Naomi, her husband and two sons leave the Land in a time of
famine and go to Moab to wait it out.
While there, her boys take Moabite wives for themselves. All of this shows a family that isn't
particularly religious. Going to Moab is
one sign. The Moabites were descendants
of Lot but not in a good way. After
Sodom was destroyed, Lot's daughters conspired to get him drunk and have sex
with him. The Moabites were from the
incestuous sexual activity of Lot's older daughter with her father. This says something of the character of the
people, and in particular the women. The
prophet Baalam, the one whose donkey spoke to him, was a prophet of Moab and
his advice on destroying the Israelites was to get them to marry Moabite women
who would then lead them astray. Going
to Moab isn't what a religiously observant Jew would do to escape famine. Naomi does her best to dissuade Ruth from
following her, three times imploring her to go back to her own people. This is the pattern for conversion to Judaism
established in the Talmud, the rabbi rejects a gentile convert three times before
allowing the conversion because it requires obedience and promises difficulty
and rejection by the world. Finally,
Ruth convinces her that she has cut herself off from her past willingly and is
ready to accept whatever are the consequences of going with Naomi. With all the horrible things that have
happened to this Israelite woman, what has caused Ruth to go with her?
The purpose of telling or reminding Jesus about the
Galileeans whose blood was mixed with the sacrifice was to arouse regional
pride. Jesus was presumed to be a
Galileean and therefore they were insinuating what everyone thought, that the
Galileeans were less than religiously pure so deserving of God's judgment by
not protecting them from this desecration.
Jesus reminds them of another occasion when something horrible happened
to people from Jerusalem. Tit for
tat? No, a warning to all concerning the
way things are and to be prepared. It
becomes, however, a launching pad for a parable regarding responsibility. Those in Jerusalem will fall under judgment
if they fail to bear expected fruit.
They have been given much in the Temple and otherwise, they are expected
to do something with it.
How amazing that Paul could have written, "But I
received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief…" Paul was one of the most learned men in
Judaism, he studied under one of the greatest rabbis of all time, Gamaliel, and
he was a "true believer" if there has ever been one, zealous for the
word of God and the Name of God, but now he sees that even with his great
learning he was ignorant and an unbeliever, one of those for whom Jesus prayed,
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." The man who considered himself righteous now
sees himself as the foremost of sinners but does so without condemnation
because of the mercy God has shown him.
Paul never forgot where he came from, never believed he deserved more,
because he knew what he truly deserved.
Mercy and grace changed Paul's perspective completely and he never
forgot it, he was a true convert. He didn't
expect a life of ease and earthly blessing so he never complained about persecution
and suffering. He simply pursued the
kingdom of God all the time.
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