5-8-2016 Weekly Message

This week’s meditation: Psalms 45: 1-17

Text: Ruth 1: 1-18

Title: The New Jerusalem is our eternal mother

        Today we are seeing the unfortunate incident that happened to a family when judges ruled Israel.  All the problem was started by a family of four in order to get something to eat because of severe famine occurs in Bethlehem, land of Judah, they were going to live in the land of Moab.

         But Naomi’s husband, Elimelech died in the land of Moab. Their two sons lived ten years in marriage with heathen women who served their gods  in the land of Moab, unfortunately, that the two sons had both died at a young age leaving  the two widows .

        Finally, in the midst of thinking not to be able to survive among the three women in the heathen country anymore,  Naomi was returning to the land of Judah       with her two daughters in law upon hearing  that the LORD God visited Judah to give them bread. But  Naomi pity with her two widows at their young ages, and recommended  them  to be married again. She blessed them saying  the Lord may deal kindly with them.

          We are able to see the plan of the LORD God through the story of a family of three men died in the land of heathen nation because of famine as well as of Ruth following her mother in law to the land of Judah.  

       Through the faith of Ruth that followed her miserable mother in Law, Naomi forsaking the Gentile gods and her family in spite of Naomi’s sincere recommendation, we saw the blessing from God in the present world as well as in heaven spiritually.

        She was determined to follow through her faith to say Naomi, her mother in law:  

” And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:

Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.“(Ruth 1: 16-17 )

           The LORD God had chosen Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Judah especially of the sons of Jacob to send his only begotten Son, the Word in the beginning to the world in the future to deliver them that are troubled in the midst of sin and death and curse. The LORD God was looking at Ruth in the land of Moab, before David was born in the tribe of Judah. And God had planned for David to prophecy of the Christ, the only begotten Son of God to come making him as the model of Christ.

          To fulfill the plan of God, he  allowed the  extreme hardship to Naomi for a while calling herself Mara saying God dealt very bitterly with her. But instead, God allowed the name of Naomi to be recorded in the word of God. She was rewarded by God greatly at the end. We have been seeing  many servants of God such as prophets have passed through severe sufferings without cause  in the world. 

        Finally, Ruth was be married to Boaz as planned by the LORD God to be rewarded for her faith of following her mother in law even though she was in bitterness; she became the grand-grand- mother of David.  In the final chapter of Ruth, the scripture testifies of the blessing of Ruth:

” 18Now these are the generations of Pharez: Pharez begat Hezron, And Hezron begat Ram, and Ram begat Amminadab, And Amminadab begat Nahshon, and  Nahshon begat Salmon, And Salmon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed, And Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David.“(Ruth 4: 18-22).

          In addition, the Holy Ghost put the name of  Ruth in the genealogy of the King of the Jews to testify the tremendous blessing she received as official: ” And Salmon begat Booz of Rahab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; 6And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;“ (Matthew 1: 5-6)

            Jesus came as the Son of David said to the Jews:

” For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. 5 But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;  And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.““(Matthew 16: 4-6)

          We have the Holy Spirit to bear witness of the blessings to those who honor their parents as Apostle Paul testified: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.“ (Eph. 6:1 -3)

         God testified to the Galatians of a mother to his children that serving God the Father, through the Apostle Paul: ” But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” (Galatians 4:26)

         That’s right! Even though someone may neither have the mother to honor in this world nor to honor mother in the Lord , all of us are blessed to have the mother of us all in heaven that is the New Jerusalem that is our eternal dwelling place. We are going to honor the eternal mother in the bosom of our  mother in heaven. We shall be filling all in all forever more together with our Father God, and the Lord Jesus Christ that is our eternal husband. Apostle John testified of our mother in heaven:  

” 1And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.….. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: “(Rev. 21: 2, 10-12)

         Apostle John continued to testify of the New Jerusalem that is our eternal dwelling place how great and beautiful being embraced by the love of God. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal as much as twelve thousand furlong that is almost equal as twelve thousand miles in our measurement.  And the building of the wall of it was jasper; and the city was pure gold like unto clean glass. And the foundation of the wall of the city were garnished  with all manner of precious stones of twelve different ones.

        What about preaching the gospel of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ testifying of the New Jerusalem that is the eternal mother to lead them that are suffering in the midst of famine and troubles to the bosom of the eternal mother to honor her in heaven? Amen! Hallelujah!