Besides being a love story with some unusual, humorous and romantic twists, Ruth is a book that brings us down to earth where spiritual things is concerned. Ruth’s salvation is part and parcel of the redemption of the land! Our salvation is part and parcel of the redemption of the earth! We are saved in order to LIVE on the earth life to the full! 

* Dear Lord God, have mercy upon us according to Your steadfast love. According to Your abundant mercy please blot out our transgressions.

“And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, ‘A son has been born to Naomi.’ They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.”

Here is the build-up and conclusion to this wonderful story of love and hope.

Ruth and Boaz are bound up in marriage, and Naomi now nurses her grandson in her lap.

We see this son of hope born, and the writer makes it very clear what that hope was about.

How blessed are God’s people to know the true King of kings, Jesus – God in the Person of the Son.

Jesus was around long before David was born. He is the one to whom David gave glory and worship and submission.

Praise God for our King Jesus, whom all our hope rests and finds its weight and worth in.

We thank You and praise You for how You work in our lives.

Please help us to point to You. Please make us more like Jesus.

July 28, Reading 1 – Ruth 3, 4

An idol is a skewed understanding of God. Often we replace what God has revealed in the Bible about Himself with what we think in the light of modern thought and experience. Idolatrous Israelites called their idols the LORD, just as believing Israelites did of the God of Abraham.

* Gracious Lord God, please be merciful toward us today as we read and dwell on Your word.

“Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.”

This passage is once again chewing over the big important truth, that God is GOD and there is _no_ other.

We see especially a light shone on the folly of idolatry.

“They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand.”

People are blinded in their building and worshipping and searching for idols. God’s sovereignty is at work here.

“No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, ‘Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?'”

Idols come from the heart of man. We make them. They are forged in our broken hearts, they come from our own design.

We are to be exhorted in this, that idolatry is folly.

“I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.”

Please humble our hearts and break our spirits today.

Please create in us clean hearts O God, so that we might put away any idolatrous thought.

Please put within us a singular desire for You, that we might hold fast to our devotion to You.

You are the One True God, who saves us, there is no other.

July 28, Reading 2 – Isaiah 44:6-23

There is much of our Trinitarian understanding of God in this sentence: The Lord is the Spirit. (3:17) The designation the Lord is used for both Jesus and the Father!

* Loving God, please reveal to us today a little more of You, our need for You, and how we can better listen and obey!

“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

What a strong and encouraging passage, a war-cry of the believer!

“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, …”

The best way to tell people about Jesus is to refuse any cunning practice or tampering with God’s word and give the open statement of the truth.

And indeed, the message is NOTHING OF US.

He is the one who takes away the veil that lies over our hearts.

He is the one who saves us to the uttermost.

He is the one who is our light and life, the word become flesh, the glory of God.

Thank You that You transform us, our faces unveiled through the light of the knowledge of Your glory through the face of Jesus our Lord.

Thank You that You transform us into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

Please help us understand more of You today, to grow closer to You in our walk along this narrow road.

Daily Devotion Readings for July 28th