Knowledge, Ask Questions

This is a short post with a powerful punch. We have heard how God doesn’t change and how God loves us. Yet, many have perceptions of God but not knowledge.

Understanding God’s ways or having knowledge of how God thinks or works in us, in our life and in the world is a puzzle sometimes. Need an example?

Okay. Look at 1 Kings 17. Remember Elijah? He lived during a time of drought and famine on earth. Remember God sent a raven to gather food and feed Elijah. Elijah was near a stream so he had water during the drought. But when the stream dried up, Elijah knew that was a sign that God wanted him to relocate. God even told Elijah to move to Zarephath.

Note: When a stream God is using to help you dries up, God may be telling you it is time to make a change, a move.

So God tells Elijah where to go, what city. But God also tells Elijah in 1 Kings 17: 7-16 KJV
7. “And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
8. And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,
9. Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.
10. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
11. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.
12. And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
13. And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.
14. For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth.
15. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.
16. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah. ”

Knowledge – asks questions.
Why did God send Elijah to a poor poverty stricken widow and not to a wealthy person?

Who would you have sent Elijah to?

But God sent Elijah to a poor widow, why?
I encourage comments on this question. What do you think about this question? Why did God send Elijah to a poor, broke widow woman and not to a “well off” person?

Until next time.

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*Q
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Relationships – Are Conduits

Imagine this. Put yourself in these shoes and ask yourself, how would I have handled this or maybe this sounds like your life. Here goes.

You are living in an area and things dry up. A famine happens. So you pack up your wife and your two sons and you move to a new place. Things seem fine. Then the husband dies. I wonder how many people would get mad at God and quit on the Lord over this.

Now there is the wife and two sons. The two sons get married. There are no children born to these two sons. About 10 years later, the two sons die. Now you loose your spouse and your children, would you quit on God now?

By now you know who these people are, right? Imagine if Naomi would have just given up and quit. Believers face heartaches too. Imagine moving to a “better” area for a job or for promotions. Things seem to be going just fine for a few years. Then things start going wrong. Your circle of friends or family members start dying. Everything starts breaking down in your house. Someone runs into the back of your car and smashes in the rear end. What would you do?

Naomi said she went into Moab full. Another words, when you started out on your new move to a new location, you had everything. You were full. Your had your family, your things, your wealth and you had a plan.

But then, things changed. Over about five or ten years, your spouse dies. Family who came with you dies. Your children die or leave.  Everyone you left with, is gone. Then everything in your house starts breaking down over and over again. And then your church makes changes that you know you can not be a part of so now you have lost your family, lost your church, lost your friends and your house is eating away at your wealth. Or what wealth you have left. What would you do?

We read later that Naomi claimed God had dealt bitterly with her in Ruth 1:20-23. But we know God is love. Look at Job and everything he went through. Job lost his children, lost his wealth, lost his health.  What we might call hardships are often testings from God to see how we will respond or they are a way for God to move us into our destiny. But in spite of all the hardships she faced, Naomi ends up being the conduit for introducing two people. Naomi was the conduit for Ruth to meet Boaz.

I think Boaz was Naomi’s husband’s younger brother. Her brother in law. Just my guess. When Boaz was explaining to Ruth what needed to be done in Ruth 3:12 KJV “And now it is true that I am thy near kinsman: howbeit there is a kinsman nearer than I.”

That tells me, based on the Old Testament law of the kinsman and the order of the kinsman redeemer, Naomi’s husband that died, Elimelech had brothers and one was Boaz and one between Boaz and Elimelech. The order of kinsman redeemer would be the next oldest after Elimelech. That is who Boaz meant when he told Ruth, “there is a kinsman nearer than I”.

So Boaz approaches his older brother in Ruth 4 and tells him about a parcel of land to redeem. The brother was all for buying back the land from Naomi but when Boaz reminded him of the  kinsman redeemer meaning he had to pay Ruth for the land too and he needed to be the kinsman redeemer. That is like seeing a house and land you want and you will buy it. But because a widow lives there with a daughter in law, you have to buy it from the widow and pay the daughter in law for it too. This is explained in the Old Testament and it is how God set up helping widows and helping the family of the dead. The money was then used to provide for their needs.

The brother did not want to redeem it from Naomi and Ruth and he was concerned with his own inheritance. I am not going into the kinsman redeemer teaching here.
Ruth 4:3-6 KJV  “And he said unto the kinsman, Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech’s:
[4] And I thought to advertise thee, saying, Buy it before the inhabitants, and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it , redeem it : but if thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know: for there is none to redeem it beside thee; and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it .
[5] Then said Boaz, What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.
[6] And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance: redeem thou my right to thyself; for I cannot redeem it .”

You could say once Naomi stopped looking at her “misfortune” and started looking at how she could help Ruth, good things happened for Naomi. I tend to look at it more like even when you go through difficulties, let God still use you, direct you and just trust the Lord has a plan. Don’t quit, even when it seems unbearable, don’t get angry with the Lord, don’t murmur and complain and don’t speak against the Lord. Trust the Lord to work all things out for good. Until next time.