Tues.’s Devo - The Fields Are Ripe for Harvesting

Read: Judges 21:1-Ruth 1:22; John 4:4-42; Psalm 105:1-15; Proverbs 14:25 There were only 600 men left in the whole tribe of Benjamin. The men of Israel met to discuss what would become of the tribe. They had all sworn not to let them marry their daughters, so the tribe would eventually die off. They wept, thinking they were losing one of their tribes and asked the Lord for guidance. *** There was one town who had not come up to Mizpah to swear not to let their daughters marry a Benjaminite, and that town was Jabesh-gilead. They sent 12,000 of their warriors to strike down the whole town and take all its young virgins as brides for the 600 Benjaminites. They only found 400 virgins. *** They came up with another plan to get the remaining 200. Every year at Shiloh they celebrated a festival where all the young virgins would do a dance. They told the 200 men who still needed wives to go to wait in the bushes until the dance and then go steal one of the women and take her as their bride. Then their fathers could not say that they “gave" their daughter to them. “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” *** A famine broke out in the land of Israel. One man took his wife and two sons to live in Moab to wait out the famine. The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife was Naomi, and his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They lived in Moab around 10 years. *** Elimelech died and Mahlon and Chilion eventually married wives from Moab named Oprah and Ruth. Then, Mahlon and Chilion both died without having a child. Ruth learned that the famine was over and decided to go home. Her two daughter-in-laws traveled with her at first, but Naomi encouraged them to go back home and remarry there. Orpah returned to Moab but Ruth clung to Naomi and refused to return. She swore that Ruth’s god would be her god and she would belong to Ruth’s people. She went with her to Bethlehem. *** The whole town of Bethlehem was glad to have Naomi return home and sad to hear she was a widow with no sons. It was the beginning of barley harvest. *** In John, Jesus came to a town in Samaria called Sychar. This was near the land given to Joseph and had Jacob’s well there. Jesus sat beside the well while the disciples went into town to buy food. Eventually, a woman from Samaria came to draw water. *** Jesus asked her for a drink. The women asked why he would ask for water from a Samaritan because the Jews hated the Samaritans. Jesus told her that if she knew who he was she would be asking him for a drink of water and he would give her living water. She questioned how he would be able to give her living water when he didn’t even have anything to draw water with. Was he greater that their father Jacob who dug this well? *** Jesus explained that everyone who drank from this well would be thirsty again, but he could give her water that would satisfy her thirst forever because it is eternal. She wanted that water. *** Jesus then began to deal with her heart. He asked her to go and call her husband. She said she had no husband. Jesus agreed and said she had had five husbands and the one she was living with she wasn’t even married to. She perceived that Jesus was a prophet since he knew this about her. She decided to ask her a question she had had about religion. Her fathers had worshiped on the mountain they were standing on, yet the Jews said that people should worship the Lord in Jerusalem. *** Jesus told her that it didn’t matter where you worshiped the Lord as long as you worshiped him from your heart. God is spirit and must be worshiped in spirit and in truth. *** She said that she knew the Messiah was coming and he would tell them what was truth. Jesus then told her that he was the Messiah. *** The disciples returned and marveled that Jesus was talking alone with a woman. She left and went back to her town and told everyone to come and see the man who told her everything she ever did. Could he be the Christ? *** The disciples gave Jesus some of the food they bought, but he was not hungry for natural food. He explained that he was sustained by doing the will of God. The world was ripe for harvesting souls. Many had gone before them and planted seeds into people’s hearts for this very day when they would reap their souls for eternity. *** Many from the town came out to hear Jesus because of the testimony of the woman. They asked Jesus to stay for a while there and teach them. He stayed for two days and many came to believe that he was the Christ. *** Both Ruth and the woman at the well were hungry for something that money couldn’t buy and this world could not give. They were willing to risk it all to find it. *** Lord, may we see the world as Jesus saw it - a field ready to be harvested. May we reap where others have sown and bring many to salvation.