I love Ruth

My goodness! Two books in one week! I’m through Judges and Ruth. What a wonderful week. I especially enjoyed Samson, his story was profound and humourous; juicy scripture indeed. I write this email on my last night in Ecuador, it seems fitting that the last book I read was Ruth. I always find comfort in Ruth, I must admit that lonely airports are often remedied by my scouting out a chapel (or even a bookstore if need be) to read her story.

Judges 6 begins the story of Gideon and the delivering of Israel from oppression through his hands. There is a bit of David in this story and the idea of the last being first. God calls Gideon from the weakest clan of Manasseh, the tribe that is divided by the inheritance of lands on the East and West sides of the Jordan. Gideon is called as he is hiding wheat in a wine press from the Midianites, an act of fear and survival from a person trapped by a greedy nation. Here is a person vulnerable, even among his own people, who is empowered by God to deliver the nation of Israel from oppression. It is no wonder he asks the Lord for two signs of the fleece! As I write this I am in the midst of my PhD thesis research work in Ecuador; work in a new field for me, in a second language, in a culture very different from my own and often alone. I question myself so often about whether I am qualified to do what I am doing, I ask God every day to show me the way and I believe that He does. I take comfort in the fact that Gideon too needed confirmation more than once to be sure that he is on the right path and not following a wry instinct.

Judges 7 & 8 God again takes precautions against the ego of Israel. Gideon begins with an army of thousands and it is whittled down to 300 men so that Israel will have no doubt as to whether the credit of Israel’s victory should lie with God. Again God is setting the stage for miraculous deeds to kindle faith in Israel’s hearts. Gideon’s armies are victorious and Israel has 40 years of peace. Gideon dies, and with his death the people of Israel again turn to worship the gods of Baal.

Abimelek (Gideon’s son with his concubine) usurps the position of King through underhanded dealings and murder. Jotham (Gideon’s youngest) tells a fable of trees crowning their own kings: The trees first chose the olive, but the olive declined because usefulness of its oil was more important than the prestige of monarchy. The fig tree was chosen next, but it declined because the usefulness of its good, sweet fruit was more important than the prestige of monarchy. The vine was chosen next, it also declined because the usefulness of wine was more important than the prestige of monarchy. Finally the thornbush was chosen, it accepted and promised a vengeful reign in which only the people who tried to take refuge in its dangerous shade would be safe, the others would be consumed by fire. For me, this fable talks about God’s will for our lives. If we know God and seek His will for us, we will be loath to reject our chosen role for prestige, fame and fortune. If we are in true service to Him, we should not want to abandon work, lives or vocation that bring joy, security and unity to us and our families for power and popularity. The thornbush in this story is Abimelek who gained power and popularity in service to his own ego, not in service to God or because it was God’s will for his life. The people who take refuge in his shade will be forced to sit on his thorns, get caught in his brambles and live very carefully for fear of the harm and physical wounds the thorns will cause to themselves and their families. The people who don’t take refuge in his shade will be consumed by fire, a lose-lose situation under the reign of a murderous, power-hungry false king. When we allow our egos, our human cravings for power and popularity to take the place of God’s will in our lives we cause harm to ourselves and to our brethren. It may not be as blatant as murdering 70 extended family members and usurping a throne, but the subtle harms that we cause ourselves and our loved ones through ignoring the call of God and working to live in His love can run deep.

Jotham prays/prophesies that if Abimelek, whom the people know to be a murderer and false king, is accepted as their ruler they will be consumed with fire. Abimelek rules for years and finally enters into a bloody war with Gaal. In the end, after slaughtering many, Abimelek is killed by a woman crushing his head with a stone as he tries to burn down a tower that she and her people are taking refuge in.  What strikes me as funny here is that after all Abimelek has done, all of the atrocities and mortal sins he has committed, he is most concerned in his final moments about people saying he was killed by a woman, so he orders a page to run him through with his sword. This is odd on first glance, but it is so telling when it is examined at a deeper level. Pride blatantly drives his final request, and when the thread of pride is followed back to the origins of Abimelek’s campaign it serves as an explanation for his actions. Abimelek was the son of a concubine of Gideon. Illegitimacy was an issue in the days of the Old Testament and as such, Abimelek would not be eligible to inherit nor count himself formally among the family of Gideon. He is the only illegitimate son of Gideon mentioned, this doesn’t necessarily mean he was the only one, but imagine what kind of weight it would put on a child’s heart to grow up as the only son of Gideon’s 71 children to not enjoy legitimacy. I imagine ostracism, bullying and the feeling of growing up devalued and unimportant. Wounded pride from a young age can lead to the pursuit of power, influence and “glory”. Abimelek, when compared with Jephthah comes up wanting. Jephthah was also an illegitimate son; his father was Gilead and his mother a prostitute. He was ostracized and eventually rose to deliver the nation and judge it successfully.

Samson enters the picture, the Nazirite from birth. It was really fascinating for me to understand how Samson’s hair was the source of his power. There are nazirite laws in Leviticus that state that a person who has taken a nazirite vow shall not cut his hair until the vow is completed. In order to enter back into society the nazirite must shave his hair and purify himself for seven days. When Delilah cut his hair, she essentially ended his God-willed nazirite vow. I do understand that there is incredible significance in the story of Samson, not the least of which is that his strength is a direct result of him being faithful to a God’s will for his life. However, I have to admit that I laughed out loud more than a few times during his story. The first of which was that he took honey out of a week-old lion carcass and fed it to his parents without telling them where he got it. The second is that, although Samson loved Delilah, what eventually won her the knowledge about Samson’s hair was her ability to annoy him beyond his limits with her incessant questioning. I have the English Standard Version scriptures and the line that is used in this translation is that she “vexed his soul to death”. Oh the power of a nagging wife.

Judges 19 begins the story of the Levite and his concubine, it is like the horrible sequel to Sodom and Gomorrah with extra human depravity to sell more tickets at the box office. Instead of the victims in this story being saved by God’s angels, the concubine is killed by the mob and then the Levite cuts her into 12 pieces, sending one piece to each tribe to show them the depravity of the Benjaminites in Gibeah. One asks why God didn’t intervene this time? God has said that because of the idolatry, the breaking of the commandments and the repeated turning away from Him, that He would no longer deliver Israel from their enemies. Here, we see that the level of sin and depravity has reached the same heinous levels as when God righteously razed the city entirely. This is a case of “you have made your bed, now you can sleep in it”. Israel reacts with anger toward the depravity and the ensuing wars killed more than 90 000 Israelites and Benjaminites. After the carnage, the rift was mended in the nation of Israel. The final line of the book of Judges is “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” This implies that Israel needs a King and that the King should be God’s representative on Earth whose sole purpose is to govern and guide the people in the path of the Lord.

Ruth is one of my favourite books in the bible; it always conjures images of hammocks on sunny days, green grass and the excitement of connecting with scripture on an ordinary afternoon with an extraordinary person. The story of Ruth is incredible in so many ways. It tells of women’s courage in bleak situations, of a loving God that accepts and protects people who seek His love and protection and of the transformational power of love between human beings as a reflection of God’s transformational love. Boaz welcomes Ruth into his field, heart and home even though she is a Moabite. Remembering the tragedy that ensued with inter-cultural marriage in the history of Israel, this is over-the-top miraculous. The difference between Ruth and Boaz and the Midianite-Israelite couple of Phinehas’ day is that Ruth abandoned herself to Israel and to the people and God of her mother-in-law. There was no straying here of God’s chosen, no danger of it because Ruth was seeking God out of love. The redemption of Ruth and her marriage to Boaz resulted in the forefathers of Kind David; the love of a Moabite woman for her mother-in-law and the willingness to seek God because of this love lead to the conception of Israel’s celebrated King.

May we always find celebration and fulfillment in our usefulness to God, may we intentionally seek to include the “illegitimate” and marginalized in spiritual community and prevent their emotional and spiritual isolation, and may our love for each other carry us ever closer to our Lord. Amen.