Deep Calls

     I am now turning from the story of Ruth and Boaz to the story of David. His story is crazy long in scripture. To read it all you must look at lots of books: 1 and 2 Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, and, of course, Psalms.      I warn you, I will probably hop-scotch around a bit, rather than write a nice, neat chronological study of David "from ____________ to _______________". I have found already as I pondered him that my thoughts are kind of all over the show.       See, I love this character. He is by NO means perfect. He does some really really really screwy things and makes some really really REALLY bad decisions. But ~ the thing that completely redeems him in my eyes is that he wants, pursues, and lives his life (as much as that life is revealed to us in scripture) in a vital, vibrant, intimate personal relationship with God. He doesn't try to be "good" -- I mean, he is good ~ quite often in the story. But whether he is making good decisions or stupidly

     The last chapter of Proverbs contains a poem about "a virtuous wife." It begins:                    "The saying of King Lemuel -- an oracle (or prophecy) his mother taught him."       Commentators say a lot about this fictional king--perhaps he was a king of one of the surrounding nations; perhaps the elder brother of Agur, king of an Arab tribe in Manna; perhaps it is an older form of Nemuel, or Jemuel, Simeon's oldest son. OK...maybe. But I think not. When I looked up the meaning in Strongs it said,                   "OT:3927 Lemuw'el (lem-oo-ale') or Lemow;el (lem-o-ale') from OT:3926 and OT:410, belonging to God." I think it is a euphemism for Solomon.  The advice from Lemuel's mother is:                   "O my son, O son of my womb, O son of my vows,                    do not spend your strength on women,                      your vigor on those who ruin kings."       The word "stre

 I love this last chapter of Ruth. I am sure Boaz did not sleep a wink after Ruth left. I can see Boaz strolling to the gate of the city early...perhaps as the sun just begins to rise, his eyes full of light as the first rays of the sun crest the horizon.  - - - - -       Boaz walked briskly through the darkness to the house. "Micah...Micah, get up ~ come quietly ~ I need to talk to you."      "Boaz? What is wrong ... what -- it isn't even light?"      "So, what is Elias's wife's name...Mirrim, Mari?? ...isn't his wife with child again? They have, what, two sons, three?"      "Uhh, yes, Mirrim, yes it is Mirrim. And yes, Yaffa tells me that Mirrim thinks this will be a girl, finally. Why? ... OH!  Elias !" Micah chuckled. He pulled his cloak around his shoulders and came to stand beside Boaz. " Elias...sooo , isn't he the nearest kin to Naomi?"      Boaz suddenly turned and grabbed a couple of buckets fr

      "I don't understand ~ what do you mean 'kinsman-redeemer'? Was he related to Elimelech? Why has he not asked you to move on to his estate, if he is kin?" Ruth fretted at Naomi's words as she dished up the dinner she had made.       "No. He is not 'kin' like that. He is Elimelech's kinsman, but a distant relative...they come from the same clan. No. 'Kinsman-redeemer' ... it is a role, um a tradition from the law. You see, Ruth, God owns all the land ~ all of it. He has given it to families based upon which tribe we are from. He did it when we first came to the promised land."      "I thought you said Elimelech had land and you were going to sell it . . ."      "Yes, but you see the land should stay in the family. Even if I sold it to some other family, some other clan, at the Jubilee it would come back to the family. You see? It is God's ~ I cannot sell that. It is more that I sell the right to use i

There are many things we don't know about Boaz: -- We don't know why this rich, successful, kind, generous man was single and, it seems, without any children -- We don't know what went on behind the scenes as the story transpired. -- We don't know if it crossed Boaz's mind to be kinsman-redeemer. We don't know, but here are the colors I am painting to fill in the spaces between the lines      Spring melted into early summer. The barley harvest was finished, beginning in Abib   {our March to April}   and finishing in Zif   {our April to May} .   There had been a 60 fold increase and much rejoicing. The wheat harvest was drawing to a close and it too had been abundant, beginning in Sivan   { our May to June}   and finishing in Tamuz   {our June to July} .  The days were warmer and warmer -- some hot. Boaz stood looking out at the fields one morning, breathing prayers of gratitude to God for the full barns. Micah walked up, ready to begin the day.       &q

      " Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."  ( Ruth 1:16-17)      Have you ever been to a wedding where these words were part of the wedding vows? I have . . .  SEVERAL times. They are wonderful vows ~ so passionate, so all-encompassing. They speak of love that is relentless, committed, faithful. Just perfectly formed as vows for a wedding. These words come from the book of Ruth in the Bible. The thing is though, they are not, in that book, spoken at a wedding. While they are spoken by Ruth, she did not say them to Mahlon - her first husband who died in Moab - nor to Boaz - the second husband that she married in Israel. They were not marriage vows. They were words she spoke to her mother-in-law, Naomi.      Who was this woman? What kind of woman must N