Speaker 0 00:00:00 Welcome to the weekly deep dive podcast on the add-on education network, the podcast where we take a look at the weekly, come follow me discussions, and try to add a little insight and unique perspective. I am your host, Jason Lloyd here in my basement studio. As you may have guessed by the lack of production value here with no intro music without this show's producer Nate pier. Um, my bad, not his as, as far as availability goes, I had something come up last minute in a, in a brief window of time that I had to, to get it done. So I, I, I had to take the opportunity. Nate really wanted to be here. And, and unfortunately the timing just didn't work out. And we were already putting this podcast out later than what we normally would've done anyway. So my apologies to you guys who were hoping to have this ready sooner than, than what it is, um, you know, how you know, how it is and how it gets early summer, when school gets out and things start happening in June, it, it sometimes gets a little bit crazy to keep up with.
Speaker 0 00:01:03 So thanks for your patience. Um, we've got it now. We've we've got it ready to roll. Hopefully you enjoy this. Nate will be back with me on the next episode. We'll we'll have ready for you guys this week. We're gonna be talking about Ruth and the beginning of Samuel and it, although it does cover a quite a bit of content, a lot of chapters, this is a little bit more manageable for me as we're looking at just two stories rather than the last several weeks where we've been trying to cram dozens of stories into a week's worth of lesson. Th this is, this is gonna be a little bit simpler where we can focus on, on two interesting stories in the Bible and try to glean as much as we can out of this and see what we can learn. So let's start with Ruth and I'm, I've got my scriptures here.
Speaker 0 00:01:51 We're gonna be going into Ruth chapter one. And just trying to understand some of the context of what's going on here. First off, there is a famine in the land, and anytime there is a famine in the land, I want you to think that a famine often is associated not just with lack of food, physically, but lack of food spiritually, as the Lord says, man does not live on bread alone, but also on the word of God. So usually when there's a famine in the land, it's it denotes a time when Israel has strayed and they don't have a prophet, they don't have someone speaking for them that they're heating that they're listening to. And so there's a dearth of, of the word of God. And, and you can see this famine is not a, a typical famine because the Moabites who live next to the Israelites do have bread.
Speaker 0 00:02:51 So Naomi goes to the Moyes with her husband, Elena, I'm sorry, Elena's gonna be in the story of El. Kao's gonna be in the story of Hannah that's Hannah's husband, Ellie. Milick Ellie Milick my, my, my God is king. So she's gonna go with her husband to the land of the Moyes. Why do the Moabites have bread if the Israelites do not? And that's interesting because you're gonna be seeing the example that Ruth, who is a Moabite outside of the house of Israel here shines in, in being able to choose, to worship their God and be faithful to their God and come into a land that that's gonna be less than willing to receive her and the faith and diligence that she shows to, to a people that, that perhaps going through a little bit of a rough time here. So why is it usually when you look at famine, it's a famine throughout all the land.
Speaker 0 00:03:53 You wouldn't have bread just in the Moabites or your neighbors or the people right next to you. You would have to go a far distance away to get someone to a region that has not been affected by the lack of rainfall or the destruction or whatever the case may be. That's causing the famine in that land. The reason why it's available in Moab right next to Israel, but not available in Israel is because this famine is caused by war. Most likely, this is talking about the Midianites. When the Midianites attacked Israel, they would go through and burn and destroy their crops and make it so they couldn't plant things for a while. So it would take a couple years to recover from the destruction of the Mediaite. And if we're talking about the destruction of the Mediaite with Israel, and that's why Israel is allowed to be able to find bread in the lands round about them, but not necessarily in their own land. Then we're also putting this story right around the same time as Gideon Gideon is the judge that God raises up to deliver Israel from the hands of the Midianites. Just to give you some historical context of when this story is happening.
Speaker 0 00:05:06 All right? The other thing you need to understand about this story is who the Mo bites are. Remember when Israel was leaving Egypt, they had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and they were about to establish themselves into the land of, of Canan the land of Israel that they were going to inherit as they were getting close. The Lord said to them, I will not give you one foot's breath of the land of Edam coming from Esau or the land of Moab coming from lot. Tho those were lands that were off limit. They had conquered those lands previous to that time, that was their land and Israel was not to touch it, not even one foot's breath, death. However, Israel had to pass through the land of the Moabites to get to the land that they needed to go to. And, and they didn't have a lot of bread or resources, or so God told them you can pass through the land, but you can't fight them.
Speaker 0 00:06:01 You can't take a foot's breath, uh, and you should be able to buy bread for, for money. You should trade with them for a fair price and buy bread for them. When you need the bread. Israel goes to the king of the Moabite. If you remember, interesting enough, the king of the Moyes was, um, um, Bock and Bock is the one who looked at Israel and said, no way, you are not coming through my land. I will not let you pass. And I will not give you bread. And, and I don't want you to succeed. And I don't want you to be our neighbors. And he's the one that went to Baum and offered him a prize to come and curse Israel so that they couldn't defeat them. And, and see, they weren't going to go to war with Balik that whole story with the talking donkey and everything that we talked about earlier this year, completely avoidable, because Israel had no interest in conquering Bayack or Moab from a direct command from God.
Speaker 0 00:07:00 They were just going to pass through, buy some bread and be on their way, but Bayack made a stand and, and he raised himself in an army. He wouldn't let 'em pass through the land and he was going to fight them. And because they would not let them pass through. And because they would not give them bread, there was a prohibition, no Moabites were allowed to enter into the land of Israel. They, they, they had this, this deal. You can't go marry a Moabite and bring them in because of this longstanding, I don't know, rivalry or, or this affair that started all the way back with, with bay luck when Israel was trying to establish themselves and the land that God had promised them. So when Israel has this famine and they're, they're looking for bread, I guess, and, and in that time, beggars can't be choosers.
Speaker 0 00:07:52 Ellie Melik takes his family into the land of Moab and his son's Malo and Chile go to, to marry people from the Moabites. And if they're marrying Moabites, and almost as if they have no intention of returning back to Israel, they're, they're rejecting their people. And, and you can see that when Malo and Chilion married these two women and after the Malo and Chilion pass away, Naomi says, go back to your land and, and be with your people. Because if you come with me, I don't have anymore sons. You can't marry anyone else in my family. You've already been married. And I, even if I were to have a son, I can't cuz my husband's dead. But even if I were to find somebody and marry him and have another child, you would have to wait like what, 20 years before you can even marry him, are you really gonna be willing to wait that long?
Speaker 0 00:08:51 And is he gonna be willing to marry you at that point when, when you're a lot older than him. And, and he's just starting off in his youth, looking for a wife, like it's not ideal. And she says, go be with your people and, and don't follow me anymore. And, and she's pretty harsh about this and trying to convince them to stay. And you almost look at it and say, it's not very hospitable, but also remember Israel's prohibition on Moabites. They don't, they don't want them in their land. They're forbidden from bringing them into the land because of that, that harsh interaction that they had play out earlier on in, in, in the history, in that case, one of the women does go back and it says that when she went back, she didn't just go back. But she returned to her people, her land and her gods.
Speaker 0 00:09:41 So in the story, they're kind of relating this idea that turning into that land is turning into the gods of that land coming into Israel is accepting the gods of that land. So not only are you seeing this symbolically in, in portrayed through a famine, this idea that there's a, there's no word of God in the land that people have apostatized or gone stray, but also the fact that they would turn away from Israel into a foreign land and turn to the gods of that land and rely on the gods of that land to feed them rather than the Lord to take care of them. You, you kind of get this sense that, that these are not the strongest of character. Anyways, at least not the males of the family, that females of the family are very strong in character. And, and you see that with Naomi, you see that with Ruth, but Ellie Melik and his two sons Malo.
Speaker 0 00:10:37 And Chilion, you see the opposite of a portrayal of weakness and, and the portrayal of turning away from God to turn into another land, to the gods of another land, seeking for delivery. That way Ruth does a lot to redeem her people in this sense, because the crime of the Moabites was they would not provide Israel with bread at a time when Israel was hungry, when they needed it, not only would they not provide 'em with bread, but they went to war and wouldn't let 'em pass through the land. In this case, you have Ruth, a Moabite who is not only allowing them to pass into the land and come into the land in a time when they need refuge, she's providing that refuge, but she's also providing them with bread. So you've, you've got kind of this recreation, this reenactment a second chance, and Ruth is redeeming the, the sins of the Moabites.
Speaker 0 00:11:33 And I like that word redeeming, because you will see this later on when Boaz redeems her. So you have her redeeming, this family, which is kin to Boaz Boaz's family. And then in turn, Boaz is going to redeem her as well and, and say very similar to what you saw with the story of Rayhab Rayhab redeeming Israel and Israel redeeming her. And, and, and there's something beautiful to be said about that when God wants to save people, he does it oftentimes through people, God sends his prepared children to his prepared servants. When you look at, we just came through a fast Sunday, the idea that in order to save people that are starving, we put ourselves to, to starving conditions and we go without food and, and we hunger. And we, and we feel this want to, in a sense, sympathize with those that are wanting and hungering and need food.
Speaker 0 00:12:34 And as we put ourselves in, in that position to help them and take the money that we would've spent on food, and we donate it to clothe them or to feed them or to give them and provide for their wants, we are, we are redeeming them. But also by doing that, the Lord says, when was I naked? Did you clothe me or hungry? Did you feed me in as much as you've done it to the least of these, you've done it unto me. We are doing that to them. And he will say, come, come, come in. Because you did these things to the stranger, you took care of them. And I, and I hope you guys see that in the old Testament, as we've been going throughout this year, over and over and over again, this theme of taking care of the stranger, not taking advantage of somebody, because you don't know 'em or you don't think they'll ever see you again, but especially those people are the people that desire extra care, extra protection, and extra love taking adva, taking care that you are providing for the people that, that need it, that don't have anyone else to rely on.
Speaker 0 00:13:34 Anyhow, I, I diverge, but going back to that idea of the fast Sunday, by putting ourselves in the shoes of the one who is suffering, we can at try to redeem them and, and help them in some small way. And as we redeem them, we're hoping that the Lord in turn will also redeem us for, for what we're doing. We see that in these stories with Ruth and with rehab, and that's how salvation works and Christ says, come follow me. And what did Christ do? He put himself in the situation of the sinner, taking the sins upon him, crushing him and GSEM and putting himself in a position where he could relate and experience and feel so that he might redeem them and offer them the comfort and the care that they need to find salvation. And, and there's many ways that the Lord does this, but I, I love that he uses his people to redeem and to save his people.
Speaker 0 00:14:32 And you're, you're gonna see that with Ruth redeeming Israel and later Boaz redeeming Ruth. So if you want salvation, find a way to offer salvation to help in, in the same measure that you measure out is the same measure that is measured to you. And as we seek to help and to save, we also might hope that we can receive salvation and redemption in our lives as well. It's a powerful lesson. And, and it's very core to this message in Ruth, right? Moving on, sorry, I, I don't have Nate here kind of keeping me on tempo. So I'm, I'm gonna do my best to try to keep this thing moving Malo. And Chilion, we've already discussed this. Their names mean weekly sickly or, or pining whining. They, they're not terribly strong in their names, and they're making this decision to turn their back on Israel, to turn their back on the God of Israel, to come into this distant land and rely on these, this, this foreign God to provide for them in, in a sense, and Ruth is, is happy to comply.
Speaker 0 00:15:43 Now they die. And it's interesting because it says that when they come back to the land, after they passed away, if I were to, if I were to scan through my scriptures real quick to find the right verse in chapter one, verse 22, it reads, so Naomi returned and rooted the mobi, her daughter-in-law with her, which returned outta the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest. Now that might not seem like a huge detail to you. The barley harvest started right after Passover. So at the end of Passover marked the beginning of the barley harvest. And so if she came into Israel at the beginning of the barley harvest, that means that she was outside Israel in the land of Moab during the Passover. Now this makes it even more interesting. Think about this, her son, perhaps her first born son, married to Ruth, the firstborn son being the one that was gonna be spared by the angel of death at the time of Passover dies as they are outside of the land of Israel.
Speaker 0 00:16:55 And it doesn't say whether or not they observed Passover, but, but what if the Lord did not pass them over as they had turned away from the Lord in a sense now, whether or not that literally is what happened? I, I can't say it. It's, it's reading too much in the text to, to pass judgment. And I don't want to judge any of them for being righteous or unrighteous, but from a literary perspective, as we're reading this story, the stage is getting set where we have a famine instead of turning to the Lord, they're turning to a different country. They're turning to different gods to take care of 'em, they're leaving Israel. So not only APOs in a sense that they have, they have no food and they're famine, but they're also leaving and turning away from Israel. They're relying on this outside support. Their name is weekly and sickly.
Speaker 0 00:17:44 They marry outside of the Israelites to not just anyone, but to a people that are prohibited from coming into the land. So knowing that they can't return back to their land with the people that they are marrying, they're, they're turning away from the Lord and rejecting him, just like, and, and I want to emphasize this. There's two daughters in law that, that I married these two sons and they both, they both want to cleave to her. So if I, if I go to verse 12 of chapter one, turn again, my daughters go your way for, I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, I have hope if I should have a husband also tonight and should also bear sons, would you tear for them till they were grown? You can't wait till these little babies grow up and marry them. Would you stay for them from having hus would you stay for them from having husbands name?
Speaker 0 00:18:37 My daughters before agree with me much for your sakes, that the hand of the Lord has gone out against us. And, and note that she says the hand of the Lord has turned against us. And in, in many ways it has with the famine and what the Lord's doing, what's going on here. But I also wonder if there's a little bit of a guilty conscious here in, in what they're doing. They feel like the Lord is punishing them for, for what, for, for some of the choices that they have made as well. And at least from a literary perspective. Uh, but anyways, coming to the point and they lifted up their voice and wept again, and orach kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clave unto her. And she said, behold, my sister-in-law is gone back unto her people and unto her God's return thou after thy sister-in-law and Ruth said, and treat me not to leave the, or to return from following after the, for whether they'll ghost, I will go.
Speaker 0 00:19:33 And where thou lodge, I will lodge thy people shall be th my people and thy God, my God. So in the story, as we're looking at these two women, the idea that going back is not just turning your back on a country, but turning your back on God. If you go, she says, she went turn back to her people and turn to her gods. They, their gods, where Ruth is saying, I will go and dwell where you are and your God will be my God. So you have that play there. So they're, they're demonstrating this weakness, this aposty, and, and you can look at this story much, like we've talked about in the, in the previous weeks, this idea that it's almost prophetic, that they will reach a point when Israel will go through a famine, they will lose their profits. They will lose their guidance, and they will stray from the Lord.
Speaker 0 00:20:28 And the Lord will find a way to bring outsiders in and create Israel. Just like Christ said, I can raise up seed into Abraham out of these two stones. I can bring seed in from an outside nation, from an, from an unknown, from a, nobody. I can bring Israel up again from there. And you see that in the prophetic, in the last days that Gentiles will be the nursing fathers and the nursing mothers of Israel. Um, so you see that aspect of the story with Ruth being brought in from the outside, uh, and choosing to follow a God where these guys are choosing to follow, uh, a different God. And I think I've probably harped on that point way too much at this point. Um, but again, this idea that they, they not only did they go outside, but they went outside during Passover as well. They, they were not in the land of Israel during Passover and for what is worth. I mean, they're mentioning the death of these sons during the time of Passover, almost as if it's it's the, the angel of death. They, they weren't observing or observant as they should have been anyhow, going on.
Speaker 0 00:21:39 She cleaves to Naomi returns and, and decides to, to try to make her way in, in, into Israel. And she's gonna be starting on the fringes, just like Rayhab, who was sent on the fringes of the camp. She is gonna be on the fringes. She's not wealthy. She doesn't have any inheritance. She, she's not an Israelite. She doesn't have land. She doesn't have a husband. Her husband is, is dead. And, and so even Naomi, I mean, she, she might lay claim to the land that was her husband's land as a widow, but without, without males to pass it onto, she she's going to lose her inheritance. She doesn't have it's, she's kind of in a, in a rough spot and so much so that she's actually going to sell her land. And to give you some context, the land in Israel, in, in the old Testament was never land that you possessed.
Speaker 0 00:22:38 It was God's land that he gave to the different families for an inheritance. So the land that she had, if she had to sell it in her poverty, it would be redeemed on the year of Jubilee so she could sell it. So that the amount of food that that land would produce each year would be the price that is, that is paid for the land so that she can sell it. And then after the year Jubilees, then, then it's redeemed and it falls back to her with, without a price. And so she has to sell it, cuz she doesn't have any money right now to, to be able to have somebody else that can work the land. And that can turn a profit from the land and, and they're giving her the money for what the, the crop would yield to get by. So she's not, she's, she's kind of been disinherited that that's, I mean, the, the, the final example, I mean, yes, she turned away.
Speaker 0 00:23:28 Yes. She left. Um, her son's died in the Passover when the Passover was supposed to protect Israelites from the son being killed and, and she returns, she's poverty stricken and she loses her inheritance because she's, she's not doing well. And Ruth has to go out and glean the fields. And we're gonna introduce into the story, the narrative here, Boaz, and I love the way they introduce him. And I feel like we need to, to address the translation here. So this is chapter two, verse one. And Naomi had a kinsman of her husbands, a mighty man of wealth. So the Hebrew word for mighty man here is GVO and GVO is the same. As you see, as the GRE David's heroes, typically the GVO and this is where the word, the name Gabriel comes from GVO L hero of God or champion of God, soldier of God.
Speaker 0 00:24:26 The typically the gire, the, the GVO they're the heroes, the soldiers, the mighty man, the fighting men. Okay. So there's the, the hero of God, a mighty man, a a powerful man. And it says of wealth. Now the word for wealth, this is, this is something else. That's also interesting. 88% of the time, the word is not translated as wealth. The word is translated as army host, soldiers, power, valance, um, strength, and, and only about 12% of the time, is it translated as possessions or wealth? So looking here, if, if they were to list off all of his possessions saying he's a man of wealth, he had fields, he had grain, he had this. Then then context would tell us, okay, we should translate this as wealth, but you look at it. It's not mentioning his possessions, the family of Ellie Melik and his name was Boaz.
Speaker 0 00:25:27 It's it's not telling you about how much Boaz possessed and how well off he was financially, but you do have the mighty man, the GVO. And if you're saying that, that he's a, he's a mighty man of army, of power of strength. He's a mighty man that there is a good chance, especially when you're looking at the timeline with the Midianites, destroying the Israelites crops. That Boaz was a man, a mighty man, a man of renowned, like they said, in, in Genesis, in the beginning, the, the Gaos that he was a war hero. Now think what that means. If they're using this to introduce Boaz and his character, think about who war heroes would've been in the time of Gideon, Gideon raised his army. Do you think the war heroes were the thousands of Israelites when given the chance to turn around and go home versus fight would be the ones that turned around and went home, right?
Speaker 0 00:26:29 So he said, anyone who's afraid to fight, turn around and leave. And then he says anyone that lays on their belly to drink by sticking their head in the pond, as opposed to bringing the water up to their FA their, their face. Instead of being in a, in a position of readiness alert and always watching you go home as well. You're talking about only 300 men in all of Israel, from a fighting army of, of tens of thousands of men. Only 300 are left to fight the war. And these 300 men deliver Israel from all of the Mediaite and save them. Think of the prestige of these men being righteous, upright Valiant, that these are the clean men that are not worshiping the other gods that the Lord could depend on. Cuz remember, Gideon also had to, he was a little uncertain about the, the righteousness of the people when he tests the Lord by putting the fleece out with the water, that test and like, are these people, people that are going to be delivered.
Speaker 0 00:27:29 And, and so the, the way they introduce Boaz to me, I look at that and I read it and it seems like they're introducing not just a great man, but the cream of the crop, one of these 300 heroes that delivered Israel. That's what it seems like to me. That's, that's the impression I get when I read this introduction of who he is and his name was Boaz and, and it's widely accepted in Hebrew, that Boaz is interpreted as in him is strength. Now, take that again. Compare it with her first husband, Ruth, whose name was weekly or the lack of strength. She went from a lack of strength to a source of strength. She went from a Moabite. God, remember again, the husband wife relationship is very significant throughout the Bible to describe the relationship that we should be having with God that he is our husband and that he gives his life for us.
Speaker 0 00:28:31 And we, and we give our life to him and we love him. And this pure relationship, she went from a relationship of weakness in worshiping a God that wasn't God, to a relationship in strength by worship worshiping the Israelite God. And, and she had to forsake her wealth, her bread. She was doing well in the land of Moab and gave it all up to come into the land of Israel where she is now poor she's gleaning the fields, but she, she gives it all up to serve the Lord. And she's going to find that she who, who loses their life in the service of God will find their life or she, that loses her life in this case will find life. So it's, there's some interesting play that's going on in this story that, that you, you kind of miss not understanding the names or the history or, or where they're coming from. And I'm sure Nate, at this point would be kind of brushing me along the way, trying to get me to, to, to go a little faster. So let's, let's keep going.
Speaker 0 00:29:34 Um, she, she goes to the fields and, and she's gleaning. That's common. Um, Boaz sees her and, uh, she kind of catches his eye a little bit and he treats her with, with great favor and, and he tells the people let her glean the fields. And in fact, leave some intentionally behind for her and maybe even pick some and lay it on the ground so she can pick him up, make this easy. Let's take care of her and, and, and ask who is she? And when they explain that she is the Moabite that came over, he is impressed.
Speaker 0 00:30:15 And you can see that she has redeemed the image of Moabite. And, and at least in her case, in this idea that she has forsaken her God, she has forsaken her people. And she has shown Israel that she has made up for, for, for the sins or redeemed that past history by giving bread to the Israelites in a time of need and giving them passage into her home in a time of need, which were the two sins that, that had forsaken Moab. And, and she was willing to give everything up, to come into Israel. And so they look at her, not with the disdain, but she's looked at as an example, as, as, uh, they're impressed, Boaz is impressed with her and the people are impressed with her. And so he wants to, to help her out and through Boaz, she's going to find her way at the center of Israel.
Speaker 0 00:31:09 And, and this story is telling us because it's interesting Christ line is going to come through Ruth and Boaz. That means that Christ is going to have Moabite blood in him. So he's not just born from Abraham Christ is also coming from lot, which is why lot still plays a prominent role in the Bible and has his place because he is part of Christ's line, the descend Christ descends from, from lot through Ruth and the Moabites as, as interesting as that history is. And, and as back and forth and gray, as it gets still through Ruth's example and her righteousness and being brought in, she also plays a role in creating the savior. The savior is not just a savior from just the Israelites, but also from, from the outside woman. As we look at women as symbolic of nations, outside nations, Gentile nations, that's what Gentile means is nations and, and that outside of Israel outsiders. So he descends also from an outside nation outside of just the line of Israel, if you will. All right.
Speaker 0 00:32:25 Um, when Ruth tells Naomi about how generous Boaz Boaz has being been, and they realize that Boaz is related as kinsman. And, and he's not just the next of kin though, Ruth and, and, and Naomi are talking, and this gets a little bit interesting. It can be interpreted a little bit strange. Naomi tells her to show interest in Boaz when he's done gleaning, he's, he's gonna be over there Boaz. He, he's obviously interested in her and he's saying, don't go glean at any other field. Just stay in mind. I'll make sure you're okay. I'll take care of you also very interesting that you compare that to Elijah, who looks at the, the ti bite, the woman who's not Israelite. And he promises her that her meal will never fail because of her generosity in feeding him. This is, this is a very similar deal. Boaz is looking at her and she redeemed his family, his kin by giving them meals in a time of famine.
Speaker 0 00:33:29 She, she gave of her bread to feed Israel to her own deficit when she comes in poor and not having anything. And, and so he is providing her with a meal that will never fail. Come, come take off my crop. And I will provide you with a meal that we never, never fail. Again. Think about this when the time comes to the Gentiles at the end, when God's going to restore his gospel, he's saying that you, the, the food, the gospel, the not just the word of not just the bread, but the word of God will never fail. The meal will never run out. You will always, the, the gospel will never again be taken from the earth after he restores it through the Gentile nations through the, through an outsider. All right.
Speaker 0 00:34:18 <laugh> I, I hope you guys are tracking. I, I, I miss Nate being able to, to help me out on this. Anyways, she tells Ruth, um, Naomi tells Ruth to go to Boaz and to uncover his feet and lay and lay at his feet as a sign that she is willing to be with him and, and willing to, to subject herself to him. And Boaz sees this, and Boaz is a little bit older. He's, he's already kind of done his deal and, and, and been in his prime. And he sees this as another sign of dedication and faith on Ruth's part she's young. She could marry anyone from Moab, but she left those people to come to Israel, Israel. She she's going to him because he is a kinsman. He's not the nearest kinsman. So she's not just gonna sleep with them or, or, or go all the way yet.
Speaker 0 00:35:17 She's just, she's just showing that she is interested and, and wanting to take this to the next step, to follow the, the, this Israelite idea of being a next of kin and, and Boaz doesn't want to make a, this scandalous. And he sends her away with food in the morning. So it's not just that she stayed over. I don't want people to think. The only reason she came was just to lay with me, she's coming for food, and I'm gonna send her back with food to take care of her mom and kind of switch the focus of what this was. And he, and he tells her, I would be interested in redeeming you, but according to law, there's one closer than, than I. And I need to make sure that he has the opportunity to, to, to, to redeem you before I step in and take over. So you get to this next of kin and Boaz takes him to the gates of the city, where the elders of the, the elders of Israel are. And they can sit down and decide and discuss issues and make legal contracts and binding agreements. And he tells his kin, we've got Naomi here who has sold her land to be able to provide for her and for her daughter, will you redeem the land?
Speaker 0 00:36:43 And, and the guy says, because you're the next of kin. And the guy says, yes. And, and you think about this from, from a per what this means is he is going to pay the price of how much the land would yield, going up into the year of Jubilee to, to be able to take the land back. And, and the reason why he would do that, why that would benefit him, he's going to be out money, but because Ruth is, is a widow and she doesn't have anybody, there's no one to inherit that land. Then he can, he can take possession of the land. So it's going to be an inheritance added to him as he redeems the land to this family. There's some benefit there. Then Boaz says, as that's great that you're going to redeem it. Let me further explain that she has a daughter who married her son, and that if you're going to redeem the land, it should have been the son's land.
Speaker 0 00:37:43 Because when the father died, Ellie Melik died before ma Malo, um, mock loan. It became mock loan's land. This is his land that you're redeeming. If you're redeeming his land, then according to the, the Levi marriage, the, the laws, you should marry his wife and raise, seed up to her. And what that means is if you have a child with Ruth, then he will inherit the land. So now you paid the price to redeem the land, but you, instead of inheriting the land and keeping it and having it for your financial gain down the road, and to be able to divide that property out among your children, you have to have a children through Ruth, and that child has to inherit the land so that the name of Malo and chillion, or excuse me, Malo and Ellie Melik will continue on. That'll be their land, their inheritance, and their, their family.
Speaker 0 00:38:40 So you don't get to keep the land. You're just paying the price without inheriting it. When he understands that piece of it, then it's no longer interesting. He can't afford to do that because he's gonna be paying for something that will never pay itself back off. And, and this is where boas steps in. And the Hebrew word they use here is Goel, which is Redeemer. The next of kin is this Redeemer who is going to redeem the land, pay the price so that the land can shift back. And not only that, but redeem the family line by giving them seed and think of the scripture in Isaiah, when they're talking about Christ, who shall declare his generation for, he was cut off from the landed living. He doesn't get to have seed, but when you make his soul and offering for sin, he shall see his seed.
Speaker 0 00:39:27 He shall inherit seed this idea of being able to have children now, and, and the more the children of the wife, of the, the, the Barron than the wife than the Mar of the married. So here this sea, this line is going to be restored to Ruth through, through Boaz. And the, the line of Christ is gonna come through here through this, this redemption that Boaz is offering. And interesting enough too. Boaz is the name of one of two pillars in front of the temple at Jerusalem. So, so Boaz is not just a source of strength, but also you look at the promises and the book of revelation for the righteous. They shall be a pillar in the house of the Lord Nevermore to go out. And that's, that's what Bo Boaz is in this story is he, he's a strong person. Who's not doing this to seek his own gain, but to try to do the right thing and redeem his family and make things right for, for Ruth and Naomi and his kinsman who, who have passed away, redeemed their family, after all the mistakes or everything that they went through and the death of their family, they will be life again, they will be restored.
Speaker 0 00:40:42 They will receive an inheritance in Israel, and they will have children and life and, and continue on through the redemption of Boaz. So it's a beautiful story of, of redemption. And I, I think I've probably spent too much time on this already. That's that's all I'll do. Let's, uh, let's jump into the book of Samuel. Yeah. Sound good. You guys with me so far, I put you to sleep, hang in there. And Samuel, you have a man named El Kana. L means God, Kana means purchased. So God has purchased, and he has two wives. And the name of one is Hannah, which means grace favor or mercy. And the name of the other wife is pan, um, excuse me. Panha
Speaker 1 00:41:32 And Panha means a jewel. So I, I, I look at this and I see the jewel Panha as, as almost like the house of Israel, this is his jewel, the people that he loves and, and they're able to have children and posterity, they're the children of the covenant. God's going to make children as the stars of the universe or the sands of the sea. That that shall be the, the children of Abraham. They are the covenant people and, and, and, and the jewel. So when Christ comes in the new Testament and he's, he's at the table, and the Gentile woman comes and asks him to, to have him teach her. And he says, I, I haven't come to you. I've come to his jewel, his people to Israel, to Abraham. And she says, well, even dogs get crumbs off the floor.
Speaker 1 00:42:28 And, and he was impressed by her faith. And, and so I look at these, this, this other wife, who's not able to have children. And I think of this as another nation, that as you look at the process of birth, being like the atonement, a rebirth, and the, the Lord as a covenant relationship with the nation, they're able to produce offspring to God, followers of God, people that are born. Again, people that are born to be able to follow him. The Gentiles don't have that capability. Whereas in the jewel, the house of Israel, they do through the covenants, from their fathers, from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that's, that's kind of how I see this is, we're talking about these two wives, one being grace in favor, and the other one being the jewel and the jewel is able to have children where the one that is grace in favor does not have children.
Speaker 1 00:43:18 And when you say, God has purchased Elena, the husband he's purchasing grace or favor so that he can bring these people into the covenant, into the house of Israel and save them all. That's what this story is going to mean to me, because Hannah is going to, to get a son and she is going to have seed. And this story of, of women who so desperately want a child, can't have one plays a role. So predominantly throughout the scriptures, over and over again, how many times have we heard this story? And we will still hear it before the old Testament's done repeated several times over. It's a very common theme. So she wants to be blessed. She wants to have children. She wants the Lord to, to have that grace and favor on her that she can bring seed to him. Um, but initially she's not able to.
Speaker 1 00:44:17 And, and I see that as, as God's saying that he purchases grace and favor that he, he will bring them. And I, I, I go to Isaiah chapter 54 for more are the wife, the seed of the wife of the, than the wife of the married. So even though the wife of the married has children, there's going to come a time when the other one will have children will be brought into the covenant of the Lord. God is not just a God of Israel. He is a God of all the earth, and he will bring children into him from, from every nation, from every people. He's, he's not a respecter of people. He's a respecter of covenants. And for those that choose God, he, he will love them and guide them and bring anyone in that that wants. I, I see that as kind of a, a prevalent theme in this story, and honestly, a prevalent theme in the story of Ruth that we just read and the story of rehab that we've read and the story of, of, I mean, it's, it, it it's all throughout anyways.
Speaker 1 00:45:23 I've, I've said too much on it anyways. So Hannah, she gets a, a worthy portion is what it says. Uh, and it's kind of funny how they say worthy portion, cuz they use the word nose. Um, so El gives portions to Panina and her children, but to Hannah, he gives a nose portion and, and you're like a nose portion. Usually they use the Hebrew word nose like nostrils as they're flaring to, to signify anger. So the, the anger of the Lord wax is hot. They're talking about the Lord's nose. And in this case, I, it's not, it's not an angry portion and it's not a nose portion, but, but it is translated as that's kind of a worthy portion, an extra portion or, or something that's a little bit more in addition to, it's just kind of a weird, uh, way of saying it from, from the Hebrew that that gets in there.
Speaker 1 00:46:17 Uh, verse five of Samuel chapter one, but under Hannah, he gave a worthy portion for, he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb and her adversary. And then the Hebrew word adversary here is your rival wife. I mean, it's, it's such a common theme in the old Testament that it even has its own word. Like the rival wife is a word and Hebrew. The, the adversary also provoked her sore for, to make her fret because the Lord had shut up her womb. And as she did so year by year and she went up to the house of the Lord. So, so, um, so she provoked her, therefore she wept and did not eat. And so Elkin was, was sad. It's hard to see your wife sad. And it's really hard to see her sad because she can't have children because what can you do when you see a woman weep and, and is sad and there's nothing you can do to help her.
Speaker 1 00:47:14 And you're doing everything you can. It, it, it makes you feel really sad as well. Jacob was, was beyond sad when Rachel wanted to have children and she's like, look, if you love me, have kids with me. And he's like, I, what, what, what do you want me to do? God, shut up your womb. You and, and so Hannah, she was verse nine. So she rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk now, Eli, the priest sat by the seat of a post of the temple Lord and she was in bitterness of soul and she prayed unto the Lord and wept sore, uh, what a great, what a great way of saying that in, in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore, and, and those raw moments of emotion that bring us to just plead and bear out our soul and bitterness of soul to weep ourselves sore.
Speaker 1 00:48:13 There's such beautiful moments. And you hate to go through that, but what a, what a, a prize to pull out of a moment like that, you know, those, those moments where you're, you're praying and you feel good and, and that type of prayer just feels so profound and so deep. And it's not typically a prayer that you can offer up when everything feels good. It's a prayer where you you're feeling destroyed and, and taken back and to add insult to injury. The priest kind of reprimands her a little bit and, and says, you know, are you drunk? And, and he doesn't understand. He says, and Eli said unto her, how long will there be drunken put away that wind from the, and kind of kind of store judgment. And, and the priest here is not getting a lot of great space. Not, not only does he not put in a good light here in, in not understanding the situation and not being more sensitive and coming across as kind of a simpleton, but he's gonna be put in a bad light.
Speaker 1 00:49:22 When you look at how he was raising his kids, because his two sons were, were using the priesthood to try to benefit themselves and try to get something more from it, rather than trying to give the choices to meet to God or, or to each other, to someone else, or however, this is going to work, they would try to work it to where they were choosing and picking and choosing the best parts for themselves. They cared more about themselves than they did others. They cared more about themselves than they did God. And, and they were intentionally doing the ordinances wrong to please themselves rather than to please God and Eli looks bad because he permits it. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't call them out. He doesn't reprimand them yet. He's going to reprimand this woman for something that she's not doing, he's gonna be quick to correct someone.
Speaker 1 00:50:17 Who's not his responsibility and step in and say something when he completely misses what's in front of his own nose. I mean, when Christ and says, take care of the beam, that's in your own eye before you fix the moat and someone else's, this is kind of an ideal situation where you see that, but, and Hannah and her sadness, and she's praying out her soul verse 11, and she vowed a vow and said, oh, Lord of host, if now, well, indeed look on the affliction of th handmade and remember me and not forget thy handmade, but will even unto thine handmade, but will give thine, handmade a man child. Then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life. And there shall no razor come up upon his head. So she's talking about sacrificing her son. There's a couple instances where we see this in sacrificing the son, um, or sacrificing a child, Abraham sacrificing Isaac and judges.
Speaker 1 00:51:15 There's a story of one of the heroes that says I will sacrifice whatever comes out to meet me on my way home. And he had to have known it was his daughter who, who else is gonna be excited to run out, to meet him? You know, maybe the flock, I don't know, but his daughter runs out and he sacrifices her. But as you see in the story of Hannah to sacrifices, a a, a child isn't necessarily mean that you're going to be taking away their life, but rather dedicating them to the Lord. And Samuel is going to be dedicated to the Lord. Not, not only from his wife's perspective, but when God calls Samuel the voice of the Lord from the temple calls Samuel. And he says, here am I he? And E behold, me, I, I am here. Look at me. I will serve you.
Speaker 1 00:52:03 So he's, he's willingly going to go serve the Lord. And what a sacrifice for Hannah who wanted so much to have a child and to raise this child, to give that up in raising him, if only it meant that she could at least have a child. So she makes this covenant. And one of the most impressive things about her is the faith that she has, which, which rivals that of Abraham believing in the impossible, because here she has, she's tried everything to have a child, but then look at, and in, in chapter one, verse 17, then Eli answered and said, go in peace. And the God of Israel grant, the th petition that thou has asked of him. So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, Eli is the priest. And in the Lord's name, he tells her that you will have a child and she believes, and you can see that she believes when you look at verse 18, and she said, let dine handmade, find grace.
Speaker 1 00:53:12 And I cite. So the woman went her way and did eat. And her countenance was no more sad. Can you believe that? Well, before she even had a child, she stopped fasting and, and her countenance was sad. Not because she had a child, but because she believed the Lord and the priest that spoke in the name of the Lord, if he said that she was going to have a child, that was enough not the act of having a child, but simply being able to believe in his words, even though it was impossible, even though she had tried over and over again, and it didn't seem possible if the Lord said it, that was enough for her, she would believe it. Her countless was no more sad. And they rose up in the morning early and worshiped before the Lord and returned and came into their house to Ramma.
Speaker 1 00:54:07 And El knew Hannah, his wife and the Lord remembered her where four, it came to pass. When the time was come that after Hannah had conceived that she bear a son and called his name, Samuel in Hebrew, Sam or Shem means name L means, God, his name is God. L is his name. So kind of names him after God, I guess, because I have asked him of the Lord, then the man El and the house went up to offer into the Lord yearly sacrifice and, and his vow. But Hannah went not first. She said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned because every year they would go up and offer their sacrifices. Well, Samuel was going to be one of those sacrifices. So she did not want to go up to offer a sacrifice until the child had been weaned, because he was going to be one of the sacrifices that, that she was offering to the Lord.
Speaker 1 00:55:02 And so she held onto him and weaned him for as long as she could. And once he was ready, she brought him and, and look at how she, it says this in verse 24. And when she had weaned him, she took up with her three bullocks and one eFiled flower and a bottle of wine and brought him onto the house with Lord and Shiloh. So just like all of the animal sacrifice and what she was doing, she brought him up as a sacrifice, just as much as any other sacrifice he was being brought up to sacrifice to the Lord that did not necessarily mean that he was getting killed. He was sacrificed in a different way, in a, in a way that he was sacrificed from, from her being able to raise him and being his mom to now, he is going to be at the house of Lord and to serve God and to be the Lord's servant.
Speaker 1 00:55:51 And, and they slew a Bullock and brought the child to Eli. And she said, oh my Lord. As th soul lith, my Lord, I am the woman that stood by the here praying unto the Lord for this child. I prayed. And the Lord has given me my petition, which I asked, therefore also I have lent him to the Lord as long as he li live with. He shall be lent to the Lord and he worshiped the Lord. There, it's a beautiful story. It was a story that inspired my wife quite a bit. And, and I probably don't need to tell that story, but I think Hannah has a special meaning to a lot of us. And a lot of people that worry that maybe the Lord has forgotten us, or maybe the Lord is, is not giving us a blessing that we want so bad.
Speaker 1 00:56:39 And so desperately to the point where maybe we think it's impossible and, and not even just in temporal blessings or blessings of having a child, but maybe we think, and sometimes in our life is salvation beyond our reach. We, we want to be perfect. We want to put aside our sins for so long. We've been struggling to set them aside to the point where we think, you know what it's in, it's impossible, I've tried, and, and I've given up on this, but instead of giving up on this, she continues to go and to plead her case before the Lord and finds that her belief in the impossible was justified and that it was possible for her to be redeemed, to be saved and to have a child. So I, I do love the story of Hannah and, and she sings praises. So chapter two, we get kind of this song and, and she takes care of her, her child and, and the Lord's going to call him.
Speaker 1 00:57:32 And we have that story when the Lord calls Eli answers. And, and I love, we'll just read verse 21. I know I'm kind of running, running out of time here. And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh for the Lord, revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh, by the word of the Lord here, you have not just a priest in the temple and whatever, but the Lord appearing to a prophet again. And Samuel is going to be playing a very central role in unifying Israel and, and taking them to the next phase where we went from patriarchs to, to these patriarchs slash prophets, that, that kind of took him into a next dispensation where, where Moses and, and Joshua to this period of judges. And then we're gonna have a transition from judges to Kings and Samuel's the one who's going to be anointing the Kings. Who's gonna start with Saul and then also with David and, and we're gonna get into a new E um, epic era time of Israel's history.
Speaker 1 00:58:35 And Samuel is that key piece as we get there. So we'll talk more about Samuel next week. We'll pick back up right in the, the book of Samuel. Talk about some of the things that are happening, uh, Eli and his sons, and what happens with their family. As, as you can see in these chapters, that's prophesied that they're going to be destroyed and that the Lord is going to raise up another priest to, to be righteous. We'll, we'll leave off right here for, for this, for now, for this week. But let me leave this with you. Also in the book of judges, there were a lot of stories that we did not get to, and some stories that maybe do not have a ton of value in, in, and when we just read 'em, they seem a little bit gruesome or a little bit hard to understand or difficult.
Speaker 1 00:59:20 And, and the church I, I feel like with good reason, kind of leaves them off the come follow me discussion, but because it's left off the come follow me discussion, and it's not talked about. And because it's kind of hard to read and understand when you talk about the gore or the violence or, or some of the things that are happening, you're like, why is this included in the Bible? And if we can't talk about it in church, where, when can we talk about it? I do have some comments. I would like to revisit some of those stories with in particular Leviticus 19, when you're talking about the Levi who's coming and, and is Conine is taken and abused and killed. And the destruction of all the, almost all of the Benjaminite until you have only 300 men left over, and you've got the story.
Speaker 1 01:00:04 We mentioned it briefly in this episode of, of the, the judge that offered his daughter up as a sacrifice. So I, I do have some thoughts on those that we just did not have time for, if you would like a bonus episode, or for me to try to explain some more of that, uh, let, let us know. I know these these next two weeks, we're gonna be a little bit tight on time, but if, if there's enough interest in that, and you'd like to hear a little bit more kind of touching on some of those things that we skipped, it doesn't even have to be judges if in your own reading. And we're going through this at such a fast clip, trying to, to keep up with, come follow me. You'll notice that something got skipped or left out that you would love for us to discuss, or you'd want to hear our take.
Speaker 1 01:00:44 Please reach out to us. You, you can post comments on our
[email protected]. You can send us emails high at weekly, deep Dave, weekly, deep dive.com. We've we've got a Facebook page, um, at add-on education. Uh, we, we even have an Instagram that we, we don't really use. I I'm, I'm terrible at social media. Um, but reach out to us any method you want, or if you just know us, text us, call us, let us know. And, uh, if in the next coming weeks, we can put together some bonus content for you or bonus episodes to kind of talk about some of the things that fall by the wayside. We would love to do that for you. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Uh, we look forward to having Nate back next week and, uh, until then see you.
