RUTH: a woman's guide to husband material?
Michael Ben Zehabe
Providing curriculums, books, posters, audio, and more, to Christian High Schools and Homeschooling Parents
The book of?Ruth?contains 1 lonely fact, a fact containing a broken heart of such immensity that it creates an entire galaxy of sadness around it. Yahweh lost His earthly family in?Genesis?and continues tirelessly to get them back, throughout all 66 books of the Bible, never stopping until some come back in?Revelation.
Ruth had something in common with this broken-hearted God: more than anything else, Ruth wanted Yahweh to be her Father. Even when her family was dying all around her, she scratched her way out of the ashes, searching for a mere ember of love.
Grief is a heavy burden, but over time it becomes a reliable anchor. How did Ruth rise from the ashes of bereavement? Did she have a method . . . a regimen? Proust made an interesting observation: “Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind.”
What a pointless endeavor, when well-intended sympathizers attempt to divert grief. Wait. Grief will bear fruit in the months and years to come.
Very few know the lonely part of “waiting” the way Yahweh does. (Ge 6:5-6; Isa 57:15; Eph 4:30)
Our Earth is a wasteland of broken things and broken people. Handymen with calloused dirty hands are kings in this wasteland of entropy. Handymen know things need fixin’ and they know people need fixin’.
One day, you might fall in love, hoping a handyman will fix you. But handymen must be cautious that you don’t break them. We’re broken people in love with broken people.
Humanity’s problem isn’t that they are starved of miracles. We are surrounded by miracles. We simply fail to appreciate them.
Adam was gifted a wife. He was overwhelmed by this new partner, to the extent he spoke the Bible’s first poem. (Ge 2:23) Eve was gifted a child. She was overwhelmed by this miracle, to the extent she gave her child a special name. (Ge 4:1) Just as Eve lacked respect for her husband, Cain lacked respect for Eve by murdering her next child, Abel. Attitudes are contagious.
Husbands lack respect for wives, wives lack respect for husbands, children lack respect for parents, and families lack respect for Yahweh. We are surrounded by miracles who we fail to appreciate. This, in a nutshell, will be the age-old problem we will face after the millennium, when the Satan is released on our new world. (Re 20:7-8)
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What a strange creation we are. We are no more than a thin-skinned volition, propelled by intent, through a sea of other people’s coercions.
Someone is bound to hurt us or disagree with us, eventually. Family life is messy business and God wants us to get our hands dirty. Yahweh demands that we jump in and work past the pain. (Ro 8:38-39)
Love isn’t always reciprocated. Sometimes, children must find their way back—despite their parents. Sometimes, husbands must find their way back—despite their wives. Sometimes, wives must find their way back—despite their husbands. Sometimes, in-laws must find their way back—despite a history of non-support.
Love isn’t always a shared experience. Many couples aren’t sharing the same emotion at the same time, but once love sets the course, an orbit is established. This course may be rough and irregular at 1st, but eventually, if love becomes your primary impetus, all our loved ones will ease into the same predictable orbit.
Ultimately, God expects us to better the community we come from. (Nu 14:24)??Wasn’t that the same expectation when Jesus instructed Peter? “Feed my sheep.” (Joh 21:15-17)??Wasn’t that the expectation of Jesus when he chastised the Pharisees to teach Israel? (Lk 11:42)
Yahweh has offered His heart, but that love has been largely rejected. When a childless widow arrived in Israel, Yahweh was waiting and receptive. His ears and heart were wide open when Ruth begged for adoption.
How is it possible to read the Bible without becoming an incurable romantic?
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