6.2.25 ~ Is He King?

Good morning!

Our Shavuot/Pentecost celebration, here in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida was filled with passion, scripture, lots of heart preparation, lots of physical preparation, and moments of anticipating what Yahweh is going to do next.

Traditionally, the book of Ruth, a book that takes place during the barley and wheat harvest (Ruth 1:22; 2:23; Jn. 4:35), one of my favorite prophetic books, is read on the day of Pentecost. I read it on the beach yesterday and got to listen to it while traveling back to our host house.

Solomon said, ‘a good name is better than riches…(Prov. 22:1)! A good name is always based on one’s behavior. In Hebrew, names/shem are most often given as a reflection of the character, or hope of the character towards the child at birth; but they are also given prophetically. Its power comes through the expressed character of the individual, not through pronunciation.

In the book of Ruth, we have several names to consider and their meaning.
Elimelech: My God/El is King
Naomi: Pleasant or lovely
Marah: Bitter
Machlon: Disease or Give Up
Chilion: Devoured
Orpah (not Oprah): Back of the neck
Ruth: friendship
Moab: From her father or ‘little incest’
Bethlehem: House of Bread
Judah: Praise
Ephrathah: place of fruitfulness
Boaz: In him is strength
Obed: To serve; serving as in worship, obedience

These are the key names found within the book of Ruth. Do you know which ones lived up to their name/shem?

Journey with me and let's discover the answer together. Now it came to pass during the day of the judges (the time when God was King of Israel, not a man) that He sent a test by lack of food in the land. And a certain man who lived in a place called the ‘House of Food’ located in the area of 'Praise' went to seek refuge in the land of ‘little incest’ with his 'Pleasant' wife, and his two sons. The name of the man was ‘My God is King’. (Ruth 1:1,2).

Does this sound like the lead man here is living up to His name? He's run into a difficult time: famine. His action: God is my King, leaves the 'house of bread' for the cursed people of a 'little incest'. How did Elimelech do? Probably not his best decision. What’s even worse is He’s leading his sons to intermarry with a people that God/El, their King, had slaughtered 24,000 leaders of Israel for mingling with, only a short time earlier (Num. 25:9).

Was the famine so bad that ‘My God is King’ had to abandon ‘The house of bread’ in the ‘Land of Fruitfulness’? Did all the people leave? Was ‘Little incest’ His only choice? By leaving the 'House of Bread', the land of his inheritance (Deut. 15:4,5), he would have certainly passed by the 12-stone memorial given to the Sons of Israel forever, which testified of Yahweh's presence to take them into the Land (Josh. 4:4-9).

My God who is King, experienced a famine and left the place of 'fruitfulness' and the 'house of bread' to deliberately disobey His King (Deut. 23:3-6) and dwell in the midst of the cursed people of ‘little incest’ (Ruth 1:1-2).

In that land, ‘My God is King’ died. Shortly after his death, 'disease' and 'devoured' died leaving behind a 'pleasant' woman who would become 'bitter'; a true 'friend and companion', who ‘orpah’d/showed the back of her neck' to her past, while the other woman would return to her people, 'turn her back' on a harvest-filled life of rejoicing.

Why would he make that choice? Good question! A humbling follow up question is: 'Why do we'? Is it really that hard to imagine from our ‘spiritual lazy-boy chairs'? Don’t we see this in our own lives and the lives of those we know? Haven’t we walked away from a great blessing that Yahweh Elohim has provided only because we were enticed by something else, and usually something we know we should not even get close to? You know…the ole flesh vs Spirit battle we encounter.

So what now? Shavuot/Pentecost is finished for another year. But the journey at Mt. Sinai will last for an entire year, where He, before going to war, learns how to please His bride (Deut. 24:5). As with the story of Ruth, it’s time to evaluate our own lives by checking our motives and effectiveness. Huh?

Intellectually, after these past 50 days, I'd say our motives are good. How effective are we in implementing those motives? That's a good question. Since I'm in 'military country Florida', let me share a military example for you to apply your life-effectiveness too.

A couple hundred years ago the U.S. Military manual gave specific instructions for the use of a canon. It would have 3 individuals manning it: one to load, one to fire and the third to stand there? Huh?

Originally, the third individual was to hold the horse that pulled the canon to the site and keep it from running away. Today, there is no horse, but there is still the third man standing there. Why? Good question!

Before we cast stones at Elimelech, let’s evaluate our lives and effectiveness. Many celebrated Shavuot yesterday. Many are still counting the Omer and have nearly arrived at 50 days.

Are you still doing things the same way you’ve always done them? Are you efficient spiritually? Physically? Emotionally? Financially? Relationally? Are you living out the ‘old canon-firing’ manual-mindset, when you could be doing something more profitable and more effective with your time?

‘My God is King’ abandoned ‘The Manual’! Another king, King Solomon, followed suit (1 Kings 11:7,8). Some need to find the timeless and purposeful manual and ‘stand’ where we are useful! The fields are white for the harvest.

There’s a war for the use of your thoughts and use of time (Eph. 6:10-18)! There’s a famine of the Word (Amos 8:11) and there's a need for a purposeful stand! There's another 50 day count coming: It's already day 2 of counting towards another first fruit, the first fruit of the wine; with oil to follow (2 Chron. 31:5; Deut. 7:13; 11:14; 18:4; etc.). The next challenging question that I must ask during this season is: "Will I abide in the True Vine during the heat of the summer or will I occupy myself with the vine of Sodom"? Both produce the blood of the grapes (Gen. 49:11). One will be drunk at a future celebration (Matt. 26:29) and the other crushed under Messiah's feet (Isa. 63).

Yes, it's time to take our experience at Pentecost and apply it into our abiding relationship with the True Vine (Jn. 15). There's work to be done. Giddy up :-)

Shalom!
Alan

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