Redeemer

A very creative and talented woman I know sent me an email yesterday to thank me for leaving a comment on an online slideshow she’d put together. She said that out of 61 page views, I was the only person who wrote a comment. I can understand if people didn’t want to leave their real name – I have a thing about privacy myself, and I don’t belong to any social media sites because of it, but even if they didn’t want to leave their name, at least leave a comment and let the person know in private it was you. I did leave my first name – even though it’s an odd name, I’ve discovered that there are other people out there with it, and I knew my friend would know it was me so I didn’t leave my last name. What really surprised me about people not leaving comments is that it's a really great slide show about an interesting topic – it's about people who forage for food that is being thrown away in New York City, and the way she put it together it was almost like a movie with captions. I even like the title of it, “Freegan Trash Tour 101,” and If you’re interested in looking at it, the website where you can find it is:

http://photopeach.com/album/jdwo5x?invitecode=c99a9ecd59

If you go there, leave a comment – a  nice one!

I guess the thing that I really don’t understand is why people can’t just be nicer to each other. What does it take to leave a comment online about someone’s creative work? Right now I owe my friend Kevin Kraft two reviews of his book “S” that I wrote about here in my post titled, “Emmanuel,” but my excuse is that work has been crazy busy and stressful and I’ve been working a lot of late nights and weekends, and I want to take the time to write a real review that has some depth to it. I’m planning on getting to his reviews over the July 4^th holiday, and even though I haven’t done it yet, I am planning on it and it’s been on my mind as something that I need to do. I’m not that nice a person – Jesus makes me much better than I am, but on my own I’m very lazy and I like to do what I like to do, like read a lot and take long walks. I guess what I’m trying to say is that if I can do these small and simple but supportive things as lazy and selfish as I am with my personal time, why can’t everyone?

Yesterday morning the Lord gave me the Book of Ruth when I was on the train into work. More specifically He gave me chapters one and two, and I found myself weeping like I always do when I read that part of that story. It’s such a beautiful story, and those chapters are for me some of the most beautiful in all scripture. They’re very simple, almost like a fairy tale in the telling. “Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land . . . .” The Book of Ruth comes right after the Book of Judges, and that’s actually where the Lord started me. At the end of Judges there is a very un fairy tale like story, unless you think of Grimm’s Fairy Tales in some of the more gruesome parts. After chapter after chapter of needless killing and mayhem, the very end of Judges says this, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25) There was total mayhem, with everyone doing their own selfish thing, and then we come to Ruth.

When I looked up the name “Ruth,” I found a very interesting website that discusses the story of Ruth and the origins of the name in Hebrew. The link for that website is: http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Ruth.html#.Uczdqp7D8cA, and some of the things I read gave so much more meaning to a story I already love. The website tells us that “there is no such word in Hebrew as Ruth,” and it goes on to say that scholars have decided that it comes from a “rich root group,” and then the article goes on to describe what that root group is. The first one is from a verb to pasture, tend or graze – of course Jesus is our Shepherd, and Ruth is the grandmother of David, directly in the line of Jesus. And Ruth gleans in the field of Boaz, her kinsman redeemer, a type of grazing for humans. Because she finds favor with Boaz, and he is truly her kinsman redeemer, the story also echoes the redemption story of Christ with us.

The second part of the root group means “to be a friend of” or a female companion or a neighbor, but the description goes on to draw a parallel with the use of the same word in Leviticus 19:18 where we read the command of God to “love thy neighbor as thyself,” and also in Isaiah 34:15-16 where it is used to mean “mate”: “The owl will nest there and lay eggs, she will hatch them, and care for her young under the shadow of her wings; there also the falcons will gather, each with its mate. Look in the scroll of the Lord and read: None of these will be missing, not one will lack her mate. For it is His mouth that has given the order, and His Spirit will gather them together.”

I had to take a pause there because the Lord is speaking something very deep to my heart. There is a promise that he has made to me that I have been waiting on, a promise about someone I love, and when He gave me Ruth this morning, He started speaking to my heart then, and now He is confirming it again. Thank you Father, thank you Lord. Thank you.

The third root means “purpose or aim,” and the reference is given to Psalm 139:2, “You alone know when I sit down and when I get up. You read my thoughts from far away,” and it also mentions that it is identical to the word meaning “friend.” There is another derivation of the word that means “longing,” and the reference is given to Ecclesiastes 1:14, “I have seen everything that is done under the sun. Look at it! It’s all pointless. (It’s like) trying to catch the wind.”

The book of Ruth, coming as it does right after all the murder and mayhem and pointless misery of the end of Judges, shows kindness in such depth between people that it brings light and hope into the world again. Ruth chooses to stay with her mother-in-law after her husband, her mother-in-law’s son, has died. They travel from the land of Moab where they have been living, and where Ruth was born, to go back to Bethelehem where Naomi came from. Ruth leaves everything behind her because she chooses to follow her mother-in-law Naomi, saying, “Wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.” (Ruth 1:16) Ruth chooses to stay with Naomi, though Naomi has nothing left to offer her. In fact, Naomi says of herself, “Do not call me Naomi (meaning pleasant), call me Mara (which means bitter), for the Lord Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full and the Lord has brought me home again empty.” (Ruth 1:20-21)

The first thing that Ruth does when they are in Bethlehem is offer to go out gleaning to get some food for them of some kind. She happens to end up in a field owned by Boaz, who is a relative of Naomi’s, though Ruth does not know that. Boaz looks kindly on her and not only allows her to glean in his field, but he also protects her by ordering the men not to harm her or touch her in any way. He also tells them to leave extra behind so that her gleaning is an abundant one. His kindness is simply kindness. He has no other motive. She has found favor in his eyes because he has heard how kind she was to Naomi. He says to Ruth, “It has been fully reported to me all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know before. The Lord repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.”

When I read that passage on the train, I heard the Lord speaking to my heart. My family is not born again, they are not even religious at all in any way. In a way, when I was born again, I made a choice to leave them. Although I am still a part of the family and I stay in touch with them, the way we see life is so vastly different. When I was born again, I was sent to a people I did not know – people who follow a God that my family never told me about. When I read that passage I felt that the Lord was telling me that He knows how difficult it has been for me to walk this walk with Him, and He is telling me that He will not let me down because I have come under His wings for refuge.

And this message is not just for me. That is the beauty of the Holy Spirit and how the Lord will speak to many through one passage. Whoever is reading this post, this message is for you too. That is how the Holy Spirit works. You need to know that the Lord has seen your struggle, and He has also seen what you have done for others. He has seen the tragedy and loss in your life, and He knows the longing in your heart. Job says in chapter 19 verse 25, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand on the earth.” Your Redeemer lives, He lives, He lives.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan