Living Legacy Part 1
Notes
Transcript
Preserving a Lineage of Love
Preserving a Lineage of Love
So often Christians struggle with reconciling the Love of God and the Law of God. People want to fashion God in their own image of compromise and tolerance. They want the blessings of God void of the righteousness of God. They want a just God when it comes to others but a gracious God when it comes to themselves.
In the book of Ruth Chapter 1 verse 1 it starts with,
In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.
The obvious question here is why is there famine in the land of Israel?
Well, the answer is in Judges 21:25:
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
The was no leadership and there was no fear of God. Here we see a 400-year period with no king. Instead, they experience oppression and anarchy. This would explain the choices of Elimelech and Naomi. Elimelech’s name means “My God is King.” This is interesting in light of the fact that his name speaks of not only his identity but all of Israels. Yet, there is no king in Israel and God is not king of their lives or nation either. As well, Naomi’s name means “God is my delight.” Again, a total contradiction between their God given identities and the lives they are living.
For example, the names and choices of their sons tell us something about their compromise. In verse 2 we see the names of their sons which are Mahlon, which means “sick”, and Chilon, which means “wasting”. They are descendants from the tribe of Ephraim (one of Joseph’s sons). It would seem that they named their sons out of their depravity, destitution, despair or hopelessness instead of their faith. He allowed his compromise to affect his entire family.
Elimelech did not live as if God was his king. As a result of his circumstances, he abandoned God’s intent and sought his own interest. He went past the promise and back into enslavement. He left the Bethlehem (The House of Bread) to seek refuge in a rebellious and pagan country of idolatry.
As well, their sons ended up marrying pagan women. These women are Moabite women. The Moabites are descended from the incestuous relationship of Lot and his oldest daughter.
The two daughters-in-law names are Orpah and Ruth. Now, Ruth is actually the ancestress to David. Her and Boaz have a son named Obed who becomes the father of Jesse, David’s father.
But what happened to the other daughter-in-law? Let’s look at a clue. According to the Midrash (Ruth Rabbah 2), the Philistine giant Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, is a descendant of Orpah who is killed by Ruth’s descendant David.
Now in verse 19 we see something happening that is often misinterpreted as a joyous occasion. It says,
So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?”
The town is not overjoyed that Naomi has returned. They may be looking down on her and gloating. But there is a bigger problem here for Ruth. Ruth is subject to being stoned to death according to the Torah. Let’s look at Deuteronomy 23:3-4:
“No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
This only adds to the legacy of God’s prevailing love. If you know the rest of Ruth’s story you know that God not only brings her a deliverer, a kinsman redeemer as a foreshadow of Messiah, but also a godly husband who meets all her and Naomi's needs.
God grafts Ruth into the family lineage of His great love. Ruth had made a vow earlier, not just to Naomi, but to the God of Naomi. In this vow she had forsaken all other God’s and surrendered her entire future into the hands of Ha Shem (יהוה YHVH ).
And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 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.”
Little did Naomi realize that she had prophesied Ruth’s future in Ruth 1:8-9:
But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.
First, true “rest” (shabbat) and peace (shalom) can only be found in a home where God is the true husband of all who dwell therein. This is exactly what God did for Ruth. Marriage is supposed to be a place of rest and peace. It will never be a place of rest until you first learn how to make it a place of peace.
Second, Naomi asks that the Lord show His kindness to them. One received this blessing and the other rejected it.
The word here for “kindness” is hesed. Hesed is God’s mercy. It is defined as love in action; a faithful and enduring love as in an eternal covenant. Isaiah 54:10 says,
For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
This is a love like that of a believing wife who continuously prays for the salvation of her unbelieving husband while continuing to show mercy. Or a loving parent who is committed to the long-term care of their autistic child. It is an unfailing, selfless, and sacrificial love. It is a love that leaves a legacy. This is the hesed חֶסֶד, loving mercies that God shows new to you and I every morning of every day.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Hesed חֶסֶד speaks of the depths and widths of His great love. It means mercies but also refers to His kindness, goodness, patience, grace, longsuffering, benevolence, favor, grace and zealousness for you.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
This is the love God has for you. This is the love demonstrated by Christ. This is the love we are to have for one another. This is the love we are to build our families on. This is the love we are to teach our children. this is the love we are to have in our marriages. This is the love of God that preserved Israel. This love of God preserved the lineage from Abraham to Yeshua. This is the love that has kept covenant unto a thousand generations of those who love the Lord.
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,
Do you know this hesed, this great love? Does this kind of love and mercy burn within you for others? Do you desire to live in and with this kind of love? This is what it means to be a follower of Christ. This is what Jesus meant by the greatest commandment.