"Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps."
“And Boaz said to her [Ruth], I have been made fully aware of all you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and mother and the land of your birth and have come to a people unknown to you before. The Lord recompense you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under Whose wings you have come to take refuge!” (Ruth 2:12) Ruth was a Moabite woman who ended up in the lineage of Jesus.
Commentary notes, “Ruth is a prophecy, than which none could be more beautiful and engaging, of the entrance of the heathen world into the kingdom of God. She comes forth out of Moab, and idolatrous people full of wantonness and sin, and is herself so tender and pure. In a land where dissolute sensuality formed one of the elements of idol worship, a woman appears, as wife and daughter, chaste as the rose of spring and unsurpassed in these relations by any other [human] character in Holy Writ... Ruth's confession of God and His people originated in the home of her married life. It sprang from the love which she was permitted to embrace Israelites... The conduct of one Israelitish woman [Naomi] in a foreign land was able to call forth a love and confession of God like that of Ruth...” [1]
Ruth loved Naomi so much so that she left her country and all she knew to follow her back to Bethlehem. When Naomi told her two daughter-in-law's to turn back to their own land so that they could marry again, Orpah turned back and Ruth refused.
Ruth told Naomi, “Urge me not to leave you or to turn back 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. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you.”
“Your love oh Lord reaches to the heavens, Your Faithfulness stretches to the skies” sings
As Ruth followed in faith Naomi and her God, leaving her friends, family, and gods behind, she found herself in the midst of God's much bigger story. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “We are torn out of our own existence and set down in the midst of the holy history of God on earth. There God dealt with us, and there He still deals with us, our needs and our sins, in judgment and grace. It is not that God is the spectator and sharer of our present life, howsoever important that is; but rather that we are the reverent listeners and participants in God's action in the holy sacred story, the history of Christ on earth. And only in so far as we are there, is God with us today also.” [2]
Ruth went out gleaning in the field for grain in order for Naomi and her to have food, and 'just happened' to find herself gleaning in the field of Boaz. Boaz immediately noticed Ruth when she saw her gleaning in his field and asked about who she was. When he found out that she was the Moabitish girl who came back with Naomi, he asked her to glean only in his field and instructed his servants to watch out for her. (Ruth 2:3-9)
God had already went ahead of her and made a way for her. Ruth had tremendous favor with Boaz. She fell on her face and asked Boaz, “Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should notice me, when I am a foreigner?” (Ruth 2:10)
Boaz responded, “I have been made fully aware of all you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and mother and land of your birth and have come to a people unknown to you before.” (Ruth 2:11)
When Naomi returned to Bethlehem, she had lost sight of God's goodness to her. She told the town, “Call me not Naomi [pleasant]; call me Mara [bitter], for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, but the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?” (Ruth 1:20-21)
Yet, despite her struggle with bitterness, Naomi allowed God to use her powerfully in Ruth's life. Naomi spoke God's wisdom into Ruth's life.
“Don't you know I've always loved you, and I always will” sings in the background.
When Naomi heard of all that Boaz did for Ruth and saw what great favor she had, she realized it was the hand of the Lord behind it. She told Ruth, “Blessed be the of the Lord who has not ceased his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said to her, The man [Boaz] is a near relative of ours, one who has the right to redeem us.” (Ruth 2:20)
“I will find my strength in the shadow of Your wings” sings.
Naomi proceeded to instruct Ruth to lay at the feet of Boaz on the threshing floor when he winnowed his barely and told her exactly what to say and do. As commentary notes, this was a Jewish custom of the day for a woman who was seeking to come under the protection of a kinsmen redeemer.
Commentary notes, “The Law of Moses required that when a man died childless, a close relative should marry the widow (Deut. 25:5–10), thus perpetuating the family name and keeping the land in the family. It was especially important that when a man died without a son, someone should marry his widow so that a son would be born and the name carried on.” [3]
When Boaz awoke to find Ruth at his feet, she told him. “I am Ruth your maidservant. Spread your wing [of protection] over your maidservant, for you are a next of kin.” (Ruth 3:9)
Psalm 5:11-12 proclaims, “Let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you. For surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as a shield.”
Boaz answered her, “Blessed be you of the Lord, my daughter. For you have made this last loving-kindness greater than the former, for you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, fear not. I will do for you all you require, for all my people in the city know that you are a woman of strength (worth, bravery, capability).” (Ruth 3:10-11)
Boaz followed through by going through the proper Jewish customs and eventually purchasing all the Elimelech's and Chilion's and Mahlon's from the hand of Naomi. When he did, he also took Ruth to be his wife and restored the name of her deceased husband (Ruth 4:10). Ruth and Boaz conceived a son together by the hand of the Lord that was the ancestor of Jesus Christ (Ruth 4:17).
And Naomi was comforted in her grief. The women saw it was the hand and great care of God and said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, Who has not left you this day without a close kinsman, and may his name be famous in Israel. And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher and supporter in your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him.” (Ruth 4:14-15). Naomi then became the child's nurse (Ruth 4:16).
“My hope is in You, show me Your ways” sings.
As Boaz is a type and shadow of Jesus as our kinsman redeemer, Naomi is a type and shadow of the Holy Spirit as she kept pointing Ruth into the greater purposes of God for her life.
Naomi loved Ruth with a genuine godly love that was not seeking to draw Ruth to herself or suck the life out of the relationship by gaining approval and validation. When someone is trying to get their needs met out of human love, they manipulate situations and control to get what they desire.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer notes, “Human love is directed to the other person for his own sake, spiritual love loves him for Christ's sake. Therefore, human love seeks direct contact with the other person; it loves him not as a free person but as one whom it binds to itself. It wants to gain, to capture by every means; it uses force. It desires to be irresistible, to rule.” [4]
Bonhoeffer goes on to note that spiritual love can love ones enemy while human love cannot. The reason is that spiritual love does not 'desire' to obtain something but rather serves and gives. He writes, “Human love makes itself an end in itself... Spiritual love, however, comes from Jesus Christ, it serves him alone...” [5]
When we are trying to get something out of our relationships to meet our own needs, it is an idol. While this kind of love can still serve and look a little like spiritual love, there are hooks in it. The person loves and serves with a desire to obtain something from it. And if the person does not get their needs and desires met from the relationship, they stop serving and giving.
Naomi did not try to manipulate, dominate or control Ruth in any way. She was not trying to meet her own needs from Ruth. Rather, she gave Ruth complete freedom in her choices. Naomi was serving God and continually pointing Ruth towards her destiny. Naomi offered Ruth God's love and God's wisdom.
2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Bonhoeffer writes, “Human love produces human subjection, dependence, constraint; spiritual love creates freedom of the brethren under the Word.”
Idolatrous love sees ourselves and the relationship as the 'end' we are seeking. However, spiritual love realizes that it is only Christ that can fulfill myself and others and places Christ between every relationship.
Bonhoeffer writes, “Because Christ stands between me and others, I dare not desire direct fellowship with them. As only Christ can speak to me in such a way that I may be saved, so others, too, can be saved only by Christ himself.” [6]
Spiritual love does not have 'desire' or any hidden agenda that is seeking one's own benefit. Nor does it try to form and shape others into a certain mold. Rather, it sees the other as Christ's workmanship, and in His image. The only 'desire' that spiritual love has is that Christ would be formed in them and they would come into His purpose and destiny for their lives.
Bonhoeffer writes, “Spiritual love recognizes the true image of the other person which he has received from Jesus Christ the image that Jesus Christ himself embodied and would stamp on all men. Spiritual love, as Bonhoeffer notes, will pray and speak to Christ about the person more than the person about Christ. [7]
Often we try to love others in our own strength. However, our human love always has hooks in it. Naomi could only give away this kind of spiritual love freely to Ruth if she was herself being filled by it. We love because He (Christ) first loved us (1 John 4:19). We must first receive His love before we can give it away to others.
Jesus says in John 15:9, “I have loved you, [just] as the Father has loved Me; abide in My love [continue in His love with Me].
One of the ways we allow ourselves to experience Him and love us to life is through meditating on His Word. And according to Bonhoeffer, it is through our meditation in the Word of God that we speak forth life into others lives, helping come into alignment with their destiny. [8]
Psalm 119:15 says, “I will meditate on Your precepts and have respect to Your ways [the paths of life marked out by Your law].”
And Jesus says in Luke 6:45, “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”
Bonhoeffer writes, “How shall we ever help a Christian brother and set him straight in his difficulty and doubt, if not with God's own Word? All our own words quickly fail. But he who like a good 'householder... bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.' (Matt. 13:52), he who can speak out of the abundance of God's Word, the wealth of directions, admonitions, and consolations of the Scriptures, will be able through God's Word to drive out demons and help his brother.” [9]
Isaiah 26:9 says, “When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.”
And Jesus says in John 15:7, “If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.”
As we abide in Christ and help our Christian brothers and sisters to come into alignment with Him and His purposes, we are helping them to find genuine fulfillment. It is only in Christ and coming in line with His greater purposes that we find fulfillment in life.
Isaiah 26:12 says, “Lord, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us.”
Spiritual love will direct us towards our destiny in Christ which will bear fruit in our lives. Bonhoeffer writes, “spiritual love creates the fruits that grow healthily in accord with God's good will in the rain and storm and sunshine of God's outdoors.” [10]
It was the spiritual love that Naomi had for Ruth that drew her to come to know the Lord herself and follow the path that God had for her. And it was the spiritual love that Naomi had for Ruth that directed Ruth into her destiny.
Mordecai was also someone who demonstrated this kind of spiritual love. He spoke into Esther's life and helped her to get in alignment with God's purposes. When Esther became queen, Mordecai sent word to Esther about Haman convincing the king to issue a decree to destroy all the Jews (Esther 4:8).
Esther was afraid to approach the king about it so Mordecai told her, “For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance shall arise for the Jews from elsewhere, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows but that you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this and for this very occasion?” (Esther 4:14)
Just as it took faith for Ruth to leave behind all that she knew to follow Naomi to an unknown land, it took faith for Esther to approach the king and petition him for her life and the life of her people. Esther responded to Mordecai, “Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast for me; and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I also and my maids will fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”
“Take my time on this earth, let it glorify all that You are worth. I am nothing, I have nothing, without You.”
As Ruth and Esther both stepped out in faith and got into position in the purposes of God for their life, God met them there. In the past, I have struggled with thinking that I have to not only say yes to God's purposes and step into them by faith, but I have to somehow be worthy and deserving of His blessings and favor.
The fruit of this is both navel gazing and self-righteousness. I have constantly worked hard to get everything right and get my behaviors in line with God. Then when I did get my behaviors right, I felt self-righteous which is sin.
"I want to make much of Your mercy, I want to make much of Your cross" sings.
However, John 1:16 says, "From the fullness of His grace we have received one blessing after another.
As Steve Wiens mentioned this last weekend, we cannot earn the favor of God. It is a gift as we are to receive with thanksgiving as we do all things in the name of Jesus (Col 3:17) [11]
Whenever someone stepped out in faith in the Bible and was in alignment with God's greater purposes and His timing, God met them there -despite their weaknesses and failures. They didn't have to wait until they got everything right. An example of this is Saul.
God gave Saul the position of king and blessed him in it. He was anointed by Samuel, and when he stepped into the role and called people to go to war with the Ammonite's on behalf of the men of Jabesh, the terror of the Lord fell on the people and they all came out in one consent. (1 Samuel 11:7).
It was not lack of God's support for Saul that took Him out of the position, but Saul's jealousy of David and his continual choice to please people over choosing to please God that eventually derailed him. Saul had made his position an idol. God established and powerfully anointed Saul, but Saul's lack of character and refusal to repent and choose God over his position eventually caused his downfall.
This was the same with Sampson. When Sampson stepped into the position God called him to in faith, God met him there and anointed him to fulfill his purposes. Over and over, the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon Sampson to deliver the people from the Philistines.
Delivering God's people from the Philistines was the position that God had called Sampson to as judge. Judges 15:14-20 says, “And when he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon [Sampson], and the ropes on his arms became as flax that had caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands.
And he found a still moist jawbone of a donkey and reached out and took it and slew 1,000 men with it. And Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey I have slain 1,000 men! …
Sampson was very thirsty, and he prayed to the Lord and said, You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant, and now shall I die of thirst and fall int the hands of the uncircumcised? And God split open the hollow place that was at Lehi, and water came out of it. And when he drank, his spirit returned and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called En-hakkore [the spring of him who prayed], which is at Lehi to this day. And [Samson] judged (defended) Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.”
Sampson however, didn't fully have a heart to honor God. Sampson's main derailers were relationships with women and self-centered behavior. He had made a idol of the women he was attracted to and of himself and his supernatural strength. The reason that Sampson fought with the Philistines was not because his heart was broken by seeing the oppression of the Israelites and/or that he wanted to see God glorified. He fought with the Philistines for personal revenge (mainly relating to issues with women). In the end, he died getting vengeance because the Philistines were making a sport of him. (Judges 16)
“I want to give my all and no less. I want to live my life with no regrets. I listen to the call, because you gave it all. So when You put me to the test, I'm gonna give You no less” sings.
In the case of Saul and Sampson, at the root of their derailment was their idolatry. David, on the other hand, demonstrated a lack of character when he had an affair with Bathsheba and then murdered her husband. While he experienced consequences for his choices, it did not derail him from fully fulfilling his purposes because he turned back to God.
Ultimately, what really matters is our relationship with Christ. While Sampson and Saul may have been powerfully anointed to fulfill the purposes God called them to, they missed out terribly on what mattered most. They chose idolatry over God and failed to love Him with all their heart, strength, soul and mind (Deut. 6:5).
Lord, forgive me where I have failed to love others with a genuine spiritual love. Too often I have had hooks in my love and have really been trying to meet my own needs for validation or approval.
Align us with Your heart and purposes. Empower us to be a people who love others with a genuine spiritual love. Help us to be a people who continually push people towards You and Your greater purposes. And most of all, in entering into the purposes you have for us, help us to be a people who don't miss out on what matters most -loving You with all that we are. You are worthy of all we have to give.
"I give You my life, take it and let it be used to make much of You."
1. J. P. Lange Commentary. The Amplified Bible. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI. 1987.
2, 4-10. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community. HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY. 1954.
3. MacDonald, William ; Farstad, Arthur: Believer's Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1995, S. Ru 3:8
11. Wiens, Steve, Associate Senior Pastor. In the Name of Jesus. Church of The Open Door, Maple Grove, MN. Located at: http://www.thedoor.org/ under Recent Messages. Last Accessed 10/26/11.
Most Scripture quotations take from The Amplified Bible. Copyright 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)
Commentary notes, “Ruth is a prophecy, than which none could be more beautiful and engaging, of the entrance of the heathen world into the kingdom of God. She comes forth out of Moab, and idolatrous people full of wantonness and sin, and is herself so tender and pure. In a land where dissolute sensuality formed one of the elements of idol worship, a woman appears, as wife and daughter, chaste as the rose of spring and unsurpassed in these relations by any other [human] character in Holy Writ... Ruth's confession of God and His people originated in the home of her married life. It sprang from the love which she was permitted to embrace Israelites... The conduct of one Israelitish woman [Naomi] in a foreign land was able to call forth a love and confession of God like that of Ruth...” [1]
Ruth loved Naomi so much so that she left her country and all she knew to follow her back to Bethlehem. When Naomi told her two daughter-in-law's to turn back to their own land so that they could marry again, Orpah turned back and Ruth refused.
Ruth told Naomi, “Urge me not to leave you or to turn back 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. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you.”
“Your love oh Lord reaches to the heavens, Your Faithfulness stretches to the skies” sings
As Ruth followed in faith Naomi and her God, leaving her friends, family, and gods behind, she found herself in the midst of God's much bigger story. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “We are torn out of our own existence and set down in the midst of the holy history of God on earth. There God dealt with us, and there He still deals with us, our needs and our sins, in judgment and grace. It is not that God is the spectator and sharer of our present life, howsoever important that is; but rather that we are the reverent listeners and participants in God's action in the holy sacred story, the history of Christ on earth. And only in so far as we are there, is God with us today also.” [2]
Ruth went out gleaning in the field for grain in order for Naomi and her to have food, and 'just happened' to find herself gleaning in the field of Boaz. Boaz immediately noticed Ruth when she saw her gleaning in his field and asked about who she was. When he found out that she was the Moabitish girl who came back with Naomi, he asked her to glean only in his field and instructed his servants to watch out for her. (Ruth 2:3-9)
God had already went ahead of her and made a way for her. Ruth had tremendous favor with Boaz. She fell on her face and asked Boaz, “Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should notice me, when I am a foreigner?” (Ruth 2:10)
Boaz responded, “I have been made fully aware of all you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and mother and land of your birth and have come to a people unknown to you before.” (Ruth 2:11)
When Naomi returned to Bethlehem, she had lost sight of God's goodness to her. She told the town, “Call me not Naomi [pleasant]; call me Mara [bitter], for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, but the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?” (Ruth 1:20-21)
Yet, despite her struggle with bitterness, Naomi allowed God to use her powerfully in Ruth's life. Naomi spoke God's wisdom into Ruth's life.
“Don't you know I've always loved you, and I always will” sings in the background.
When Naomi heard of all that Boaz did for Ruth and saw what great favor she had, she realized it was the hand of the Lord behind it. She told Ruth, “Blessed be the of the Lord who has not ceased his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said to her, The man [Boaz] is a near relative of ours, one who has the right to redeem us.” (Ruth 2:20)
“I will find my strength in the shadow of Your wings” sings.
Naomi proceeded to instruct Ruth to lay at the feet of Boaz on the threshing floor when he winnowed his barely and told her exactly what to say and do. As commentary notes, this was a Jewish custom of the day for a woman who was seeking to come under the protection of a kinsmen redeemer.
Commentary notes, “The Law of Moses required that when a man died childless, a close relative should marry the widow (Deut. 25:5–10), thus perpetuating the family name and keeping the land in the family. It was especially important that when a man died without a son, someone should marry his widow so that a son would be born and the name carried on.” [3]
When Boaz awoke to find Ruth at his feet, she told him. “I am Ruth your maidservant. Spread your wing [of protection] over your maidservant, for you are a next of kin.” (Ruth 3:9)
Psalm 5:11-12 proclaims, “Let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you. For surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as a shield.”
Boaz answered her, “Blessed be you of the Lord, my daughter. For you have made this last loving-kindness greater than the former, for you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, fear not. I will do for you all you require, for all my people in the city know that you are a woman of strength (worth, bravery, capability).” (Ruth 3:10-11)
Boaz followed through by going through the proper Jewish customs and eventually purchasing all the Elimelech's and Chilion's and Mahlon's from the hand of Naomi. When he did, he also took Ruth to be his wife and restored the name of her deceased husband (Ruth 4:10). Ruth and Boaz conceived a son together by the hand of the Lord that was the ancestor of Jesus Christ (Ruth 4:17).
And Naomi was comforted in her grief. The women saw it was the hand and great care of God and said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, Who has not left you this day without a close kinsman, and may his name be famous in Israel. And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher and supporter in your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him.” (Ruth 4:14-15). Naomi then became the child's nurse (Ruth 4:16).
“My hope is in You, show me Your ways” sings.
As Boaz is a type and shadow of Jesus as our kinsman redeemer, Naomi is a type and shadow of the Holy Spirit as she kept pointing Ruth into the greater purposes of God for her life.
Naomi loved Ruth with a genuine godly love that was not seeking to draw Ruth to herself or suck the life out of the relationship by gaining approval and validation. When someone is trying to get their needs met out of human love, they manipulate situations and control to get what they desire.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer notes, “Human love is directed to the other person for his own sake, spiritual love loves him for Christ's sake. Therefore, human love seeks direct contact with the other person; it loves him not as a free person but as one whom it binds to itself. It wants to gain, to capture by every means; it uses force. It desires to be irresistible, to rule.” [4]
Bonhoeffer goes on to note that spiritual love can love ones enemy while human love cannot. The reason is that spiritual love does not 'desire' to obtain something but rather serves and gives. He writes, “Human love makes itself an end in itself... Spiritual love, however, comes from Jesus Christ, it serves him alone...” [5]
When we are trying to get something out of our relationships to meet our own needs, it is an idol. While this kind of love can still serve and look a little like spiritual love, there are hooks in it. The person loves and serves with a desire to obtain something from it. And if the person does not get their needs and desires met from the relationship, they stop serving and giving.
Naomi did not try to manipulate, dominate or control Ruth in any way. She was not trying to meet her own needs from Ruth. Rather, she gave Ruth complete freedom in her choices. Naomi was serving God and continually pointing Ruth towards her destiny. Naomi offered Ruth God's love and God's wisdom.
2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Bonhoeffer writes, “Human love produces human subjection, dependence, constraint; spiritual love creates freedom of the brethren under the Word.”
Idolatrous love sees ourselves and the relationship as the 'end' we are seeking. However, spiritual love realizes that it is only Christ that can fulfill myself and others and places Christ between every relationship.
Bonhoeffer writes, “Because Christ stands between me and others, I dare not desire direct fellowship with them. As only Christ can speak to me in such a way that I may be saved, so others, too, can be saved only by Christ himself.” [6]
Spiritual love does not have 'desire' or any hidden agenda that is seeking one's own benefit. Nor does it try to form and shape others into a certain mold. Rather, it sees the other as Christ's workmanship, and in His image. The only 'desire' that spiritual love has is that Christ would be formed in them and they would come into His purpose and destiny for their lives.
Bonhoeffer writes, “Spiritual love recognizes the true image of the other person which he has received from Jesus Christ the image that Jesus Christ himself embodied and would stamp on all men. Spiritual love, as Bonhoeffer notes, will pray and speak to Christ about the person more than the person about Christ. [7]
Often we try to love others in our own strength. However, our human love always has hooks in it. Naomi could only give away this kind of spiritual love freely to Ruth if she was herself being filled by it. We love because He (Christ) first loved us (1 John 4:19). We must first receive His love before we can give it away to others.
Jesus says in John 15:9, “I have loved you, [just] as the Father has loved Me; abide in My love [continue in His love with Me].
One of the ways we allow ourselves to experience Him and love us to life is through meditating on His Word. And according to Bonhoeffer, it is through our meditation in the Word of God that we speak forth life into others lives, helping come into alignment with their destiny. [8]
Psalm 119:15 says, “I will meditate on Your precepts and have respect to Your ways [the paths of life marked out by Your law].”
And Jesus says in Luke 6:45, “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”
Bonhoeffer writes, “How shall we ever help a Christian brother and set him straight in his difficulty and doubt, if not with God's own Word? All our own words quickly fail. But he who like a good 'householder... bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.' (Matt. 13:52), he who can speak out of the abundance of God's Word, the wealth of directions, admonitions, and consolations of the Scriptures, will be able through God's Word to drive out demons and help his brother.” [9]
Isaiah 26:9 says, “When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.”
And Jesus says in John 15:7, “If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.”
As we abide in Christ and help our Christian brothers and sisters to come into alignment with Him and His purposes, we are helping them to find genuine fulfillment. It is only in Christ and coming in line with His greater purposes that we find fulfillment in life.
Isaiah 26:12 says, “Lord, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us.”
Spiritual love will direct us towards our destiny in Christ which will bear fruit in our lives. Bonhoeffer writes, “spiritual love creates the fruits that grow healthily in accord with God's good will in the rain and storm and sunshine of God's outdoors.” [10]
It was the spiritual love that Naomi had for Ruth that drew her to come to know the Lord herself and follow the path that God had for her. And it was the spiritual love that Naomi had for Ruth that directed Ruth into her destiny.
Mordecai was also someone who demonstrated this kind of spiritual love. He spoke into Esther's life and helped her to get in alignment with God's purposes. When Esther became queen, Mordecai sent word to Esther about Haman convincing the king to issue a decree to destroy all the Jews (Esther 4:8).
Esther was afraid to approach the king about it so Mordecai told her, “For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance shall arise for the Jews from elsewhere, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows but that you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this and for this very occasion?” (Esther 4:14)
Just as it took faith for Ruth to leave behind all that she knew to follow Naomi to an unknown land, it took faith for Esther to approach the king and petition him for her life and the life of her people. Esther responded to Mordecai, “Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast for me; and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I also and my maids will fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”
“Take my time on this earth, let it glorify all that You are worth. I am nothing, I have nothing, without You.”
As Ruth and Esther both stepped out in faith and got into position in the purposes of God for their life, God met them there. In the past, I have struggled with thinking that I have to not only say yes to God's purposes and step into them by faith, but I have to somehow be worthy and deserving of His blessings and favor.
The fruit of this is both navel gazing and self-righteousness. I have constantly worked hard to get everything right and get my behaviors in line with God. Then when I did get my behaviors right, I felt self-righteous which is sin.
"I want to make much of Your mercy, I want to make much of Your cross" sings.
However, John 1:16 says, "From the fullness of His grace we have received one blessing after another.
As Steve Wiens mentioned this last weekend, we cannot earn the favor of God. It is a gift as we are to receive with thanksgiving as we do all things in the name of Jesus (Col 3:17) [11]
Whenever someone stepped out in faith in the Bible and was in alignment with God's greater purposes and His timing, God met them there -despite their weaknesses and failures. They didn't have to wait until they got everything right. An example of this is Saul.
God gave Saul the position of king and blessed him in it. He was anointed by Samuel, and when he stepped into the role and called people to go to war with the Ammonite's on behalf of the men of Jabesh, the terror of the Lord fell on the people and they all came out in one consent. (1 Samuel 11:7).
It was not lack of God's support for Saul that took Him out of the position, but Saul's jealousy of David and his continual choice to please people over choosing to please God that eventually derailed him. Saul had made his position an idol. God established and powerfully anointed Saul, but Saul's lack of character and refusal to repent and choose God over his position eventually caused his downfall.
This was the same with Sampson. When Sampson stepped into the position God called him to in faith, God met him there and anointed him to fulfill his purposes. Over and over, the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon Sampson to deliver the people from the Philistines.
Delivering God's people from the Philistines was the position that God had called Sampson to as judge. Judges 15:14-20 says, “And when he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon [Sampson], and the ropes on his arms became as flax that had caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands.
And he found a still moist jawbone of a donkey and reached out and took it and slew 1,000 men with it. And Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey I have slain 1,000 men! …
Sampson was very thirsty, and he prayed to the Lord and said, You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant, and now shall I die of thirst and fall int the hands of the uncircumcised? And God split open the hollow place that was at Lehi, and water came out of it. And when he drank, his spirit returned and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called En-hakkore [the spring of him who prayed], which is at Lehi to this day. And [Samson] judged (defended) Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.”
Sampson however, didn't fully have a heart to honor God. Sampson's main derailers were relationships with women and self-centered behavior. He had made a idol of the women he was attracted to and of himself and his supernatural strength. The reason that Sampson fought with the Philistines was not because his heart was broken by seeing the oppression of the Israelites and/or that he wanted to see God glorified. He fought with the Philistines for personal revenge (mainly relating to issues with women). In the end, he died getting vengeance because the Philistines were making a sport of him. (Judges 16)
“I want to give my all and no less. I want to live my life with no regrets. I listen to the call, because you gave it all. So when You put me to the test, I'm gonna give You no less” sings.
In the case of Saul and Sampson, at the root of their derailment was their idolatry. David, on the other hand, demonstrated a lack of character when he had an affair with Bathsheba and then murdered her husband. While he experienced consequences for his choices, it did not derail him from fully fulfilling his purposes because he turned back to God.
Ultimately, what really matters is our relationship with Christ. While Sampson and Saul may have been powerfully anointed to fulfill the purposes God called them to, they missed out terribly on what mattered most. They chose idolatry over God and failed to love Him with all their heart, strength, soul and mind (Deut. 6:5).
Lord, forgive me where I have failed to love others with a genuine spiritual love. Too often I have had hooks in my love and have really been trying to meet my own needs for validation or approval.
Align us with Your heart and purposes. Empower us to be a people who love others with a genuine spiritual love. Help us to be a people who continually push people towards You and Your greater purposes. And most of all, in entering into the purposes you have for us, help us to be a people who don't miss out on what matters most -loving You with all that we are. You are worthy of all we have to give.
"I give You my life, take it and let it be used to make much of You."
1. J. P. Lange Commentary. The Amplified Bible. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI. 1987.
2, 4-10. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community. HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY. 1954.
3. MacDonald, William ; Farstad, Arthur: Believer's Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1995, S. Ru 3:8
11. Wiens, Steve, Associate Senior Pastor. In the Name of Jesus. Church of The Open Door, Maple Grove, MN. Located at: http://www.thedoor.org/ under Recent Messages. Last Accessed 10/26/11.
Most Scripture quotations take from The Amplified Bible. Copyright 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)
Comments