Ruth 4:8-12. Final chapter – The virtuous woman creates a home as a type of Christ, part 6.Tuesday Jume 26, 2018
Title: Ruth 4:8-12. Final chapter – The virtuous woman creates a home as a type of Christ, part 6.
Pro 31:10 An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels.
Pro 31:11 The heart of her husband trusts in her, And he will have no lack of gain.
Pro 31:12 She does him good and not evil All the days of her life.
Pro 31:13 She looks for wool and flax, And works with her hands in delight.
Pro 31:14 She is like merchant ships; She brings her food from afar.
Pro 31:15 She rises also while it is still night, And gives food to her household, And portions to her maidens.
Pro 31:16 She considers a field and buys it; From her earnings she plants a vineyard.
Pro 31:17 She girds herself with strength, And makes her arms strong.
Pro 31:18 She senses [tastes] that her gain is good; Her lamp does not go out at night.
She not only manages the agriculture, but she continues the other work needed for the home. That her lamp does not go out doesn’t indicate that she never sleeps, but that she does not sleep until the day’s work is done.
She understands (tastes) that the fruit of her labor is good. We should all recognize the fruit of the Spirit in our own lives as a general and common manifestation.
In the agriculture of the time, she could actually taste that the grain, corn, legumes, grapes, figs, olives, and wine were all good.
Think of yourself tasting divine love flowing out of you like rivers of living water.
In our age we go to the store for these products. But this doesn’t mean that we don’t have fruit of the spiritual kind, which does reveal itself in measurable effects in the home, in our families, at work, and in our relationships.
She tastes that her gain is good. All of us can sense or taste this production of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives in general. Am I generally patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and controlling myself? Do love, joy, and peace reside within me and fill me generally?
Paul wrote the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit and then he wrote, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. If we walk by the Spirit we will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”
We can determine for ourselves if we walk by the Spirit. Put another way by Paul, “Set your minds on the things of the Spirit.” We can all determine if we generally love the things of the Spirit and set our minds upon them to walk in them.
It must be clear that setting your mind on the way of God or walking in the way of God is not an academic exercise alone. The academics of Bible are extremely important, but the truth is to be known so that it can be lived or walked in.
Do we taste the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, and “Are they increasing?” Virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly love, and agape love.
2Pe 1:8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2Pe 1:9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
He has forgotten his deliverance from the life of death and sin and into the life of virtue and goodness.
Knowing (not forgetting) that we have been delivered from death and sin is a constant conviction to godliness and holiness.
The Holy Spirit within leads us into all truth and convicts us of sin and falsehood. I would not profess to know every way that He does so, but I know that this is one of them: He bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God. Knowing that I am a child of God and as such I have been purified from sin, arises a conviction in me that is most powerful.
The Spirit doesn’t use some kind of shock therapy from within. He uses knowledge and wisdom.
2Pe 1:10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;
2Pe 1:11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
Peter would not be asking believers to test their own salvation, i.e. to find out or determine they are saved by their good works. Peter would be asking us to perform the works of God as those who have been blessed and gifted to do so and so make your election a surety in your life.
Every believer has all he needs to live a life filled with the fruit of the Spirit. We have been elected for that very purpose. Peter is entreating us to make our lives all about that rather than the sin, evil, and death of the world, which is the life of the short-sighted.
In this way, the eternal kingdom, and our future entrance into it after our death, will be abundantly supplied.
There is often confusion about this statement. We know that all believers have eternal life. We know all believers are a part of the kingdom of God and will enter it. We are not given details on what Peter and Paul mean by abundantly entering.
There is reward. Yet the reward cannot be anything that is not a part of the kingdom itself, and what is the kingdom made up of? What, in essence, comprises the kingdom of God?
Abundance of the kingdom of God:
Rom 14:17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
I would say that entering the kingdom of God in abundance is entering with an abundance of righteous acts, peace, and joy.
Again, the excellent woman does what she does for her home and her farm in abundance, and that is because she loves the things of excellence, the things of God.
And, just in case any of you are wondering why I am stating what I have stated a hundred times:
2Pe 1:12 Therefore, I shall always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.
2Pe 1:13 And I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up (Greek: diegeiro – awaking from natural sleep) by way of reminder
“stir you up” – diegeiro = awaking from natural sleep. All have a tendency to go to sleep spiritually. Repetition of the word of God wakes us.
Peter understands the tendency, even in believers, to drift away from alertness in the truth and forget or become shortsighted. The consistent teaching of the word of God is to wake us up through reminder.
We find that this excellent woman is a type of the Lord. Since we are to all mature into the image of Christ, she is a type of all of us. Our lives are to be living and walking testimonies of the Lord Jesus Christ. Know this and know the power of the word of God and the Holy Spirit that will make it a reality if you choose it diligently.
Our Lord had fantastic fruit. The examples we could draw from are many. He is the seed that goes into the ground and dies, and because He dies, He bears much fruit. We have the apostles and those who believed their message and formed churches all over the Roman Empire. They formed communities that were strong, faithful, merciful, giving, full of love and unity, and who survived great persecution. His fruit continues all throughout the lands of the earth, everywhere. People’s lives are saved and changed. Isa 53:1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Isa 53:2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
Isa 53:3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Isa 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
Isa 53:5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
Isa 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.
Isa 53:7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.
Isa 53:8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
Isa 53:9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
Isa 53:10 But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His Hand. Isa 53:11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.
Isa 53:12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.
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