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Ruth 1:1, Jeremiah 5:25

A test of faith

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 23, 2022

Commentators seem to think that the book of Ruth took place at the time of Gideon in the book of Judges. We don’t know for sure. The first verse says, “In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.” The period of the Judges was a dark time in many ways with repeated cycles of sin, judgment, repentance, and deliverance. Each cycle ended with deliverance but then it would start all over again. Several times judgment on the land took the form of a famine so the opening verse of Ruth is consistent with the circumstances in Israel. This is much like me and my diet and exercise program. I’d eat so much and become so lethargic that I’d make myself sick. I lay in bed and repent and pray for help and then I’d get back to living healthier for a little while but sooner or later I’d eat myself sick again!! As I look back over my life that cycle has repeated itself numerous times, so I have some sympathy for the children of Israel in the days of the judges. But, in the book of Ruth, we see the overwhelming grace of God to keep his promise of sending the ultimate redeemer who will save his people from their crippling cycles of sin once and for all. “Bethlehem was about five miles south of Jerusalem. Later Obed, son of Ruth and Boaz, was born in Bethlehem and Obed’s grandson David was born in Bethlehem (Ruth 4:18–21; 1 Sam. 17:58). Bethlehem, of course, would also be the birthplace of David’s greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 2:4–7).”[1]

Moab is a very strange place for the story to take place because the Moabites were recognized enemies of the Israelites. It was very inhospitable when Israel wanted to cross their lands on their way to the promised land according to Deuteronomy. This should catch the attention of any biblical student right from the start. Ruth is a strange character to find in the genealogy of Jesus as well. She comes from the incestuous relationship of Lot with his daughter. Ruth’s history does not bode well for her! But God didn’t care about that. I’m already comforted by that truth.

God uses famines in our lives for several reasons. It appears that they often come because of failure to stay faithful to God’s direction for happy living. Moses reminded them of curses and blessings in the book of Deuteronomy.  The blessings of obedience brought Israel houses they didn’t build, water from wells they didn’t dig, and food from crops they didn’t plant. Indeed, Israel was blessed with a land flowing with milk and honey. Jeremiah explains the famine in his day by saying in Jeremiah 5:25, “Your sins have kept good from you.” But God also uses famines in our lives to test us. I think that was the case with Abraham. Just stay where you are in the will of God no matter what trouble comes your way. For Abraham, the famine was not a test of personal morality or corporate responsibility, but to remain in the land that God had given him.  He failed in this.  A famine in the land weakened Abram’s faith, and he went with Sarai into Egypt in search of food. You might ask yourself in times of famine whether you brought the drought on yourself or is God testing your faith.

[1] Reed, John W. 1985. “Ruth.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, 1:419. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

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Judges 1:1

Christ is Our Deliverer!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 22, 2022

After the major campaigns to take the land, Joshua charged each tribe to continue the occupation until they eliminated the enemies from their various lands. The tribes were not uniformly successful in doing this. At the beginning of the book of Judges, this task has yet to be fully dealt with. Just as the book of Joshua begins with the death of Moses, God’s servant, so too does Judges start with the death of Joshua, God’s servant. But God had appointed a leader to succeed Moses and made that appointment clear to the children of Israel. There was no such appointed leader at Joshua’s death. Joshua had divvied the land appropriately to the 12 tribes, but not all the land had been adequately possessed by the tribes.  Joshua charged the tribes to finish the conquest and drive out the remaining enemies. But, Joshua had left no successor to help them complete the task. The book of Judges begins, “After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the Lord, ‘Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?’”

The book begins with the request for a military leader to finish the conquest of the land. Hundreds of years go by with 13 various cycles during which the nation sins against God, God allows them to fall into servitude to the nations around them instead of conquering them. Then the Israelites cry out to God for help. God sends a “judge, “ a military hero, to deliver them from their enemies. Victory ensues, but the cycle starts over. Swindoll summarizes the book well, “The nation underwent political and religious turmoil as the people tried to possess those parts of the land that had not yet been fully conquered. The tribes fought among themselves, as well, nearly wiping out the tribes of Manasseh (Judges 12) and Benjamin (20–21). The pattern of behavior in the book of Judges is clear: the people rebelled through idolatry and disbelief, God brought judgment through foreign oppression, God raised up a deliverer—or judge, and the people repented and turned back to God. When the people fell back into sin, the cycle started over again.”[1]

It appears that Walton is right, “…the aim of this document (Judges) is not to celebrate the achievements of the generation of Israelites that survived Joshua, but to lament their sorry response to the divine mandate to occupy the land and to eliminate the Canaanites…The structure… declares that this military failure accounts for the disastrous history of the nation in the next two or three centuries.”[2] Yet, at the same time, one cannot miss God’s longsuffering with his sinful people. Throughout this book, God’s people are disobedient and idolatrous. Yet when they repented and cried out to God for help, He sent a savior! God never failed to open his arms in love to his people when they turned to Him for salvation. This is the Gospel message for us today. Though we, too, like the children of God in the period of the Judges, have been disobedient and idolatrous in our own ways, God is waiting for us to repent and turn to Him. One blogger says, “God’s compassionate delivery of His people despite their sin and rejection of Him presents a picture of Christ on the cross. Jesus died to deliver His people—all who would ever believe in Him—from their sin.”[3]

[1] https://insight.org/resources/bible/the-historical-books/judges

[2] Walton, John H. 2009. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (Old Testament): Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel. Vol. 2. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3] https://www.gotquestions.org/Book-of-Judges.html

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Joshua 1:1-2

Trust and Obey

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 21, 2022

The first five books of the Bible are named by their first word or phrase according to the Hebrew Bible and according to their content by the Greek, Latin, and English translations. The sixth book of the Bible, Joshua, departs from that practice and is the first book named after the central character in the book. Most of the following books follow this lead. Look at other books: Job, Esther, Ruth, Jonah, Samuel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and all of the minor prophets as well. It’s appropriate that this book gets its name from the lead character. Boice quotes Keller, “He [Joshua] has seldom been given the full credit he deserves as perhaps the greatest man of faith ever to set foot on the stage of human history. In fact, his entire brilliant career was a straightforward story of simply setting down one foot after another in quiet compliance with the commands of God.” Boice then continues, “Joshua was not perfect, and the achievement of ‘setting down one foot after another in quiet compliance with the commands of God’ is hardly the way to command the attention and admiration of the world. Nevertheless, obedience is the key to victory in God’s service, and Joshua is a noteworthy example of this point.”[1]

The book of Joshua begins with God pointing out the obvious to him. It begins, “After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, ‘Moses my servant is dead.’” As recorded in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land. He struck the rock instead of speaking to it. I find comfort that even in light of Moses’ failure in this regard, he is still called the “servant of the Lord” by the author of Joshua, and it’s recorded here that he is called “My servant” by God. When it came time for the children of Israel to leave the wilderness life behind and enter the promised land, Moses’ work was done. He climbed the mountain by himself. This “servant” was not weak and feeble. He was not mentally challenged in his old age either. Exell writes, “Moses had no look of a dying man as he left the camp and climbed to Nebo’s brow; no painful and protracted illness, no decrepit old age. What a blessed exodus was this; more a translation than a death. An active, useful, holy life; a speedy death—could there be a greater blessing if we have to die?”[2]

The second verse goes on with the commission of Joshua to his extraordinary life’s mission. God speaks directly to him, just as he spoke to Moses and said, “Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel.” “Arise!” or “Get up!” Joshua. It’s time to leave the wilderness. Moses is gone. You cannot look to him for leadership any longer. You must strike out on your own and move on with your future. One of the two, Joshua and Caleb, who were part of the twelve who spied out the land 40 years earlier, Joshua was well aware of the consequences of disobedience. This book is about Joshua moving out from the shadow of Moses, taking the lead, and obeying God’s call. As Moses was God’s servant for the previous generation, Joshua was now God’s man. Ellsworth wrote, “Serving the Lord is difficult, but we often make it harder than it needs to be. An old hymn, written by John H. Sammis, boils service to the Lord down to the words ‘trust’ and ‘obey’: ‘Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.’”[3]

[1] Boice, James Montgomery. 2005. Joshua. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

[2] Exell, Joseph S. n.d. The Biblical Illustrator: Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. Vol. 1. The Biblical Illustrator. New York; Chicago; Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company.

[3] Ellsworth, Roger. 2008. Opening up Joshua. Opening Up Commentary. Leominster: Day One Publications.

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Deuteronomy 1:1, Romans 9:25-26

Moses Speaks to Us

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 20, 2022

In the Hebrew Bible, the five books of the Pentateuch are all named by the first word or phrase in the book. Genesis is named “In the Beginning.” Well, that’s the English translation of “Bereshit.” Exodus is named “These are the names” which translates “Aleh Shemot.” Leviticus is “The Lord called” which is English for “Yiqra Yahweh.” Numbers is “The Lord spoke,” or “yidabber Yahweh.” Some might argue that the Hebrew title comes from the second phrase of the book of Numbers which translates “in the wilderness.” That would be “Be Midbar.” Deuteronomy takes its English title from the Septuagint as well as the Latin Vulgate. This word translates in English to “the second law.” It is of course the reciting of the law with a few tweaks and explanations. The Hebrew title is “These are the words” or “elleh ha dibarim.” So the first verse of the book of Deuteronomy is, “These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.”

When Moses speaks to the children of Israel, he is speaking for God. He is also speaking to every generation to follow. “As is made plain throughout, it is God’s word for the present generation as well as for all generations to come.”[1] The call is to “the children of Israel” but the Apostle Paul wants to include all those who come to faith in Israel’s Messiah as “grafted” in the children of Israel. Romans 9:25 and 26 say, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

There are some specific locations mentioned in the verse and some are identifiable today. This was a real event, happening at a real place, in a real-time in history. It was in the deserts of Moab, east of the Jordan River, and after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. In Numbers 14:34, we learn that the spies who were sent out to look over the land were gone for 40 days. They came back with a bad report and were charged by God to spend one year in the wilderness for each day they spied out the land. The wilderness was not only a physical place, it was a place of trials, hardships, hunger, thirst, and temptations. Since it was the result of 40 days of doubt, fear, and failure, Jesus reversed that experience by spending his own 40 days in the wilderness being hungry, thirsted, and directly tempted by God. But whereas the Israelites failed the temptation. Jesus passed it not only for himself but for all who would believe. Further, Jesus resisted all the temptations of Satan by quoting from the book of Deuteronomy. Just as Jesus understood the book of Deuteronomy as being relevant for him, thousands of years after it was written, so too is it relevant to us today.

[1] Hall, Gary Harlan. 2000. Deuteronomy. The College Press NIV Commentary. Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co.

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Numbers 1:1

The Wilderness Experience

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 19, 2022

The opening verse of the book of Numbers says, “The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt.” Numbers is the fourth installment of the larger work called the “Pentateuch.” The first five books of the Bible are just one main work. The Jews called in “The Law.” It is a continual narrative from book to book. Each of the five books contributes to the whole story. Duguid says, “the book of Numbers wants you to know that it never existed as an independent narrative: it is itself a continuation of the story of God’s dealings with his people already begun in Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus.”[1] The name of the book of Numbers in the Hebrew Bible is “The Lord Spoke.” That represents the first phrase in the book. Each of the five books in the Pentateuch is named after the opening word or phrase of the book in the Jewish Old Testament. This makes sense when you see that they are not independent books but parts of a greater whole. The Septuagint, however, separates the five into their individual accounts and attempts to name them according to their content. Genesis begins God’s work in the world. Exodus explains the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. Leviticus records the instructions to the Levites regarding the sacrificial system and Numbers reflects the census that God told Moses to take of all the men of fighting age as they prepare to enter the promised land.

The speaker in the opening verse is the personal name for God: YHWH, Yahweh. The expression, the Lord spoke, occurs almost one hundred times in Numbers alone and shows God’s special direction of Moses as Israel’s authorized leader.”[2] It’s interesting to notice that the account of Numbers begins in the wilderness and finishes in the wilderness. The notable thing about the book is the lack of progress in the story of Redemption. Progress won’t actually be picked up until after God reviews the Law again in Deuteronomy and then Joshua takes over for the mobilization of the army numbered in the wilderness.

A blogger writes, “A ‘wilderness experience’ is usually thought of as a tough time in which a believer endures discomfort and trials. The pleasant things of life are unable to be enjoyed, or they may be absent altogether, and one feels a lack of encouragement. A ‘wilderness experience’ is often a time of intensified temptation and spiritual attack. It can involve a spiritual, financial, or emotional drought. Having a ‘wilderness experience’ is not necessarily a sign that a believer is sinning; rather, it is a time of God-ordained testing.”[3] Jesus had his wilderness experience after his Baptism. Israel was in the wilderness for 40 years during which time it experienced hunger and thirst and temptation. Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days. He too experienced hunger and thirst and was tempted. God had a purpose for the wilderness experiences of Israel. He had a purpose for the wilderness experiences of Jesus. He has a purpose for ours as well.

[1] Duguid, Iain M., and R. Kent Hughes. 2006. Numbers: God’s Presence in the Wilderness. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

[2] Woods, Clyde M., and Justin Rogers. 2006. Leviticus–Numbers. The College Press NIV Commentary. Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co.

[3] https://www.gotquestions.org/wilderness-experience.html

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Leviticus 1:1, John 1:14

The Lord Called

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 18, 2022

The name of the book of Leviticus in the Hebrew Bible is “The Lord Called.” Like Genesis and Exodus, the Hebrews named these books after the first word or phrase in the book. The instructions that God is about to give Moses concern the performance of the complete sacrificial system that was predominantly carried out by the Levites. Thus, our English Bibles follow the Septuagint in naming the book after them. God called Moses in the book to give him instructions to pass on to the Levites. Leviticus 1:1 says, “The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting…” The last three verses of the book of Exodus sets the stage for God’s call in Leviticus. It speaks of the cloud in the daytime and the fire at night that represents the presence of the Lord with the children on their exodus from Egypt. The cloud and the fire accompanied the tabernacle.

The writers of the Translator’s Handbook for Leviticus do not like the phrase “tent of meeting.” They argue that it does not adequately convey the full meaning of the Hebrew expression. “It is the portable sanctuary of the people of Israel, described in which God meets with Moses to communicate to him the divine will.” They like a more liquid translation of “Today’s English Version” which calls it the Tent of the Lord’s Presence. Better they say is, “the tent where the LORD is,” or “the place where the LORD appears.”[1]

In John’s Gospel, John 1:14, he uses the term “tabernacled” to describe Jesus coming to earth in the flesh. As Leviticus is going to tell us about the details of the sacrificial system by which God will make atonement for the sins of the people, John makes it clear, as do other writers of the New Testament that “Jesus is not only the revelation of God but the fulfillment of the Old Testament sacrificial system that foreshadowed his sacrifice that would remove sins once and for all. The tabernacle as the special place of God’s presence is a type of the incarnation of Christ, who ‘made his dwelling’ (tabernacled) among us. Eichrodt speaks of the significance of the tabernacle and its New Testament reality in Christ: The concept of the distant God who yet condescends to be really present in the midst of his people and enables them to participate in the divine life, lives on in the symbolic language of the New Testament, which uses the image of the ‘tabernacling’ to tell of the dwelling of the eternal God among men.”[2]

[1] Péter-Contesse, René, and John Ellington. 1992. A Handbook on Leviticus. UBS Handbook Series. New York: United Bible Societies.

[2] Rooker, Mark F. 2000. Leviticus. Vol. 3A. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

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Exodus 1:1

A Story of Deliverance

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 17, 2022

Genesis concluded with the family of Jacob all reunited in Egypt with Joseph being the second in command and most likely the most powerful man in Egypt. Jacob died and his body was carried back to the promised land for burial. Then Joseph died after blessing his sons and making the family promise to take his bones back to Israel as well. The children of Israel remained in Egypt for 400 years. Then the book of Exodus begins by reviewing the tribes of Israel. Exodus 1:1 says, “These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household…”

The name of this book of the Bible in the Hebrew Bible is “These are the names.” That’s the first phrase in the book. In the Hebrew Bible the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, are all named by their first word or phrase. The first word in Genesis is “In the Beginning.” That’s the name of the book in the Hebrew Bible. The same practice holds for Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. But when the book of Exodus was translated around 200 BC from Hebrew to Greek it was named “Exodus.” That’s the Greek word that means “going out.” It was chosen because it seemed to capture the main event of the book. Our English Bibles kept the Greek word “Exodus” as the title and simply transliterated the Greek word into English letters.

Exodus 1 acts as a bridge between the events of Genesis and the story of God’s redemption in history. It is a reminder that the story is continuing: the promises of salvation from Genesis are now worked out in the events which follow.[1] Phillip Ryken introduces the study of Exodus by saying, “Exodus is an epic tale of fire, sand, wind, and water. The adventure takes place under the hot desert sun, just beyond the shadow of the Great Pyramids. There are two mighty nations—Israel and Egypt—led by two great men—Moses the liberating hero and Pharaoh the enslaving villain. Almost every scene is a masterpiece: the baby in the basket; the burning bush; the river of blood and the other plagues; the angel of death; the crossing of the Red Sea; the manna in the wilderness; the water from the rock; the thunder and lightning on the mountain; the Ten Commandments; the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night; the golden calf; the glory in the tabernacle.”

He continues, “Once heard, the story is never forgotten. For Jews it is the story that defines their very existence, the rescue that made them God’s people. For Christians it is the gospel of the Old Testament, God’s first great act of redemption. We return to the exodus again and again, sensing that somehow it holds significance for the entire human race. It is the story that gives every captive the hope of freedom. Thus it was only natural for African-American slaves—many of whom were Christians—to understand their captivity as a bondage in Egypt and to long for the day when they would be “free at last.” The exodus shows that there is a God who saves, who delivers his people from bondage.”[2]

[1] Campbell, Iain D. 2006. Opening up Exodus. Opening Up Commentary. Leominster: Day One Publications.

[2] Ryken, Philip Graham, and R. Kent Hughes. 2005. Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

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Jeremiah 7:12

No Substitute for Faith in the Living God

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 16, 2022

The religious leaders of Judah taught that God would never desert them. God was on their side in every conflict. They proclaimed security and safety from all their enemies as long as the Temple and its sacrifices and rituals continued. Jeremiah’s long boney finger pointing at them warned that this was false. He urged the people of Judah not to listen to the lies of these religious leaders. To drive his point home Jeremiah reminded the people of what happened to them at Shiloh. In Jeremiah 7:12, he says, “Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel.” He allowed the Philistines to take the ark of the covenant from the Israelites. Psalm 78:60-62 recounts this episode. It says, “He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mankind,  and delivered his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe.  He gave his people over to the sword and vented his wrath on his heritage.”

Feinberg tells us the story in some detail. “At Shiloh, Israel went into idolatry (1 Sam 4:1–11); so the ark was captured by the Philistines at the Battle of Ebenezer. The Bible gives no historical account of the destruction of Shiloh. Jeremiah’s references to its destruction (cf. also 26:6, 9) have been confirmed by excavations of the site, which revealed a city destroyed by the Philistines about 1050 b.c., probably after the Battle of Ebenezer. The dig was carried out by the Danish Palestine Expedition. Their findings confirmed Psalm 78:60–64. Shiloh was to the judges what Jerusalem was to the kings. Jeremiah was a descendant of the Eli family; so the tragedy had personal implications for him. The destruction of Shiloh did not necessarily mean the demolition of the tabernacle, because it was still in existence at Gibeon in David’s time (cf. 1 Chronicles 21:29), at the commencement of Solomon’s reign. The sanctuary at Shiloh proved the falsity of the claim that the Lord was unalterably committed to an earthly temple and its preservation regardless of the moral state of the people.”[1]

Pointing out to the men of Judah the destruction that befell Shiloh in spite of the presence of the tabernacle had to have been offensive to the religious leaders of the Southern Kingdom that Jeremiah was addressing. By the time Jeremiah addresses the men of Judah, the Northern Kingdom of Israel with its capital in Samaria, was destroyed by Syria years before. They were destroyed because they deserved it. Not us! It was the cry of the southern kingdom at the time of Jeremiah. But in connecting the fate of Shiloh with the future of Judah and the temple in Jerusalem, Jeremiah wanted to illustrate that “God is thus shown to be independent of any given locality and uncommitted to a specific cultic object. However valuable as an aid to spirituality such things might be, they can never be acceptable substitutes for implicit faith in the living God. This affirmation must have seemed the worst kind of heresy to Jeremiah’s superstitious hearers.”[2]

[1] Feinberg, Charles L. 1986. “Jeremiah.” In The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, edited by Frank E. Gaebelein, 6:429. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

[2] Harrison, R. K. 1973. Jeremiah and Lamentations: An Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 21. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

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