Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Last week’s episode featured the page in the Nazareth family album dedicated to Mary, Messiah’s mother. It was her courage and selflessness that the Godhead saw and endorsed with the full weight of heaven’s glory. It was her amen that ended the petitions of God-fearing saints since the prophecy of Messiah way back in the Garden…
Today, fittingly, on this Sunday of Christmas week, let us flip another page in the Nazareth family album and zero in on the photograph of Messiah Himself: Jesus, who is the Christ…
The first century followers in Palestine had the luxury of God Himself walking among them. What of us in the twenty-first century? How can we say “Come and see” and make it believable and effectual…?
Running Time: 22m, 37s
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My Apologies!
Because the recording was done in a special place (which I’ll explain in the podcast) instead of the better acoustics of my home, the quality may not be up to snuff – though still listenable! My voice, cadence and content are entirely my fault, however.
When the first cry of the newborn Messiah trumpeted from that cattle stall in Bethlehem, four centuries of silence from heaven ended. And when it ended, it did so with a flourish! Angels sang, a king railed, a city was troubled, shepherds testified, cattle lowed, a prophet preached, saints rejoiced, astronomers inquired, and so on.
John’s gospel doesn’t give any information about the birth narrative of Messiah – and yet, in a telling way, he does. The disciple whom Jesus loved opens his record with the statement:
In the beginning was the WORD…
The Greek has it:
λογος.
The exhaustive testimony of God. The reference library of the Almighty.
This is how the writer of Hebrews opens his account, following the formula of John:
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. Hebrews 1:1,2
On that Silent Night, Holy Night, while all the world in stillness lay and all of heaven held its collective breath, a mother spasmed and contracted and a baby’s cry split the night sky announcing to all of creation that God was with us. The Word had broken the silence.
God was ready to talk.
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Once upon a time…there was a Silent Kingdom. The people of this kingdom had been cursed to live their lives in muted silence. Little girls grew up to never hear their daddies or husbands say the words, “I love you.” Babies came into the world without crying. Try as they might, they just could not laugh or hear the sound of laughter. Soon they forgot how. There was no such thing as singing and choirs and storytelling. The silence was awful. Over time, because sound was not heard, their hearing had become dull. Because no one remembered how to speak, even writing became a thing of the past since no one could converse about what was written. There was no revelation, no news, no stories, nothing at all to report.
In time, they grew apart, everyone going their own separate way, living isolated from each other. To be reminded of their deafness by being around others was too much to bear. The kingdom was full of sadness, despair and loneliness.
The very oldest among them, however, a very, very old man, was the last one who could even remember what sound sounded like. One evening, he was out gathering sticks for a fire that could not crackle and spit and hiss, when he spied a bird in a nearby tree, and the most amazing thing happened!
The bird…chirped!
The very old man heard the sound and was so very stunned, he dropped the wood – and actually heard the clattering of the sticks as they spilled at his feet!
The old man ran to the nearest neighbor’s house – a very far run indeed – as fast as his very old legs could manage. With each step he could hear as his feet pounded against the earth. He so desperately wanted to tell everyone, not only WHAT he heard, but THAT he heard!
But the first neighbor could not hear his voice, he only saw his mouth move. This only frustrated the old man, so he continued on to the next house, then the next, but, sadly, it was the same wherever he went. He didn’t know what to do. He heard, and he wanted everyone to hear too.
The old man decided he would go back into the woods where he first saw the songbird. He thought he might catch the bird and bring it into the village and the countryside. What the old man did not know at the time, was a little girl followed him as he ventured back into the woods, quite intrigued by the old man’s actions.
When the old man got to the tree, he saw, to his great dismay, that the songbird had left. He cried, “Little bird, come back!” And when he said the words, the little girl heard! The spell had been broken for her as well. Then the old man understood. It was not the songbird that broke the spell, but the tree itself! You see, each and every generation had grown up in proximity to the tree, and could have discovered the secret, but only a few ever did.
The tree the old man and the little girl had found was an enchanted tree whose power could break the spell of silence every hundred years. A bird would announce the day the spell was lifted and if someone was nearby to hear it, they could enjoy the sound either by themselves, or share its blessing with the rest of the village. The old man and the little girl wanted everyone to hear! Together they finally convinced all who would to come to the tree, and all who did could finally hear. Those that would not be persuaded, however, lived in muted silence the rest of their days.
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This Advent, give thanks that our Lord drew near and spoke the word of comfort and joy and life to our heavy-laden hearts – and that you’ve heard the glad tidings. Like the shepherds, go and tell everyone what you’ve seen and heard. Tell of the Tree of Life and His desire to set everyone free.
If you have ears to hear, hear what the Lord says, and do it.
Today’s post is about the little town of Bethlehem, an unlikely couple, a willing Redeemer and a heroic ransom – and the story never once mentions Jesus. And yet, He’s everywhere.
It’s the story of a sweet, young outsider named Ruth and a man willing to risk everything by being with her – even his own reputation.
Of the five women mentioned in Jesus Christ’s genealogy (Matthew 1), one of the most revered is Ruth. Ruth was the great-grandmother of David…and Jesus, according to isaiah 11:1 is her greatest ‘descendant’.
The book bearing her name fits historically around the time of the judges. It has been suggested that the judge who graced Israel’s scene was Jair (Judges 10); some even point to an earlier time under Gideon. It was during Gideon’s chapter that the Midianites oppressed Israel for seven hard years – divine judgment for their disobedience – and a famine such as the one described in Ruth 1 could have resulted.
The saga of Ruth opens with the journey of a Jewish couple, Elimelech and Naomi, along with their two sons, as they leave their hometown of Bethlehem for the hilly country of Moab; they needed to jet because the famine in Israel was so great.
Moab, you recall, found its origin in an incestuous partnership between Lot and his daughters. The result was twins, Ammon and Moab. The progenitors of their respected people-groups trained their offspring to do two things:
hate, hate, hate Israel
run after pagan deities
Enter Ruth.
Ruth was from Moab’s line and had been raised in the murky cesspool of spiritual darkness, not unlike women under the oppressive Taliban rule. She was raised to serve Chemosh, an impersonal, vindictive deity referred to as the ‘destroyer‘ or ‘subduer‘ and recognized as the fish-god.
Naomi’s husband – a Jewish man – died in Moab; soon thereafter, her two sons who each married Moabite women – one of which was Ruth – also died. Naomi had the very sad misfortune of looking upon the grave plots of the only three men in her life. No wonder she preferred the nomenclature ‘bitter‘ (Ruth 1:20).
Adding to this, her sons’ marriages produced no children, thus Naomi faced life with two procured daughters-in-law who hailed from a foreign land.
News soon arrived that the famine was over in Palestine, and Naomi returned with the two girls in tow – three widows all. On the highway out of Moab, she felt it best for her two childless in-laws to return to their mothers and to their gods, but each protested – one more forcefully than the other.
It was Ruth (“Friendship“) who stayed with her mother-in-law while Orpah (“Stubborn“) took a second look at Moab and scurried back.
Without a doubt, what we’ve just covered and what’s to come in this story are some of the most shared yarns among the generations to follow among all the messianic stories.
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Ruth made the conscious choice to turn away from her gods, bloodlines and customs to embrace Naomi's God.
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Having taken place during the years of the judges, the story of Ruth transcends and contrasts with the inbred decay and moral corruption of Israel, a time when “every man did what was right in his own eyes“. Here is one from Moab – of all places – whose character stands in vivid contrast to the pathetic low-living of everyone else in Israel.
THE STORY OF RUTH IS ABOUT:
Covenantal Love (Ruth 1:8-3:10)
>In Rth 1:8 Naomi uses a distinctively divine word to describe the love she felt from her daughters-in-law. The word is ‘chesed‘ which denotes the attitude God has toward any promises He has made. It speaks of loyalty and covenant and unmerited favor. She prays that God will extend His covenant love to these foreign women as well.
One of the over-arching themes of Ruth is to emphasize that Yahweh loves ALL humanity and His plan all along was to include all ethnicities in the narrative we know as His eternal love story.
>In Rth 2:20, the word is used to describe the character of Boaz, the hero and archetypal Christ in the story.
>In Rth 3:10, Boaz uses the word to compliment Ruth, and in the next verse calls her “a woman of noble character“.
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The scenes shift swiftly in Ruth.
Chapter 1 has the characters in the midst of a FAMINE, as we’ve already touched on.
In chapter 2, the scene shifts to the FIELDS where Ruth “just happens” upon her kinsman redeemer.
In chapter 3, we see Ruth at Boaz’ FEET, a curious but innocent custom of offering herself in betrothal to this good, heroic man of chesed.
Finally, in chapter 4, we hold our breath at the drama of the transaction FEE (or, ‘bride price‘) for Ruth.
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Redemptive Love (Ruth 4:8-10)
In Hebrew, Boaz is called “go-el” or ‘kinsman redeemer’.
>A kinsman redeemer was a close family relative who was called upon to right a wrong, so to speak, or to fulfill a covenant. For instance, if a woman’s husband died husband died, leaving her no male descendants, that husband’s brother would be called upon to marry her and be her “go-el” thus taking her and all her bills, property, children and possessions as his own, making himself responsible for her.
>Or, if a family member sold their land to pay off a debt, the nearest blood-relative would buy back the property from the creditor and return it to his debtor relative.
>And if a man was wrongfully murdered, the go-el would avenge the blood of the deceased.
Now that Boaz’s “covenantal love” has been given to Ruth (Rth 3:9), there is nothing that will keep him from seeing it all the way through!There is no obstacle, no price so high that he will not be able and willing to meet the demand.
He arranges a meeting with Ruth’s nearest living relative by marriage to her Jewish husband and offers him the first chance to redeem the land Naomi and Elimelech sold. The potential ‘go-el‘ says he will (Rth 4:4) – until Boaz reminds him that he must also take the widow Ruth to be his bride.
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Incidentally, I see in this section a parallel with how the law is good and willing but unable to redeem the lost. The very best it can do is pass the baton to the true Kinsman Redeemer.
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Her ‘go-el‘ reneges. If the story ends here, then Ruth is husbandless, childless, homeless and without hope for any future blessing. There would be no chesed for her. She would die in her condition, pitiful, unprotected. Since she was a Moabitess – an outsider, an alien – she would likely suffer cruelly at the hands of her adopted homeland.
But this story has a “storybook” ending, a Christmassy feel-good conclusion. Boaz stands before the officials in Bethlehem and says,
I will take Ruth, an alien, and all her baggage! I qualify as a near-relative, have the means, and the will to bring her to myself!”
The custom in the earlier days if Israel’s history was for the go-el to take off one of his sandals and give it to the the true kinsman redeemer. The idea was transfer of ownership. In essence, before Boaz takes responsibility for her, Ruth was “owned” by someone who didn’t have the means – or the will – to see her redeemed from her situation, and was not going to change his demeanor or disposition.
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When Jesus came to Bethlehem, He came with the intent of taking back ownership of all humanity from its despotic overlord. “I came to seek and save (as our go-el) that which is lost,” He said.
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Think of it: when the Baby of Bethlehem came into the world, He came looking for a shoe.
He met humanity’s evil overlord in the desert and, while the showdown produced no shoe (it wasn’t yet time), He then met him on a hill outside Jerusalem (when it was due time), leaving him no option but to surrender what our Kinsman Redeemer had come for.
It was there that the world’s wicked tyrant relinquished the shoe, for when Jesus cried, “It is finished!” He held, as it were, the shoe in His crimson hands and proclaimed to all creation that the transaction was a done deal and those who lie in the shadow of His wing belong to Him forever.
That’s the Good News, my friend; the Glad Tidings of comfort and joy, peace and good-will.
