by Jen | Dec 24, 2024 | DISO studies
Merry Christmas!
It’s so refreshing to say that to you, my friend!
I do understand Happy Holidays, though, especially when I’m speaking to someone who may not know what Christmas really means. And this year, Hanukkah begins on Christmas day: the festival of lights starts with the birth of the Light of the world (John 1:1-5; 8:12). Isn’t it just like God to have worked that out at such a time as this?!
Even so, each time I hear that nonspecific reference, I wonder about the speaker. Does he or she know the Christ of Christmas? Or are they just going through the motions, celebrating December 25 as the ultimate Santa delivery date? Have they heard about and ignored or even rejected eternal life in Jesus Christ? May we always be in prayer for those who have not yet opened the only gift that truly does last forever—beyond this life, beyond this world.
Update: A Book-length DISO Study
Before we start a new study next week, I want to update you on the book I first mentioned in this blog years ago. At the time, I was almost done with the original manuscript. Once finished, though, my beta readers struggled with it. They were kind but honest, and there was much work to be done to improve it. In fact, their feedback led to the dramatic changes I made to the process used in these posts beginning October of last year.
Earlier this year, I finished the revised book and am really excited about the feedback I’ve received on it so far. It’s a DISO study of the Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20) designed for three weeks of daily quiet time study and reflection. I’ll keep updating you periodically on its progress through publication, which I hope happens late next year or early 2026.
A Gift for You: Bible Treasure!
Also, I’ve created a brief study guide based on the book’s content as my gift to you for reading my blog posts. I hope you’ll download it and refer to it often as we continue to study through God’s Word using the Digging into Scripture Ourselves 5-step process. And you can also use it on your own to dig for Bible treasure anywhere in God’s Word.
A Look Ahead
I’m also gearing up to expand my social media presence in 2025. Feel free to follow me on Facebook where I’ll be highlighting some of the cool things you can do in your personal Bible study time, announcing new studies, providing more timely updates on the book project, and hopefully not embarrassing myself too much in the process!
In the meantime, plan to join me next week as I start the study series I’m calling Restoration. In it, I’ll be revisiting several passages I’ve studied in the past. Those posts featured the older, DISO 20-Questions method I practiced before my old web hosting service took my site down in September 2023. For a while, I’ve wanted to restore them as originally written, but now I’ve decided to use the newer, 5-step process developed for the book as I revisit each passage. We’ll start December 31 with Genesis 3:1-24: the Fall of Humanity. I can’t wait to see what treasure the Spirit helps us discover in this familiar territory!
Till then, I pray you have a wonderful Christmas, and the New Year brings amazing blessings to you and your loved ones. Thank you for spending a little of your time this week with God’s Word and with me!
by Jen | Dec 17, 2024 | 1-18, DISO studies, Ruth 3
NEW TO THIS STUDY? START HERE.
Can you believe we’ve all but finished the book of Ruth? I hope the Holy Spirit has revealed amazing treasure for you these past seven weeks. Here’s my work for week 8 of this study.
Last Week’s Work
LESSON(S) LEARNED
As I thought through the lessons learned over the last eight weeks, the Spirit drew me to the contrast between Boaz (who, from chapter 2 on, has acted the part of a redeemer for Ruth and Naomi) and the nearer redeemer—a negative comparison I should have noticed in week 4, but didn’t.
In my study of Chapter 3, I commented about how Jesus, our Brother in God’s family, rescued us from slavery to sin and death. Similarly, Boaz provided for the physical needs of Ruth and Naomi though technically he could have let them starve. All along, he was the real redeemer here. He could have turned away from them. Instead, he stepped up so the nearer redeemer could “do what was right in his own eyes.” Boaz was the self-sacrificing lover of the undeserving, just as Jesus was.
CONVICTION
As part of my observations this week, I checked how many times redeem and redeemer appear in the New Testament. I found redeem three times (Luke 24:21, Galatians 4:5, and Titus 2:14) and redeemer only once (Acts 7:35).
In the letter to Titus, Paul describes Jesus as the one who brings “salvation for all people” and trains His followers “to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives.” (Titus 2:11-12). I couldn’t help but think of Ruth: when she left Moab, she wasn’t just changing her residence. In Ruth 1:16-17, she renounced her Moabite citizenship, their gods, even her own family. And her new life wasn’t easy. Boaz mentions her self-controlled, upright life at least a couple of times (Ruth 2:11-12, 3:10-11). Again, Ruth’s example convicts me. What faith and trust she must have had to commit everything to a God she only experienced through her first husband’s family. And, in the end, God blesses her with Boaz and Obed, through whom she blessed Israel (King David) and the world (Jesus).
CORRECTION
You may remember some time ago I mentioned I’m working on a book detailing the DISO study process. I submitted it to an editor in late October and received his feedback this week. I can’t help but think this might be how Ruth felt staring at the barley field that first morning she went to glean: “looks like a lot of work!!”
While looking at the context of redeem above, the Spirit drew my attention to this from Titus 2:7-8:
Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.
The Spirit seems to be connecting Paul’s admonition above to my work on the edits. Some are simple, but a handful will require much research and effort to do well. I believe I’m being reminded to do this work to the best of my ability. Friend, please pray for me. This won’t be easy, but I know it will be worth it in the end.
ACTION PLAN
From today forward, as I work on improving the book, I will pray over Titus 2:7-8. I pray for energy, courage, and stamina to move this project forward as the Lord directs.
Our Next Study
Next week is Christmas Eve and I have a special gift for you! Rather than launch into another study, I’m preparing a short overview of the Digging into Scripture Ourselves (DISO) process, plus a 6-page guide that walks you through all five steps of the process and includes bonus codes you can use to quickly access the free, online tools I use in my personal studies. With the Holy Spirit, this booklet is all you need to dig deeply and confidently into any passage on your own. I can’t wait to share it with you!
by Jen | Dec 10, 2024 | 1-22, DISO studies, Ruth 4
NEW TO THIS STUDY? START HERE.
Where has this year gone?! Can you believe next week we’ll have studied six different passages (including the entire book of Ruth)? I’m so grateful you’re checking in with me, and I hope your studies are going well, too!
This past week we were looking at cross-references and other translations of our focus verse(s). My focus verse is Ruth 4:6. Here’s what the Spirit revealed to me this week.
Last Week’s Work
CROSS-REFERENCES
For the first time since I began studying God’s Word this way, I found a verse with no direct cross-references! The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (my usual go-to cross-reference resource) contained only this:
I cannot – The Targum seems to give the proper sense of this passage: ‘I cannot redeem it, because I have a wife already; and it is not fit for me to bring another into my house, lest brawling and contention arise in it; and lest I hurt my own inheritance. Do thou redeem it, for thou has no wife; which hinders me from redeeming it.’ Based on this text’s attribution (The Targum, which is a version of the Hebrew Bible translated into Aramaic), it appears the primary redeemer could refuse to perform the duty if another relative was willing to step up, instead.
OTHER TRANSLATIONS
I compared the ESV, AMP, NIV, and Good News translations for Ruth 4:6 and discovered another couple of reasons why the redeemer might have refused to marry Ruth. The Amplified Bible says it’s “… because [by marrying a Moabitess] I would jeopardize my own inheritance.”
But the GNT indicates he said, “… I will give up my right to buy the field because it would mean that my own children would not inherit it.” In this study, I don’t feel the Spirit pulling me to understand why the man didn’t want the field after he learned he’d need to fulfill the levirate requirements. Instead, I think the Spirit is directing me to focus on the fact that Ruth, a non-Hebrew believer, became an important part of Matthew’s genealogy of Christ (Matthew 1:1-16). And she’s not the only non-Hebrew woman in that lineage. Boaz’s mother, Rahab, was a Canaanite prostitute whose faith led her to trust the spies Joshua sent into Jericho when they promised to spare her family in return for her aid in escaping the men of the city (Joshua 2). Though the Israelites were (and are) God’s chosen people, He clearly intends His family to include all races, and both genders play an important role in bringing salvation to mankind.
Dig-In Challenges
Now let’s wrap up our study of Ruth and align with what we’ve discovered in Chapter 4. I hope you’ll join me as I
- PRAY: Read the prayer we created in Step 1.
- ALIGN: Review my study notes and other work, focusing specifically on what I’ve learned.
- ALIGN: Then, considering those “lessons learned,” I’ll think about how the Spirit has convicted me through this study. In other words, where has He shown me misalignment between what I’ve discovered and how I practice my faith?
- ALIGN: Next, I’ll look to God’s Word for guidance to correct that misalignment. This is often—but not always—a verse from the study text or from one of the cross-references.
- ALIGN: And finally, I’ll reflect on how I can change my thoughts or actions to align more closely with what I’ve discovered here. To really make this work, I commit to changing something and do my best to act on that commitment every day for at least three weeks.
That may seem like a lot to consider in one week. If you’re working with the Spirit, remember you can do this at your own pace. Don’t worry about keeping up with me—just do what you can when you can. The Lord will bless any time you spend in His Word, I know it!
GO TO WEEK 8 >
by Jen | Dec 3, 2024 | 1-22, DISO studies, Ruth 4
NEW TO THIS STUDY? START HERE.
Welcome back, my friend! I hope your week has been filled with family and gratitude (and maybe a little turkey and pumpkin pie, too). Let me get right to what the Spirit showed me this week.
Last Week’s Work
WRITING TYPES
In addition to narrative, I observed:
- The first twelve verses of Ruth 4 describe something like a real estate closing or other legal proceeding, with witnesses, attestations, references to redemption and the levirate law, etc.
- I also recognized prophecy in v15 when the women told Naomi Obed would be her restorer of life and a nourisher of her old age. I saw this as literally the case since he was tasked with taking care of her under the law, but I also wonder if he represents more since he is the product of Ruth and Boaz’s obedience to God. Both Matthew and Luke trace Jesus’s lineage through Obed (Matthew 1:5; Luke 3:32) and King David (Matthew 1:6; Luke 3:31).
- Finally, I considered the genealogy at the end of the chapter instruction because it showed me how Ruth fits within the larger history of the Old Testament.
LITERAL CONTEXT
Through Boaz, Naomi’s family is restored and Elimelech’s property rights and lineage were preserved, even though they disobeyed God and did what was right in their own eyes. And Ruth could have done the same: she could have stayed in Moab with her family. Once in Bethlehem, she could have reneged on her promise to honor God and Naomi and, as Boaz mentioned in 3:10, gone after young men. But she didn’t. She trusted Naomi and God and worked hard, submitting herself to Israelite law and Boaz.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
From my earlier research, we have no information about the author of Ruth, only that it was written about 1010 BC. In Ruth 3, we saw the next-of-kin obligations giving rise to the legal proceeding in this chapter. My focus for this study is the reason the nearer redeemer gave for refusing to marry Ruth: doing so would jeopardize his own inheritance. In some of the historical research I reviewed, there was a hint that Ruth’s nationality might have been the problem. We don’t know for sure, but I believe it’s possible the superior redeemer’s family had additional requirements for inheritance. For example, if a son married into “the enemy” (aka, a Moabite), he might be disowned. I don’t know and can’t prove that’s the case here, but it seems possible.
INTERLINEAR RESEARCH
I reviewed the interlinear text of Ruth 4:6, concentrating on the Hebrew terms for jeopardize (H7843) and my own inheritance (H5159), but didn’t discover anything that clearly explained why the inheritance would be ruined if the man entered a levirate marriage with Ruth. As I searched and searched, I felt the Holy Spirit nudge me that I was making more of this than necessary. The man stepped away to enable Boaz to fulfill that role. Isn’t it enough that all these circumstances fell into place so Ruth’s devotion to God and commitment to serving his people would put her in the genealogy of the Son of God?!
Dig-In Challenges
This week, let’s wrap up the second half of our Refine step by examining cross-references and other translations.
- Don’t forget to begin with your prayer from Step 1.
- REFINE: Then consult a concordance or online cross-reference study tool (for v6, I’ll start at this blb.org page) to find and read through the available cross-references for the verses you’re most interested in and log what the Spirit shows you.
NOTE: if you’re interested in verses other than 6, follow the above link, then point to the TOOLS button to the left of the verse you want to study, and choose Cross-Refs from the menu.
- REFINE: Finally, compare at least a few other translations’ version of the same verses and write about what you find in your study journal. I’ll be comparing ESV, AMP, NIV, and GNT using this biblehub.com page. You can compare your own verses from that link by entering them in the Enter Reference or Keyword box at the top of the page and clicking the spyglass icon there.
I’m looking forward to sharing what I discover with you next week. I hope you join me then!
GO TO WEEK 7 >
by Jen | Nov 26, 2024 | 1-18, DISO studies, Ruth 3
NEW TO THIS STUDY? START HERE.
Happy and blessed Thanksgiving to my U.S. readers this week! God has been so good to me this year, even in difficult circumstances. I pray you also find reasons for gratitude to the One who loves us so much. Amen! Here’s what I discovered from comparisons, causes, and conditions in Ruth 4.
Last Week’s Work
COMPARISONS
This time, I noticed four comparisons:
- Verse 11: … May the Lord make [Ruth] like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel.
- Verse 12: May [Boaz’s] house be like the house of Perez because of the offspring…
I think both the above comparisons are about Ruth bearing Boaz many children because the speakers mention Rachel and Leah, the sisters who competed to have children by Jacob (Israel). With them and their servants, he fathered ten of the twelve men whose families became the twelve tribes: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Joseph, and Benjamin.
- Verses 14-15: [Obed] shall be [Naomi’s] restorer of life and nourisher of [her] old age.
Obed was born to take the place of his mother’s first husband, Naomi’s son Mahlon, and, as the only surviving boy in Naomi’s family, would be charged with taking care of her.
- Verse 15: [Ruth] is more [valuable] to [Naomi] than seven sons…
I think this is a reference to all Ruth did for Naomi, returning with her from Moab and working so hard for her survival, including bearing Obed.
CAUSES/MOTIVATIONS
This time I focused on verse 6: The original redeemer said, I cannot redeem [Naomi’s property] for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. In other words, the reason he couldn’t redeem the property (and acquire Ruth) was because if he did, his inheritance would be in jeopardy.
This is the huh? the Spirit directed me to dig into in this study. I suspect it relates to being forced to give up the firstborn of the marriage to Elimelech’s family as Obed was in vv16-17. I’m hoping I can get more clarity on that soon!
CONDITIONS/METHODS
The only condition I noticed was the legal one requiring the redeemer to marry Ruth and produce a son for Naomi’s family with her when he bought Elimelech’s property (v5). Just giving her the money for the property would provide support temporarily, but once she spent all the money, how would she survive? Having a son (through Ruth and the redeemer), though, enabled the property to come back to Naomi’s kin when the boy was old enough to own it (as I mentioned last week). At that point, he’d probably also become responsible for supporting Naomi (v15).
I also noticed the process through which Boaz acquired Ruth: assembling ten witnesses, discussing the situation with the redeemer in front of them, and receiving the sandal from the redeemer as proof he was renouncing his claim to the property and Ruth. That seems strange to us who memorialize important agreements with written contracts, but back then literacy was not so common. The shoe and the witnesses were the proof needed to enforce the agreement if necessary.
Dig-In Challenges
Next week we’ll begin refining our understanding of what we’ve discovered so we can interpret it as Ruth’s author and his audience would have.
Here’s how I’ll be working toward that this week:
- PRAY. Of course!
- REFINE by rereading Chapter 4. We know the overall writing type in Ruth is narrative, so now we’re just looking for instances of instruction, law, letter, poetry, and/or prophecy in chapter 4.
- REFINE: by considering historical context: We know from earlier research that this story is set in the days when the judges ruled, and everyone basically did what they wanted to do. We also know no author is named for this book, but the mention of King David in Chapter 4 indicates it was written after 1010BC. I’d like to see if I can find anything that further clarifies the redeemer’s statement about his own inheritance, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to find anything factual about that.
- REFINE: by examining key words and/or phrases (I’ll look at verse 6) using an interlinear Bible, and note what the Spirit reveals. Interlinear Bibles are available on several study websites and let us examine Ruth in the original Hebrew. They provide details about each word, including its meaning in context. I’ll be using the Blue Letter Bible Interlinear tool for this research.
This “refining” step is more involved than the “mining” we did earlier, and you might be busy (as I will) with Thanksgiving festivities, but I encourage you to use these tools and dig as much as you can this week. I pray the Spirit will bless your efforts, my friend!
GO TO WEEK 6 >
