Soma

I’ve been working my way through the Bible chronologically this year (although I’m a couple of week’s behind my planned schedule).  It’s been such a blessing to spend so much devoted time in the Old Testament again.  Any true effort to read the Old Testament so as to actually understand what is taking place, who God is, and the themes that He develops throughout it, results in absolute worship of the one true God.  All of the “What about…?” questions that quote obscure Old Testament passages fade away when you truly take the time to read and study so as to understand.

This is why reading the book of Ruth was so powerful for me the other day.  I’ve always known that Ruth was a Moabite…and I’ve also known that Ruth was David’s great-grandmother (and therefore a part of the line of Christ).  But I have never felt the weight of the combination of those two facts until I read the book of Ruth after spending four months meditating on the history of God’s people up to that point.  I could try to explain the significance, explaining how the very situation was a result of God’s people not trusting him, and His never-ending grace, explaining how the Moabites were the bitter enemies of the Israelites, and recounting their sometimes gruesome history.  However, there’s no way I would have ever appreciated the significance of the story of Ruth by just having someone try to explain it to me.  The Spirit of God works powerfully through His Word to change our hearts as we seek to know Him more through the study of and meditation on that very Word.

So, next time you want to read the book of Ruth (it’s fairly popular because 1. it’s short, and 2. it’s romantic) I’d strongly suggest taking the time to read the story that comes before it.  Start in Genesis 1:1 and read for understanding.  Don’t be content to just skim over names and places…figure out what it’s talking about.  And then when you come to the book of Ruth, you will appreciate in a way you never have before, the love and work of Boaz the redeemer, and you will see in him not the hope of a future spouse, but a picture of the perfect, messianic Redeemer that was to come…the Savior who now has come.

I, personally, am much more concerned about the state of the church than I am about the state of the world.  We are all clear about the world.  The world is in its muddle, its wretchedness, and unhappiness, because it is heedless of the Christian message.  It does not pay any attention to the Gospel of Christ and I suggest that one chief cause of that is the fact that it does not see this quality of life in us.  When it does see it, then it will begin to pay attention.  I would urge once more, therefore, that it is the business of the church to concentrate on herself and not on the world that is outside.  Revival starts in the church, and revival comes when Christian people begin to realize how far short they fall of the standard that is depicted in the New Testament.

Martin Lloyd-Jones, Expository Sermons on 2 Peter