RPG Adults
THE TIMES OF THE JUDGES (2)
TUESDAY, JULY 2
Ruth 1:1-3
Leviticus 26:14-20
“Your strength shall be spent
in vain: for your land
shall not yield her increase.”
THE TIMES OF THE JUDGES (2)
What the doctrine of providence requires of man is reflected in the statement by Matthew Henry: “There is no running from God but by running to Him, no fleeing from His justice but by fleeing to His mercy.”
“…there was a famine in the land” (Ruth 1:1). This verse reflects the nation’s area of departure! They departed from their commission, they had a change of mind and purpose, and they trusted in their own wisdom and thoughts, neglecting clear instructions given by God. Circumstances, temporal advantages, and prevailing benefits reigned supreme. Their minds became their authority, and they did not follow what God’s Word said. The command to eradicate the Canaanites was one that would ensure their separateness and enhance their holiness. It had spiritual benefits; it would deliver them from the temptations posed by the Canaanite ways. They did not look at it from the spiritual perspective; they did not consider that corrupt communications corrupt good morals. They chose compromise instead of separation. There is no temporal gain that is worth the spiritual ruin that disobedience to God’s Word and will brings. Our desire must always be to know God’s Word and to walk in obedience to His revealed will.
When they departed from God’s Word and followed their minds, when they rejected God’s plan and set up a different path for themselves, their diligent and good efforts bore no fruit. The house of Bread was visited by scarcity of bread. The soil was still fertile, the land still a “good land,” but the providence of God ordained a chastening famine, which was to turn His children back to him. There was providence in the famine, just as when God “brake the whole staff of bread” (Ps 105:16), or during David’s reign (2 Sam 21:1; 24:13), and as embodied in Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the Temple (2 Chron 6:22-39) and repeated by Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20:6-9.
THOUGHT: Providence places each moment of life within God’s plan.
PRAYER: Help me, Father, to see Thy hand of providence and leading in my life.