Scripture: Ruth 3:3-4
You should bathe, put on some perfume, wear nice clothes, and then go down to the threshing floor. Don’t make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, notice the place where he is lying. Then go, uncover his feet, and lie down. And he will tell you what to do.
Thought for the Day: With a wink and a nod…you know what I mean, don’t you? The above portion of scripture comes from Naomi’s instructions to Ruth. Naomi wishes for her daughter-in-law to act in what would have been a rather forward way of acting, at least in that moment of history. The passage itself has a lot of veiled terminology, or what we might refer to as euphemisms. That’s right, the Bible is talking in such a way that it might make a few of us blush. For all the parents who hoped their young children might read the Bible, there wasn’t too much thought put into the fact that some of the Bible is PG-13. For Ruth to uncover the feet of Boaz seems bizarre at best, until we realize that we’re not talking about feet with 10 toes. Isaiah 7:20 speaks of shaving the head and the hair of the feet, and taking off the beard as well. Are these hobbits with hairy feet, or are we talking about something else? Of course we are talking about something else because the scripture is talking about an act of humiliation! When we sterilize the Bible, we not only remove the raw parts of it, but we make it something that it was never intended to be. If we really take the time to read the Bible, we will find ourselves thrust into some complicated and messy situations that good Christian people might find challenging, especially if their 13 year old child or grandchild were to ask about such passages. But that’s where it gets fun.
Prayer: Help me, O Spirit of the Living God, to engage scripture where it challenges the whitewashed interpretations that have removed everything that is real, sexy and discomforting. Amen.
PRAYING FOR OUR YOUTH
WHO ARE ON THEIR
MISSION TRIP
That’s Some Serious Mission Work
