BOAZ AND THE WITNESSES
Before I leave the book of Ruth, and take my God-bothering
elsewhere, some other thoughts are “gleaned” from the fertile field of my
popcorn brain.
One of these is that it is often said that Pentecost
is the “birth” of the church. But actually, the church received its commission
in the moments before our Lord ascended on Ascension Day:
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But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy
Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth. |
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And when he had spoken these things, while they
beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. |
So, these deciples had their
marching orders right there and then, but the Lord told them that they would
receive “power” a few days’ hence (at Pentecost), for the furtherance of
this work. Prior to that Jesus had “breathed” upon the deciples,
imparting to them the breath of His Holy Spirit, so this added power was
yet to come. Now, what is interesting is that the deciples went into an “upper room” right after His ascension,
and continued in prayer and supplication. (rapture?)
Will return later to thoughts on this great commission…….
It was ten days until Pentecost. Is this
the “ten days” of tribulation for the church
of Smyrna?
Revelation 2:8-11
8 And
unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith
the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; 9 I know thy
works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the
blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue
of Satan. 10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt
suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may
be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto
death, and I will give thee a crown of life. 11 He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches;
He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second
death.
This church has “tribulation” for ten days.
There are ten days between Ascension Day and Pentecost. The deciples waited these ten days for their “sealing” with the
power of the Holy Spirit, which sealing was a down payment “until the day
of redemption”……..In the book of Ruth, the
day of redemption was the day after the barley harvest.
The church
of Smyrna
seems to have a problem with the “synagogue of satan”,
and the “devil” would put some of them in prison. We know that there will
be mass religious delusion after the taking out of the church, and when
this church is taken out, the one who is “hindered” may come forth. This
is the devil, who will put some of these people
in prison. Could this ten days between the Ascension Day and Pentecost
be the days of “weeping and gnashing of teeth”, that is described in the
parables, the days of mass delusion, for the Lord says that this church
will be in “tribulation”, and at the mercy of the devil, and that the “synagogue”
would be of satan. At the very least this ten
days for the church
of Smyrna
doesn’t sound like any kind of picnic. It also represents the “ten years”
of the early church’s persecution, but I wonder also about the “ten days”
also, after Christ comes for His bride.
Anyway, before I wander, and getting
back to the book of Ruth, looking at:
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And when she came to her mother in law, she said,
Who art thou, my daughter? And she told her all that the man had
done to her. |
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And she said, These six measures of barley gave
he me; for he said to me, Go not empty
unto thy mother in law. |
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Then said she, Sit still, my daughter, until
thou know how the matter will fall: for the man will not be in rest,
until he have finished the thing this day. |
Ruth turns up in the early morning after
having spent the night with Boaz, and Naomi didn’t
recognize her. Furthermore she turns up with a “gift” from the husband-to-be,
six measures of barley, so that she didn’t return “empty” to Naomi. I
think this may be the day after the rapture, when Naomi (Israel)
figures out who the bride is (who art thou, my daughter?), and the gift
of six measures of barley, is what the church, the bride, brings to the
newly-awakened Israel, for it is clear that Ruth had “changed” (was in her
new resurrected body). Then Naomi (Israel)
gets into it, by saying “until thou know how the matter will fall; for the
man will not be in rest, until he have FINISHED
the thing this day.” Rest = millennial “rest”, and the book of Revelation
says at the end, “It is done”, finished. The redemption process for Naomi,
and the concurrent taking of the gentile bride, can now commence, and Naomi,
(Israel),
is figuring it out.
Boaz gets right on this, at the
very same time in the morning, that is, the process of actuating the redemption
process. I wrote earlier that there is a great big deal made out of the
fact that there were ten “elders” who witnessed this, as well as “all the
people” that were in the gate….
Ruth 4:9 |
And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the
people, Ye are witnesses this day, that I
have bought all that was Elimelech's,
and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's,
of the hand of Naomi. |
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Moreover Ruth the Moabitess,
the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the
name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead
be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate
of his place: ye are witnesses this day. |
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And all the people that were in the gate, and
the elders, said, We are witnesses. |
And, that over in the book of Revelation,
these same “elders”, only 24 in number, are seen around the throne when
the “Lamb as it had been slain” was found “worthy” to open the seals of
the redemption document, and start the redemption process. These 24 elders
and “all the others” in heaven say “Thou art WORTHY to open the seals.
Now, going back up to the great commission, Jesus told the deciples that they would be “witnesses” unto me, starting
in Jerusalem
and reaching the whole world. After calling them “witnesses” they beheld,
and He was taken up out of their sight. And so, the church has been the
“witnesses” pre-figured by the elders and witnesses to Boaz’s redemption
of Naomi and Ruth, that our Lord is indeed “worthy” to take the scroll of
redemption, and that He cannot be in “rest” (the start of the millennium),
until He gets the whole thing going and gets it done with………………………….
To Him be always the glory, the
honor, - and aren’t we all starting to feel like Ruth, who spent the whole
night out drags back in at the break of dawn? Anyone
? Peace, and joy……..YSIC
Arlene