“Your people will become my people, and your God will become my God.”

(Ruth 1:16)

Ruth is a vignette of love, devotion and redemption set in the historical context of the darkest period in Israel’s history, the days of the judges. Part of the second major unit within the seventeen Historical Books, the Conquest or Pre-Kingdom Period, it’s a heartwarming story of compassion, devotion, and faithfulness. Ruth is a Moabite widow who leaves her homeland to live with and care for her widowed Jewish mother-in-law, Naomi, in Bethlehem. Ruth not only embraces Naomi’s people but her God.

The contrast to Judges underscores the remarkable faithfulness of Ruth and Boaz. Ruth is a woman who lives above the norm of her day. A virtuous woman (3:11), Ruth shows loyal-love to both her mother-in-law Naomi and her near-kinsman Boaz. In a time when all of Israel is forsaking God for idols, Ruth forsakes her idols for the true God:

Ruth is one of the most important “bridge” books in the Old Testament. Chronologically—Ruth advances the genealogy of King David. Historically—Ruth links ruined Israel (Judges) with restored Israel (Samuel). Doctrinally—Ruth illustrates redemption. Morally—Ruth demonstrates purity is possible even in a polluted moral environment. The theme of Ruth is God’s care for those who trust in Him. The story illustrates the truth of Hebrews 11:6: Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him:

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“In those days Israel had no king. Each man did what he considered to be right.” (Judges 21:25)

The book of Judges is a jarring sequel to Joshua. In Joshua an obedient people conquer the land, as they trust God enough to follow Joshua’s leadership. By contrast, in Judges, an untrusting and disobedient people turn to idols. God disciplines them and delivers them again and again. The epitaph on the book of Judges exposes the root of the problem, “Each man did what he considered to be right” (21:25).

When Joshua died, God did not appoint a new national leader. Instead, God directed each tribe to conquer its allotted portion of the land. In the same way God had raised up Moses and Joshua, and as He would later raise up David (1 Samuel 16:13), God also raised up judges. The judges were different than today’s concept of judges. The Hebrew word “Judges” (Shophetim) means “bringer of justice.” The office of judge wasn’t new to Israel. Moses had ordered the people to appoint judges of every tribe during the years of wandering in Moab (Deuteronomy 19:17).

In seven distinct cycles of sin-discipline-repentance-deliverance, Judges demonstrates how Israel so quickly declined as it refused to learn to trust God. The judges were more local than national and their stories cover a period of about 350 years. From time to time God would appoint a judge to rescue His hurting people from corruption from within or oppression from without. The book was probably written by Samuel, a critical link between the period of the judges and the kings, after the ark was removed from Shiloh (18:31; 20:27; cf. 1 Samuel 4:3-11).

The theme of Judges is God’s faithfulness to His disobedient people demands discipline. In His patient love, God forgave His people every single time they repented. Israel repeatedly acted in foolishness, ingratitude, stubbornness, and rebellion. But God never stopped loving them and leading them. The lesson for God’s people of every generation is clear: God never stops loving His people, but count on it—sin always leads to suffering, and repentance always leads to deliverance.

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Years ago Judy and I visited a friend during his last week on earth. His faith in Christ and hope of heaven encouraged all who watched him go home. As his body began to fail him, he referred to it as his “container”. He was in deep pain the day Judy and I were privileged to come to the side of our friend and his bride. We read Scripture, prayed for healing and comfort, and then had to say goodbye. We knew that unless the Lord intervened, we had probably talked with our dear friend for the last time and that the next time we talked to the love of his life, it would be at his memorial service.

Yet, as we were leaving, our friend demonstrated a life-lesson I’ve “lived” myself: He told us that he was going to mow the lawn!

Judy insisted that I intervene. “You can’t let him mow that lawn. Tell him you will do it for him!”

“No,” I told her, “you have no idea how much he needs to mow that lawn. If he collapses dead mowing that lawn, he will be happier than if I did it for him.”

This is one of the primary lessons I learned during my bout with lymphoma. The routine means more to those of us who feel we have been “set aside” and that we are losing our grip on our life. Some of the greatest moments in recovery are those when we suddenly find that we can do something we use to take in stride.

I remember the first day I was able to begin helping Judy around the house after my last battle with this disease. I brought in the trash bins, weeded the front lawn a little, and pulled Judy’s car into the garage from the street!

“YES,” I said to myself, “I’m coming back.”

Do you know someone who is struggling through a life-threatening or life-devastating heartbreak? Ask the Lord to make you sensitive to their need to be useful. Those of us dealing with debilitating diseases or emotional trauma don’t want to be defined by our pain. The encourager should endeavor to encourage the discouraged on their terms. Let them do for themselves and others whenever they want. It may seem small to you, but to them it’s huge…in their journey, there is immeasurable joy in what we consider mundane.

“This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).

I’m Through With God!

A young Bible School graduate marched into my office and announced, “I’m through with God. This isn’t at all what I expected my life to look like. So I just wanted you to know that I won’t be doing anything at church anymore!”

Before I had a chance to respond, he explained his decision, careful to emphatically count off each of his supporting points on the fingers of his left hand. “I’ve been out of school for two years. I prayed for a wife, and I don’t have one yet. I prayed for a full-time position in a church, and I don’t have one yet. If I would have known that God wasn’t going to let me do these things, I could have gone to a regular college and studied engineering. I’d be making a lot of money right now.”

Nobody Gets That

After he calmed down, I jolted him with my answer: “Nobody gets that.”

He shot back. “Nobody gets what?”

“What they expected.” He seemed bewildered.

I knew I could prove my point from Scripture, but I decided to tell him stories instead.

I told him about some of the ladies in Judy’s His Alone class who did everything “right” but have to move on without a husband because he decided he would be much “happier” with a new wife and family.

I told him about a friend who teaches at a seminary who lives with a disease that randomly confines him to a wheel chair and sometimes even threatens his life.

I told him about the dedicated Christian couple whose only daughter was born with such a severe birth defect that in the precious few months they had with her this side of heaven she never smiled…never acknowledged their presence in the ways most mommies and daddies long for.

I told him stories for ten minutes.

And then I told him how the Lord used each of these disappointments and tragedies to transform not only the ones suffering through the pain, but also those who were watching.

We talked. He cried. By the end of our time together, he was able to hear what I wanted to tell him when he first walked in. “It’s not what you’re expecting God to do that matters, it’s what He wants to do. Once you get that straight, you are ready to receive His very best for your life–both the expected and the unexpected.”

“For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing”(James 1:3-4, New Living Translation).

“If you indeed obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come to you in abundance if you obey the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2).

The second major unit within the seventeen Historical Books is called either the Conquest Period, Pre-Kingdom Period. Since there is no king in Israel during the events recorded they are also referred to as the theocratic books. These three books—Joshua, Judges, and Ruth—record the conquest of Canaan under Joshua, the division of Israel into the twelve tribes, the period of the judges, and the story of Ruth. After the death of Moses and then Joshua there were a series of minor leaders in Israel. In the next section, the Kingdom era we will meet the great King David. The events cover a time period of just over 350 years from the death of Moses (c. 1405 BC) to after the death of Samson (c. 1079 BC).

The narrative bridges the gap between Israel’s great lawgiver—Moses, and her first king—Saul. This is a period of great contrasts. Joshua is the most positive book of the Old Testament; Judges is the most negative. The history begins with great faith in Israel; it closes with almost no faith in Israel. But amazingly, there is faith in Moab!

Most of the events recorded in these books occurred in Israel and Moab.

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God, I’m Confused Here!

Have you ever moved forward in faith, sure that you knew what God wanted you to do, only to encounter trial after trial, roadblock after roadblock?

In January of 2005 we celebrated our 90^th Anniversary by raising over $600,000 to begin transforming our campus. We knew God wanted us to build on this beautiful piece of property. A new worship center seemed like the logical choice. So we initiated a capital campaign, and started planning our construction.

Every month we poured ourselves into the project. We estimated the scope and cost, and announced it to the congregation. And then, something would happen and we would have to rethink and re-plan, and re-report the revised plans and figures to our people.

By the time we had our big Groundbreaking Ceremony under a tent over three years later, we were sure the construction was just a few days off. But it all fell apart again. Finally, we told the church that we needed to move forward with a new construction team and timeline, we would “get back to them” as soon as we had a clearer picture.

I Can’t Build a Doghouse

Since I can’t build a doghouse, I have no idea if we could have planned this better. I do know that we were on our knees every step of the way and always told the church exactly what we knew and all that we knew.

Though the Bible says nothing about how to transform a campus or build a worship center, it has a lot to say about how to lead a church—by building loving, mature trust on the leadership team and between the leaders and the people. And that is what we have dedicated ourselves to with all our heart.

At our Thursday elder meeting before the event we knew the business meeting could get dicey. The building was going to cost a lot more than we originally thought and we weren’t absolutely sure where all of the money was going to come from. But we were confident that this was where God wanted us to go.

We did know that God had blessed us with deep unity. The years of building a strong, loving bond of trust between the elders and the flock had led us to an amazingly healthy place. And so, we just decided to risk it before God—to risk God’s glory to this community under the Headship of the Lord Jesus.

And the Count Is…

When the ballots were counted it was unanimous: 159 for moving forward, 0 against.

If you’ve been around churches for more than a few months, you know that this degree of unity is more than remarkable—it’s supernatural. Our joy over the Spirit’s deep work in our lives was so strong, the chairman of the elder board forgot to vote!

We’ll have to amend the minutes at our next congregational business meeting from 159 for and 0 against to 160 for and 0 against!

It was a mighty work of God—He did His part. He always does. And though our part was small by comparison, it was critical. As shepherds, we did what He told us—we made disciples as we built a loving community.

You may be in the middle of a lengthy trial right now, or feel like the Lord is delaying your dream. You might even wonder if He has forgotten all about you.

Could it be that you’re worrying about God’s part while neglecting your part? I’m sure that if you spent some time in prayer and asked a few mature Christians for some guidance, God would clearly point out your part in all of this. And once you’ve discovered that, you’re in the good place of trusting Him for the rest!

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledged Him, and He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Cancer Waiting Rooms

From late 2000 to 2008 I gathered with a group of people in a place none of us wanted to be—the waiting room of the USC Norris Cancer Center’s Outpatient Clinic. What we had in common was our deadly diagnosis, and our bandaged arms from the blood test our oncologist was about to read.

I remember well the first time I took my seat in that room. So weak I could barely walk and so embarrassed by my grotesque appearance, the emotions of actually being a cancer patient overwhelmed me. Judy had to support me—both physically and emotionally—when I tried to cross the street from the “regular” hospital to the cancer hospital.

Surveying the room over the years, I could see the despair in the eyes of the first-timers. They were still either reeling from or resisting the idea that they belonged there with people like me—people with cancer or lymphoma. They never imagined life could be so hard, so hurtful, so hopeless.

I always want to tell them about the One who sits next to in these rooms of despair—the same One who sat with me eight years ago and every visit since. The One who is always with me whispering words of comfort and hope into my life.

His name is Jesus.

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Main Street of the small town in Iowa was lined with spectators. The grand procession of luxury cars and limousines followed the hearse toward the cemetery. Men removed their hats and mothers gathered children to their side. The richest and most influential man in the county had died and if you were anybody in the hierarchy of the little farming community, you were in the “pageant.”

Dick, a friend of mine recalled the big event from his perspective as a little boy standing next to his father outside the local barbershop. Nobody said a word as he watched wide-eyed, trying to be as somber as his wiggly body would allow.

It was 70 years later when Dick told me the story. He told it in a way that I could picture it in my mind and even feel his little-boy wonder. Dick continued:

“There was this goofy guy that hung around the barbershop. He was one of those guys that you knew would probably be sitting in the same barbershop when he grew old telling the same stories to his captive audience waiting for a haircut. I looked up at this guy. I remember him taking off his hat solemnly. And Ed, you know what he said as we watched the taillights of the last Cadillac turn down the road to the cemetery? ‘Man, that’s really living!’”

“Man, that’s really living,” Dick repeated. “Can you believe that? Even as a little boy I was thinking, ‘No, that’s really dying!’”

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It was after midnight when we finally pulled to a stop at the end of the road. We had been watching the fire rip through the high country for over an hour as we drove next to the Kings River.

Our crew truck passed others looking up as the flames devoured acres of ponderosa pine and manzanita brush a dozen miles and several thousand feet up the steep canyon wall. Some of the on-lookers seemed afraid but all were impressed with the power of the blaze and the glow that lit up the night sky.

One huge difference set our thoughts of the fire apart from the on-lookers. They were wondering if this fire would interrupt their vacation plans camping in the Sequoia National Forest. We were calculating how difficult it was going to be to walk to the fire’s edge and how scared we would be when we arrived.

They were tourists; we were the Fulton Hotshots—one of a handful of elite firefighting crews from Southern California. The hotter the fire, the more dangerous the terrain, the more sure we were that we would join the other hotshot crews of the west on the fire line.

Bill, our grizzled superintendent, could see and feel our discouragement and fear in the way we unloaded the truck. There wasn’t the usual hustle and small talk. It was a long way up that mountain, and we were beat. This morning they told us we would get our first day off in three weeks. But then this thing started and they changed their minds. Instead we loaded up and rode for four hours.

To make matters worse, we knew that the helicopters wouldn’t be flying for another five or six hours. We would have to haul ourselves up the face of Kings Canyon with our food, our saws, our fire shelters, our tools, and our water.

And this was a ferocious timber fire burning through the crowns of hundred-foot trees. A fireman’s worst nightmare.

“Gentlemen,” Bill looked at us. “You know how we’re going to get up that mountain?”

Nobody said a word. (Danger does that to you. You just shut up and listen.)

“Here’s what we’re going to do.” Bill slung his Swedish brush hook over his shoulder, picked up his shovel and said, “We’re going to put one foot in front of the other. Follow me.” And he started up the trail.

And that’s what we did. We put one foot front of the other, climbed that mountain, and put that fire out.

Bill wasn’t asking us to take responsibility for the whole thing—the mountain, the fire, the logistics, the strategy. That was his problem. He was just asking us to take a few more steps and follow him.

Friend, I don’t know what your personal mountain is today or what wildfire threatens your life right now. What I do know is that if you’re like me, you’ve forgotten that the Lord Jesus isn’t asking you to solve the cosmic problems of life, to fix a bunch of other people, or take responsibility for His business.

He’s just asking you to take a few more steps, and follow Him.

You can do that.

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27)

Personal discipline and commitment seem to be replacing grace and mercy as the start points for Christianity.

The results are predictable; just read about the Middle Ages.

Unless we admit our own powerlessness to change ourselves, we’re going to continue churning out failing, hidden, and frustrated church-goers.

We need another reformation, from Protestant works-righteousness!

“The reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellarful of fifteen-hundred-year-old, two-hundred proof grace–of bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly.” (Robert Capon, Between Noon and Three)