Joshua Judges Ruth

Okay, so I'm not the best at updating. What can I say? On my one day of rest, its not the priority on my list usually. But I've got a few minutes before I go to sleep, so I thought I'd give an update to let you all know I'm alive and kicking. Even if I'm not kicking as much as normal!

A few highlights... lets just say reading the bible in the order it was written in makes such a difference. I am realizing more and more of God's goodness in the Old Testament with each book, even Judges! We've studied Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus & Numbers (After which, we went camping in the Wilderness of Joshua Tree National Park and reenacted the stories of the Exodus and hopefully the video will be available soon... its hilarious!), Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. This week we are also doing 1 and 2 Samuel.

But I'll just share on what's freshest in my mind.

Before, I think I read a few stories in Judges, or read the whole book and thought, "What in the world??? Did that really get written???" Because the Israelites kept turning away and turning away. But the Lord really changed my view of this book by one verse that stood out to me... Now the reference eludes me, but the text says, "And the Lord could no longer bear to see them suffer..." It was in reference to the 5th major cycle of the judges, where the Israelites sinned, were oppressed by another nation, then cried out to God, and he delivered them... I understood that it was no longer a book about a bunch of idiots that couldn't figure it out and just follow God... it is a book about a God who hears His children when they cry out to Him and delivers them from their suffering. And if the Israelites were a bunch of idiots, anyway... than what does that make me?

Ruth was great, a bit of a positive story to bring some light to the depressing mood of the Judges time period. It also was amazing to see the story's original purpose was so much more than just a story of a girl getting some threshing-floor lovin'. God's heart was for Israel to be a blessing to the nations, but in the time of the Judges, they weren't exactly being that... so Ruth (like her 2nd husband's mother, Rahab - yeah, Rahab the prostitute from Jericho!) was a Moabite woman (which, do you know how Moab became a people? Its a pretty gnarly story.) And, leaving all behind - her gods, her family, her homeland, she follows her mother-in-law to a land that was rather hostile to foreigners, declaring faith in the God of her mother-in-law, the God of Israel. So, do you see it? Ruth (the nations) is a blessing to Israel because from her obedience and loyalty to her mother-in-law, King David ends up coming from her family line. Bet it made the people in Bethlehem of Judah feel pretty humbled that this foreign woman understood and obeyed their law better than they did! Ruth was amazing. But Naomi, the bitter mother-in-law, wasn't so bad herself. I could understand Naomi so much better in the light of grief and pain. She had lost her husband and both of her sons... but she acknowledged God throughout the story. She may have been bitter, but the Lord restored joy to her life and she recognized it!!!

I could go on forever about any number of these stories, but alas, I must be up early for breakfast prep and its already nearing midnight. Blessings to you all, and enjoy a few photos of me and my classmates at a birthday party I hosted for Eyd (pronounced like the letter A) from the Faroe Islands, and also from the Wilderness Adventure (the scene is the parting of the red sea, and I am playing the Angel of the Lord.)