Ruth: 3:1-9; a study on chesed – the substance of all things, God’s glory.

Title: Ruth: 3:1-9; a study on chesed - the substance of all things, God’s glory.

 

MAT 6:19"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

 

MAT 6:20 "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;

 

MAT 6:21 for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

 

MAT 6:22 "The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is clear [singular], your whole body will be full of light.

 

MAT 6:23 "But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

 

“bad” - ponhro/$[poneros] = evil eye.

 

JOH 17:15

“I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.”

 

If your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. He then describes this as assumed light, and that is because of where it is - within us.

 

We’ve all gotten the “evil eye” but that is not this. The opposite that Christ presents to a singular eye is an evil one. One sees God’s good and the other does not. What the evil eye sees we know well enough. It is limitless in its lust, depravity, and sin.

 

Every man, to varying degrees, thinks he has some truth and glory within himself. If it is darkness within him then he is in deepest darkness. 

 

All men without Christ are deceived to some extent. He envisions some good in himself no matter who he is and what he believes and so he must conclude that everyone has some good in them. It is far less dangerous to have darkness around a man than within him.

 

The collective world has taken up the torch to at least claim that they are going to eliminate the darkness around man. They plan on eliminating poverty, hunger, disease, tyranny, war, injustice, racism, sexism, criminality, etc., but they are silent about the darkness that is in man. Any sound thinking man would be all for the elimination of the outward darkness, but if the inward darkness is not addressed, then the rest is a pipe dream, and if it were even possible by some miracle, then in a matter or moments, all the outward evils would simply come back again.

 

Man will not address his inner darkness, but God does through the gospel and the grace ministry of the Holy Spirit who convicts man of the sin of unbelief.

 

MAR 14:6 "Let her alone; why do you bother her? She has done a good deed to Me.

 

Mary is able to see good and evil and she has the moral courage to accept and do the one and reject the other. She has this because she has loved the Lord, and by loving Him, she has learned to see as He sees.

 

MAR 14:7 "For the poor you always have with you, and whenever you wish, you can do them good; but you do not always have Me.

 

MAR 14:8 "She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial.

 

MAR 14:9 "And truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, that also which this woman has done shall be spoken of in memory of her."

 

Christ tells us to help the poor, and says that it is good, but He magnifies the gospel, which is the good news concerning Him, an in this moment that is far greater. The poor could have gotten a few extra meals from the sale of the perfume, or they could have received the tale of what Mary had done along with the gospel. All of us who receive this account of Mary’s love for the Lord are infinitely more blessed than if we had a little extra food and physical comfort.

 

The gospel will cure blindness within. The tale of Mary’s deed will reveal that a relationship of love with the Creator of all things is possible and real. These have far greater force than any effects of poverty. Jesus was not concerned with overt darkness, like the plight of poverty, but with inner darkness, which is man’s deception thinking he has truth and light when he has only lies and darkness

 

If what a man assumes is good within him is actually evil then his darkness is overlaid with deception making it the deepest dark.

 

Like cross-hatching in art, each layer of lie and deception make the dark darker. Only Christ can remove the veil and shine His light into the soul of man.

 

MAT 6:22 "The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is clear [singular], your whole body will be full of light.

 

MAT 6:23 "But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

 

MAT 6:24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. 

 

Don’t be deceived. You cannot set your eye on the things of the flesh and the world and hope to see His glory in your life.

 

MAT 6:25 "For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?

 

MAT 6:26 "Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

 

I would say that we normally read “Look at” while forgetting that He was just teaching us about our inner eye. We must put them together.

 

“Look at …birds, lilies, grass, food, drink, clothes, and His kingdom” with your singular eye and then you will see.

 

What do you see in a lily or in all the world that is around you? You can have eyes to see like the Lord does.

 

There are great benefits to being able to see.

 

MAT 6:27 "And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit [one more step] to his life's span?

 

MAT 6:28 "And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin,

 

MAT 6:29 yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these.

 

MAT 6:30 "But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith?

 

MAT 6:31 "Do not be anxious then, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'With what shall we clothe ourselves?'

 

MAT 6:32 "For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

 

The heathen eagerly seeks the material. They even make their gods out of the material, the human, the animal. These things are necessary and so God will always provide them for us, but they are temporary and temporal, of the earth, and so they must not be worshipped as being eagerly sought for. In fact, so often we will be called to deny ourselves of such things in order to serve another. What we never surrender and always eagerly seek for is the kingdom of God.

 

MAT 6:33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.

 

MAT 6:34 "Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

 

We must see the glory of God in everything around us.