land they own in Israel. We have to remember as we read this that there were no social programs and families were responsible for their family well-being. That is why the office of widow and orphan are so important in the Bible. They were titles for those that had no other way of surviving. This was the position Naomi find herself in when both of her sons die. There is no one to care for her so she tells her sons wives to return to their mother’s home where their father or brothers will be responsible for them. Note that she is also sending them back to their gods. One returns and the other refuses.

Ruth tells Naomi that going with her will mean that Naomi’s people will be her people and Naomi’s God her God. As I read those words this morning, they struck me that even though Naomi felt abandoned by God to the point of bitterness the life of faith that she led to that point and the integrity that she showed inspired Ruth to want to be a part of her family and worship her God. That is a witness worth considering.

The rest of the story is one of faith, responsibility and integrity. It is also a story of love for people as God commanded the people of Israel to love. Boaz is a man of integrity. First, he notices a beautiful woman among those gleaning, gathering food from the leftover of the field. When he inquires about who she is the manager of the servants describes Ruth as someone that comes from a foreign land, with a member of the household of Israel, one that works long days, and keeps her place in the community.

Boas has heard of this young woman that has returned to his land from her homeland with no hope of having someone to care for her, because she is an alien. He has heard of her love for Naomi and her willingness to do whatever she could to care for her. He instructs her to work each day in his fields and tells the manager to make sure there is food for her to gather.

The interactions between Naomi, Ruth and Boaz today seem so out of line with our modern thought we can easily lose the importance of the story that God used what would have been a situation with so much rejection to build a foundation for the future king of Israel and therefore Jesus and the Kingdom of God. Boaz and Ruth would become the grandparents of David, the future king of Israel. I often wonder how much work God is doing in our midst with people we have rejected as unworthy.

Turning to Proverbs this morning I always find these nuggets of wisdom from Solomon inspiring. This one starts reminding us that the rich and poor have one thing in common, they are both made by God. Those that care about the future, theirs and the community, see evil and hide from it while those that ignore what is going on around them will be punished for it.

We all know the line from this proverb that we are to train up a child in the way he should go and even when they are old, they will not depart from it. I would point out that unless we are training the ways of the Lord, we are training a disobedient generation that can take years to recover from.

This whole proverb is about our relationships with others and if we treat them with the integrity of the Lord or the deception of evil. When we deceive others, we act on behalf of the great deceiver. We should expect our children to act in foolish ways, without the wisdom of experience. As we grow older, we must take responsibility to for our actions.

There is also great wisdom in the teaching us about dealing with those poorer and weaker than us. God expects us to act with justice and mercy and we will be treated as we treat others.

Matthew continues to show the struggle between Jesus and the religious leaders of his community. While he teaches the ways of God, they find themselves in conflict with is teaching. That challenges their power and leads people away from them. They claim what he is teaching is from the devil because it conflicts with what they have been teaching. Jesus tells them that any territory that allows itself to be divided cannot stand. Jesus makes clear that his Kingdom will divide and that will be a spiritual battle for the souls of the people.

We will be known for what we value, what our treasure is, and the day will come when there will be an accounting for our choices between good and evil. We are to be careful with every word we speak and be sure they reflect Jesus to the world. We need to be careful because when we reject evil and then allow it back into our lives it comes back with a strength far greater than before. It will be that much harder to overcome the evil. Before we judge another, we should make sure we want to be judged by the same standards we are ready to judge others.

As I read this morning, I am reminded that God is always at work around me and even when I don’t understand why what looks so evil to be is allowed to happen God is working for the good of those that love him and do what he commands of us. Unless we see a reflection of Jesus in the mirror, we still have work to do on our own lives before we worry about judging the lives of others.