RUTH’S CHOICE
Today’s Reading: Ruth 1-2
Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).
Ruth’s home country of Moab was located east of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, and south of the Arnon (Numbers 21:10-15). Today, Moab is within the Kingdom of Jordan. It was in the Plains of Moab, opposite Jericho (Numbers 22:1, 26:63, Joshua 13:32) that the Israelites made their last encampment before they entered the Promised Land.
GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.
Key Verse: Ruth 1:16
But Ruth said:
“Entreat me not to leave you,
Or to turn back from following after you;
For wherever you go, I will go;
And wherever you lodge, I will lodge;
Your people shall be my people,
And your God, my God.”
In the midst of the time of the Judges comes this beautiful love story. The book of Ruth is an account of one of the most moving acts of loyalty, and of the way that God honoured that love and loyalty. Even while evil and corruption seemed so prominent in Israel, there were many honourable people who loved and served God. That number included a Moabite woman who had married an Israelite and was now a widow. In a time when Israel was often in apostasy, she left her idolatrous religion to embrace the faith of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, and her mother-in-law Naomi. Ruth is a bright shining light pointing to the way of faith in the One true God. Over 1,000 years later, Jesus, the Son of God, would be born in Ruth’s adopted hometown of Bethlehem. From the lineage of Ruth comes the Messiah, the Christ, our Saviour and Lord.
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord Jesus, Ruth and Boaz were your great-great, etc. grandparents. You are 100% Human and also 100% God. As a Human, You show me how to live as a man. You are my Mentor, my Example, and my Hero. Please give me grace to follow You more closely today than yesterday. In Your loving Name I pray. Amen!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
I was thrilled to participate in the wedding of our second daughter, Ellen, to Nizar Shaheen, an Israeli Arab who is ordained in the Nazareth Baptist Church. As a part of the ceremony, Ellen quoted, in the Arabic language, the words of our key verse. What a powerful moment. Israeli television co-operated with TV networks in Canada and the USA to carry the wedding live across North America. In advance, we had distributed thousands of copies of a document called, “A Marriage Covenant.” I encouraged married couples everywhere to renew their vows as Ellen and Nizar said theirs at the Church in Nizar’s home village of Cana of Galilee. Jesus, His mother, and several of the disciples were guests there at another wedding 2,000 years before, and Jesus did His first miracle of turning the water into wine (read John 2:1-11). The people of Cana still call the wedding of Nizar and Ellen “the other wedding” (click here for Ellen saying the words of Ruth to her beloved Nizar).
Today, Nizar and Ellen are all over the Arabic-speaking world on TV and on the internet, winning thousands of precious people to Jesus through Light For All Nations.
Yours for love and loyalty,
David
Madaba, Jordan, just near mount Nebo where Moses looked out over the Promised Land, has a church named The Church of the Map. The church is also known as Church of Saint George. The mosaic floor map (pictured below) has the oldest known map of Jerusalem and its surrounding Biblical regions.
GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.
The true story of Nizar and Ellen is so amazing and continues to be! Blessings on them and their family. Ruth made a drastic change in her life when she decided to stay with Naomi – change of culture, religion, customs, and, friends. Her world, as she knew it, was turned up side down. God was faithful. Thank You Lord. Blessings all today (from a snow covered Southern Ontario)! Amen
I Won’t Let Go – (Lyrics With Bible Verse) Rascal Flatts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA0YKJ0_Ivk
Thank you Beverlee. .I am always blessed by the song you post .i never seem to find them on my own .May you be blessed .
“Even while evil and corruption seemed so prominent in Israel, there were many honourable people who loved and served God.”
Father, in these times of evil and corruption, bless all honourable people who love and serve You. May we, all those who read Your Word and strive to put it into practice, be counted among that number, in Jesus’s name, amen
Amen Rob.