God's lovingkindness

On our journey into deeper faith and relationship with God, understanding the struggles of those who came before us and how God met them in their struggles, our hope Him is renewed. Understanding the history of our faith, provides us with insights about the God we serve and the lovingkindness He has for each one of us. The journey Israel found themselves on, as described in the books of Judges and Ruth, reveals the near hopeless depravity Israel experienced as their leaders departed from the governance God sought to establish, to the hope and lovingkindness we see in even a remnant of His faithful. The faithfulness of God is revealed in both books through very different experiences. With Israel’s priests and spiritual leaders failing to indwell God’s ordinances, the people backslid into subjective moral living and eventually every man “…did as he saw fit.”[1] Even in man's self directed destruction, God’s faithfulness continued as His mercy and power delivered Israel time and again, carrying His people from the punishment they deserved from His I waive ring justice. Yet, out of the ash, we see God's faithfulness on display through the book of Ruth. In a very clear way, through God’s hesed actions bestowed upon a faithful remnant, Naomi and Ruth, we witness the strength of humanity through those who who struggled to survive in the apostate world they lived.[2] Through the books of Judges and Ruth, we witness how God preserves His faithfulness within the hearts of families who honored Him, established through Moses, revealing how God’s salvation plan depended on family lineage to pass on His holiness and the holiness of His creation, our world and mankind. As Naomi was brought from hopelessness into the fullness she experienced through the self-love of Ruth and Boaz, God brought Israel from the unrest of apostasy into the rest and deliverance they experienced through the descendants of David. As the nation of the faithful backslide and jeopardized God’s presence during the time of Judges, we see His present lovingkindness at work in Naomi’s live, demonstrating that God only needs a seed to establish His plans. In today's world, we do not need to look to far to understand what backsliding looks like. While we may have experienced feeling far from the God we serve, our hope is alive in knowing that He is our redeemer and through His son Jesus Christ, we can experience the same lovingkindness in our lives as Naomi experienced. She was loved, God never left her and in the same way you are loved and God will never leave you.

[1] Judges 21:25 [2] Hesed In various versions, it appears as “kindness,” “faithfulness,” “mercy,” “goodness,” “loyalty,” and “steadfast love.”