Week Eleven Reading Assignment:
Judges 20 - 1 Samuel 17

"Oh! how great and glorious a thing it is to have before one the Word of God!  With that we may at all times feel joyous and secure; we need never be in want of consolation, for we see before us, in all its brightness, the pure and right way.  He who loses sight of the Word of God, falls into despair; the voice of heaven no longer sustains him; he follows only the disorderly tendency of his heart, and of world vanity, which lead him on to his destruction."

(Martin Luther, "The Table Talk of Martin Luther")

This Week's Video:
Alphabetizing Old Testament History I-J

Samuel and All Israel
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Good Book Review: The Silver Lining

The Book of Judges can feel like a dark cloud.  Ruth is sometimes called its silver lining.

The story of Ruth comes during the period of the Judges, but this little book and story have a dramatically different feel than the larger historical context.  Quite in contrast to the rough-and-tumble feel of the judges, when life was often cheap and loyalties were easily forgotten, the story of Ruth is marked by loveliness and faithfulness.  
 
The very fact that Ruth’s story should leave such a sweet taste in our mouths is itself a testimony to its central char-acter. The story, after all, begins with difficulty and tragedy -- famine, displace-ment, death, grief, and despair.  And yet, still, we remember it as a lovely story.

In the midst of the tragedy and dark-ness, Ruth remains a bright spot of love and loyalty.  She stays with the be-leaguered Naomi, though leaving seems to be in her own best interest.   But disregarding what it apparently best for her, Ruth does what is best for Naomi.  
 
And then God does what is best for everyone.  And His hand in the story exceeds the boun-daries of the book, as we anticipate both David and Jesus.

The plot turns on practices unfamiliar to us — kinsmen redeemers, sandal contracts, tag-along harvesting, and lying at a sleeping man’s feet.  But what is familiar in the midst of it all are the sweet virtues of Ruth that prove to be the real turning points in the story. 
"If God could build a church in the first century without a New Testament, it would be negligent for us in the twentieth century to preach only out of the New.... I'm convinced that one of the reasons we Christians have not really transformed our culture is the fact that too often we have neglected the Old Testament."

​(Dennis Kinlaw)

A Book of the Land

It has been my good fortune to travel to the Holy Land six times -- three times as a child and youth participating in tours that my parents led, and three times as an adult leading tour groups from my own churches.  I love that land, and I know that my reading of the Bible has been heavily influenced by my exposure to that land.  The Bible, after all, is no mere philosophical treatise.  It is, above all, a story.  And that story unfolds in very particular times and places.  

We had a revealing way of saying that something "happened" or "occurred."  We will say, at times, that something "took place."  Well, the events of the Bible "took place."  And the place that a lot of those events took, if you will, is that strip of land between the Mediter-ranean Sea and the Jordan River that we call the Holy Land. 

If you have the opportunity to travel to the Holy Land, I encourage you to take it.  It will be a meaningful and a memor-able experience.  And if you intend to keep reading the Bible for the rest of your life, then you will be glad for the rest of your life that you went to see and to experience that land. 

We are making a point of learning a bit about the land during this year by including several sessions on Bible geography.  But right now I mention the land, not because of any map study, but because of the particular book we are reading this week.  The Old Testament Book of 1 Samuel is, in my experience, distinctly tied to the land.

Let me invite you to put a mental bookmark in 1 Samuel.  If you have a chance to visit the Holy Land, go back and read through 1 Samuel from the Old Testament (and the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament) before you make your trip.  Better yet: read through those two books with a map of Israel at your side.  You will find that these books are so steeped in the cities and towns, the hills and valleys of that land that they will prepare you well for a visit there. 
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