making much of Jesus

NOTE:  Stand in the Rain has come back 'round to its beginning.  We have finished our course with joy, as we pulled no punches, left no stone unturned, and tore every hair out of our heads in an attempt to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.  (Acts 20:24)

Though we will no longer publish these daily articles, the complete three-year course (along with three other extensive Bible courses and supplemental materials) can be accessed by clicking here.

So fare thee well, and until we meet again,

The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you;
The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 15

Stand in the Rain has come full circle. The journey we began on July 9. 2015 has reached its destination.

As you will read below, we have not settled on our next project, but a week of sittin’ on the dock of a bay with fishing pole in hand might bring a bit of clarity to mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We tried to tell you how wonderful He is.

And to some degree, we did. But to a greater degree, as all men do, we fell short of the glory of God.

We don’t know exactly what project we’re going to pursue next. But until such time as we make up our minds, this old house, neglected for a decade’s worth of scripture searching, needs a lot of fixin'; and our brains, which have been poppin’ like a popcorn popper at peak for the last 3 years, need a little rest.

Today, at this very moment, we are literally going fishing -- which we’ve figuratively been doing for the last 1096 days in a row.

Over the course of those days, Shelley and I watched our boys turn into men. I watched myself turn from a runner into the dreaded j-word, which I can’t bear to write. (It rhymes with logger. That’s all I’m sayin’.) Then, just weeks ago, we watched my mother die.

But through it all, we made much of Jesus.

I am glad to have finished this course, but I will miss the new discoveries and the friends we found and lost along the way.

So I’m glad and sad all at once, but I welcome these mixed emotions. They remind me of when I was a boy at summer camp, when – out of all the songs we sang – my favorite was called “Now the Day is Over.”

The problem with my favorite song was that I only heard it once per year—at the closing campfire, where it was the last song sung on the last day of our stay.

I loved that song like no other, but it meant that the summer was gone, somewhere behind us now. It was like reaching the last page of a story that has no equal – the very same thing that, after three years, we’ve just done…

Now the day is over,
Night is drawing nigh,
Shadows of the evening
Steal across the sky.

Jesus, give the weary
Calm and sweet repose;
With Thy tend’rest blessing
May mine eyelids close.

Grant to little children
Visions bright of Thee;
Guard the sailors tossing
On the deep, blue sea.

Comfort those who suffer,
Watching late in pain;
Those who plan some evil
From their sin restrain.

Through the long night watches
May Thine angels spread
Their white wings above me,
Watching round my bed.

When the morning wakens,
Then may I arise
Pure, and fresh, and sinless
In Thy holy eyes…

Go then, in the fervent power of His Spirit, in mad and desperate pursuit of His heart. Go in any direction that will take you, making much of Jesus along the way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

strike a match and start anew

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 14

The Bible opens with stark contrast, with darkness preceding the entrance of light.

In the book of 1 Samuel, that contrast is personified. We are first introduced to the dark heart of Saul. Then David, the man after God’s own heart, bursts upon the scene.

Yesterday, we peered into the heart of darkness. But things were about to change...

***

In all of Scripture, only King David is designated by God as "a man after My own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22).

Why David? Isn't he the one who had an affair with Bathsheba, then conspired to have her husband killed? Does God condone such things?

No, God does not condone any form or shape of sin whatsoever. After this episode, David's life was ceaselessly beset with the consequences of sin. Death, treason, incest, rape, and revenge visited his family--just as the prophet Nathan, who had exposed David's sin, had foretold:
Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight?
Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house (2 Sam. 12:9-10).

David's beloved infant son fell ill. Though he fasted and begged God for the life of the child, God said No. David had prayed facedown upon the earthen floor for seven days. When he found that the child had died,
he arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the LORD (2 Samuel 12:20).

It may have been there in the house of the LORD that David, broken in spirit, cried out,
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. (Psalm 51)

Later on, he fought a civil war against the forces led by his favorite son, Absalom, who was killed in the war's decisive battle. Soon thereafter, prematurely aged and enfeebled, he relinquished his crown just before his relatively early death.

The Bible records that God did forgive David's sin; he did not lose his salvation (see 2 Samuel 12:13). But the evidence seems clear that God did not restore the joy of His salvation. God chose to let sin's consequences play themselves out in David's life. If He must, God will tether a wayward child to His heart with sorrow -- if there is no other way to keep the child from wandering into further danger.

Given the evidence of his life, how can he be singled out as a man after God's own heart?
It seems that the answer lies in the meaning of the word 'after.' 'After' indicates direction, and not necessarily proximity. 'After' shows the direction of a heart, and not necessarily that heart's current proximity to God's standards.

The Bible's account of King David's life shows us how things might not be as they appear to our sight. When God had chosen young David to be king, the prophet Samuel mentioned that David's older brother looked the way we think a king should look. But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance, for the LORD sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." (1 Sam. 16:7)

In the Gospel of Luke, a young man took his inheritance to a far country and wasted it all on a reckless and sinful life. When he had sunk as low as a Jewish man could--feeding pigs as a hired hand--he got back up and sought after his father's forgiveness:
I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you.
And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. (15:18, 20)

The prodigal son was "yet at a distance," but the father saw the direction of his heart.

Jesus Christ left his Father's house and came to a 'far country,' where he emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7).

There he fell -- under the weight of a cross on his way to seek his Father's forgiveness for my sins, and for yours, for David's, and for the prodigal son's. To all who saw him, he appeared to be a broken, defeated man. He didn't look like a King. But the LORD sees not as man sees.

Then Jesus fell again.
And then He fell again. A man after God's own heart, carrying the sin and sorrows of the world, Jesus got back up.
Forsaken, dead, and buried, He arose and went to His Father's house.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the heart of darkness

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 13

The Bible opens with stark contrast, with darkness preceding the entrance of light.

In the book of 1 Samuel, that contrast is personified. We are first introduced to the dark heart of Saul. Then David, the man after God’s own heart, bursts upon the scene.

Saul is a complex figure for whom we develop a real sympathy. But make no mistake about it that Saul is Satan’s man.

The Bible student will also develop some sympathy for Judas Iscariot, who is an echo of Saul, who is an echo of Satan. This should not strike us as strange when we consider David’s continuing regard and respect for Saul (even as Saul psychically disintegrated and spiritually degenerated) and Jesus’ compassion towards Judas to the bitter end.

Just as the heart of God leans out to the lost, emotional “sympathy for the devil,” will be found in the hearts of God’s people -- who were, after all, once children of darkness themselves:

For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. (Ephesians 5:8)

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.  (Colossians 1:13)

But while emotional empathy springs from the heart of God, any spiritual compromise with the devil and his delegates lands the child of God in a gray irrelevance, a spiritual no man’s land from which the light of the world will neither extinguish nor shine.

According, then, to the biblical pattern -- and the evening and the morning were the first day (Genesis 1:5) – we are introduced to darkness before the light, Saul before David…

The unholy spirit.
To understand the Holy Spirit it is instructive to be able to recognize his opposite:

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. (Ephesians 2:1-2)

Saul, the temporary king, was Satan's man. He is a type (a prophetic picture) of Satan, who (at God's discretion) is the temporary prince of this present darkness (Ephesians 6:12/RSV). Satan could offer a crown to Jesus in the wilderness, because it was his to give. (Matthew 4:8-10)

Why does God utilize evil?
He has to. It seems that there is no other way. Evil was the only raw material left to him in re-creation. Evil is utilized at the cross for salvation; Jesus Christ became sin for us in order to defeat sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). This was predicted and amplified throughout scripture, from Genesis 50:20 to Romans 8:28.

Some cosmic justice that we are not entirely privy to (1) forced (2) God to utilize evil to effect his ends. Our sin so tied God’s hands (figuratively, and literally on the cross) that in order to defeat evil, God had to get Satan to swallow his own tail; evil defeated itself at the cross.

*** 

Enough of the darkness. Tomorrow, the man after God’s own heart will strike a match and start anew.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1)  see Job chapter 1
(2)  Forced is used here in the sense that God seems to have been constrained by his own sense of justice.  Because he could not wink at evil, our forgiveness had to be purchased by the blood of his only Son.

the government upon His shoulder -- part 3

Jonathan gives David his robe, armor, and weapons I Samuel 18:3-4

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 11-12

Yesterday we learned that Biblical government isn’t about the process, but about the Person. Thus, the only form of government which the Bible endorses is the government upon His shoulder:

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders. (Isaiah 9:6)

Furthermore, we learned that there will be no peace until the Prince of Peace returns to enforce the peace:

And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)

***

But what shall we do in the meantime, until the Prince of Peace returns to place the government upon his shoulders? The story of Jonathan (King Saul’s son and next-in-line to be king) and David answers that question…

1. Depose yourself. If you are the king of your domain, it is time to abdicate the throne.

I recommend a literal ceremony. Make a construction paper crown and pretend your chair is the throne. Now (quoting Samuel) depose yourself with these words:

"The LORD has torn the kingdom from you today and has given it to one better than you.” (1 Samuel 15:28)

2. Then, as Jonathan did for King David, step aside for the rightful King:
"You will be king, and I will be second to you." (I Sam. 23:17)

3. Relinquish dominion:

Jonathan stripped himself of the title and the accouterments and proclaimed David the rightful King to come:
Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armor, even to his sword and his bow and his belt. (1 Samuel 18:3-4)

***

Other than vote and hope, there is not much any one of us can do about “the government” at large. But we can hand our own little “crowns,” -- our own little domains, our own lives –over to the King.

There is no need to wait for Him to return. We can place the government of our hearts, hands, heads, and homes upon his shoulders right now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the government upon His shoulder -- part 2

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 9, 10

Yesterday, we read that Israel wanted a king:

So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have." (8:4-5)

But Israel’s real desire was less about having a king than it was about replacing God with a human ruler:

But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. (8:6-7)

We, today in the USA, don’t clamor for a king, but for a government that will return our country to the prosperity, peace, and prominence that we see slipping away.

Does the Bible have anything to say about government in general? About the United States in particular?

The answer to the second question should give us pause, because the United States is a non-entity in scripture. Suffice it to say that the vortex of history is Israel; and while many nations will have tangential eschatological (end times) roles, it is unclear whether the United States is among them.

***

About government in general, Scripture has much more to say. I know that parades and picnics and fireworks are calling you, so let’s cut to the chase:

1. The only form of government that the Bible endorses is the government upon His shoulder:

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder. (Isaiah 9:6)

What form that government will take is not spelled out—which is precisely the point! Whether a government takes form x, y, or z doesn’t matter. None of them will work when they are placed on the shoulders of men. But on his shoulder, any one of them could work splendidly. Biblical government isn’t about the process, but about the Person.

2. Whatever form that might take, it will be infinite and infinitely better and better!—

Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end. (Isaiah 9:7)

3. God favors none of the current governments/countries over any other. A very telling passage in this regard is found in the book of Joshua, when Joshua (representative of a governing man) encounters the preincarnate Christ. (We know it’s Him because only God accepts worship in scripture.)

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?"
"Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come."
Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?"
The commander of the LORD's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so. (Joshua 5:13-15)

“Neither,” he replied -- which means that there is no most-favored-nation status in God’s eyes. God is on His own side, because there will be no peace until the Prince of Peace –the commander of the LORD’s army—returns to enforce the peace:

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)

***

But what can we do in the meantime, until the Prince of Peace returns to place the government upon his shoulders? We’ll answer that question tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the government upon His shoulder -- part 1

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 7-8

Israel wanted a king.
So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have." (8:4-5)

But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king." (8:6-7)

They wanted a king because “Everybody else is doing it.”
1. They wanted to be like the other nations. 2. They wanted a national judge. 3. They wanted a leader in battle. (8:20)

But these desires contradicted God’s specific purposes:
1. Israel was to be a holy nation, not like any other. 2. God was their ultimate Judge. 3. God fought their battles for them.

Israel’s real desire was less about having a king than it was about replacing God with a human ruler. 1 Samuel 8:4-20 reveals that their motive actually involved a rejection of God. They exchanged an awesome and powerful ruler they could not see for one they could see—who was utterly capable of failure.

***

Today is the 3rd of July, the date on which the climactic battle of Gettysburg was fought. As we anticipate picnics and parades and fireworks, many of us contemplate the questions raised in the Gettysburg Address. We still wonder ”whether this nation, conceived in liberty, can long endure;” and whether “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Most of all we wonder whether our nation is, indeed, “a nation under God.”

Israel wanted a king. We don’t clamor for a king, but for a government that will return our country to the prosperity, peace, and prominence that we see slipping away.

Does the Bible have anything to say about government in general? About the United States in particular? We’ll delve into these questions tomorrow, on the 4th.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

tell it like it is

(Note:  This article was first published on this date six years ago.)

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 5-6

We think of prophets as persons who are visionary; they can see deep into the future and/or they can see right through the now.

But God does not have such a highfalutin or mystical view of his prophets. In God’s eyes, the essential qualification for a prophet is an ability to tell it exactly like it is.

We prize the ability to slickly manipulate words and their meanings. We were treated to a “Supreme” example of this ability just days ago, when the Chief Justice of the United States decreed that a certain statute is a tax except for when it isn’t a tax; and it isn’t a tax except for when it is!

Which drew this already-classic rebuke from his dissenting colleagues:

"That carries verbal wizardry too far, deep into the forbidden land of the sophists."

The prophet of God does not speak with such sophistry. Unlike one of our recent presidents -- who insisted that the correct interpretation of one of his statements depended upon the proper understanding of "what ‘is’ is" -- the prophet of God uses words to express the truth, not to evade it. The greatest of God’s prophets put it this way:

Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. (Matthew 5:37)

***

While still a boy, Samuel heard God speak:

And the LORD said to Samuel: "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family--from beginning to end. For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them. (1 Samuel 3:11-13)

Then, even though Samuel feared to do it, he delivered God’s rebuke to Eli, who had raised him from childhood:

He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, but Eli called him and said, "Samuel, my son."
Samuel answered, "Here I am."
"What was it he said to you?" Eli asked. "Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you."
So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. (1 Samuel 3:15-18)

This was one indication that Samuel was a genuine prophet, for false prophets usually delivered only good news.

So, Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be prophets. Train them instead to use words to mean whatever will advance their careers. Then they might grow up to be the next Bill Clinton!  But no one will ever confuse them for Samuel or Jesus. And no one will ever confuse you for Hannah or Mary.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Where have I heard that voice before?” – part 2

"Hannah Presenting Samuel to Eli"

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 3-4

Yesterday, we read Hannah’s Prayer from 1 Samuel 2. Then we read Mary’s Song from Luke 1.

If you read them slowly and carefully, the second reading will sound like an echo of the first! More importantly, and wondrously, you will wonder -- as you read both passages --“Where have I heard that voice before?”

***

Who taught the Word of God the Word of God? Read Mary’s brief moments in Scripture and you'll be able to discern not only who taught the Savior to walk and talk, but also who taught him to fear the Lord, and to trust in God's amazing, unfathomable, tenacious grace.

It is apparent from the song she composed that Mary memorized and skillfully weaved together many Old Testament phrases in her praises to God. Knowing Scripture by heart, leaving Bethlehem with her child in her arms as they escaped from Herod to Egypt, this new Mom was thinking of Hannah -- whose son Samuel, like Mary’s son Jesus, was wholly dedicated to God from the moment of his miraculous birth.

Their situations were alike, their songs were alike, and so were their sons:

And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with men. (1 Samuel 2:26)

And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (Luke 2:52)

***

After a long while of Bible reading, the characters take on distinctive voices. After listening for a long time, it is clear to my ear that the person whom Jesus “sounds” most like (not in tone or timbre but in attitude and essence) is Mary. And the person Mary “sounds” most like is Hannah.

Though I’m not at all sure how heaven works, I have no doubt that Hannah, by now, has been told by many that the Son of God sounds a lot like her!

But how was Hannah to know, way back when, that the Son of God would gather his voice, by and large, from three influencers:

1. His Father in heaven (who has no antecedent influence), and…
2. His Mom in Nazareth – who had inherited her voice from…
3. Hannah, whose situation was so similar to Mary’s situation that Mary must have read the opening chapters of 1 Samuel over and over and over again until the voice she heard there became a part of her own.

To some degree, it will prove to be the same for us. We will pass away, but the Word we speak will not (1). When we speak God's Word to our own generation, its influence just reverberates through time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1) see Mathew 24:35

Where have I heard that voice before? --part 1

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 2

Over the next couple days, I’m going to write about the concepts of voice and influence.

But first, in order to consider scriptural voices, I’m going to have to hush up and let you listen to them. Today, therefore, I'll quote two of the most remarkable passages in scripture, then steal silently away.

First you will be reading Hannah’s Prayer from 1 Samuel 2. Then you will be reading Mary’s Song from Luke 1. If you read them slowly and carefully, the second reading will sound like an echo of the first! More importantly, and wondrously, you will wonder --as you read both passages --“Where have I heard that voice before?”

Tomorrow, I’ll bring my voice back to chime in on that.

***

Hannah prayed and said:

“My heart rejoices in the LORD;
in the LORD my horn is lifted high.
My mouth boasts over my enemies,
for I delight in your deliverance.

There is no one holy like the LORD;
there is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.

Do not keep talking so proudly
or let your mouth speak such arrogance,
for the LORD is a God who knows,
and by him deeds are weighed.

The bows of the warriors are broken,
but those who stumbled are armed with strength.

Those who were full hire themselves out for food,
but those who were hungry hunger no more.
She who was barren has borne seven children,
but she who has had many sons pines away.

The LORD brings death and makes alive;
he brings down to the grave and raises up.
The LORD sends poverty and wealth;
he humbles and he exalts.

He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
he seats them with princes
and has them inherit a throne of honor.

For the foundations of the earth are the LORD's;
upon them he has set the world.
He will guard the feet of his saints,
but the wicked will be silenced in darkness.

It is not by strength that one prevails;
those who oppose the LORD will be shattered.
He will thunder against them from heaven;
the LORD will judge the ends of the earth.

He will give strength to his king
and exalt the horn of his anointed.” (1 Samuel 2:1-10)

***

And Mary said:

“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.

From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me-- holy is his name.

His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers." (Luke 1:46-55)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the hinges and the Door

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 1

Samuel.
The only person in the Old Testament who was at one and the same time a prophet (1 Samuel 3:20) a priest (1 Samuel 7:9) and a judge (1 Samuel 7:6, 15).

God revealed himself to Samuel by the Word of God. God is not revealing (adding to) but He is illuminating his Word today by his Spirit, that we might come to know him.
The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word. (3:21)

From the time he was a small child, Samuel was devoted to God's service, and later in life he became a great leader, moving his people from leadership by judges to rule by a king. He anointed both Saul and David as kings.

Like John the Baptist, Samuel was a great transitional figure, a hinge between two ages. Like John, he identified and proclaimed the man after God's own heart. (1 Sam. 13:14)

Hinges and the Door.

While Samuel and John the Baptist are hinges, connecting eras and dispensations and testaments, Jesus Christ is the ultimate transitional figure; the only mediator between God and men, life and death, heaven and hell, darkness and light, justice and mercy, truth and grace. The Door, he is the difference between what your life was and what it is. (1)

I went through the Door from hopelessness to hope, from pointlessness to purpose.

You went through the Door from ________________to __________________.

~~~~~~~~
(1) See John 10:9 and 1 Timothy 2:5.

don’t leave your best dress in the closet

The Word for today:
Ruth 4

Every now and then we come across a Bible verse that stands for something much larger than what it seems to be saying. One of those verses is Ruth 3:3:

Wash yourself therefore, and anoint yourself and put on your best clothes…

The verse can stand as the picture of every sinner who comes to Jesus:

1. Wash yourself.

First we are forgiven at the cross: The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). But the process of salvation has just begun…

2. Anoint yourself.

Then we are anointed by the Holy Spirit. Anointed is a biblical word which denotes the person and work of the Holy Spirit, who comes upon all believers to empower and teach them:

But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. (1 John 2:20/ESV)

Another version says it this way:

But you have had the Holy Spirit poured out on you by Christ, and so all of you know the truth. (1 John 2:20/GNT)

The reason you and I can understand the Bible is not because of our superior intellects. It is a direct result of the empowering Holy Spirit:

For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. (1Corinthians 2:10-16)

As the mind of Christ develops within us, the "outside" changes too. This is expressed in the third part of Ruth 3:3:

3. Put on your best clothes.

Galatians 3:27 tells us that we have put on Christ:

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

At the moment we were forgiven by the blood and empowered by the
Spirit, we also received the "robe" of Christ-righteousness:

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

***

Many believers stop at #1. They consider themselves "washed," but that's about it. So they live as if they were nothing more than forgiven criminals.

But God has changed us all the way from the inside out. He has empowered us with His Spirit and transformed us into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). So...

Wash yourself therefore, and anoint yourself and put on your best clothes.

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a preview of the Redeemer

The Word for today:
Ruth 3

Our reading schedule gave us only two days in the book of Ruth. But we could not begin to do justice to this great romance in such a short time. Therefore we borrowed some time from our next book (1 Samuel) and extended Ruth to four days.

And with so much truth and beauty to convey, we developed a study guide that covers more ground than our customary single-themed articles ever could.

Part 1 and part 2 are pre-requisite to today’s study.

***

Boaz is a prophetic picture of Jesus Christ as our Kinsman-Redeemer. The kinsman redeemer did not act—he did not have to act—by statute of the law. He was, you see, in love…

"The LORD bless him!" Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. "He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead." She added, "That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers." (Ruth 2:20; cf. Exodus 6:6; Isaiah 59:20; Rom 3:24; Eph 1:7)

If one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells some of his property, his nearest relative is to come and redeem what his countryman has sold. (Lev. 25:25)`

If an alien or a temporary resident among you becomes rich and one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells himself to the alien living among you or to a member of the alien's clan, he retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his relatives may redeem him: An uncle or a cousin or any blood relative in his clan may redeem him. (Lev. 25:47-49)

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Pet. 1:18-19)

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1:13-14)

***

Christ the Kinsman-Redeemer was willing and able to pay the price for our sin.

The redeemer must be a “near kinsman”…so Christ had to be “born of woman, born under the law” to redeem us.
But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (Gal. 4:4-5)

The redeemer must be “able to redeem”…he must be “good for” the price of payment:

Which of you convicts Me of sin? (John 8:46)

***

Ruth enters into a new life.
But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you." (Ruth 1:16-17)

It is our responsibility to claim the Kinsman-Redeemer, and His covering robe of righteousness.
Just as Ruth claims Boaz as her kinsman-redeemer, we must claim Christ. Christ can’t claim us—just as Boaz could not claim her. If you love Christ, tell him you do!

And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman. (3:9)

We can rest, for Christ will finish the work of redemption:

Then said she, Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall: for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day. (3:18; cf. John 19:30)

The kinsman who will not redeem represents the law, which cannot redeem us:

Then the next of kin said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.” (4:6)

***

The Redeemer takes a bride…
Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. Also Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife. (4:9-10)

Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. (Rev. 19:7; cf. Eph. 5:25)

The Redeemer takes a Gentile bride…
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Gal. 3:28-29; cf. Matthew 8:11; Eph. 2:11-18)

"I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen. 12:3)

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. (John 10:16)

(The sheepfold is the Jewish people. Here Jesus told the fold that He would bring in non-Jews as well to form a new all-encompassing family, the church.)

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