Bible Reading Challenge Week 12

In Week 12 we finished up Judges, went through Ruth, Song of Solomon, and Colossians, and picked up a few Psalms and Proverb along the way.

Week 12 Readings

• Judges 11-21
• Ruth 1-4
• Song of Solomon 1-8
• Colossians 1-4
• Psalms 45, 49, 58
• Proverbs 31

Judges 11-21

Last week we discussed the cycle that the Israelite people went through from sin to deliverance and back again. I would actually put forward that it was less of a cycle and more of a downward spiral where they fall further each time. This can even be seen in the judges themselves. You start with judges like Ehud and Deborah, who we don’t hear anything negative about. Gideon was mostly faithful but was enticed away by an ephod. Then, starting in chapter 11, you get Jephthah who makes a tragic vow involving his daughter and then ends up making with with the tribe of Ephraim. But it really starts to come home with Samson.

The story of Samson largely highlights his short-comings. Though he was under the Nazarite vow, he eats out of a carcass (unclean), marries a Philistine, and goes after another Philistine prostitute. In the midst of his failings, God still uses him to slay many thousands of Philistines. However, unlike the other judges who successfully throw off the foreign nation reigning over them, it does not say that Samson did so, even though he did kill many Philistine lords in his death.

The last account in Judges shows you how bad things have gotten – how far down things have spiraled. The men of Gibeah, a city of the tribe of Benjamin, try to attack and perversely abuse a Levite who is sojourning in a man’s home. The men end up killing the Levite’s concubine in their depravity. This account directly parallels the account of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19, and is meant to show the levels of depravity in Israel have reached that high-water mark that ended in fire and brimstone.

Ruth 1-4

The account of Ruth takes place during the time of the judges, but we are not told exactly when nor which judges might have been active during the time. It gives us a backstory for King David (Boaz and Ruth being his great grandparents), and gives a beautiful picture of redemptive love. I want to look at the story through a slightly different lens – zooming in on the person of Naomi.

Naomi, an Israelite, goes out to Moab to sojourn during a famine with her husband and sons who take wives there. For Naomi, there is hope and promise of generational blessing even away from her home country, and even though her sons married outside of people of Israel. As she says in the first chapter, she has “gone away full.” However, tragedy befalls her husband and sons, and one of her daughter-in-laws leaves her. She comes back to Israel empty, with only a daughter-in-law and no sons left to marry her to. In short, no hope of a good future. She changes her name to Mara, meaning bitterness.

During the rest of the account, she helps Ruth navigate the relationship with Boaz and by the end, after Boaz and Ruth marry, Naomi is now blessed. In fact, in 4:14-17 the entire section surrounding Ruth and Boaz having a son is centered around the restoration of the fortunes of Naomi. The women around her tell her that God has redeemed her and that “a son has been born to Naomi.” God turned her sorrow and bitterness into joy and a bright future. Naomi went from bitterness to being in the kingly Davidic and Messianic line.

Colossians 1-4

The description of Christ in 1:15-20 has long been one of my favorite sections of Scripture. It covers how Jesus was before all of creation and was in fact the one who created all things and for whom they were created. All things exist by and for Christ. He is the fullness of God, and also the head of His bride. He is the firstborn from the dead so that He might also be preeminent over death itself. He is our peacemaker, reconciling us to God through the blood of the cross.

What a Savior we have!