Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

At the beginning of this second chapter of Ruth, the unknown author provides his readers with information about a relative of Naomi’s late husband. Boaz was not the only one of his relatives that lived in Bethlehem, but the author wants us to take note of his existence. He also wants us to take note of his character, which he describes as worthy. The description indicates that he has a good influence over others, that he is a man who knows how to get things down, who can use his status in the community for the benefit of others, and who is respected by others because of his fear of God. It is possible that Boaz was a military leader as the term translated ‘man’ in verse 1 can have that meaning. Psalm 15:2-5 gives a character portrait of such a person: ‘He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbour, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a vile person is despise...

  What is a situation like in which God does something unexpected? One answer to that question, and it is probably the only answer, is: ‘We have not a clue what it will be like.’ So far in our series we have seen several angelic visits to individuals, including those by the heavenly being called ‘the angel of the Lord’. One recurring feature of the visits is that there is a diversity of details regarding each visit. The same process is not followed in each encounter.   Sometimes, the visits occur at meal-times (as with Abraham) or at evening (as with Lot); at other times, they appear in visions and dreams (as with Jacob); at other times, they seem to speak from heaven (as with Abraham at Mount Moriah); at Bochim, the angel came there from Gilgal, but we don’t know if he walked along the road or if anyone saw him on the road until he appeared and delivered his message.   The occasion at Bochim is not the only occasion in the Book of Judges when an angel appears. A re...

One of the complaints of contemporary life is a failure of people to express realism. When asked how things are going, most people will say fine, but they may be at that moment going somewhere for help. When we look at the news, we are informed that many people are facing huge problems at different levels of life. The same may be true in the spiritual life of believers in Jesus. Imagine returning to the place where we had worshipped God previously after about a decade of being away. What would we say if someone asked us how we were? Would we tell it as it is, or would we think it best to be positive and not admit that aspects of life have been hard? In a sense, this is the question that was asked of Naomi when she and Ruth reached Bethlehem. While one cannot be precise how long Naomi was away for, she had been in Moab for at least ten years. Their arrival in Bethlehem caused quite a stir in the community. The women of Bethlehem do not seem to have been certain that it was her when they...

  In the previous chapter of Judges there are two lists. One list concerns successes that the children of Israel had known under the guidance of Joshua and the second list concerns failures that they had experienced. Perhaps we might have been happy with that description of things because life is usually composed of progresses and declines. Maybe the children of Israel were content too, especially if we recall that initially they did not possess any of the land. Whether they were or not, there was one person who was not content, but we might be surprised at who it is.   Who is he? The one concerned about the situation is called the angel of the Lord. The word angel can have the idea of messenger and on this occasion the angel had a message for the people. Yet as we look at his message, we can see that he did not pass on a message that spoke about what God had done. Instead, he passed on a message about what he had done in the past, what he had said and done, and those act...