Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God E-Book

John Piper

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 154

Beschreibung

John Piper Reveals Timeless Cultural Themes in the Old Testament Story of Ruth Sex. Race. Scripture. Sovereignty. The book of Ruth doesn't shy away from addressing them all head on. Though it recounts events from 3,000 years ago, this ancient story of a poor widow seeking protection in a foreign land holds surprising relevance for Christians in the twenty-first century. In Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God (previously titled A Sweet and Bitter Providence), John Piper explores unchanging truths and inspiring hope in the life of Ruth. - Topical: Dives into cultural issues including biblical examples of manhood and womanhood, ethnic diversity and harmony, and God's mysterious purposes in suffering - Understand God's Providence in Ruth's Story: Follows her mother-in-law Naomi's anguish and loss, Ruth's relationship with Boaz, and her family's ultimate lineage to David - Study Key Biblical Themes: Explains the sovereignty of God, the sexual nature of humanity, the gospel of God's mercy for the undeserving, and the glory of God's grace

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A Godward Life

A Hunger for God

Let the Nations Be Glad!

The Pleasures of God

Providence

Reading the Bible Supernaturally

The Satisfied Soul

Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ

27 Servants of Sovereign Joy

Taste and See

When I Don’t Desire God

SEX, RACE, and the SOVEREIGNTY of  God

Sweet and Bitter Providence in the Book of Ruth

John Piper

Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God Formerly published as A Sweet and Bitter Providence

Copyright © 2010, 2022 by Desiring God Foundation

Published by Crossway 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Jordan Singer

First printing 2010

Reprinted with new title 2022

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible: English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-8178-6

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-8179-3

Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-8180-9

ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-8181-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Piper, John, 1946- A sweet and bitter providence : sex, race, and the sovereignty of God / John Piper.   p.  cm.  Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4335-1437-1 (hc) 1. Bible O.T. Ruth—Commentaries. I. Title.

BS1315.53.P67  2010222’.3506—dc22       2009021018

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

To

Noël and Talitha

women of worth

“Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”

. . . Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not ­forsaken the living or the dead!”

RUTH 1:20–21; 2:20

Contents

Introduction 11

1 Sweet and Bitter Providence 17

2 Under the Wings of God 53

3 Strategic Righteousness 75

4 May My Redeemer Be Renowned 97

Final Appeals 127

Acknowledgments 147

Scripture Index 149

Person Index 153

Subject Index 155

Desiring God Note on Resources 159

Introduction

Ruth is a very old book. The events took place over three thousand years ago. Could it be relevant and helpful for your life? I think so. The sovereignty of God, the sexual nature of man, and the gospel never change. And since God is still sovereign, and you are male or female, and Christ is alive and powerful, the book has a message for you.

I don’t know you or your circumstances well enough to say for sure that you should read this book. You must decide. To be sure, there are other things to do that are just as important—like telling your neighbor about Jesus. So let me simply tell you why I think you might be helped if you join me in listening to the message of Ruth. I’ll make these seven reasons brief, so you can decide and be on your way or stay.

The Word of God

First, the book of Ruth is part of the Scriptures, which Jesus loved. He said, “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). He said, “Until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law [a reference to the Scriptures] until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:18). And best of all he said, “The Scriptures . . . bear witness about me” (John 5:39).

The reason these Scriptures—including Ruth—cannot be broken is that they are God’s word. “All Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Tim. 3:16). “Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21). Therefore, the message of Ruth is unwaveringly true. It’s a rock to stand on when the terrain of ideas feels like quicksand. It’s an anchor to hold us when tides are ripping.

But the best thing about the Scriptures is that they give hope, because they point to Jesus Christ. They were “written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4). The message of Ruth is filled with God-inspired hope.

A Love Story

Second, Ruth is a love story. One commentary suggests that it may be “the most beautiful short story ever written.”1 There are some heart-stopping moments. Not often do we get the richest and deepest truth in the form of a passionate love story. The way Ruth and Boaz find each other is the stuff of epics. It involves God’s sovereign rule over nations and reaches across thousands of years in its purpose. But the story is the flesh-and-blood experience of one family living the unexpected plan of God.

Manhood and Womanhood

Third, the book of Ruth is the portrait of beautiful, noble manhood and womanhood. The greatness of manhood and womanhood is more than sex. It is more than a throbbing love story. In a day when movies and television and advertising and the Internet portray masculinity and femininity in the lowest ways, we are in great need of stories that elevate the magnificent meaning of manhood and womanhood.

In making sex the main thing, and in flattering or reversing the differences between men and women, the modern world is losing the glory and beauty and depth and power of what sexuality becomes when it runs like a deep and mighty river between the high banks of righteousness. Ruth and Boaz are extraordinary. Men and women today need heroes like this.

Ethnocentrism

Fourth, the story of Ruth addresses one of the great issues of our time: racial and ethnic diversity and ­harmony. Racism and all manner of ethnocentrisms are as common today around the world as they ever have been. The shrinking of the planet into immediate access on the Internet has brought thousands of strange people and strange patterns of life into our lives—and put our strangeness into their lives. Diversity is a given in this world. The question is how we will think and feel and act about it.

Consider a few facts from the U. S. Census Bureau about what is in store for America:

Between 2010 and 2020 the percentage of those Americans who reported their race as white only (no mixture) fell by 8.6%. In that same period, the “multiracial population” increased from 9 million to 33.8 million, a 276% increase. The Hispanic or Latino population increased by 23% in that same decade. One summary describes the future like this: “The new statistics project that the nation will become ‘minority white’ in 2045. During that year, whites will comprise 49.7 percent of the population in contrast to 24.6 percent for Hispanics, 13.1 percent for blacks, 7.9 percent for Asians, and 3.8 percent for multiracial populations.”2

Ruth is an “unclean” pagan Moabitess. But she is drawn into faith and into the lineage of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Her marriage is an interracial marriage. There are lessons here that we need as much today as ever.

The Sovereignty of God

Fifth, the most prominent purpose of the book of Ruth is to bring the calamities and sorrows of life under the sway of God’s providence and show us that God’s purposes are good. It is not a false statement when Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, says, “The Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. . . . The Almighty has brought calamity upon me” (Ruth 1:20–21).

That is true. But here’s the question the book answers: Is God’s bitter providence the last word? Are bitter ingredients (like vanilla extract) put in the mixer to make the cake taste bad? Everywhere I look in the world today, whether near or far, the issue for real people in real life is, Can I trust and love the God who has dealt me this painful hand in life? That is the question the book of Ruth intends to answer.3

Risk-Taking Love

Sixth, the gift of hope in God’s providence is meant to overflow in radical acts of love for hurting people. The book of Ruth is not in the Bible merely to help us think right thoughts about God. Nor merely to give us hope in his good providence. That hope-filled confidence is meant to release radical, risk-taking love. It’s there to make you a new kind of person—a person who is able “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Mic. 6:8).

The Glory of Christ

Seventh, the book of Ruth aims to show that all of history, even its darkest hours, serves to magnify the glory of God’s grace. In surprising ways, a thousand years before Christ, this book glorifies his saving work on the cross, as we will see. Ruth is about the work of God in the darkest of times to prepare the world for the glories of Jesus Christ.

I invite you to join me as we walk together through this amazing story.

1F. B. Huey, Ruth, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 3, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992), 509.

2 “Improved Race and Ethnicity Measures Reveal U.S. Population Is Much More Multiracial,” United States Census Bureau website, accessed March 23, 2022, https://www.census.gov; and “The US Will Become ‘Minority White’ in 2045, Census Projects,” Brookings website, accessed March 23, 2022, https://www.brookings.edu.

3 To see how the whole Bible answers this question, see John Piper, Providence (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021).

Chapter One

Sweet and ­Bitter Providence

Where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.

RUTH 1:16–17

In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. 3But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, 5and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

6Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. 7So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. 8But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. 9The LORD grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. 10And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” 11But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? 12Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, 13ould you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.” 14Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

15And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” 18And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

19So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” 20She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”

22So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest. (Ruth 1)

The Prostitute and the Moabite

According to the first verse of the book of Ruth, the story took place during the time of the judges. That’s why Ruth comes right after the book called Judges in our Bibles. The time of the judges was a four-hundred-year period after Israel entered the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua and before there were any kings in Israel (roughly 1400 B.C. to 1000 B.C.).

Although some generations may be left out of the genealogy in Ruth 4:18–22, Boaz, who marries Ruth, is linked as a descendant from Rahab, the converted prostitute who lived when Israel first came into the Promised Land (Josh. 2:1, 3; 6:17, 23). We learn this from the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:5. This signals to us that remarkable things are in the offing. Why would a prostitute and a Moabitess be mentioned back-to-back in the genealogy of Jesus? Why would they be mentioned at all? We are getting in at the ground level of something amazing.

God at Work in the Worst of Times

You can see from the last verse of the book of Judges what sort of period it was. Judges 21:25 says, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” It was a very dark time in Israel. The same gloomy pattern happened again and again: the people would sin, God would send enemies against them, the people would cry for help, and God would mercifully raise up a judge to deliver them (Judg. 2:16–19).

From all outward appearances, God’s purposes for righteousness and glory in Israel were failing. But what the book of Ruth does for us is give us a glimpse into the hidden work of God during the worst of times.

Consider the last verse of Ruth (4:22). The child born to Ruth and Boaz during the period of the judges is Obed. Obed becomes the father of Jesse, and Jesse becomes the father of David who led Israel to her greatest heights of glory. One of the main messages of this little book is that God is at work in the worst of times.

Putting in Place the Ancestry of Christ

Even through the sins of his people, God plots for their glory. It was true at the national level. And we will see that it is true at the personal, family level too. God is at work in the worst of times. He is at work doing a thousand things no one can see but him. In the case of this story, God is at work preparing the way for Christ in a manner no one can see.1 The reason we know it is because the book ends by connecting Ruth and Boaz with David the king. The last words of the book are “Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David” (4:21–22).

Jesus identified himself as “the son of David” (Matt. 22:41–46). He forged a link straight from himself, over all the intervening generations, to David and Jesse and Obed and Ruth. Knowing how this book ends gives us a sense, as we begin, that nothing will be insignificant here. Huge things are at stake. God is putting in place the ancestry of Jesus the Messiah, whose kingdom will endure forever (Isa. 9:7).

Behind a Frowning Providence