Mon.’s Devo - From Rejection to Redemption

Read: Judges 21:1- Ruth 1:22; John 4:4-42; Psalm 105:1-15; Proverbs 14:25 After the civil war with Benjamin, all the people met at Bethel and vowed not to let their daughters marry a Benjamite. They also vowed to put to death anyone who had refused to come and fight. They realized that the whole tribe of Benjamin would be wiped out if they didn’t find wives for the 600 men who had escaped. *** They learned that the town of Jabesh-Gilead had refused to come and fight so they killed everyone in the town except for the young virgins. They gave them to the men of Benjamin, but still needed 200 more women. *** Every year at Shiloh there was a celebration. One of the customs was to have a dance of the virgins. They told the remaining men of Benjamin to hid out and go snatch a virgin when they did their dance. They wouldn’t technically be giving their wives to the Benjamites because they took them. This worked and all of them got wives. *** This craziness makes me wonder if it was not why Israel had a famine that lasted ten years. A man named Elimelech from Bethlehem took his family to live in Moab since the famine was so great. His wife was Naomi and they had two sons: Mahlon and Kilion. In Moab, the two sons married Ruth and Orpah. Elimelech, Mahlon and Kilion all died in Moab leaving the women to fend for themselves. Ruth heard there was bread in Bethlehem once again and started back home. She kissed her daughter-in-laws good-bye and told them to go live with their parents and remarry. They both wanted to go with her, but only Ruth did. When Naomi and Ruth got to Bethlehem it was the beginning of the barley harvest which means they were there between First Fruits and Pentecost. The whole town was so glad to see Naomi again. *** In John, Jesus was on his way to Galilee which took him through Samaria. Jacob’s well was there that he had given to his son Joseph. Jesus sat by the well. It was around noon and a woman came to draw water from the well. Jesus asked her to give him a drink. His disciples had gone to the village to buy some food. *** Since the Jews, by tradition, hated the Samaritans she was a little surprised she would ask for a drink from her. He told her if she knew who she was speaking to, she would be asking him for a drink of living water. When she didn’t understand, he tried to explain the difference between natural water and spiritual water. Spiritual water bubbles up from within and gives eternal life. *** She wanted this water that Jesus was talking about, so Jesus told her to go and get her husband. When she told him she didn’t have a husband, Jesus told her she had been rejected by five husbands and wasn’t even married to the one she was living with. She knew she was talking to a prophet so she asked him where the right place to worship God was since that had been a topic of dispute. He told her that the time was coming when it wouldn’t matter where they worshiped as long as they worshiped in spirit and in truth. *** When she told him the Messiah was coming who would explain everything to them, Jesus told her he was the Messiah. *** At that moment, the disciples returned with lunch. The woman left her water jar beside the well and went running back to her village to get the people of the town to come and see the man who told her everything she had done. *** Jesus was no longer hungry because his food was to do the Father’s will and he was doing it. Many of the Samaritans came and heard the words of Jesus and believed that he was the Savior of the world. *** All three of the stories we read today were about wives and husbands. In the first story, they killed these girl’s families to take them as their wives or they kidnapped them from their families to take them as wives. I wonder how loving these wives could be? The next story, the wives lost their husbands to sickness and were left without a husband. And the last story, this woman had been divorced so many times, this last man wound’t even marry her. It did not go well for the women. These wives all represented the people of Israel who were supposed to be the Bride of Christ, yet because they went after other lovers, they were treated like the wives in these stories. Jesus came and gave the woman at the well a chance to be redeemed and she took it. We are given the same opportunity! *** Lord, thank you that you know everything about us and still want to save us. May we worship you in spirit and in truth and see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. May our food be to do your will. May we be the bride of Christ that is spotless and pure.