A study of the Book of Ruth.
How did the conduct of the actors in this account relate to the Mosaic Law?
How did a Gentile woman became the progenitor of the Jewish Messiah?
A study of these two chapters gives an account of how the depraved act of the men of one city caused their entire tribe to share in the guilt. The result was a bloody civil war.
Each of us is born with the responsibility of representing the people with whom we are associated.
A quick summary of the Book of Judges as it forms a backdrop to the events in the Book of Ruth.
Here, we see Israel going through a transition in it's history. God, our king, gave us a law. We were woefully unwilling to keep it. God used the judges to get us out of trouble created by our disobedience. Because of our inability to keep the law, we demanded to have a king. In these chapters we are introduced to Samuel who was the last of the Judges but the first of the Prophets who, speaking on behalf of God, was to direct the king who was duty bound to remain under the God's authority.
Here, we are introduced to Israel's first king, Saul. His big fatal flaw was that he defied the authority of God, did things according to his own will and consequently met up with tragic outcomes.
David is made king over all Israel. He defeats the Philistines, captures Jerusalem, and brings the ark of God up to Jerusalem.
A study shows how David's organization of worship, in preparation for the ark, was patterned after God's organizing of the Kohanim (priests) and Levites in the Book of Numbers.
David wants to build a house for God, but God promises that He will built an eternal house for David's posterity. David's subsequently praises of God.
Previously we saw that God had promised David that his posterity would be an eternal dynasty. Here we see, a glimmer of that dynasty. God uses David to expand the boundaries of the kingdom to almost the boundaries promised to Abraham back in Genesis chapter 15. In the process, David exhibits both unusual cruelty towards his enemies and unusual compassion towards those who don't deserve it. Is this a picture of the paradoxical nature of the Messiah?
What led to David's adultery with Bathsheba? What were the consequences? How could David know that he'd been forgiven? Does being forgiven mean that there are no consequences? t this great video
David displays the sacrifice, mercy, and even severity of a godly leader as he prefigures the nature of the Messiah. The Gibeonites demonstrate the need for atonement and the impact our sin plays on our posterity. heck out this great video
It is interesting that near the end of 2 Samuel, there is a psalm which seems to reflect on the impact that God had had on King David's life. This psalm is almost identical to psalm 18. This is a study which compares and contrasts the two psalms and which, by doing so, reveals incredible insights that the psalms, placed together, show about the nature of God, the nature of man, and the lengths to which God goes through to save fallen man.