Ruth: 3:1; God is intimately involved in our lives, whether humble of arrogant.

Title: Ruth: 3:1; God is intimately involved in our lives, whether humble of arrogant.

 

Ruth chapter 3 begins the third main division of the book.  

 

RUT 3:1Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, "My daughter, shall I not seek security for you, that it may be well with you?

 

Naomi has formed an idea. She proposes that Ruth seek marriage with Boaz in the spirit of the law of levirate marriage. It is not possible that either of them to directly approach Boaz and suggest marriage. It would not be proper. She seeks security and rest for Ruth, but also for solutions for herself. This is God’s plan as well.

 

God certainly doesn’t need the scheme of Naomi for His plan to come to fruition, but God uses it. This presents us with another wonderful mystery.

 

Here we have the mystery of God and human working together to carry out His purpose.

 

This concept leads us on another short journey in God’s wonderful revelation.

 

We do not know how God accomplishes all of His good pleasure amongst mankind while maintaining their ability to freely choose, but we know that He does.

 

God is not disinterested and distant as many in this age believe Him to be. He is intimately involved in the affairs of every man, and yet He does not overrule their ability to choose, although He may motivate certain choices.

 

LUK 12:1 Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of the multitude had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”

 

Hypocrisy = behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe. To present one thing and mean another. If God is involved in our lives, hypocrisy is a waste of time and stupid.

 

LUK 12:2 "But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.

 

LUK 12:3 "Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.

 

God is intimately associated with every man. Not one thing said, no matter how minor, will be left covered. We have a wonderful example of this in the Old Testament.  

 

When the king of Syria made war against Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet, the prophet warned the king of Israel in advance where the Syrian’s would lay their ambushes and where they planned to attack, and thanks to the prophet, Israel avoided them each time. The king of Syria was completely befuddled and frustrated and he could only imagine that there had to be a spy amongst his men who was informing the Jews.

 

2KI 6:11 Now the heart of the king of Aram was enraged over this thing; and he called his servants and said to them, "Will you tell me which of us is for the king of Israel?"

 

2KI 6:12 And one of his servants said, "No, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom."

 

God hears and knows all. Notice that Ben-hadad has a solution. Kill God. The secular, educated, atheist, agnostic materialists in our world have been trying to do the same. They will be sorely disappointed.

 

“Whenever you try to break God’s law, you wind up proving God’s law while breaking yourself in the process.”

 

2KI 6:13 So he said, "Go and see where he is, that I may send and take him." And it was told him, saying, "Behold, he is in Dothan."

 

2KI 6:14 And he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city.

 

One wonders if Ben-hadad, king of Syria, whispered his secrets a little softer from then on, no matter, God knows them before we ever think them.  

 

PSA 139:6-7

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

It is too high, I cannot attain to it.

 

Where can I go from Thy Spirit?

Or where can I flee from Thy presence?

 

LUK 12:1b "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

 

LUK 12:2 "But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.

 

LUK 12:3 "Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.

 

Not only does God know the secret thoughts and whispers, but also that the secret things will eventually become public. We cannot hide bad character forever. The hypocrisy of the Pharisees eventually became very public.

 

“whispers proclaimed” - your inner man will eventually become public. That can be either a good or a bad thing.

 

I read this just a few hours ago. It was written by Oscar Wilde about himself:

 

“The gods have given me almost everything. But I let myself be lured into long spells of senseless and sensual ease … Tired of being on the heights, I deliberately went to the depths in search for new sensation. What the paradox was to me in the sphere of thought, perversity became to me in the sphere of passion. I grew careless of the lives of others. I took pleasure where it pleased me, and passed on. I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber, one has some day to cry aloud from the housetop. I ceased to be lord over myself. I was no longer the captain of my soul, and did not know it. I allowed pleasure to dominate me. I ended in horrible disgrace. There is only one thing for me now, absolute humility.”

 

The tendency in man is to assume that he knows all there is to know. He has partial truths, and due to his pride, he assumes them to be the whole truth.

 

LUK 12:4 "And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

 

LUK 12:5 "But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who after He has killed has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!

 

There is no escaping God’s justice. Either we believe in Christ and are justified or we reject Christ and get judged. The unbeliever should fear his judgment, but there is no fear of God in his eyes, ROM 3:18.

 

We pray this changes for every and any man. Repentance is this change; to know that one needs a Savior. Christ will come to such a man, through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, and show him that He is the only one.

 

JOH 16:8 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment;

 

JOH 16:9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;

 

JOH 16:10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me;

 

JOH 16:11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.”

 

As for the believer, he should come to a knowledge of what he has been delivered from in Christ, i.e. the ravaging effects of sin, the fear of death, the fear of judgment, and he should on that level fear God.

 

The believer should learn to fear not walking in the manner of his calling, for if he doesn’t, he would be an uncaring steward, forgetting what he has been delivered from.

 

Some would prefer that God hang their salvation over a cliff as an instrument of fear; that God would snatch away their eternal life due to their rebellion. But God gives every believer eternal security. There is a much more proper way for a Father to motivate a son than threatening his life.

 

Get a son to understand what evil and death he has been delivered from and also get him to understand what goodness is his potential life, and he will walk in the way of righteousness with vigor, and freely.

 

Threaten him with death and he will do it, but only for the reason of preserving his life and not for the good that he in fact is in Christ. Some don’t threaten loss of salvation, but rather try to instill fear by causing the believer to question if he ever really did believe. This is softer, but it has the same result of sinful fear rather than joyous fear. They say to the struggling Christian, “Maybe you only had a head faith instead of a heart faith,” or, “Maybe you didn’t really believe.” This is just a softer way of holding your salvation off of that cliff that leads all the way down to the bottomless pit of hell. A person is saved because of the work of Christ. Period. He believes in Jesus Christ as his Savior because of the death that He died on Calvary for the judgement of all sin.

 

Christ has moved the world upside-down with His love. How much of what some people call their religion would be left, if all fear of death and hell were removed? A religion whose sole motive is fear is not spiritual.

 

The Bible tells us that love, not fear, rejoices with the truth, 1CO 13:6. 1Jo 4:18 tells us that perfect or mature love casts out fear. We are all to grow up to the fullness of the stature that belongs to the full knowledge of Christ. That's quite a trip from where we begin at salvation. Is it easier to get to a destination when in rejoicing or in fear?"

 

2PE 1:1 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:

 

2PE 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;

 

2PE 1:3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

 

2PE 1:4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

 

Not only is God near, He has put His very nature in us. For this reason, we are to apply all diligence.

 

So, as we see God working with Ruth, Boaz, and Naomi, He also works with all believers in this age. What has changed in our age is that God is working from within us. God is in us both to work and to will His good pleasure.

 

Php 2:13

for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

 

How He does this from within is just as much a mystery as how He did this from without to the OT saints.

 

2PE 1:5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge;

 

2PE 1:6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness;

 

2PE 1:7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

 

“applying” and “supply” are both aorist actives, i.e. up to us to do. And yet, God is also working.

 

As we noted the last time we studied this passage, the verbs “applying” and “supply” are both aorist actives, meaning that the action of applying and the command to supply are on us. It is up to us to do them, yet God is working in us to perform this very work according to His will. In Christianity, this is not a paradox, but rather a wonderful mystery, which on one hand is too wonderful for us, and on the other it is our very reality, depended upon by us.