Sun.’s Devo - Jesus, Our Friend

Read: Ruth 2:1-4:22; John 4:43-54; Psalm 105:16-36; Proverbs 14:26-27
Ruth means “friend”. She is a picture of Jesus as our friend. She gave up her homeland, her family, and her culture to go to a strange place and live as a foreigner to take care of her mother-in-law, Naomi. Jesus gave up heaven, his kingship, and his heavenly family to come to earth to live as a man to save us and give us eternal life.
What is interesting about Boaz is that his mother was Rahab, the harlot that hid the spies when they canvassed the city of Jericho. Boaz knew first hand what it was like for a woman of another culture to come into the Jewish camp and become one of them. He had grown up with stories of how his mother was welcomed into the Israelite family and married Salmon, his father. He was honored to do the same for Ruth. Boaz was a type of Jesus as our kinsman redeemer. Jesus is coming for a bride that is a new man: neither Jew nor Greek, circumcised nor uncircumcised, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free but one that Christ is all, and in all. (Colossians 3:11)
I find it interesting that in the blessing given by the women in the town to Naomi, it was that Ruth’s offspring be like those of Tamar. Tamar had lost her first husband and had no offspring until she tricked Judah, her father-in-law into having sex with her. They had a son named Perez. Even though he came into the world under very difficult circumstances and probably grew up with a single mother, Nehemiah 11:6 says that all the sons of Perez were 768 valiant men. That is some heritage!
In John, Jesus spent most of his time ministering in Galilee, only going to Jerusalem during the feast days. He did many miracles in Jerusalem but when he came back to Cana where he had turned the water into wine, it says that he healed the son of a royal officer and that this was his second miraculous sign. This means that this miracle was more than just another miracle but it was significant in why Jesus came. This man’s sick son was in Capernaum which means “village of comfort”. The father was a Roman officer making him a Gentile. The sign was that Jesus came to save the Gentiles as well as the Jew.
I have to comment on the Proverb for today. It says that if we, as parents put our trust in the Lord, our faith will be a refuge for our children.
Jesus, thank you for being our friend and our kinsman redeemer. Thank you, that you came to save the whole world. Help us to have your eyes to see what we need to see.