PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

It is not unusual to have the mother (in this case the mother-in-law) play the schemer.  Remember Rebekah who “commanded” her son and told him to obey her as they plotted to deceive old Isaac who could barely see and hear?  So in this case in Ruth, Naomi tells her daughter-in-law how to seduce Boaz which would provide Ruth with some “security”.  They come up with a plan that Ruth would go to Boaz’ threshing floor, where he is working late into the night.  The plan is to once he is asleep because of the hard work and the satisfying food and drink, that she would go and “uncover his feet”.  Now, just so people are not scandalized, this tends to be a euphemism, uncovering of feet, for the removing of the clothing and revealing the male, you know, that.  You see that phrase “uncover his feet” in a number of other Hebrew writings.

If you notice Boaz does the correct thing which is to refer Ruth to another relative who was more closely related and sends Ruth off with enough grain to eat and sell and make some money off it.  Naomi is quite excited about how things are progressing and tells Ruth that she just has to wait for the deal will be finished the next day, one way or another. The Bible is not devoid of people scheming and plotting and coming up with ideas on how to get ahead without other people interfering much.  

We find Ruth going out to glean the fields.  So, we don’t really know what that means in the 21st century.  There used to be a day when after a harvest the farmer would allow those who were poor to take up what was left in the field after the workers had finished the harvest.  Today with the machinery that we have, which is nearly 100% efficient, a person who is gleaning would be hard pressed to have anything left over which they might be able to glean and take home.  But gleaning the fields was something that was a very part of the culture and a way in which those who had material goods could actually ensure that those who hungered could have their needs met.

We find Jesus and his disciples gleaning the fields themselves after a harvest in Matthew 12:1.  This was not uncommon, and it also shows that Jesus and his disciples were very much considered “the poor”.  Most Rabbis and their students would glean fields because they were considered the poor.  But back to Ruth.  Not only was Ruth gleaning the fields but she gets to the field of her father-in-law’s relative who treated her royally.  He told his workers to even put down whole sheaves, which normally would not have been left over after a harvest, and lay them for her so that she was able to take them and use them.  She was fed and handsomely and she was able to gather up more grain than most because of how she was treated by him.  Remember this because he comes into play in the next chapters, as does how he treats her.

There is really a lesson here in how to treat the stranger and the foreigner.  She says to Boaz: “Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?”  Her status as a foreigner did not elicit fear in the eyes of Boaz, but rather he treated her as he would treat anyone else who was in his midst.  How do we treat the foreigner?  How does God require us to treat the foreigner?  Look at Matthew 25:35 and you will find the answer.

I love the book of Ruth.  The first chapter contains so much and it is one that has ramifications not only for the period of the Judges, in which this was written (see vs.1), but also impacted the days of Jesus as well.  Ruth was a foreign, pagan daughter-in-law to Naomi who then became Mara.  Do you find it somewhat puzzling that a book of the Bible is named after a pagan from Moab?  She is very similar in history and in the Bible to Rahab.

If you look at Jesus’ genealogy you will find that Ruth, along with Rahab, is in Jesus’ lineage (Matthew 1:5).  Jesus had not one but two people within his ancestry who were not from the people of God but who were embraced and welcomed into the community by the people of God.  They were outsiders religiously, culturally, and even their gender was not that which normally gave them space to be in the line for the Messiah.  But they were.

I often use Ruth 1:16-17 in funeral services for people that I do not know very well and that I do not know what their relationship with Jesus was like.  I love the foreign pagan telling Naomi, who was supposedly part of God’s chosen people: “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you.  Where you go, I will go; 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 thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you.”

You can hear the voice of God ringing in Naomi’s ears as it comes from her daughter in law telling her that she can never escape the presence of God no matter how far she tried to run away.  Normally in the Bible when people experience God often their names are changed from something drab to something promising and important.  Here, instead, the name is changed from pleasant to bitter.  Not a great transition and not a great time in the life of Naomi.  But Ruth makes it all worth while, and this will become especially true as we look further on in this book of the Bible.

Welcome back to the challenge.  It is hard to believe that we are almost near the end of the entire Bible.  What a great way to start.  Hearing the voice of God from a place where you would least expect it.  A pagan daughter-in-law who acts more godly than most who call themselves followers of Jesus Christ today.  What a great example!

Dear FPC family and friends,

            As we find ourselves in a new phase in our pandemic journey together, it is fitting that for this challenge we finish up with the entire Bible.  We began our challenges back on January 1, 2016 and we looked at the Gospels.  It is so hard to believe that we have been at this for five years.  We have seen a lot in five years.  We are on our third president in those years, and a lot has changed within our society.  But the Word of God remains forever and is unchanging.  For that we give thanks.  We finish our challenge with 78 chapters found in the following books of the Bible:  Ruth, First and Second Chronicles, and Amos.  That is all that we have left. 

            I love how we are starting our final journey together through Scripture during Lent, March 7, and the ending date will be the Sunday of Pentecost, May 23.  I hope this journey has been a breath of fresh air.  I love reading Scripture and I love trying to find ways in which the Scripture that we have is applicable to us today.  It always is and it always speaks truth to uncertain times, especially in those times such as these.  I hope you enjoy this final journey.  We might start back up again once we are done.  Stay tuned!

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Bob

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On this last day of our 100 Day Challenge we find ourselves with the prophet Ezekiel where he is tasked with laying out a brand new city of Jerusalem after he had already laid out a brand new temple.  Keep in mind he is directing these prophecies to a people who are going to be inheriting a city which is absolutely decimated, without a single structure standing so everyone is starting over.  Ezekiel gives those starting over a hope that this is going to work.  God is dividing the territory among the twelve tribes just as he did with the children of Abraham, and the people who were brought to the promised land by Joshua.  

The idea that a complete revamp was needed is something that ought to resonate with those of us who are waiting, and waiting, and waiting for this pandemic to be over.  Now, our buildings are still in place, our institutions are still in place, our places of worship are still in place, but how are our relationships?  How are those disagreements that in the past we could talk through and now we see them escalate at times to a level where we pass the point of no return?  

On this last day of our challenge we find ourselves having worked through 100 days of when we were confined to a new way of life because of the pandemic.  No one came and physically removed us from our homes to go and inhabit a foreign land like we saw in both Jeremiah and Ezekiel.  But there is still a sense that once this is over, we will have to rebuild.  I hope that we are able to focus on how Jeremiah and Ezekiel each were able to see the hand of God even in the worst of times which allowed them to encourage and give hope to the people of Israel as the times began to change to become a little more hopeful.  See you at the next challenge.

We find ourselves with a geographic description of where the temple is to be situated.  Before we have that description we read about a river that shall flow from the temple and which will make all brackish water into fresh, except for one specific area.  Water was, and still is, absolutely the most important resource in the Middle East.  Wars have been, and continue to be, fought over who has access to water.  The Golan Heights in Israel ostensible were captured for more territory, but in reality they provide access to water.  Water in the middle east is like what oil was for some countries in WWII.  It was a resource that necessitated going to war if ones access was denied.

This remains the case so when you have an image of water flowing from the temple then you know that it is meant to provide all that a people might need in order to prosper and thrive as a nation.  

We take a bit of a severe turn in this chapter as we find regulations that have to be followed in regards to offerings and steps that the “prince”, remember the one who was anointed to be the representative of the Lord, what we would call the high priest, had to do in order to ensure his legacy.  If I am reading this right, and I can never assume that I am, whenever the high priest makes a gift it has limitations.  See if I read this right, if he gives a gift to his sons, then it stays.  It is okay, they can keep that gift.  If he gives a gift to one of his servants, then they are able to keep that gift until the seventh year, then it reverts back to the sons, or back to the prince.  Not a whole lot of financial security in that deal.  

Notice how there is also a limitation on how often and when people are able to enter the temple.  For six days they are to stay out, and then the gate will be opened on the Sabbath.  It fits well into the whole sabbath perspective where on that day you rest, but it is a rest where you are to pursue a wholeness of life which God has promised we can embrace if we would follow him.  There is some truth and some benefit to focusing our time together on the sabbath as a time that we plan and coordinate for the rest of the week.  

We were introduced the past chapter to a figure identified as the “prince”.  You need to understand the prince as less of an ideal royal figure than a civil ruler with immediate concrete tasks.  He is given responsibilities and duties that have to be carried out.  He is given property in Israel once the land is restored.  He commands the prince, actually really scolds him, to put away violence and oppression and do what is just and right. 

I don’t think there is any correlation between Macchiavelli’s Little Prince and this prince here in Ezekiel, but they both do govern and rule under the hand of God in some ways.  We see the celebration of the passover reinstituted and commanded to be celebrated.  The passover remains one of the most important of the religious events in the life of the Jewish people.  Ezekiel continues to try to reinstate normalcy into the life of Israel even when it finds itself in a time that was anything but normal.

There is a significant transition that takes place here in this chapter in regards to who is in charge of the temple of the Lord.  While in the past it was the Levites, the house of Levi, who had charge over the temple, this chapter shows a significant change.  Now it is the house of Zadok, also from the Levites, who are to take charge over the temple.  It is interesting that Ezekiel himself comes from that lineage, and so in many ways this was very self-benefitting for Ezekiel.  Where does Zadok point to for his ancestry?  Zadok was the priest who took over charge of the temple, or become the chief priest, under Solomon when he replaced Abiathar as chief priest.  Zadok himself traced his heritage back to one of Aaron’s son, Eleazar.  So he wasn’t totally an outsider, but it was definitely a transition that would have been noticed.  

Notice the strictness under which the priests were able to operate.  They were not to drink wine while they were in the temple, which is different from today when the priests need to finish whatever wine is left over.  They are only to marry a virgin, or a widow of a priest.  They also received no land or investments apart from what the Lord provides to them.  God wanted to be their only investment.  All that the priests owned was wrapped up in who God was to them.  I like that minimalism.