RUTH: Pleasing God

by Verna Hargrove

Ruth found love from her mother-in-law. This led her to God. We need God. We need to know truth. He is someone we trust. The Bible is God's Book.That has been proven down through the centuries to be true.. In it is a map for life.Read the Bible, starting in the New Testament (John).Follow your heart and take action, b finding a good church.We are using lessons from the life of Ruth to see how God works in our lives..Spiritual messages are in the Book of Ruth. Finding Jesus as a Redeemer is the first step in finding the face of God. Knowing truth gives us freedom. This book reveals the heart of a Goel--a kinsman redeemer. True liberty is living as we should; not as we please. We live in the dispensation of Grace, which, is a contrast with the Old Testament Law of Moses. In Christ, we are given independence from religious regulations and legal restrictions of law. We have freedom from the yoke of the Mosaic Law, and from the yoke of observances of that law.We are free to follow God any place He leads. Freedom includes release from dominion or power of our old sinful nature with its appetites and passions.Satan no longer has power over us. Jesus Christ, our Goel, purchased freedom for us to live the power of the Holy Spirit, and, to be pleasing to our Master, to Whom we now belong by right of His paying the purchase price on the Cross.for us. This kind of redemption among the Israelites included both that of people and of land. In Israel land had to stay in the family. The family could mortgage the land to ward off poverty; and the law of Leviticus 25:25 required a kinsman to purchase it back into the family. The kinsman, who rescues Ruth is Boaz. The kinsman redeemer for us is Jesus. The best part is that we can tell Satan to go away in Jesus name, and he has to obey. There is power in that name. Being Redeemed (exagorazo) has the idea of “buying back” or “purchasing out of.” The idea is not just that of a rescue (as in the Biblical idea of salvation), but of paying a price in order to bring about the “great escape” or rescue from bondage to the power of sin and death. Verna Hargrove has added basic notes to help beginning Bible students understand Biblical truths behind this story of redemption. -Naomi returns to Bethlehem. Ruth says, "Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me." (Ruth 1:16–17 NKJV) The two women return to Bethlehem during the barley harvest, and in order to support her mother-in-law and herself, Ruth goes to the fields to glean. The field she goes to belongs to a man named Boaz, who is kind to her because he has heard of her loyalty to her mother-in-law. Ruth tells her mother-in-law of Boaz's kindness, and she gleans in his field through the remainder of the harvest season. Through Jewish ritual, Ruth proposes marriage to Boaz. She needs a kinsman redeemer., thus allowing Boaz to marry Ruth. They transfer the property and redeem it by taking off a shoe and handing it over. That is like signing a decision card in today's world.

57 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 20, 2013