Day 136

Ruth 1:1-2:23, John 9:1-34, Proverbs 12:8-17

I didn’t notice yesterday that we had got to the end of another book as we passed out of Judges. Today though we enter the wonderful book of Ruth.

When I read Ruth I often think that this is what God must have had in mind in terms of community. Very early on, when we were wading through all the rules, we looked at what these rules were for and pondered the fact that they were about relationships and trying to form community. We are told at the outset that this passage is set in the time when the judges ruled, when community broke down and there was a lot of godlessness around, and yet here we see people who have their eyes firmly on God.

Firstly Ruth says to Naomi “Your God is my God” and then Boaz, (ch2 v12) commending Ruth for her dedication to Naomi says “May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel”. These people have their sights in the right place and it shows in their actions. I’d go as far as saying that when God is in our eye line, then God is also in our actions. And that is not some defunct Old Testament principle, it is as true in our own day to day lives.

Jesus healing ministry appears in the Gospel and would you believe it, it causes controversy, not least because it is on the Sabbath … again! You would thought that Jesus would have learnt by now, but he did learn, that the only important thing was the will of the father and no human constraints were going to get in his way. Christ’s eyes were on his father and not on the rules of man and hence someone was given the gift of sight. Notice how this man was not scarred of the Pharisees like his parents, “I have told you already and you did not listen” says the man. He has been given sight and there is only one place he is looking, and that is up.

Where will your focus be today? And will you let what you see change you and your actions?