A Devotional Thought From Ruth

Ruth said “…thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.”     Ruth 1:16

Yesterday I had the privilege of preaching at a nearby church and I told the story of Ruth’s testimony: How she came out of paganism, poverty, and a precarious future into the happy blessings of God. I summarized the Bible book that tells her story with these five statements.

Our God is the God of tough times.

Our God is the God of romance.

Our God is the God of new beginnings.

Our God is the God of the best blessings.

Our God is the God of salvation!

A Devotional Thought From 2 Kings

Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.     2 Kings 17:3

The LORD testified, made it clear, to Israel the kind of lifestyle He expected to see among the people of Israel. He testified through the prophets and seers. They told the people God’s plan of faith and life. It was simple, basic, clear-cut, straight-forward.

It contained two prongs: 1. Turn from your evil ways. No one argues that Israel, the northern kingdom, was not filled with evil behavior. They are constantly disparaged in the Old Testament for continuing to follow the sin of her first King, Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who we are told again and again, caused Israel to sin. In following evil and the wickedness of Jeroboam the people of the northern kingdom added to that the sin of following the Baalim gods, and caused their children to pass through the fire. This meant that they took newborn infants and burned them on the altar to these false gods. False religion always leads to death, not just spiritually, but often physically as well. 2. The second aspect of what God called upon Israel to do was to keep His commandments, to follow His law, to obey His revelation of what faith living in this world should look like. Had they done so, such a turnaround might have saved them from the disaster that eventually fell upon them.

And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Syria and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes: Because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them.     2 Kings 18:11,12

The consequences were hard. The king of Assyria came, conquered the capital city of Samaria and all the northern kingdom, and carried the people of Israel away as captives, and exiled them in a strange land because they would not obey God.

For any nation’s long time prosperity the proper path is to respond positively to the revelation God has given. Modern nations are blessed in that they have God’s clear message for national, familial, and individual living set forth in the Bible, if they desire to know what God wants. If the people who desire their nation’s best future follow God’s teaching, and live it out on a daily basis, their country, families, and personal lives will possibly be kept from great disaster.

A Devotional Thought From 1 Kings

And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed Baalim.     1 Kings 18:17, 18

So when Ahab and Elijah meet after God had told Elijah he was going to lift the drought, Ahab looks down from the chariot and asks, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? Ahab and his pagan wife Jezebel were stunned and angry that Elijah had turned the people back to the LORD, and had executed 850 false prophets. In one fell swoop the nation had had a cataclysmic change, in Ahab’s mind a change for the worse, so looking at Elijah he says, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?

Elijah is not intimidated. He looks the King in the eyes and says (let me paraphrase v. 18), “We know who is troubling Israel. Thou art the man. And how have you done it? You have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and worshiped (and still worship) false gods.”

When the preachers of righteousness are criticized for standing against the immoral currents of any society, the leaders and follows of immorality accuse them of troubling the nations. Why can’t you just shut up about what the Bible says is right and wrong? Not everybody believes in your LORD so why must you put your faith out there and make them question their values and actions? Why can’t you live and let live? Why can’t you just let society do what it wants without being critical? You can have your own religion just keep it inside the walls of your religious building and don’t let the public at large know what you think or believe, because it just causes trouble to advocate for spouses to be faithful to one another in marriage, or for preborn children to be allowed to live, or for men to use only the men’s room when in public places, or for government to be righteous, or for preachers to preach the Bible as God’s Word revealed, or for violent criminals to be punished, or… or… or. All of your protestations trouble the nation!

Like Elijah Christians and other moral people reply, “We know who is troubling the nation. It is the leaders and followers of breaking down traditional faith and morality. You are Ahab (Melville’s character named after this wicked king of scripture) chasing after the white whale of no standards, no morality, no restrictions, no obligations, no truth, no righteousness, and when you finally harpoon that situation it will drag you down and drown the nation with you.”