Ruth 2:2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose sight I may find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.”

The Book of Ruth is an interesting story. Naomi and her husband leave Israel and move to neighboring Moab. In Moab, Naomi has two sons who marry Moabites.  As fate would have it, all the men (Naomi’s husband and both her sons die.) Naomi returns to Israel, her daughter-in-law, Ruth is steadfast and goes with her.  There, Ruth eventually marries a man named Boaz.  Ruth and Boaz have a son named Obed. Obed is the grandfather of King David.

In the above passage, Ruth asks Naomi for permission to go to the Boaz’s fields and glean.  Gleaning is going through the fields and picking up the remains of what is left after the crop has been harvested. It is barely enough food to live under normal circumstances. I imagine it is hard dirty work.

However, it is doing just that that allows Ruth to meet her destiny.  Though this menial work Ruth not only ends up with a vastly improved lifestyle but also becomes the Mother of Kings.

We might all learn something from that story. 

Judges 21:25 In those days Israel had no king; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Eventually not only did the people of Israel drift away from God, the tales of the atrocities that were committed get really bad.  The last stories of Judges are quite disturbing.

The story of Samson is indicative of a downward spiral.  Samson was chosen before he was born to be God’s anointed. However, his own selfishness and vanity and lack of concern for God’s calling become his own unraveling and in turn, he fails to accomplish much for the people. (Though the Bible says he led Israel for 20 years).

The downward spiral continues. By the end of this Book, the Israelites, themselves, nearly completely wipe out the tribe of Benjamin.  It seems sometimes, God’s people and their attitudes were the cause of a greater danger of decreasing God’s chosen than the threats from outside.

Makes me wonder: Are my words and actions more likely to contribute to an increase in God’s Kingdom, or a decrease?

Judges 6:13 And Gideon said unto Him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be all His miracles, which our fathers told us of, saying, did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? But now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.

The people of Israel had fallen away and were being oppressed by the Midianites. The Angel of the Lord came to Gideon and told him that the Lord was with him.  However, Gideon’s reply was basically, “Why are all these bad things happening and the Lord hasn’t done anything about them? If the Lord is good, why doesn’t He do something about it?”

The Lord’s reply is in the next verse, “Am I not sending you?”

I wonder how many times we have asked similar questions of God. Many times, I believe God’s reply to us would be the same as it was to Gideon.

Judges 2:16 Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.

The Book of Judges traces the Israelites from the time of the death of Joshua to Samuel (who would anoint their first king).  Basically the people would drift away from God. Their enemies would beleaguer them. God would raise up someone who was appointed to lead them back or lead them against their enemies. (These leaders had various degrees of success, mostly depending on how well they followed God). The process would repeat itself.

I think a key point of the Bible is within this Book.  People find God, then they drift, God wants His people to come back to Him. The people encounter a person, situation or circumstance that causes them to repent and revival occurs.

That is probably why it is called RE-pent and Re-vival.  We end up doing it again and again.  We could just be penting and viving.

Which brings us to another key point of the Bible. God wants us to RE-turn to Him.  Good thing He has a lot of patience.

Joshua 24:15  “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

The Book of Joshua chronicles in large part the battles of the Israelites, led by Joshua, against the people occupying the Promised Land.  A long time of peace ensued. Joshua was a very old man by the time of this verse. He gathered the people and reminded them how the Lord first brought the people out of the land beyond the Euphrates and then out of Egypt.  They, themselves, had seen many great wonders.  As Joshua prepares to go the way of all earth, as he puts it, he challenges the people of Israel at that time, and for all time, whom will they serve?

We are confronted with such a choice in this day.  Indeed, this is a choice we make every day. Who do we serve?  I would say that to whomever my actions are pleasing is to whom I serve.  If my actions are only pleasing to the world, then I serve the world.  If my actions are simply pleasing to myself, then I am simply self-serving.

It is not a stretch to say that we give service to the things we care about and value. Our happiness becomes tied to these things. If we give service, care about, and put our faith and values into things that are superficial and pass away, so too will our happiness.  If we care about things more permanent, so too will be our happiness. If we care about, and put our faith and values into things that are everlasting; so too will be our happiness.

So who you going to serve?

Joshua 10:13 So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.

I don’t like back tracking, but here I go.  I am well into reading the Book of Joshua, but the above verse kept gnawing at me for a couple of reasons.  I ended up getting sidetracked on this for some time.  I’d like to briefly discuss one of the points of this verse.

It says that the sun stood still and the moon stopped.  Some argue that this is impossible and would have catastrophic effects on the Earth.  I read that some point to this verse and say that’s why the Bible is unbelievable. That says more about the person than the Bible.  If that would be impossible to God, that would kind of mean that gravity is the God and not God.  Man’s understanding doesn’t confine God.  Man’s understanding begins (and ends) with God.

My question here is not whether this event happened, but rather what was it that did occur? Was the sky lit up so that it appeared the Sun was still high in the sky?  Did the Earth stand still? If there was some sort of celestial alteration, shouldn’t there be more of a record of it somewhere?

Some years ago, it was circulated that NASA scientists “discovered” that there was a missing day. You might have heard that story. It was a hoax. God does not need man to lie for Him.  However, many cultures have an extended day or night as part of their folklore.  Could it be because there was some basis for that?

Perhaps what I should be asking is a different question. Why was this verse in the Bible?  I believe that this verse exemplifies what perhaps the Bible (or at least, up to this point) is all about.  Read this carefully: The point is that God is bigger than gravity. God is bigger than any situation, any circumstance, any sickness or any sin that we may have found ourselves.  That sheds a whole new light on our lives.

Joshua 14:12a Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day.

This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible.  To understand it best, I might need to rehash some things that happened earlier. Previously, Moses sent twelve spies to scope out the Promised Land.  All came back and said that the land was, indeed a wonderful place.  However, ten of the spies said that the people that held the hand were too powerful for the Israelites.  In fact, the people were like giants!  Caleb and Joshua, who were the remaining spies, said that they believed God would give those people over to them.  Moses, pressured by his people from the fear of the ten spies report, decided not to enter the Promised Land.  Not good. God told them, that since they doubted none of the people who were adults would live to see the Israelites enter the Promised Land, except Caleb and Joshua.

Let’s fast-forward forty years. Joshua takes over for Moses and wins the battle of Jericho. The Israelites enter the Promised Land.  They decide to divvy up the land.  Joshua gives Caleb first dibs on choosing his inheritance because of his faithfulness.

To paraphrase: Caleb says that forty years ago he was willing to fight the so-called giants of the land because God had said He would give the Israelites the victory. However, he was not able to fight the giants.  Now he was an old man and the story is told that the giants were still at Hebron.  Even though he was eighty-five years old, he did not believe that God had changed His mind. Caleb wanted Hebron as his inheritance, so he may fight the giants that God had destined him to do so long ago.

If God has given you a vision, a dream, a mission or a quest, do not think your opportunity has passed with time or age.  The calling of God is without repentance.  God does not change His mind.  Just look at Caleb.

 Joshua 1:7 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.”

 The Book of Joshua starts off by Joshua receiving his commission from God to succeed Moses, who had died. The first thing that stands out to me is in the first chapter.  God says no less than four times to ‘be strong and courageous’.

The implication is that being strong and courageous is a choice. This got me to meditate on the meaning of what God was saying and what really is strength and courage. Briefly put:

Courage is to choose faith and remain firm in your beliefs even in the face of fear and doubt.

Strength is to remain stout and stay your appointed path no matter the resistance and pressure against it.

I can’t help but think of the following quote by Elizabeth Cady Stanton: “The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.”

Deuteronomy 11:26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse.

The Book of Deuteronomy covers a lot of the same stories that have already been told in other Books of the Bible.  However, it is in large part quotes of Moses as he reminds the people of all the things that God has done for them.  Also in great detail Moses goes over the rules to live by and the promises of God to His people.

Moses reminds the people that the promises of God can be both a curse and a blessing.  It’s kind of that way in everything. The thing that brings you your greatest joy can bring you your greatest sorrow.  The area that you are the most talented in can bring about the most good in your life and also the most bad.

The most determined can be the most stubborn and rebellious.  The most gifted speaker can be the best of preachers or the worst of con men. The strongest can be the greatest protector of the weak or the worst oppressor.

God lays down some rules.  If followed, they can bring great blessings.  If not… well not so much. If we choose to live by love and do what is right, ultimately we are a blessing and we will, in turn be blessed.

Deuteronomy 8:18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

In the old Civil War movie, “Shenandoah,” Jimmy Stewart plays a widower and Southern family patriarch named Anderson. He and his family work a farm in the Shenandoah Valley.  Anderson attempts to ignore and isolate his family from the war, but is unable to do so.  An interesting side note: his late wife had made him promise that he would raise his family by her Christian values.  So he makes sure they go to church, and he always prays before they eat.

Anderson’s standard prayer before meals goes something like this: “Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvest it. We cook the harvest. It wouldn’t be here and we wouldn’t be eating it if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you Lord just the same for the food we’re about to eat, Amen.”

Maybe we don’t verbalize it in such a way, but I think many of us rely on our own abilities, strengths and resources and then forget from where those resources come. There is something to remember. No matter how talented we are, no matter how deep our pockets, at some point we reach the end of ourselves. However, there are no such limits with God.