Fridays are for…. Newpaper Articles

I apologize for not posting Wednesday, but I, as they say down South, “in low cotton” physically.  Following, as on most Fridays, is my weekly article which appears in the Canyon Lake (TX) Times-Guardian (which I’m very glad I had written before I got sick!): 

                     “God behind the Seen” 

            To me, the biblical Book of Ruth is much more significant than the slender four chapters between Judges and 1 Samuel in the Old Testament of your Bible.  In what at first looks like nothing more than a charming little story primarily about two women, Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi, the reader perceives the unseen hand of God at work in beautiful and amazing—if very subtle—ways. 

            It is this window into the invisible providence of God that provided the title for this article.  But, I admit that I merely ripped it off from a commentary I wrote on Ruth, which was published by Baker Books in 1995, then issued in a second edition by Christian Focus Publications in Scotland in 2003: God behind the Seen. 

            I am drawn to that idea that God is at work in the unseen realm of life.  You see, the Lord is “the same, yesterday, today and forever.”  So, that is just as true today as it was when the events recorded in the Book of Ruth took place—perhaps 1,000-1,200 years before Christ.  Let’s think about it together for the remainder of this article.

            In the Book of Ruth, bad things happen when we people who know better do not seek the Lord’s guidance when making crucial decisions (1:1-5).  Please notice that God is not mentioned—or even implied–in that entire scene.  Doesn’t that sound way too much like the disastrous consequences for which God gets blamed when many believers go out on their own (i.e., without God’s leadership or blessing) today?

            But, even when it looks like there is no way out—no hope (Ruth 1:6-22)—the Lord is still there, protecting us.  That is still true even when all we do is blame Him for our problems.

            Fortunately, while we are focusing on trying to survive, if we trust Him, even the small things stack up for momentum in the right direction, which is precisely what happened when Ruth found herself in Boaz’s field in Ruth 2.  The translations of 2:3 which leave the impression that Ruth got there by “luck” or “chance” miss the point of the Hebrew wording.  The original Jewish audience would have automatically picked up on the fact that God led Ruth there, not just to meet her immediate physical needs for food, but also to meet Boaz.  Similarly, with each of us, small things can be turning points in our lives.

            Then, in chapter 3, Ruth proposes marriage to Boaz, based on an important family-related law stated in Deuteronomy 25:5-10.  Some have tried to read into Ruth 3 sexual panky-panky that simply is not there.  Here are two godly people seeking to do the right thing in the right way—with discretion.  Similarly, the Lord works in our lives as we seek to approach finding solutions to difficult problems in our lives the same way.

            In Ruth 4:1-12, we find the funniest scene of the book.  An unnamed kinsman traps himself in an embarrassing “look before you leap” situation, which turns out in the best interest of Ruth and Boaz, because it clears the way for them to get married.  In much the same way, carefully doing your homework and taking courage, rather than being controlled by short-sighted greed and relying on “being at the right place at the right time” is what the Lord blesses in our lives and works to bring to fruition.

            The rest of the narrative is a true-life “happy ending” (4:13-17).  But, with the family tree at the end of the book (4:18-22), we come to realize its wider purpose: it is the claim to the throne of King David (4:22).  This is his family, several generations earlier, and the events that allowed David to be born.   Thus, through this historical wide-angle lens, we see how seemingly (at the time) small details stack up to make a very big difference! 

Could not much the same thing be happening with you or me right now, but we simply do not have the eyes of faith to see it?  Lord, open our eyes to your powerful, if subtle, working in our lives “behind the seen!”