seated at the table

Ruth 2

This verse stuck out to me the most from Ruth 2 today:

"At mealtime Boaz said to her, "come here, that you may eat of the bread and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar."  So she sat beside the reapers; and he served her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied and had some left."

This is how Jesus is.

He invites us to a table we don't belong at.

He gives us food to eat.

He gives us so much that we have more than enough.

He is so good.

Ruth

The story of Ruth is a beautiful love story, isn't it? 

It seems like every time I read it, I see new little hints of Boaz's love for Ruth...and how he is such a picture of our Redeemer. 

In chapter 1, two comparisons are obvious between Boaz and Jesus. 

1. They live in Bethlehem (house of bread) 

2. They both arrive at the moment of our greatest need. 

Boaz entered Ruth's life when she was a hungry, grieving, young widow.  Left all alone with her mother-in-law, but by her own choice. Such loyalty. 

The city is recovering from a famine. 

Ruth is a blatant foreigner.  Very unappreciated in this culture, especially being a Moabitess. 

Jesus arrives in Bethlehem as the very inconspicuous answer to centuries of prayers. 

They weren't expecting an infant. 

Nevertheless, the Bread of Life was born in a manger in a city where hungry people had been wandering and wondering and waiting for something to fill their souls. 

And fill He did.  

That's just the beginning of the beautiful story.  I probably told a little more than I should have in what was supposed to be the preface, but I can't help it - it's too good. 

Passed over...

In Exodus 12, the Lord passed over the homes of the Israelites with blood on the doorpost.
The firstborn child in every home without blood on the doorpost would die. 


I wonder...did anyone stay awake that night curious to see the tail of the death angel disappearing through the streets?  Did mothers hold their firstborns extra close, knowing God's promise to save those coveredby the blood would hold true, but feeling the weight of the wrath being poured out all around them?
I would have.

What a relief the next day to find their babies breathing. crying. living. 


What horror to hear Egyptian families screaming.  Not one house without someone dead.

And this story is true, but it is a foreshadowing of a reality truer still...the wrath of God is being poured out and will one day be poured out once and for all, but for those who have believed in Jesus and have His blood covering their hearts, death will pass over.  Rather, we will reign in life.
Jesus is the passover lamb. Slain on our behalf, and sufficient to make us completely and totally righteous in the sight of God.
A miracle indeed.

"In the forebearance of God, He passed over the sins previously committed..." (Romans 3)

The Promised Lamb...

Gen. 17

...In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

God gave Abraham a promise with the final component being the in him - Abraham - all the families of the earth will be blessed. God had promised old, childless Abraham an heir. A son.  Through that line, another Son would be born...One who would bless the entire world.


The promised child was finally born. Isaac.
Not too long after - now I'm not sure how old Isaac was, but since time flies as a parent anyways, I'm sure to Abraham it seemed only moments after the Promised Child was born - God asked Abraham to give Isaac back to Him as a burn offering.


My heart would break.
I would kick and scream. I would be totally confused and question God a million times - Are you sure, sure, suuuure this is what you want me to do?!?


Isaac asked aren't we forgetting something? where is the sacrifice?




God will provide for Himself a lamb, my son. 




Abraham obeyed, though - and so believed that promise of God to make him a great nation that he put his soul at rest by believing that God would just have to raise Isaac from the dead.  He was that certain of God's promise.

Isaac is a beautiful foreshadowing of Jesus in how he willingly laid himself on the altar.  He submitted to his father's command and didn't run when he totally could have.
Right when Abraham was about to low the knife to the body of his son - the son he waited 25 years for - the angel of the Lord decreed for him to STOP.

There, caught in the thicket, was the sacrifice. A ram.
A ram?
Hadn't Abraham said that God would provide a lamb?

The lamb would come at another time.
He, too, would be someone's precious baby.  A long waited for child.  And He would willingly lay Himself on the wood in submission to His Father's plan.
But no one would stop this lamb from being slain.

No, this lamb would be beated, bruised, whipped, and finally butchered to death.
His death would bring us life.
His sacrifice would atone for our sins.

This lamb...is Jesus.

Jesus...the Ark of our Salvation

In Genesis 7, I see Jesus as the ark of our salvation.

Somehow the story of Noah's Ark has turned into a cute little nursury rhyme or fairy tale.  Sweet little animals marching in pairs enter an ark for a jolly cruise across the ocean with their friends, Noah and his family.

Not so much.

This is a story God getting so fed up with the evil in the world He created that He wipes the slate clean and starts all over again.  Many, many, many people died.  Innocent children...even babies. Only eight people were saved on the entire planet.

This is not a cute story, but it is a precious foreshadowing of Jesus and how He rescues us from the wrath to come.

When God's wrath was being poured out on the earth because of their wickedness, He welcomed 8 chosen people into the ark that He designed and He shut the door behind them.

He did it all. 


The rain fell and the waters rose, but all who were inside the ark were safe.
What a beautiful picture of Jesus.  When the wrath of God that we are so deserving of is poured out, those who have believed in Jesus are hidden in Christ, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and safe from the judgment of God - all because Christ experienced it on our behalf. 

He is coming!

December 1st. 

Advent begins today.  I love the countdown to Christmas.  I love trying to imagine the anticipation that must have filled Israel's heart as they waited. 

And waited. 

And longed, dreamed, hoped...

And waited.  

Till finally, He came.  The Messiah - the King who had been promised.  He came! Not a minute too soon or too late on the Kingdom Calendar, but what a long time that must have felt like! 

When our babies get a little bit older, we're going to do a Jesus tree, but this year I think I'm going to do a little personal advent.  I'm going to look for prophesies and foreshadowings of Jesus in the Old Testament and meditate on them until Christmas. 

...Starting in Genesis, of course. 

The first mention of a Savior is at the first moment of our need in Genesis 3.  Adam and Eve sinned, and as God is explaining the curses, He tells the serpent that He will enmity between his seed and the woman's seed. He (Jesus) will bruise the serpent on the head (a fatal blow!) and the serpent will bruise Jesus on the heel (temporary pain - and crucifixion is the only death that involves a bruised heel!). Then at the end of the chapter,  Adam names his wife "Eve" -  mother of all the living.  Why in the world would he give her such a hopeful name when they had just been given a death sentence?  

I believe that through the first blood sacrifice that God performed on their behalf (He skinned an animal to cover their nakedness), they learned that one day another sacrifice would be made - a perfect one - who would give eternal life to all who would believe.  

And so the story begins!