Ruth: Ch. 3-4

by **teamc-jk** Thu Apr 23, 2015 7:52 am

I've been having a rough week and skipped devos on the Tuesday and Wednesday merely out of procrastination and unwillingness to have a desire to seek God. I let you guys down, I apologize for my inactive behaviour on the forum. I hope to finish the week strong and post maybe even twice a day based on how time works out.

Please pray for me, I'm failing Math right now, only because I have been discouraged at the fact that it's the subject I am the worst at, and I haven't been keeping up with homework. I am working hard as of this week and hopefully will get that mark up to a 65 or even 70 depending how hard I work and how much I care about the mark. Yeah being involved in a lot of extra-curriculars literally most lunches and after schools is difficult for me, and its hard to balance out the pace of 12 English and Math. And oh also my phone got stolen yesterday during English class. Please pray that biblical justice will be served, as in righting the wrongs rather than focussing on seeking revenge as I know the person that did it and most likely will be approaching them today. Thanks guys. Now for the devotional.

Reading chapter three, I realized two things:
Firstly, my thought processing and mental state regarding relationships between a man and woman are skewed by today's society and past experiences with my temptation of sexual sin. To dive a bit deeper into this, in chapter three Naomi tells Ruth to wash up, put on her best clothes, and wait until nighttime. Ruth is to seek Boaz, the field’s owner, uncover his “feet” in his intoxicated slumber, and then do whatever he tells her. In essence, Naomi tells Ruth to put her physical safety and reputation on the line in an attempt to sexually entrap an inebriated man. The logic was that if Ruth became pregnant with Boaz’s baby, he would then be forced to take them both in.
After reading this, I easily assumed that a) Ruth was weak and desperately sought out Boaz for her own sake and b) Ruth and Boaz were going to have sex. Then Ruth decided to change her mind last second and disobey her mother-in-law, as well as put her safety and reputation on the line for the sake of staying faithful to Boaz and not tricking him to sleep with her. It's interesting how she ends up actually telling Boaz what he should do, going against the norm of the role of females at the time.

Secondly, I realized that she had the inner strength to overcome her temptation, and that this isn't something I can't do either.
Ruth is aware of her circumstances, and rather than giving into what her mother-in-law wants and potentially what she even wants, she tries to shape her circumstances for the greater good of those around her, no matter what the consequences are.
The big theme here is faithfulness. Putting yourself at risk for the greater good. Chapter four basically puts the icing on the cake, as Boaz and Ruth get married and she conceives a child, and they live a very holy, God-honouring and God-fearing life.

Pretty blessed, this is encouraging me to seek out even more positive relationships and stray away from temptations, just as we are with the x3 watch app together. Love you guys.