Ruth: 3:1-9; a study on chesed – our Lord’s use of the word in reference to holy things.

Title: Ruth: 3:1-9; a study on chesed - our Lord’s use of the word in reference to holy things.

 

We continue in His use of éleos by our Lord:

 

MAT 23:23"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy [eleos] and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

 

MAT 23:24 "You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

 

Just like the instructions in the Mosaic Law on the Sabbath, food restrictions, and here tithing, Israel under their self-imposed moral cult missed the whole point of these things. Each of the holy “things” in the Law, like all 613 commands in the Law had their substance in the glory of God. Tithing was to teach Israel that all of their material blessings came from God. The tithes went to support the Levitical priesthood. The priesthood as teachers and intermediaries were a gift from God. How did they miss this substance to the Law? How did they not see that loving God and their neighbor was the substance behind every command? Truly half of the Ten Commandments are how you can fail at loving God and the other half are how you can fail at loving your neighbor.

 

Sin is a word that means to miss what you should be aiming at. It means to miss. When we fell when eating the fruit, we condemned ourselves to missing everything. However, we also gained the ability to deceive ourselves into thinking that we’re actually doing good. These Pharisees are convinced that they’re right, and Jesus is trying to show them how wrong they are. How great is your darkness when you think you’re in the light.

 

Sin is our own desires and selfish urges that propel us to act for our own benefit at the expense of others. Chesed or mercy is the exact opposite of this and this is why it can only be found in Jesus Christ.

 

The Pharisees are full of this sin and full of self-deception, and so is the entire human race who are unregenerate. Christ, who had no sin, came to remove this curse for us. He became a curse for us. Through our faith in Him as our Savior and our faith in His word and way as regenerate people, we can see what we should see, rather than being blind guides. We are to see the substance of God’s glory in everything. 

 

If the blessings of God did not lead them to love God and to want nothing but good to their neighbor, then what did it lead them to?

 

The rules were worshipped above the Giver of the rules. God also commanded justice, mercy, and faithfulness, but these were delegated to the minor and unimportant while the measurable or empirical were elevated to the utmost. I can see and measure a tithe. I can see and measure a work on the Sabbath. I can see and measure an article of food.

 

But, mercy, justice, and faithfulness are within, of the soul, heart, and spirit of a man. And while unseen, they are the substance of the law. Do not miss the substance in all that is around you.

 

God has blessed you with everything you can see, even that which brings heartache and tribulation. Our eye must be singular.

 

MAT 5:5 “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.”

 

Gentle is the spirit in a person who sees all of God’s dealings with him as good. All of God’s dealings with him, even the tribulation and pain, is good, for God is good. The gentle or the meek as the KJV translates it, are humble under the hand of God. They accept all things, and so they are accepting of all men, though not of sin and evil. Peter uses this word with a quiet spirit, which he says is precious in the sight of God (1PE 3:4). Paul adds the word to the things we are to pursue: righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and meekness (1TI 6:11). It is used of the Lord when He entered Jerusalem for the final time, “Behold your King is coming to you, meek and sitting on a donkey.”

 

Such ones inherit the earth. 

 

What does it mean to inherit the earth? Our Lord doesn’t give us the detail. When something is not expressly and clearly stated in the inspired word of God, we must tread carefully and respectably.

 

We can certainly see that His bride will rule with Him in the future, when the kingdom of God reigns on the earth. Yet, we also see in the revelation of the NT, in Rom 8, that we are heirs of God. It adds that we are fellow heirs with Christ if we suffer with Him. I would easily equate the meek with those who suffer with Him. Jesus on His donkey came into Jerusalem knowing exactly what was going to happen to Him. His meekness meant that He was accepting of the will of the Father and so He was accepting of the suffering to come.

 

The meek are fellow heirs with Christ for they will suffer with Him, ROM 8:17; MAT 21:5.

 

Can we find ownership in things of the earth now, before the future kingdom? If fact, we can, but not in the things themselves. If it were the things themselves that had eternal value then we would be told to never give them away, but rather, we are told to give it all away when called to, for blessed are the poor in spirit. However, the real substance of those things is never lost to the meek.

 

Just like the substance of the law is justice, mercy, and faithfulness, so everything in our lives has a substance, or a kabod, the Hebrew word for God’s glory which means a tremendous weight.

 

This is why I turn to this beatitude before I go to the Lord’s teaching on what we see with our spiritual eye.

 

The gentle or the meek will inherit the things of the earth now because they are the ones who see the real substance of those things, i.e. the glory of God in them.

 

Having such vision will solve all kinds of problems that plague the human race. Think of one of everyone’s greatest problems, their own body. The body desires things that are contrary to the will of God. The flesh must be ruled by the spirit of man, filled with the Spirit of God. However, the body wants things, pleasure, instant gratification, chemical releases, approbation from others, power, and wealth. It does not want to be controlled.