"The Book of Ruth"
The book of Ruth tells the story of a rich powerful Jewish man who takes a Gentile Bride and exalts her, the way that Jesus, on the day of Pentecost, raised up the Gentile church, as the Bride of Christ.
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Boaz, a Jewish man, said to Ruth, a Gentile woman, "Let your eyes be on the field that they reap, and go after them. Indeed, I have commanded the servants not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what the servants draw."
Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, "Why have I found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?" And Boaz answered and said to her, "All you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me" (Ruth 2:9-11).
I will bless them that bless thee, and I will curse them that curse thee. (Gen. 12:3) Not because the Jews are special, but because the God of the Jews and his covenant with their fathers is special. God will honor his covenant, and it does not depend upon the faithfulness or unfaithfulness of man. His covenant depends on the faithfulness of God. This is illustrated to us in the story of Abraham, who is the father of all those who believe, both Jew and Christian.
And it came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch that passed between these pieces (Gen. 15:17).
That flame is the same as the pillar of fire called the Shekinah of God, the Holy Spirit.
The term for making a covenant in He-brew is "to cut a covenant." The corpse of an animal is cut in half. Both parties making the covenant would pass through the two halves of the carcass. When God made His covenant with Abraham, only the flame passed through, not Abraham. Why? Because God knew from the beginning, that His people would be unfaithful in keeping the covenant, but He would not. Praise the Lord that His covenants do not depend on the unfaithfulness of Israel or the church, but they depend on the faithfulness of God Himself.
If God is finished with Israel because they broke the covenant, give me one good reason why God should not be finished with the church also. Anything that the Jews have done wrong, I can say the same about the church, or worse. What has the church done? The same thing Israel did, gone after other gods. Look at New Age in the Church.
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Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.