"For the World" February 26 Readings: Ruth 1-4

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Today's Reading - Ruth


Background


Ruth is one of the truly great love stories in ancient literature. No, it is not so much a story of romantic love, but the faithful love of a daughter-in-law to a mother-in-law. The purpose of this book is to tell the story of King David's great-grandmother from Moab. She is also one of the four women who appear in Jesus' genealogy.

Devotional - For the World


The fundamental failing of Israel was their failure to understand the full meaning of the blessing they'd received from God. In Genesis 12:2, God made this promise.
I will make you into a great nation,I will bless you,I will make your name great,and you will be a blessing.
Abraham's descendants were to be blessed and made into a great nation - God would work among them to make their name great. But it was not because they were so special or because God found something meritorious in them that was not in any other nation. No, God chose Israel and blessed them to make them a blessing to the nations of the earth.

And Israel generally forgot that.

They reveled in their place as God's chosen people (when they didn't ignore God in sinful rebellion) and they kept the blessing to themselves.

Books such as Ruth give hints that God's eye was on the world throughout Scripture. This purpose doesn't come into clear focus until the Great Commission and the statement of Acts 1:8 that the Spirit-empowered church would witness to the ends of the earth. Revelation 7 tells us about the heavenly multitude from every tribe and language on earth.

Here, though, God showed his grace to one Moabite woman, including her in the blessings of Israel and the ancestry of the Messiah. It pulls back the curtain on God's purpose for the world - that the people of God would bless the world and bring them to worship the God of heaven.

Father, may I be an agent of your grace, leading the people of the world to proclaim your glory to the world. 

Think and Pray


Do you seek to share the blessings that God has so generously poured out in your life with the lost world that needs him so badly?

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