Orchestration

The Holy Spirit must have told me this a dozen times in the last few years. And I promptly forgot what He said each time. So last night, with great patience as I read through Ruth, He nudged me once again with this important truth. Really, it is a critical truth, especially for the time in which we live. The story of Ruth takes place during the period of the Judges (Ruth 1:1). Judges in the one book in the Bible that I have to sometimes force myself to read. It is a dark book. A bloody book. A grisly book. Its theme can be summarized with these few words: “Every man did what was right in his own eyes.” (e.g. Judges 17:6; 21:25). Judges pictures for us with chilling clarity the culture of death people with no moral underpinning create for themselves and for others. But what is remarkable about this period of the Judges is that through it all – the rampaging evil, the murders, the repulsive immoralities – what is remarkable is that through it all, God was orchestrating salvation history. How? Ruth, the foreigner, returned to Israel with her mother-in-law, Naomi. She ‘happened’ to find work in the fields owned by Naomi’s relative, Boaz. God saw to it that he then married Ruth. They had a son whom they named Obed. Obed grew up, married, and had a child they named Jesse. Jesse grew up, married, and had a child they named David. Generations followed until another son was born in this genealogical line – Jesus the Messiah. And therein lies the critical message of God for us in 2020: We are living through another very dark, bloodthirsty and sexually depraved time in history. Wherever we turn we find masses of people doing what is right in their own eyes. But don’t ever doubt this absolute and unchangeable truth: God is still on His throne, relentlessly orchestrating events and people according to His purpose – which is the eventual culmination of salvation history. Jesus was serious when He reminded His disciples – those like me, and you: “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)