Woman Wednesday

This week, the chapter in John MacArthur's book 12 Extraordinary Women is about Ruth.

I remember my first time reading in the book of Ruth. I was in college and friends of mine who were getting married asked me to recite a passage of Scripture at their wedding. I was expecting 1 Corinthians 13, but when they gave me the passage, Ruth 1:16-17, I was like what? Great, am I going to have to pronounce some weird name in the Old Testament? I checked out the passage right away and it was like "oh, that's appropriate," as if they needed my stamp of approval for Scripture reading on their wedding day! Since then, I've read the book of Ruth more times than I can remember. It's a short book and it's a good story with a happy ending. The girl gets her man. I've even played Naomi in an adlibbed version of it at young adult girls group a long time ago with Ann Gatchell playing Ruth. Let's just say after our one and only performance, we were ready to take the show on the road! I've also heard some teachings on Ruth. By far the best one has been by Mark Dever at NA 2004. He teaches on the whole book and I walked away from the teaching with a much more biblical and God centered view of Ruth's story than her just marrying Boaz.

From the previous encounters with studying and reading Ruth, I went into reading MacArthur's chapter pretty much already informed. I did get through the chapter pretty quickly. MacArthur does call the book "a flawless love story" which I'm not sure if I agree with and he does spend a majority of the chapter about the relationship between Ruth and Boaz. Reading the chapter, it made me think more about Mark Dever's teaching on the book of Ruth. I remember him saying that while Naomi and Ruth traveled to Bethelem, God was already going ahead of them to provide for them there. I would recommend getting a copy of the message by Dever. I also know that in Carolyn McCulley's book, Did I Kiss Marriage Goodbye? she devotes a whole chapter to Ruth based largely off of Dever's message.

As much as I love a good love story, Ruth story's is much more about boy meets girl, boy marrys girl It is about God who is sovereign and is actively saving individuals for his glory. Like Rahab before, Ruth, a Moabite, was set apart and saved by God's grace and is part of the genealogy of Christ. This is another wonderful example of God's grace to us that it is only by His mercy that He calls and draws us to himself. Nothing in us would make God love us to send His Son to die on the cross for our sins except for his great love for us. What a great comfort and assurance for us as believers!

Toodles,