Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Ruth 4

2 comments:

Leanne said...

Wow, I love the book of Ruth. God has a plan for our life. If we will allow Him to tie up all the loose ends, plans that failed, losses that don't make sense,etc... He will bring about more than we could ever imagine! Not just in our own life, but the lives of those around us. I think we sometimes forget that what we do with our life, does Not just affect us. Satan wants us to believe that this life is our own and that what we do with it is our business. That simply is not true. We are here for a purpose, and that purpose is to be an open vessel for the Lord to work freely through. I want to be that kind of person, someone the Lord can accomplish His divine plan through. Leanne

Unknown said...

Been pondering feminism for the past few weeks (came up in our studies and in some online reading) and so couldn't help but think of this passage in light of that. By feminist standards, how discriminating this whole chapter is. Ruth basically "sold" along with the field, and a mere acquisition and "conduit" to carry on her dead husband's name. Must make feminists cringe and curl their lips. Surely women were not treated "equally" in this day and age. Was it right? Maybe not. Was it wrong? I dunno... I choose to look at it from the other angle, rather than seeing the woman as discriminated and the "weaker" sex with no cultural rights, I see God's hand at work to "cherish" these beautiful women. That's all I see in the life of Ruth here. Not the discrimination that she was "less" of a person, but that she meant so much as a person that God "cherished" her through Boaz.

When the desire of Eve, which was the passion for equality when it comes down to it, "to become like God", or the passion to want more than our lot is what is driving us, I see it driving us right away from Eden and the gift of being "cherished" and right into the big wide world of "fend for yourself by the sweat of your brow."

I hate that word "equality" anyway. Is the left side of my brain "unequal" with the right merely because they serve different functions? Neither half would be whole without the other, and yet are they what we can really refer to as "equal" in the sense that one half is predominant "in a way"? It's all relative really.

We are equal. We are different. If in the marital relationship He is the "right" side and I am the "left" and he is given that slight edge of predominance in this partnership I can feel nothing but blessed. That is a gift to me, not a robbery. I have been given someone to treasure me. What's not to love about that?