They Devour Widows’ Houses…

Being Misled about God

Luke 20:45-21:4 New International Version (NIV)

Warning Against the Teachers of the Law

⁴⁵ While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, ⁴⁶ “Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. ⁴⁷ They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”

The Widow’s Offering

21 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. ² He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. ³ “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. ⁴ All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

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Many times we see breaks in the Bible between verses or blocks of verses, such as the above heading “The Widow’s Offering”. We should be wary of these breaks as they can make us tend to ignore the verses before that heading and make us think that they have nothing to do with what follows. The headings in the Bible can be useful to us when it comes to quickly finding verses or areas of scripture that we are looking for, but we should not believe that the verses before or after the heading are separated in content and meaning from each other.

To put this in perspective, when we start in Luke 21, and just read until verse 4 we see and get an idea that the poor widow is being applauded because she “put in everything she had to live on” or “she gave it all to God”….I have heard many sermons on tithing and giving it all to God.

The thing is that God doesn’t need anything that we have! It was all and still is all, his to begin with…after all, he created everything! So, now that we have this thinking out of the way…let us go back to Luke 20:45 and read. It appears that Jesus was talking to his disciples, prior to getting to the temple, about how they “should beware of the teachers of the law” because those teachers are pretty much all working for the applause of man. Long public prayers to show that they are “holy”, lengthy robes to command respect, strolling around and putting on airs in the marketplace. In short they are full of self-importance. Jesus taught us to be humble, and in a “right” relationship with God. To love God and love each other.

Yet, these men, who are teachers of the law of God, do none of those things.

Jesus says that they “devour widows’ houses”, then in Luke 21 we see Jesus has been watching the people in the temple putting in their offerings to God. He sees the wealthy people putting in a bunch of money given from their wealth (as in, they won’t even miss what they are giving because they have so much wealth), and then he sees a poor widow (who will be missing every single coin she has put in because in order to live she is counting every coin…she has so little to begin with)…then following the previous conversation with his disciples about telling them to “beware of the teachers of the law”, Jesus says: Look at that widow…she is putting in everything she has to live on!

So is Jesus happy with the widow? Is he angry with her? No, he is not unhappy with the widow or angry with her….he is horrified, and saddened by the fact that these leaders, and teachers of the law, in their greed, had convinced the poor that to be in a “right” relationship with God they needed to give everything they had to live on. This woman was basically going to starve to death in order to meet the criteria she felt she needed to meet in order to be in good standing with God!

Now, then, this is really down right sad! This woman’s perspective of God is nothing like the God that Jesus was teaching his disciples and the people about! These teachers of the law were misleading people about who God was and what he wanted from them!

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

God loves us, and he provides for us. We are told that he has good plans for us. The woman was giving up the provision that God gave her to live on, in an effort to appease a God whom she thought must be appeased this way! It is not her fault, but this was what she had been taught, and she was doing her best to be in good standing with God based on that teaching.

This kind of thinking still happens today…people are still mislead about what God wants from them! We still have many wrong headed ideas about what is right and how to be in “good” with God. There are still false teachers today, that is why it is so important to read your Bible and to learn to read in context. The context of this set of verses about the widow is given in the previous chapter of Luke. Many times this is the case in scripture, things are taken out of the context and the meaning is changed to suit what the teacher believes, but may not necessarily be what Jesus was actually intending to convey to his disciples or to us.

There is an excellent book about reading the Bible, which I wish to recommend to you. It is called How to Read the Bible for all its Worth by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart. It really is very easy to read, and gives very good information on the different parts of the Bible and some pointers to remember when reading them.

Boaz and Ruth

Ruth 1:16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.  Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.  Your people will be my people and your God my God.

Read Ruth Chapter 1 thru 4 The important points are that Ruth chose to go with her mother in law, Naomi, to a land where she would not likely be welcome as she was a Moabite.  The Moabites were rather pagan compared to the Jews so they were looked down upon.  The Moabites were actually descendants of Abraham’s nephew, Lot, through his relationship with his daughters after the destruction of Sodom.  (see Genesis 19:30-38).  Ruth loved Naomi enough that she didn’t want her to be alone in the world, so she embraced both Naomi and Naomi’s God for her own.  God rewarded Ruth for this decision by putting her along with Boaz into Jesus’ lineage.  Boaz was rewarded his for his good character, integrity and his love of Ruth for who she was, and not where she came from.  Ruth and Boaz became the parents of Obed, who was the father of Jesse who became the father of David the King.

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Ruth 1 New International Version (NIV)

Naomi Loses Her Husband and Sons

1 In the days when the judges ruled,^[a] there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. ² The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.

³ Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. ⁴ They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, ⁵ both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

Naomi and Ruth Return to Bethlehem

⁶ When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. ⁷ With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.

⁸ Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. ⁹ May the Lord grant that each of you will find restin the home of another husband.”

Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud ¹⁰ and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”

¹¹ But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? ¹² Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— ¹³ would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”

¹⁴ At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye,but Ruth clung to her.

¹⁵ “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”

¹⁶ But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. ¹⁷ Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”¹⁸ When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

¹⁹ So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

²⁰ “Don’t call me Naomi,^[b]” she told them. “Call me Mara,^[c] because the Almighty^[d]has made my life very bitter. ²¹ I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted^[e] me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

²² So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

Footnotes:

1. Ruth 1:1 Traditionally judged
2. Ruth 1:20 Naomi means pleasant.
3. Ruth 1:20 Mara means bitter.
4. Ruth 1:20 Hebrew Shaddai; also in verse 21
5. Ruth 1:21 Or has testified against

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Ruth 2 New International Version (NIV)

Ruth Meets Boaz in the Grain Field

2 Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.

² And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”

Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” ³ So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.

⁴ Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you!”

“The Lord bless you!” they answered.

⁵ Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?”

⁶ The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. ⁷ She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”

⁸ So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me.⁹ Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”

¹⁰ At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”

¹¹ Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. ¹² May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord,the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

¹³ “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have put me at ease by speaking kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servants.”

¹⁴ At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.”

When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. ¹⁵ As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her.¹⁶ Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”

¹⁷ So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah.^[a] 18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.

¹⁹ Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!”

Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.

²⁰ “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.^[b]”

²¹ Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’”

²² Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”

²³ So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

Footnotes:

1. Ruth 2:17 That is, probably about 30 pounds or about 13 kilograms
2. Ruth 2:20 The Hebrew word for guardian-redeemer is a legal term for one who has the obligation to redeem a relative in serious difficulty (see Lev. 25:25-55).

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Ruth 3 New International Version (NIV)

Ruth and Boaz at the Threshing Floor

3 One day Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, I must find a home^[a] for you, where you will be well provided for. ² Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. ³ Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴ When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.”

⁵ “I will do whatever you say,” Ruth answered. ⁶ So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do.

⁷ When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. ⁸ In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned—and there was a woman lying at his feet!

⁹ “Who are you?” he asked.

“I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer^[b] of our family.”

¹⁰ “The Lord bless you, my daughter,” he replied. “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. ¹¹ And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character.¹² Although it is true that I am a guardian-redeemer of our family, there is another who is more closely related than I. ¹³ Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to do his duty as your guardian-redeemer, good; let him redeem you. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it. Lie here until morning.”

¹⁴ So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized; and he said, “No one must know that a woman came to the threshing floor.”

¹⁵ He also said, “Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out.” When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and placed the bundle on her. Then he^[c] went back to town.

¹⁶ When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did it go, my daughter?”

Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her ¹⁷ and added, “He gave me these six measures of barley, saying, ‘Don’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’”

¹⁸ Then Naomi said, “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.”

Footnotes:

1. Ruth 3:1 Hebrew find rest (see 1:9)
2. Ruth 3:9 The Hebrew word for guardian-redeemer is a legal term for one who has the obligation to redeem a relative in serious difficulty (see Lev. 25:25-55); also in verses 12 and 13.
3. Ruth 3:15 Most Hebrew manuscripts; many Hebrew manuscripts, Vulgate and Syriac she

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Ruth 4 New International Version (NIV)

Boaz Marries Ruth

4 Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer^[a] he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.

² Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so.³ Then he said to the guardian-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek. ⁴ I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you^[b] will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.”

“I will redeem it,” he said.

⁵ Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the^[c] dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”

⁶ At this, the guardian-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”

⁷ (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.)

⁸ So the guardian-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal.

⁹ Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnessesthat I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. ¹⁰ I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!”

¹¹ Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. ¹² Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”

Naomi Gains a Son

¹³ So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. ¹⁴ The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! ¹⁵ He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”

¹⁶ Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. ¹⁷ The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

The Genealogy of David

¹⁸ This, then, is the family line of Perez:

Perez was the father of Hezron,

¹⁹ Hezron the father of Ram,

Ram the father of Amminadab,

²⁰ Amminadab the father of Nahshon,

Nahshon the father of Salmon,^[d]

²¹ Salmon the father of Boaz,

Boaz the father of Obed,

²² Obed the father of Jesse,

and Jesse the father of David.

Footnotes:

1. Ruth 4:1 The Hebrew word for guardian-redeemer is a legal term for one who has the obligation to redeem a relative in serious difficulty (see Lev. 25:25-55); also in verses 3, 6, 8 and 14.
2. Ruth 4:4 Many Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts he
3. Ruth 4:5 Vulgate and Syriac; Hebrew (see also Septuagint) Naomi and from Ruth the Moabite, you acquire the
4. Ruth 4:20 A few Hebrew manuscripts, some Septuagint manuscripts and Vulgate (see also verse 21 and Septuagint of 1 Chron. 2:11); most Hebrew manuscripts Salma

Judah

Genesis 38:26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.

Genesis 29:35 New International Version (NIV)

³⁵ She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” So she named him Judah.^[a] Then she stopped having children.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 29:35Judah sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for praise.

 

Genesis 29:35 This is a recording of the birth of Judah, he was the 4th Son of Jacob by his first wife Leah.

Read Genesis 37:26-28 This is where Judah decides that instead of killing his brother, Joseph, they will sell him off to the Ishmaelites into slavery.  The Ishmaelites are actually Ishmael’s people.  Ishmael, if you recall from a few lessons back,  is their Grandfather, Isaac’s half brother.  Ishmael’s people are always in conflict with Isaac’s side of the family.

Genesis 37:26-28 New International Version (NIV)

²⁶ Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? ²⁷ Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.

²⁸ So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels^[a] of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 37:28 That is, about 8 ounces or about 230 grams

Read Genesis 38  This is the story of Tamar who was Judah’s daughter in law.  Her first husband died because he was wicked in the Lord’s sight, and in keeping with tradition she is remarried to her first husband’s brother who is instructed by Judah to raise children in his brother’s name.  Onan dishonors God’s rule about this tradition and God kills him because of this.  After her second husband died, then Judah promised that she Shelah was old enough he would give Tamar his last son as her husband.  In the meantime she was to go live in her father’s house again. Judah did not honor his promise to Tamar, so Tamar took matters into her own hands, and dressed up as a prostitute and Judah chose to to lie with her.  Tamar became pregnant, but she had evidence that Judah was the father.  Judah did not recognize Tamar when he lay with her (perhaps her face was covered).  When Judah found out about her pregnancy he was ready to have her killed, but then he was humbled to find that he was the father.  He recognized that Tamar only did this because he didn’t keep his promise to her.   He did not have her killed, but did not take her to wife, he did support her.  She had twin boys named Perez and Zerah. 

Genesis 38 New International Version (NIV)

Judah and Tamar

38 At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullamnamed Hirah. ² There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and made love to her; ³ she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. ⁴ She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. ⁵ She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.

⁶ Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. ⁷ But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.

⁸ Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.” ⁹ But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. ¹⁰ What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death also.

¹¹ Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, just like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.

¹² After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.

¹³ When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,”¹⁴ she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.

¹⁵ When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.¹⁶ Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”

“And what will you give me to sleep with you?” she asked.

¹⁷ “I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” he said.

“Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?” she asked.

¹⁸ He said, “What pledge should I give you?”

“Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,” she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. ¹⁹ After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.

²⁰ Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. ²¹ He asked the men who lived there, “Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?”

“There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here,” they said.

²² So he went back to Judah and said, “I didn’t find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, ‘There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here.’”

²³ Then Judah said, “Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn’t find her.”

²⁴ About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.”

Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”

²⁵ As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”

²⁶ Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.

²⁷ When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. ²⁸ As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, “This one came out first.” ²⁹ But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, “So this is how you have broken out!” And he was named Perez.^[a] 30 Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out. And he was named Zerah.^[b]

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 38:29 Perez means breaking out.
2. Genesis 38:30 Zerah can mean scarlet or brightness.

New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Note:  The important thing to notice here is that Judah when faced with his sin, recognized that he had done the wrong thing, and was sorry for it.  God was good to forgive him and Tamar for their sin and include them in the lineage of Jesus.   According to Unger’s Bible Dictionary, women were only listed in genealogy in the Jewish culture if there were property or any rights being transmitted through them, or if there was something remarkable about them.**  Tamar took a remarkable risk of her life to ensure her future.  Women without husbands or son’s were basically at the mercy of society to take care of them.  Most became beggars.  She was counting on Judah’s sense of justice to fix the problem and he didn’t disappoint her.  If Judah had not taken responsibility for his actions, then Tamar would likely have been stoned to death!

One of Jesus’ names is the Lion of Judah.

Revelation 5:5  Then one of the elders said to me, Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed.  He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.

Read Genesis 49:8-10  This is where Judah is told he is a lion’s cub and that the scepter will not depart from him until it comes to whom it belongs.  This is a reference to Jesus. Judah was the 4th son, but Jacob gave leadership to Judah’s tribe over all of the others.

Genesis 49:8-10 New International Version (NIV)

⁸ “Judah,^[a] your brothers will praise you;
    your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;
    your father’s sons will bow down to you.
⁹ You are a lion’s cub, Judah;
    you return from the prey, my son.
Like a lion he crouches and lies down,
    like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?
¹⁰ The scepter will not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,^[b]
until he to whom it belongs^[c] shall come
    and the obedience of the nations shall be his.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 49:8 Judah sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for praise.
2. Genesis 49:10 Or from his descendants
3. Genesis 49:10 Or to whom tribute belongs; the meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.

New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

**Ungers Bible Dictionary

The Devourer’s of Widow’s houses

Luke 20:45-47 ⁴⁵ Then, in the hearing of all the people, He said to His disciples, ⁴⁶ “Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, ⁴⁷ who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.”

Luke 21:1-4 And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, ² and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. ³ So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; ⁴ for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”

I was having a conversation with my Mother last week and she mentioned the widow’s mite and I felt compelled to go and reread it.  Many times I have heard people quote this story as if it were another of Jesus’ parables and say things like  “The Widow was more blessed than all the rest because she gave everything she had to God!”  I have heard this story used to say that we should give our all to God.

While it is true that we should give ourselves fully over to God I don’t believe that it is in God’s nature, nor is it in scripture that God would like people to starve in order to pay tithe.  In fact, if you look at Luke 20:45-47, it is pretty obvious that Jesus is condemning the scribes for “devouring the widow’s houses”.  Now, I look at that along with Luke 21:1-4 where Jesus is standing there and observing this woman put in all she had to live on and it seems that Jesus is saying that the scribes are actually at fault for making this poor woman believe that in order to be accepted by God she needs to give everything she has to live on…even if it means she must starve.

Now there are other places that we can go in scripture to back up the idea that God takes care of his people and he puts the people and their well being above following the law.

For instance:  Mark 2:23-27 

²³ And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn.

²⁴ And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?

²⁵ And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungered, he, and they that were with him?

²⁶ How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him?

²⁷ And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

(1Samuel 21:7 for the scripture about David and his men.)

When we look at Matthew 5:3 ³ Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Many times you will hear folks say, “Blessed are the Poor” and then leave it at that…the complete statement is Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Now that is a completely different idea…there is nothing in the Sermon on the Mount which is talking about wealth or poverty of material goods.  Everything is talking about attitude toward God and toward others in life.

When I read the idea of the Poor in Spirit…I think it is about being selfless in your attitude in life.  You are always looking toward the needs of others, and what God wants you to do…not always yelling about yourself and your rights in this world.  That is what it means to me when I read the “poor in spirit” statement.

God continually condemns self centered people who walk all over or manipulate others for their own gain!  There is a lot of misconception about wealth in the world of Christianity.  The reason misconception continues is that there are many Christians who do not read the Word of God for themselves and study it.  Relying solely on someone in the pulpit to tell you how to be a Christian is a huge error!  There are a lot of folks who take things out of context and support their beliefs instead of taking it in the context in which it was written and finding out what God is really like.

There are very sincere Christians in all walks of life..both wealthy and poor…God has no problem with the level of your pocket book….only if you love your wealth more than you love him and those around you is there a problem.  The Bible says, “Love of money is the root of all evil”, not: “money is the root of all evil.”

1Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

This is why the scribes were condemned…it was love of themselves and love of money to the point where they actually “devoured widow’s houses”.  They were hypocrites in the worst way, they gave “some” of their wealth, but made the widow feel that she had to give “all” of her goods in order to measure up.

Have you ever done that?  Seen that someone was giving a lot and so felt the need to put more in than you could really afford…more than you had previously decided on because the amount you were able to give seemed “insignificant” by comparison to what you knew the other person was giving?!! God says that he loves a cheerful giver…he wants you to give what you feel you can… to honor him.  He does not want you comparing yourself with the person next to you.  He wants your love and trust in him. That is why it is best if all giving is done quietly and personally.

I went to a large church as a visitor with someone once, and that person told me that whenever they went to their church they felt that they should always bring the “checkbook”; when I attended with them I understood why they felt that way…the buckets (literally) were passed about 5 times down the aisles during their worship!  Now some folks who are new or unsure of their Christianity would feel pressured to always put something in each time it was passed in order to not be “embarrassed”…I wonder what Jesus would think of his followers treating his sheep like that in his name?!!  Well, we don’t have far to look…looking again at the verses in Luke 20 and Luke 21 above it seems clear how Jesus would feel about these things.

The Bible is very clear on the status of widows and orphans from Old Testament through New Testament the attitude is the same.  Those who are most vulnerable in society should be protected and cared for either by their relatives or by the church if there are no relatives to care for them.

Exodus 22:22-23King James Version (KJV)

²² Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.

²³ If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;

King James Version (KJV)

For more from the apostle Paul on the care of widows and orphans look at 1Timothy 5.

Praying to God’s Glory

I like this image as it shows the idea of people of all types being connected through prayer.

 

Psalm 96:3 Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples.

Read 1Kings 17:17-24 Elijah prayed for God to bring the boy’s soul back to his body or bring him back to life, and God did so.  This was when Elijah was staying with the Widow woman and her son, and her meal jar and oil cruse, never went dry during the entire drought.

God’s answering Elijah’s prayer gave this woman proof that Elijah was a man of God.

The prayer in this story was answered simply to give God glory and to build this woman and her son’s faith.  The woman in this story which has more to it if you read all of Chapter 17 you will see…she was a woman at her wits end.  She was ready to die and felt that both she and her son would die.  She had given up….then, in walks Elijah on God’s instruction…he is bold to ask her to make him a meal.  She looks at him and says, “What?  This is the last of our grain.  I am getting ready to prepare my son, and myself our last meal, then we will die as we have nothing left to eat!”  Elijah tells her that if she will do as he says that they won’t run out of food.  So she did as he asked, and God edified her faith by making sure that she did not run out of food.  

Then we have the seeming twist in the plot…the woman’s son falls so ill that he stops breathing…so of course the woman is very upset.  I mean, who wouldn’t be, right?!!  God just saved her and her son, and has been feeding them while she feeds Elijah, God’s prophet….now suddenly after she is thinking that things will be all right and they are going to live….her son just up and dies!  Her reaction is that it was some twist of fate that Elijah essentially came to call her sins to light and punish her for them by killing her son.  No doubt as a parent, the worst thing would be to live to see your child die!  

Before Elijah came into their lives she was going to be dying with her son, now she believed she would be living without him!  In her time period a woman who had no son, and no husband was in dire straits to find a way to live and feed herself. The options were very limited.   In her mind, this must have seemed like some cruel punishment from God.  I mean, she has already lost her husband, nearly starved to death, and now when things have been looking up, suddenly her son dies.

So the woman took her concern straight to Elijah, and Elijah took it straight to God.  Elijah asks God about this, and then prays that the boy’s soul will return to his body.

 I find it interesting that he stretches himself out over the boys body 3 times…honestly, I am pretty sure that Elijah didn’t know CPR which the mouth to mouth portion of didn’t exist in records until the 1700’s, but reading this it reminding me of that…so just for the record even when a person is revived from a medical procedure or any intervention of man..it is still God who is doing the reviving and it is miraculous…just as miraculous now as this story of Elijah and the widow’s son.  I am sure that person and any relatives who witness this kind of revival would agree that for them it was miraculous.  Well, I suppose there are always going to be folks who “don’t have the eyes to see” a miracle when it is there, but by and large most people in the situation of this widow who get their loved one back, would be shouting hallelujahs and praising God for his act of grace!

Anyway, the fact is that God showed this woman his character, his love, and his mercy again, by reviving her son.  He showed her that she was wrong, that he was not a God who would punish her for her past sins when she was following him.  We know that this woman was following God because she acted in faith when Elijah showed up…even on the brink of death from starvation. (Now, who knows what sins this woman had, but we all are guilty of something, and some sins do have earthly penalties for us.)

Now God edified her act of faith, but he also wanted to show her that she could trust him in all the circumstances of her life, even when things were dire.  The last line shows us that she knew from this miraculous act that Elijah was “truly” a man of God.

This may sound funny, considering that Elijah told her as we read in verse 14 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. (KJV) So, we would think that she knew it was God who did the saving of her and her son by not letting them starve?!!  This makes you think, why would God need to further show her who he was?

Simply because she still didn’t understand his character of love, she still didn’t understand that God loved her and her son, and wanted the best for them.  Another thing to consider, is that in the Old Testament time period there were “seers” who were not necessarily people of God, but who were respected as mystical, wise men types…like the witch of Endor in the story of Saul and Samuel, and like the Pharoah’s wise men, and the King Nebuchadnezzar’s (Babylon) wise men.

God did not want Elijah to be mistaken for any of these types of people…he wanted this woman and her son to know without any doubt, that Elijah was representing the One True God!  The God who can be trusted in issues of both life and death!  The God to whom all glory is due!  Her prayers and those of Elijah were answered so that God would be glorified, respected, loved, honored and understood as the God of undying and unending love!

Prayers are answered just for that reason and that reason only to show the love of God to us and others, and to glorify him.

Read Psalm 65: This Psalm is about praising God, and God answering prayer and blessing people, God is the hope of all the ends of the earth.

God wants us to glorify him and love him sincerely, he wants us to praise him and call on him for everything….he wants us to have a relationship with him that is close and personal.

God does not want us to have empty mottos and slogans that say we glorify him, yet mean nothing because we do not obey him and love him in our hearts.  We are told that our actions strongly reflect what is in our hearts…or in other words, our faith shall be known by our deeds…what best glorifies God is our love for him and for others.

Matthew 7:15-20 ¹⁵ “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Therefore by their fruits you will know them. (NKJV)

John 14:23  Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. (KJV)

James 2:14-19 ¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. ¹⁹ You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

When we are praying to God’s glory we should be praying for God’s blessings to fall on those whom we are praying for, very specifically.  Just as Elijah was very specific to the person he was praying for when he was speaking to God.  Elijah wanted to show this widow God’s love for her and her son, who God was, and through his prayer life, and God’s intervention…this was done and God was glorified by it!  Elijah’s every action in this situation was in obedience to God and for the glorification of God!