Lent Day 17: Out of the miry clay
Mar 28 in Lent
The book of Ruth was set during the time of Judges, a chaotic time for ‘everyone did what was right in their own eyes’ Judges 17:6, they had lost their sense of national identity by compromising their beliefs with the culture of the people surrounding them; perhaps considered a more liberal, tolerant and all-encompassing society, yet which led their nation into a downward spiral of moral and spiritual decline by adopting many of their self indulgent practices and the idolatry in Baal and Ashteroth worship.
Baal the Canaanite prosperity god, god of the sun and storms, their ‘Master’. The priests of Baal would self-inflict pain or injury, punishing their own bodies while crying out to him. They offered their first-borns as human sacrifices whilst taking part in heterosexual and homosexual sexual acts of immorality in order to appease Baal into bringing rain and therefore economic prosperity to the region, this resulted in a reproductive freedom where more children were disposed of on the altar of commodity. We find Baal under other names around the globe: Nimrod, El, Belus, Zeus, Jupiter, Ra…
Ashteroth (Asherah), mother of all gods, often symbolized by a pole erected in high places. Cult prostitution, divination (rebellion), better known as the fertility goddess who liked to be worshiped alongside YWHW God of Israel as the Queen of Heaven or as Mother Earth. We find her under other names as Astarte, Ishtar, Aphrodite, Diana, Venus, Isis…
An age of disarray, it was their dark ages, reminds me of the opening paragraph of ‘A tale of two cities’ by Charles Dickens: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…” and yet we have a beautiful story that perfectly illustrates God’s strategic covenant-loveplan of redemption for those ready to leave everything behind in order to be led into God’s best for their lives. How God can turn things around. Ruth was a descendant of Lot (who followed what ‘looked good’ and ended up living in Sodom – Genesis 13), a Moabite, people who were regarded as ‘outsiders’ by the Israelites, yet regardless of her past, God saw her heart and set the wheels in motion to bring her into a full inheritance, life from death, His ‘hesed’ or ‘chesed’ central to His very nature and character depicted in a beautiful story.