My Journal

Some 90+ turnout last night.

The videos and notes are out.

This is a series of quick expository study on the 5 O.T. books used for Jewish liturgical events.

1. Ruth - Feast of Weeks
2. Esther - Purim
3. Ecclesiastes - Feast of Tabernacles
4. Lamentations - Ninth of Ab
5. Song of Solomon - Passover

The lecturer is Bijan Mirtolooi.

Two handouts: 1). ESV version of Ruth, 2). Mirtolooi's lecture notes.

The great turnout shows that even on a weekday (Thursday), there are great many of those who hunger for the word of God. Otherwise, one needs to wonder if a big church like Redeemer is big because attendees just follow wherever the crowds are, which is not untrue and I believe is still the case for many on a Sunday service.

First week, is the study on the book of Ruth. We went over all 4 chapters quickly.

The key words are:

-The kinsman-redeemer & levirate custom (Lev 25:25-30, 48-49) & (Deu 25:5-10)

-Hidden hand of God (providence)

-Hesed (loving kindness): multiple relationships between multiple characters in the book. Mirtolooi went through great length expounding this word.

Recommended book: Robert L. Hubbard Jr.'s The Book of Ruth.

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After the lecture of 1 hour, Q&A followed. I enjoyed it. One questioned about the validity of OT books today, Mirtolooi used the fact that Ruth is a defense for Davidic Kingship is proof that it was no fantasy - as most liberal commentators argued. The nature of Redeemer Q&A is to not provoke any "liberal" ideas, but "artfully" persuade them. I am on board with this, but not always - because I believe Christians can deal with aggressive liberals, which is not what the RPC method is equipped for.

Now back to the real stuff:

Great lecture and here are my notes:

Mirtolooi was open to the idea that female authorship is possible. I'm more inclined to Hubbard's "Samuel as the more likely author". (Book of Ruth, 1988, pg. 23 - wikipedia).

Canonicity: appears after Judges, but in Tanach, it appears after Proverbs - Since the last chapter of Proverbs pertains to virtuous women, thus following it, Ruth, is a good example.

It would seem hard to pin Naomi's family to a fault in the beginning. MacArthur in 1:20-21 noted that Naomi was though recognizing God's sovereignty, yet not HOPEFUL. I need to look further into the case of their migration to Moabite land. Mirtolooi did not explain pass affliction of God. There wasn't much indication of the cause of this affliction, unless you only accept the bright side of it - anything but Naomi's sins. Mirtolooi compared Naomi's suffering to C.S. Lewis' A Grief Observed.

Many commentators (e.g. F.B. Meyer, etc.) has stated that it was not a righteous decision to emigrate out of Israel, much less into Moab. Verses quoted are: Deu 23:3-6, Deu 7:3. Not surprisingly the Jews today would argue that foreign men but not foreign women were not permitted to mingle into Jewish heritage, to me this is like the kind of black is white, white is black argument.

The levirate custom is an interesting one.  Ruth did "uncover" Boaz's feet in 3:8, which bears resemblance  to Deu 25:9. Though, in Ruth case, hesed is obviously applied, making it more than a form of obligatory as Deu 25 demanded.

The ancient Chinese comparison to the levirate custom is 转房婚 = 夫兄弟婚 = 利未婚 or 收继婚 (any male relative from the husband's side except for sons of the widow's own birth). This custom is allowed and prohibited from dynasties to dynasties.

Boaz was a relative from Naomi's husband's side (2:1). A question was asked of this at the end (Who was Boaz to Naomi), I don't know why this wasn't the answer given.

It is important to note that Boaz was not the closest kinsman. There was another in Chapter 3-4, and Boaz justly dealt with it (detailed in chapter 4) before marrying Ruth. Like Driscoll, Mirtolooi said Ruth "proposed" to Boaz. Mirtolooi recognized that it was counter tradition. I am not inclined to this interpretation, since you cannot completely remove the levirate and kinsman-redeemer custom. Ruth and Naomi were fully aware and applying this custom on Boaz, in spite of hesed.

Question I would have asked: Ruth is read every year during Shavuot, the reason in the lecture: Love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:10), is that also the Jew's reason?