Lives Prepared for Transition

Just as Oak Hill is going through a significant leadership transition, we are about to read how God transitioned the Israelite leadership from judges to kings. I think it's wonderful timing - and God's perfect timing - that He has woven our lives together today with the Israelites' lives 3000 years ago. Let's find out what what we can learn from the God's Word and about the Israelites as they journeyed through their leadership transition...

"The First Book of Samuel describes the transition of leadership in Israel from judges to kings.... Historically, First Samuel provides the crucial link from the judges to the monarchy. It is a fast-moving narrative that gives a spiritual perspective on three very different personalities whose lives are interwoven: Samuel, the last judge and first prophet; Saul, the first king of Israel; and David, the king-elect, anointed but not yet recognized as Saul's successor."

~ Talk Thru the Bible

We read of Hannah in Chapter 1 and learn of her deep longing for a child. We see her sorrow and "bitterness of soul", deep hurt from those "provoking her", attempted consolation from her husband, weeping, earnest prayer, and sacrifice. Hannah prayed so fervently that the priest (Eli) thought she was drunk. That was some serious prayer! She prayed to God with "great anguish and grief" and poured her heart out to Him. She was honest about her troubled heart, asked for something very specific, and then vowed to God that if He granted her request, that she would give it right back to Him. God honored Hannah's submission, obedience, and prayerful request and gave Hannah a son, whom she named Samuel. Hannah was faithful to her promise, committed Samuel to God, and then prayed some more to rejoice in the Lord. Hannah was a praying woman, faithful to God, and God used her in a special way during this transitional period.

"... [Samuel] ministered before the LORD under Eli the priest." In Chapter 2, we read of Eli again and learn that God used Eli to raise Samuel and teach him about the Lord and ministry. Eli's biological sons were wicked and dishonored God. What a contrast of "sons" in Eli's life! What a blessing Samuel must have been to Eli in the midst of his own family turmoil and warnings from God! Eli's life appears to be one of contradiction. His sons were evil, he failed to restrain them, and his ministry was weak (v. 3:1), but God used him to raise Samuel to prepare him for life and ministry.

In chapter 3, we read of God's calling of Samuel and His first prophetic message for Samuel. God called Samuel four times until Samuel realized who was speaking. Eli played an important role in this part of the story as Samuel's mentor. After the third call to Samuel, Eli realized that God was calling and instructed Samuel how to respond... "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." Samuel had to learn to hear God's voice and how to respond. What an important skill to learn! God was preparing Samuel and we know that "the Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and let none of his words fall to the ground" (v. 3:19). God delivered some strong words that night to Samuel regarding his mentor, Eli. Upon receipt of his first prophetic message, Samuel was faithful to listen to God and was also faithful to convey God's message and truth to Eli.

There are so many nuggets in these three chapters! God used each person in a specific way during this transitional period of the Israelites' lives. We each have a role to play during the transition at Oak Hill. I pray that we learn from Hannah, Eli, and Samuel that God honors the faithfulness of His people. He can use us when we are faithful and in a right relationship with Him. Lord, help me to be faithful in my personal life so that You can use me to glorify You and minister to others!

God's Grace is Abundant and Sufficient

Ruth:

First I'd like to exhort all of your to study the meanings of the names within the book of Ruth. Each name is significant and when put together they tell the story of the Christian life. When a Christian leaves the place of God's blessing, the church, he or she becomes sick and cannot live long.

This is such a powerful book, we could probably spend a whole month studying it, and not begin to dig into the riches of it. I would like to point out the overall theme of God's grace and sufficiency for the child of God. In addition, I intend to go at least Chapter by Chapter into some rich content so say a prayer, grab on tight, and let's dig in.

Chapter 1:

Elimelech (Means My God is King!) leaves Bethlehem-Judah (House of Bread) to sojourn in the land of Moab during the time of famine. Now the famine was sent as punishment from God and the Israelites were not really starving to death, they were just hungry all the time, but Elimelech chooses to reject God's chastisement and go to Moab, a place where Idolatry was abundant and everything about their life was contrary to God's commandments. He takes his wife Naomi and his two sons Mahlon and Chillon and travels to a place in Moab to sojourn. A sojourn is meant only to be for a short time, yet they stayed there 10 yrs. After Elimelech's death, leadership of the family would pass from the father to the oldest son, and yet they still chose to stay in Moab and it cost all three of them their lives. When we come to Naomi, she has nothing left and decides to return, but she is seething with bitterness. Bitterness kills if not dealt with. Bitterness will always harm us more than those we are bitter against.

Naomi decides to return, and her two daughters-in-law decide to return with her. Orpah however finally gives in and returns to her pagan family and culture. Ruth (friendship) on the other hand chooses to accept Naomi's God (she gets saved) and returns with her Mother-in-law (which was the right thing for her to do.) Notice in verse 21 Naomi says she went out full. Apparently the need to sojourn wasn't as great as Elimelech thought!

God's grace was sufficient to bring Naomi home in a time of trouble and that with a daughter-in-law to help her.

Chapter 2:

We learn that Naomi had a near kinsman who could redeem Ruth and Naomi, as well as the land that belonged to them. Ruth goes to glean in the field of Boaz, and Boaz immediately takes notice of her. Ruth receives great kindness at the hand of Boaz. He instructs his reapers to leave some “handfuls of purpose” for her and her mother-in-law. He instructs his men to take care of her every need. A good principle to live by, is if we do our best to help the poor, the Lord will be pleased and bless accordingly (not in line with the name it and claim it crowd, but He does give us specific instructions concerning the poor. And too many times we say things like, “Well they could find a job if they really wanted one,” in erroneous, harsh and unloving judgment; the exact kind of hypocritical judgment Christ warned against.) Ruth continues through the whole harvest gleaning in Boaz's field. Ruth could have gleaned more than enough to last through the year in this time, and yet Boaz did not say, “You've gleaned enough.” Instead he entreated her to continue the whole harvest with his maidens. God's grace is more than sufficient. He never does anything haphazardly or nonchalantly. He always meets the need in abundance

Chapter 3:

The time of Harvest comes and Naomi gives Ruth instructions to present herself to Boaz for redemption. Many would look at this and think Naomi was sending Ruth to do something bad, but the truth is she was giving her instruction to offer herself for redemption. Boaz remains pure and true to form and does right. He had an opportunity to do wrong and defraud the nearer kinsman. He did however deal wisely with him, but that's next chapter. Boaz honors Ruth with the statement, “for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman.” Good Godly character always shines through. Again when Boaz sends her away, he sends her away not empty handed but with a promise of redemption. Just as Boaz gave a promise of redemption, we were given a promise of redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ, that of the Holy Spirit. He (the Spirit) is the earnest of our inheritance. The thing about the earnest (gift of the promise) is that if the promise is not fulfilled you get to keep the earnest. If we could ever lose our salvation, then we would get to keep the Holy Spirit (God) which indwells us at the time of salvation. So if God does not fulfill His promise to redeem us, we still get to keep Him. (in another words, there is no way we could ever ever ever lose our salvation.) God's grace is given above measure. He has not left us empty-handed.

Chapter 4:

Boaz rises early to go to the gate or the public place of business. He wisely knows that the kinsman will pass and he waits for him. When the nearer Kinsman comes Boaz tells him of his right to redeem, and the kinsman says, “I will redeem it” and then Boaz tells him of his responsibilities to Naomi and Ruth. After this, the nearer Kinsman says he cannot redeem it, and publicly gives Boaz the right to redeem. Boaz does redeem it, and takes Ruth to be his wife and raises up a child, Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David, the lineage of Christ. It is amazing that Naomi comes back and God blesses her with a special blessing to be in the lineage of Christ, this was the dream of every Israelite woman to be the mother of the messiah, and although Naomi was not the mother of the messiah, she was in the lineage, and God's grace was overflowing beyond measure. To imagine that God would allow a harlot (Rahab) and a pagan Idolatress (Ruth) to be in the lineage of the Messiah. God's grace is sufficient, abundant, overflowing and just down right good.

Pure Freedom

This post is going to be very short today ladies because I am EXHAUSTED from being at the Pure Freedom Conference at Oak Hill...but I would not trade this time or this exhaustion for anything else in this world!!! What an incredible and life-changing event for the young ladies of our church and for the adult ladies who were there to mentor them! And how fitting that our Bible text for today involves some VERY sexually violent things done to a young woman. This is one of the most, if not the most, disturbing and depraved events that occurs in the Old Testament in my opinion. I am reminded once again that Dr. Del Tackett said in the "Truth Project" that if we could see all of the wickedness that goes on in this world for ONE second, we would be CRUSHED and instantly die. This is one of those things that I think he was referring to when he said that.

These three chapters are filled with sexual depravity of the gravest kind and violence and gore on the largest scale possible in human existence. We have a young woman who is raped all night long by a gang of sexually hungry and extremely violent men and a Levite man who sees her laying at the doorway dead and just tells her to "get up and let's go" not realizing she is dead after a night of being torn apart by "animals"! Then, he cuts her up into 12 pieces and sends them off to the 12 tribes of Israel (and how does he do that exactly - by UPS???)! I know that you can read these events for yourself, but I just had to repeat them here for effect because it is just so incredible to me that human beings can be so incredibly and purely wicked and evil! This especially infuriates me after I have just experienced some of the acute and deeply ingrained pain that the young ladies I just spent 2o hours with are going through and then I have to read this and process it! It is almost too much for me to bear and I do not know, Lord, why you did not just wipe us out so long ago!!!

Having said all of that though, we have "pure freedom" from this and other horrible events in our lives and in all of human history thanks to the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for all of us!! Would you take a moment with me to just REALLY think about that again afresh and anew? What Jesus did for us is about more than I can take in and my heart overflows with thanksgiving for his redemption! As I told the young ladies late last night, not ONE SINGLE tear falls from our eyes that is not held in the palm of the Father's hand and not ONE SINGLE injustice goes unseen and they will ALL be dealt with by our Lord! Your pain is NOT EVER in vain!!!! I love you all and all glory and honor be to our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, forever and ever and ever!!!! AMEN AND AMEN!!!