Ensign: Thy People Shall Be My People

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3

AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 21 February 2014

Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which they have themselves set and determined for the government of their relations with one another. Without this healing act the whole structure and validity of international law is forever impaired.

More on the quote above next week. A few weeks ago I posted a photo of Superman with accompanying text to the effect of “it's easy to look down on the Man of Steel [in light of a movie last year that had both very vocal fans and VERY vocal detractors], but keep in mind that without him superheroes as we know them would not exist.” Interpret that how you want; I posed the question of “Who is your superhero?” and a lady friend of mine cited Ruth from the Old Testament.

She personally related to Ruth because she cared for an ailing mother-in-law herself, but unlike Naomi who was simply bitter about having lost her husband and her sons in Moab (they'd all died; for more details, I'm trusting faithful readers such as yourselves to r-e-a-d the eighth book of the Old Testament for yourself) and she allowed her daughters-in-law to go back home, but one of them wouldn't – and apparently my friend's mother-in-law was not that grateful.

I have to wonder reading that story if Naomi didn't have some of the same … I don't know, despair that all of us have from time to time. We lose all our connections with home and family, or at least we think we have. Unlike Naomi, when I made my last big move come August, twelve years ago, from my home since I was six to North Dakota (I was thirty then, feel free to check my math), I didn't have anyone coming with me in the stacked to the brim Plymouth Acclaim. Or did I?

Orpah (trivia for you: a misspelling of this name on the birth certificate gave rise to Oprah Winfrey) gets a bum rap, I think; Naomi DOES tell her and Ruth since her sons their husbands are dead that they are free to go back home to Moab, and both Orpah and Ruth say they will return to Judah with Naomi their mother-in-law first (unto her – Naomi's – people, note the distinction, 1:10). THEN Naomi tries to talk them out of it again by emphasizing, even if she will one day have children again,

it will be decades before they're old enough to marry Orpah and Ruth, and typically in that culture an older woman could not and would not be allowed to marry a younger man. (Marrying for love is a very recent idea; you got married in Bible times and pretty much until the mid-nineteenth century to produce children, as messy and often as humanly possible, and/or cement political alliances between your respective countries.) So the three women weep again (1:14), and this time Orpah leaves.

After that, Orpah drops out of the story. But Ruth stays. And the reason we're reading the book of Ruth today is that not only did she and Naomi forced-march back to Judah to live the rest of their days of squalor and labor (now if you've read the book you know that's not what happens, BUT READ IT), but also that Ruth of a different people than Naomi was willing to identify with the people of Naomi. A Moabite, a descendant of Lot and one of his daughters, was willing to become an Israelite.

And be counted, she and her descendants, as Israelites. (The term “Jews” are not used for the people and descendants of Israel and Judah for another several centuries.) “And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people my people, and thy God my God.” Verse sixteen. We could learn a lot in our current imbroglio concerning immigration from Ruth, and some things we've forgotten too.

But death part thee and me,

David

P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with all of you in my address book, and I hope to be an encourager to action too! If you find that I’m not or you want me to get lost, just let me know – thank you!

Thank You, Lord, that we can come to you in prayer and that You provide for all our needs, even when we don’t know what they are. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence there and around the world.

Thank You, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service, both here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life through You. I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.