Seeking Wisdom in Hard Times (Intro & Ch. 1:1-11)

Author:

Jesus’ younger brother, studied as a Rabbi

Rejected Jesus: Mark (3:21; 6:2-4, 6) and John (7:5; 19:25-27)

He didn’t believe in Jesus as Christ until resurrection day visit (1 Cor. 15:3–7)

He was a leader of the Jerusalem church along with Peter & John

Executed in 62 AD

Audience:

People who had come to faith in Jerusalem (Jews)

They had been forced to flee because of the Jewish Leaders’ policy of persecution

Purpose:

To provide guidance on Christian lifestyle based on Jewish belief and The Revelation of Christ.

Historical Context:

Book written and distributed about 14 years after Christ death & Resurrection

Christians were scattered around Judea & beyond

Written prior to the 1^st Jerusalem Council (50AD)

Scriptural Context:

Written like Proverbs or Ecclesiastes (Wisdom Literature)

James stature in the Jerusalem church gave it weight at 1^st (canonicity disputed)

Read without the context of the rest of Scripture it can seem based on law not grace

1 This letter is from James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am writing to the “twelve tribes”—Jewish believers scattered abroad. Greetings!

• ‘Bond Slave’
• The single word ‘Greetings” is unique to James

2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

• The addressing of ‘Brothers & Sisters’ assumes the ‘Bond of The Spirit’
• Troubles of any kind: The kind you caused & the kind you didn’t cause
• The only way to grow is to be tested, enduring these things transforms you
• James encourages us to figure out how to let it grow
• Ownership of your Discipleship is the path to development
• Your completeness and wholeness happens when you let God shape you

5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone.

• ‘If you need’…who is not in need?
• The Wisdom you need is accessible, God wants to provide it…
• God has a filter for His distribution of wisdom: His Spirit (In Us by faith in Christ)
• We must approach Him as Who He Is: ‘My All in All’

Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

• Divided Loyalty is a great translation rather than ‘believer without doubt’…
• A wave cannot control where it goes.
• If loyalty is divided between God & ANYTHING else, your relationship will suffer
• Communion with God & HIS wisdom is for those who surrender all to God (Jesus: ‘Give up your life for me and the Gospel’)
• We were created to be undivided in our loyalty to God…Shalom

9 ‘Believers’ who are poor have something to boast about, for God has honored them. 10 And those who are rich should boast that God has humbled them. They will fade away like a little flower in the field.

• What really matters; this life or the next?
• As ‘Believers’ they have eternal life, provided by God for His reasons
• As Christ followers we boast only about what God has done
• In God’s perspective it has happened…

11 The hot sun rises and the grass withers; the little flower droops and falls, and its beauty fades away. In the same way, the rich will fade away with all of their achievements.

• All that is temporal (of this life) will not last…all without ‘Eternal Value’ fades
• ‘The Rich’ are those who do everything for their self gain & glory
• The Rich are occupied with their pursuits and reject Christ

Application Questions:

Why don’t you respond to trouble with joy?

How do you approach God to ask for wisdom in your daily life?

What in your life keeps you from letting God grow your faith in hard times?

What are the things that can pull your loyalty away from God? Why can they do this?

Ruth 4:1-10: GRACE

1 Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down. 2 Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so.

• That guy just happened to show up?
• Why the Elders and not the smart young guys?
• The Elders hung out there just for such matters, this was their legal system
• Boaz has serious clout or… is God’s Grace running things

3 Then he said to the guardian-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek. 4 I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people.”

• This guy knew he was 1^st in line, that Elimelek’s estate should be redeemed…
• Lev. 25: The system of redemption & Jubilee (preserving people over property)
• Why had this guy not made a move to play his role of ‘Guardian-redeemer’?

“If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.”

• Boaz is forthright, describing things as they are.
• He basically put his relative on the spot

“I will redeem it!” he said.

• Boaz’s heart must have crashed…but he came prepared

5 Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”

• Boaz knew all the Scripture said (Leviticus 25), seems like the other guys didn’t
• Family name tied to property : God’s way of keeping his people rooted in land

6 At this, the guardian-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”

• Contrast to Boaz: This guy is concerned about his things, not his people
• He doesn’t see the ‘God Possibilities’ only the human ones
• God (and Boaz as a example of Godliness) is all about people not things
• Upon his refusal, the right / obligation to redeem passes to Boaz

7 (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.)

• This sealed the deal

8 So the guardian-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal. 9 Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon.

• This is what Boaz wanted, but needed God to do…he could not earn it
• Boaz makes it a matter of public record (everyone knew the story)

10 I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!”

• This is fulfilling God’s desire that His people would carry on in ‘The Land’
• Family is meant to take care of each other (together in Christ we are family)
• The Mosiac Law called for a earthly version of redemption to point to Christ

Grace: ‘Undeserved Favor’

Ruth & Namoi didn’t earn what Boaz did for them…

Just as we cannot earn what Christ does for us.

Just as Boaz bought them out of poverty and insecurity Christ buys us out of the poverty of sin and secures our eternity in HIS family

Application Questions:

Why is it important that Ruth is part of the deal?

Why does God choose to provide for and ‘Buy Back’ people like this?

Do you see God’s redemption of us all in this?

‘Being An Instrument of God’s Blessings’

Ruth 2:12-23

12 May the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you fully for what you have done.” “I hope I continue to please you, sir,” she replied. “You have comforted me by speaking so kindly to me, even though I am not one of your workers.”

• Boaz sees himself as an instrument of God’s blessings / refuge
• Ruth sees herself as being blessed by God by pleasing Boaz
• It’s a big deal what Boaz does for Ruth

14 At mealtime Boaz called to her, “Come over here, and help yourself to some food. You can dip your bread in the sour wine.” So she sat with his harvesters, and Boaz gave her some roasted grain to eat. She ate all she wanted and still had some left over.

• Boaz had done plenty already, yet he extends the kindness…why?
• It is another level of intimacy & acceptance inviting her share their meal
• It may have been a while since Ruth ate all she wanted…

15 When Ruth went back to work again, Boaz ordered his young men, “Let her gather grain right among the sheaves without stopping her. 16 And pull out some heads of barley from the bundles and drop them on purpose for her. Let her pick them up, and don’t give her a hard time!”

• This is beyond the normal ‘gleaning’ situation. Barley heads are the most valuable
• Emphatically he commands them to go way beyond what is customary

17 So Ruth gathered barley there all day, and when she beat out the grain that evening, it filled an entire basket. 18 She carried it back into town and showed it to her mother-in-law. Ruth also gave her the roasted grain that was left over from her meal.

• She is able to glean way more than most, but she is doing it to provide for Namoi
• She didn’t have to share the roasted grain (somewhat of a delicacy)
• What has made Ruth this selfless?

19 “Where did you gather all this grain today?” Naomi asked. “Where did you work? May the Lord bless the one who helped you!” So Ruth told her mother-in-law about the man in whose field she had worked. She said, “The man I worked with today is named Boaz.”

• Namoi sees how much she gathered & asks God’s blessings on who helped her
• She identifies Boaz as the source of her help

20 “May the Lord bless him!” Naomi told her daughter-in-law. “He is showing his kindness to us as well as to your dead husband. That man is one of our closest relatives, one of our family redeemers.”

• Namoi sees the level of blessing
• There was a system of people from the same ‘Tribe’ getting to keep property in the family line
• The family redeemer had an obligation “to buy an object or person from indenture, slavery, or otherwise harsh circumstances.”
• Another obligation of the family redeemer: “to marry his brother’s widow and father a male heir to inherit the estate.”
• The family redeemer had an obligation to “redeem” (buy back) land that had been sold. Naomi and Elimelech had no doubt sold their land when they had moved to Moab, so now the family property was in other hands, and Naomi didn’t have the means to buy it back herself. She needed someone else to buy it back, so that it would remain in the clan. Did she have in mind that Boaz would be the one to buy it back?
• The big Biblical principal this ‘Little Story’ shows is that God bought us all back from the eternal death sin brings. Jesus is our ‘Family Redeemer’

21 Then Ruth said, “What’s more, Boaz even told me to come back and stay with his harvesters until the entire harvest is completed.” 22 “Good!” Naomi exclaimed. “Do as he said, my daughter. Stay with his young women right through the whole harvest. You might be harassed in other fields, but you’ll be safe with him.”

• Ruth relays that that Boaz had made this a long term arrangement
• Namoi believes Ruth (being who she is) will continue to endear herself to Boaz
• Namoi recognizes the protection being provides & has hope for bigger protection

23 So Ruth worked alongside the women in Boaz’s fields and gathered grain with them until the end of the barley harvest. Then she continued working with them through the wheat harvest in early summer. And all the while she lived with her mother-in-law.

• There is a period where Ruth can see Boaz blessing her and she blessing Namoi
• Namoi, Ruth & Boaz continue to ‘Grow where they are Planted’

There are good things we can get out of this passage, one it’s own

We can also start connecting the dots as to the whole book’s lessons and then how those fit into the entirety of Scripture…There is a picture that is starting to emerge…

Application Questions:

Boaz had a lifestyle that enabled him to bless others; specifically, how can you do that?

Where in your life can you be God’s instrument of physical and relational blessings?

What is taking up time in your life, keeping you from being a blessing to others?

Who has gone out of their way to bless you? What is the best way to appreciate that?

The Puzzle

The place Ruth has in the Cannon of Scripture is often overlooked. Ruth is analogous to pieces in a puzzle as a story and as to it’s role in Biblical literature. It is part of a bigger picture that emerges as more pieces are put in place. We can’t always understand what God is doing… But with The Scripture & His Spirit was can understand what He has DONE. His purposes become clear when we wait for the whole puzzle to be completed

RUTH 1:1-19

1.In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.

• Bethlehem means: ‘house of bread’…they fled the house of bread!
• The term used is ‘sojourn’ which means to go & return
• Going to Moab is odd, no always friendly relations with Israel
• Sons names mean: ‘sickly’ and ‘wasting’
• Elimelek was a man of some standing, the title ‘Ephrathite’

3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

• Is this judgement? The picture is unclear at this point… (incomplete puzzle)
• A childless widow is ultra low status & a dangerous position to be in (3 of them)

6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.

• Naomi sees the end of the famine in terms of God’s provision
• The desire is to seek God’s provision by returning to Bethlehem

8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”

• It is Naomi’s concern for her daughters-in-law that she wants them to stay
• The selfish move would have been to compel then to come with
• Naomi recognizes their kindness & asks God honor it (it comes true for Ruth)
• Marriage symbolizes ‘Shalom’ / Rest

Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.” 11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands?

• Both say we will go with you, but for Orpah it was merely a gesture
• Namoi points out the apparent foolishness of coming with her
• It is all based on getting remarried and the chances Namoi can provide

12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”

• Namoi says: ‘Don’t count on me, God seems to have turned against me.’
• She is not seeing the whole picture of what God is doing
• She, like you and me is always seeing a partial picture…

14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye,but Ruth clung to her. 15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”

• More weeping, they get how bad a situation it is
• Orpah bails… Ruth clings…
• Namoi to Ruth; ‘Make the safer choice like Orpah’

16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

• Ruth displays unwavering loyalty
• Where does this loyalty come from?
• She is making a statement of ‘surrender’ to Namoi’s God (Yahweh)
• Why does she invoke ‘The Lord’
• By faith Ruth trusts God in adversity
• Namoi does too, but with some bitterness

19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem…

Application Questions:

What things that have happened in your life cause confusion about God?

Have you ever gone out on a limb because you were seeking God? Why?

Have you seen much loyalty in the Christian community? Why?

How do you respond to adversity in your life? Are they healthy responses?

‘Buried in Brokenness, Raised In Glory’

Being limited by my body as I grow older has opened up my perspective on time & eternity

The last month dwelling in this chapter…has been enlarging my desire for heaven

Knowing I will have another body one day, a completely different existence = HOPE!

God wants us to have hope. He has given us this “Scripture’ providing hope for eternity

1^st Corinthians 15:35-58

35 But someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?” 36 What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first.

• The foolishness is thinking it’s going to be a different version of this life
• Eternity is about dying to this life
• The seed is buried, we must give up this life

37 And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. 38 Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed. 39 Similarly there are different kinds of flesh—one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.

• The first life is sacrificed to enable the second
• God makes things on earth different, they are suited for the purpose of that thing
• For an entirely different existence it would make sense to have a different body

40 There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies. 41 The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory.

• God’s creation is ordered with unique things having unique properties
• There are unknown layers of God’s creation, but what we can see shows patterns

42 It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. 43 Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. 44 They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies.

• Eternity is a unique and totally different existence than the life we know now
• Transformation occurs, but it is predicated on the death / ending of this life
• All that is less than perfect will be buried so that we can be raised up to perfection
• The differences are profound: Brokenness to Glory!
• What do you imagine a ‘Spiritual Body’ will be like?

For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies. 45 The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit. 46 What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later.

• Nooma, Hebrew word for: breath / spirit / wind / force
• Adam was given life, this kind of life, by God ‘Breathing’ life into him
• Through Christ’s death and resurrection God ‘Breathes’ life

47 Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. 48 Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man. 49 Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man.

• The difference between the dust of earth and heaven: Temporal VS Eternal
• This is God telling us how it will be: we will be ‘Heavenly People’

50 What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever. 51 But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed!

• This body is finite, not suited for eternity; God makes things suited for purposes
• This body is not going to be adapted or evolve it is going to be replaced
• For us, death not the end but the beginning!
• For those who have surrendered this life to Christ, death is the best thing EVER!

52 It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. 53 For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.

• The ‘last trumpet’…how did Paul know what John was going to see and write?
• When Christ returns His followers begin their “Eternal Life’ with ‘Eternal Bodies’

54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: 55 “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

• God uses his previous Word to add to the revelation of current (at the time) Word
• Isaiah & Hosea describe eternal life as a ‘conquering’ of death & it’s punishment
• Punishment of Death: Eternal separation from our Creator, Our Father, Christ!

56 For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. 57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

• Sin is why death exists, The Law proves sin is too powerful for us to overcome
• God gets all the glory for each and everyone who HE gives the gift of Salvation
• That victory allows us to share in HIS glory…cruising around in ‘Spiritual Bodies’

Application Questions:

How do you imagine eternity? What is your imagination based on?

If we’re going to have new bodies, why should we take care of the one’s we have now?

What does it look like to live as though you have been given victory over sin & death?

Application Scripture: John 12: 24 & 25

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives. Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.