You Can Read the Bible Guided Podcast

We continue the historical books of the Old Testament today by jumping into 1 Samuel.  The books of Samuel have no natural division between them, and in fact could be considered, along with the books of Kings, as a complete work.  “Samuel,” the book, is named for its first character, the last “judge” of Israel, who plays a prominent role in the first quarter of the work.

When we get to 1 Samuel, Biblical dates get slightly easier to nail down.  The opening of 1 Samuel is set at somewhere around 1100 B.C.  It’s been hundreds of years since Israel left Egypt and settled in the Promised Land.  The Philistines are now a major power in Southwest Canaan, and without a major empire maintaining order in the Middle East, various smaller kingdoms are increasing their influence around Israel. 

Our book opens by establishing the political situation within the context of the personal.  There was a certain man…of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah…  We know from the opening verses that the sacrificial system is functioning, with Elkanah going year by year to Shiloh.  We know that priests – at this time sons of Eli – are serving the LORD of Hosts at the Tabernacle.   

We also find that the second of Elkanah’s wives, Hannah, is childless, and that this barrenness is a source of pain and strife, just as it was for Jacob’s wives.  If you guessed that the LORD would intervene, and that Hannah’s child might be important, you would be right.   

After Hannah’s celebratory song in chapter 2, the author allows Samuel to grow up while shedding light on the disgrace of Eli’s sons.  The table for the rest of this story is set when there came a man of God to Eli…

Pay attention to how the LORD is acknowledged throughout: worshipped, acknowledged for both closing Hannah’s womb and for opening it, and for hardening the hearts of Eli’s sons.  Think back on the privileges and expectations of the priests that are laid out in detail in Leviticus.  

And hear this final word of the LORD’s prophet, which will cast its shadow over our story for years to come: “And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever.”  

Our verse for this week is Matthew 11:28: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  

1 Samuel 1 and 2.  Now let’s read it!

When we left yesterday, Ruth had returned to Israel with her widowed mother-in-law Naomi, promising “where you go, I will go.”  Ruth joined the gleaners in the field of Boaz, a relative of Naomi, and Boaz, knowing how she’s looked after her mother-in-law, treats Ruth kindly.  

Today, Naomi launches a plan: Ruth should go down to the threshing floor at night, find Boaz, and…well, you can read the rest.  Boaz is called on to be a “redeemer” – to marry Ruth and give her children so that Naomi’s family line may continue.  This follows the laws of the “kinsman redeemer” set out in the Books of Moses, to ensure that a family’s line should not die out and to protect against the consolidation of property and wealth.  There is one hitch in the plan, and Boaz is left to sort that out in chapter 4. 

Listen for a recurrence of certain words and ideas from yesterday.  Naomi repeats her desire that Ruth should “find rest.”  Listen for how Ruth turns Boaz’s “wings of refuge” around on him.  Find the varied uses of the word “redeemer” throughout the conversations today.  And listen for references to how God’s law is being lived out in Israel: allowing the poor to glean after the field had been picked over; the role of the kinsman redeemer; and how foreigners – even a person from Moab, which did not treat Israel kindly during the Exodus – was treated.  

I mentioned a few weeks ago that the book of Judges serves as a bridge between Joshua and Samuel – between the eras of conquest and kingdom.  Ruth fulfills a similar connecting role, but where Judges left us with desperate hunger, Ruth is driven by a determined hopefulness…right up to the end, where the author reaches back – all the way to Genesis 38 – to remind us that the story of God’s people – and especially of the sons of Judah – is just beginning.  

Finally, take note that for the first time in a while you’re not engaged in some big political drama.  No external or internal threats emerge.  No militias are called to arms.  It’s a reminder that while great national dramas are unfolding people are still giving birth, dying, and figuring out how to eat today and prepare for tomorrow.  The Ruth story is quaint and refreshing. It’s also life.  

Our verse for this week is Matthew 11:28: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

Ruth chapters 3 and 4.  Now let’s read it!

Today we enter the eighth book of the Bible, one of the shortest of the Old Testament.  I want to remind and encourage you that reading through the Bible is a long journey, testing our intellect, emotions, and stamina.  There will be moments when your heart just isn’t in it, and others when you can’t wait to turn the page.  Stick with it! 

After the intensity of Judges, the book of Ruth provides both respite and perspective.  Set in the days when the Judges ruled, it tells the story of a family from Bethlehem – Elimelech and Naomi – who seek refuge from famine in the land of Moab.  The death of Elimelech, and then of their two married sons, sets in motion a plot around Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth. 

The tragedy is multilayered.  Naomi is widowed, and in this foreign land her only “family” is two Moabite women – neither of whom now have any reason to look after her.  She is completely disinherited, and without husbands her daughters-in-law will live, and die, without standing or provision.  Naomi returns home, “empty,” but for Ruth, who promises “…where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

The story is too brilliant to talk over, so my comments will be brief.  Pay attention throughout to the characters’ awareness of the LORD’s presence and impact.  Listen for the descriptions of character, both by the author and through the dialogue.  And drink in chapter 2: as the pace slows to recount the day when Ruth’s and Naomi’s fortunes begin to turn.

Our verse for this week is John 3:35: The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

Ruth 1 and 2.  Now let’s read it!

Today’s reading continues the stories from earlier in the Judges era, from the generations just after the conquest, when Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, served as High Priest.  While chronologically out of order with the rest of Judges, this story’s descent into treachery fits the author’s logic: in the period between Joshua and the establishment of the kings, life in Israel was unraveling. 

Some stories are told to inform, some to encourage, some to warn.  It seems that – and you can debate this if you like – it seems that this story is intended to shock and infuriate the reader.   The account of the Levite, the concubine, and the men of Gibeah will remind you – perhaps intentionally – of the most brutal and despondent stories we’ve read thus far.  It is connected to yesterday’s reading only by the detail of another wandering Levite, who chases his “unfaithful” concubine to Bethlehem. 

On their return journey they are besieged at the Benjamite city of Gibeah, a violation occurs such as has never happened or been seen from the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt…”  The crime at Gibeah leads to open civil war, Benjamin is decimated, and Israel is left to despair, “O Lord, the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that today there should be one tribe lacking in Israel?”  Pay attention to when, and how, Israel finally consults the LORD, and to the observation that the LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel. 

The observation that in those days there was no king in Israel is fitting for both the opening and closing lines today.  Listen all the way to the end, as a postscript closes the author’s observations on this era, and leaves the reader wondering if, and how, the hope of the covenant might be fulfilled. 

Our verse for this week is John 3:35: The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

Judges chapters 19 through 21.  Now let’s read it!