Readings for today: Ruth 1-4
God is always at work. Even when we cannot see Him. Even when we cannot hear Him. Even when we cannot feel Him. He is working behind the scenes. He is working in the forgotten corners of our lives. The hidden places where we don’t often look. As we have seen this week, the time of the judges in Israel was a time of incredible brutality, hardship, suffering, and pain. The people of God slowly abandoned their faith with each passing generation. They traded in true worship for idolatry. They traded unity for division. They traded justice and righteousness for oppression and evil. It’s hard to see how any good can come out of it. But then we read the opening words to the Book of Ruth. “During the time of the judges…” All that will follow in this book is a reminder that God is at work even in the darkest of times.
Of course, God’s work often comes out of left field. In ways we don’t expect. A famine drives a family out of the Promised Land to Moab. They intermarry with the people there. The men of the family die, leaving the women destitute. Naomi heads back to home and Ruth, her Moabite daughter-in-law, refuses to leave her side. They arrive in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. They do what the desperately poor in Israel do to feed themselves. They go to the fields and collect the leftovers from the harvesters. Of all the fields Ruth could have chosen, she found herself in the fields of Boaz, a relative of Naomi’s and a potential kinsman-redeemer. Of all the women who were gleaning that day, Boaz sets his eyes on Ruth. He protects her and guides her and provides for her so she and Naomi won’t go hungry. He then takes the additional step to “redeem” Naomi and Ruth and the property of their family. Finally, he goes even further. He marries Ruth and they have a child named Obed, the grandfather of King David.
It’s the most unlikely of stories and yet it makes perfect sense when one considers the salvation plan of God. God’s plan to save humanity always involves the family. Beginning with Adam and Eve in the Garden, Noah and his family after the flood, Abraham and his family in the Promised Land, Moses and his brother Aaron and sister Miriam, the different families judged Israel faithfully, and now Boaz and Ruth. Yes, there all kinds of geopolitical forces moving in the world. Yes, armies march and wars are fought and people suffer and great evil often runs rampant. But in the midst of it all, God is at work. He is at work in me. He is at work in you. He is bringing about His will through His family, the church.
Readings for tomorrow: No devotionals on Sundays