November 25, 2025 • 21 mins
We are continuing to use Marie Bowen's excellent book, Pregnant with Promise. The story of Lot's Daughters, Tamar and Ruth are woven together to show how God redeems the circumstances of these abused and widowed women from enemy tribes, by giving them the children who will fulfill the promise of bringing salvation to Israel through the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Scripture references in this week's episode include:
Genesis 19; 38 Ruth Luke 21:28
Genesis 3 I Timothy 2:14 Romans 5:12
Genesis 32:25 2 Corinthians 12:7 John 16:21
Romans 8:22
https://www.ppl.org/baby-chris
Abortion is never medically necessary
Abortion Pill Reversal https://abortionpillreversal.com 24/7 Helpline at 877.558.0333 Email: help@apr.life or Chat at the weblink above
Post abortion recovery for both women and men at https://www.rachelsvineyard.org
Life Training Institute https://www.prolifetraining.com
Charlotte Lozier Institute https://lozierinstitute.org
Guttmacher Institute https://guttmacher.org
Compelled by the gospel, PPL equips Presbyterians to champion human life at every stage. PPL.org
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Host (00:16):
Just a note before we begin this week's podcast, you
should know we're going to talkabout the lives of women who
have experienced some serioussexual sin.
So if you need to listen to iton your AirPods or hustle your
kids into some other room, takea pause and do that before
listening further.
(00:37):
Welcome back to the ProLifeKitchen Table where we are
loaded up for Thanksgiving! Myname is Deborah Hollifield, and
while my turkey is defrosting,we're going to learn a little
bit more about how the accountsof the pregnant women in the
Bible teach us about the neverchanging attributes of God, the
things that we can be thankfulfor throughout our lives,
(00:58):
especially that God is merciful,even when we have no one else,
when we have been wronged, andwhen we need His help.
This week we will focus on thebeloved story of Ruth.
Even if you're not familiarwith the Old Testament, you may
have heard this verse from Ruthread at weddings.
It goes (01:19):
"...
for where you go I will go, andwhere you lodge I will lodge.
Your people shall be my people,and your God my God.
Where you die I will die, andthere I will be buried."
Ruth has a whole book namedafter her.
It's quite short, and youshould definitely read it after
(01:41):
you listen to this podcastbecause it is a great story.
Like our story of Samson'smother from last week, this
story is also set during thetimes of the Judges of Israel.
In this lesson we're going tolook at the pregnancy stories of
two other women along withRuth, who are part of a common
thread of pregnancies resultingfrom relationships gone wrong.
(02:05):
In all three stories the womenare widows, yet their responses
to hardship could not be moredifferent.
These are not warm andcomfortable stories.
These are women wrestling withterrible circumstances of grief,
loss, neglect, and injustice.
They must have found itdifficult to see what God was
(02:27):
doing in and through thecircumstances of their lives.
Yet when we look back on theirstories from our century, we are
amazed at how God's plan ofredemption comes through to us
through them.
I ask you to pay a bit ofattention to the history leading
up to the story of Ruth and thewomen who were setting the
(02:48):
stage for what happened to Ruth.
We have to go back beforeAbraham and our lesson on Hagar.
During Abraham's long journey,his nephew Lot settled near the
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah,which Genesis tells us were
filled with wicked men.
There came a time when Goddetermined to destroy those
(03:09):
cities for their wickedness, andGod sent two angels to warn Lot
to get out before thathappened.
Lot told his two sons-in-law,his daughters' husbands, about
the coming judgment, and theythought it was a joke.
When Lot hesitated to leave thecity without his family, the
(03:29):
angels grabbed the hands of Lot,his wife, and his daughters,
and led them out, for the Lordwas merciful to them.
These were all who escaped,because remember Lot's
daughter's husbands didn'tbelieve his warning.
The angels instructed them toflee and not to look back.
But Lot's wife did look back,and she became a pillar of salt.
(03:53):
That's Genesis chapter 19,verse 26.
Genesis 19 goes on to tell thesad story of Lot's two
daughters.
Lot is grieving his wife, hisdaughters have lost their
mother, and they have also losthope that they will ever find
husbands.
This emotional chaos leads oneof the daughters to speak to her
(04:17):
sister, saying, "There is noman here to lie with us, as is
the custom all over the earth."And so both of Lot's daughters
became pregnant by their father.
These days social media is fullof sad posts from both men and
women who are single and who areexpressing their hopelessness
(04:38):
about finding a spouse andhaving children.
This is true of not only peopleof no faith, but also a lot of
Christians.
It's not as though the worldhas had all the eligible single
people die off, but it can feelthat way.
When people believe that allthat lies before them is
(04:59):
singleness and loneliness, manyof them will turn to casual sex
and dating apps like Tinder, inthe false hope that mimicking a
marriage bed will lead tomarriage.
But still, resorting to incestin order to have children
remains rare, and anyone who hasexperienced the sin of incest
(05:20):
has known a particularly cruelkind of sexual abuse.
Both of Lot's daughters boresons, one of whom they named
Moab, meaning from father, andthe other was named Ben Ami,
meaning son of my people.
Moab grew to become the fatherof a people called the Moabites,
(05:43):
while Ben Ami became theancestor of a tribe known as the
Ammonites.
In later years theirdescendants brought constant
trouble and war between theMoabites, Ammonites, and Israel,
and relationships with them,including intermarriage, would
lead Israel into worship offalse gods.
Yet a time is coming when Godwill show his redemption through
(06:06):
a Moabite woman.
In the meantime, there's anotherconvoluted story about a woman
named Tamar, whose story isrecorded in Genesis chapter
thirty eight.
Tamar was married to a mannamed Er (E R) Er, who was the
grandson of Jacob and Leahthrough their son Judah.
(06:29):
The scripture says that Tamar'shusband was wicked, so the Lord
put him to death.
In the tradition of the day,Judah, Tamar's father in law,
instructed his second son Onanto lie with Tamar and then
provide an heir for his deadbrother.
This sounds perverse to us inthe twenty first century, but it
(06:51):
was a social norm at the time,so that the family name and
property could be preserved.
Onan, however, wanted no partin fathering an offspring for
his dead brother, because thatwould cause him to have to share
his inheritance.
For his unwillingness topreserve his brother's
inheritance, God puts him todeath as well.
(07:13):
Their father Judah, not wantingto jeopardize his remaining son
Shelah, suggested that Tamarshould live in her own father's
house as a widowuntil Shelah grows up.
But when Shelah reaches the ageto marry, Judah makes no move
to give Tamar to him as a wife.
We've seen in previous lessonshow childless women in this
(07:36):
culture have done desperatethings to take matters into
their own hands.
This time Tamar hatches a planto deceive Judah by pretending
to be a prostitute and trickinghim into sleeping with her.
She sits beside a well traveledroad wearing a veil, and when
Judah comes by, she offersherself to him as a prostitute.
(07:59):
Judah doesn't recognize her, sohe lies with her.
But then he doesn't have anymoney to pay her.
Tamar takes some personal itemsfrom him as pledges for
payment, and then goes back homeand resumes her life as a
widow.
Later, Judah sends her friendback to where he met the
(08:19):
supposed prostitute with themoney to pay and get his things
back, but Tamar has alreadygone.
It turns out that Tamar hasconceived, and after a few
months go by and her pregnancybegins to show, this widow is
predictably accused ofprostitution.
Judah pronounces judgmentagainst her and sends a message
(08:41):
to bring her out and have herburned to death.
But Tamar sends back themessage that "I am pregnant by
the man who owns these." Andwith her message she sends back
a seal, a cord, and a staff thatbelonged to Judah, which were
the items that she had taken inpledge.
Judah immediately understandsthat he has wronged Tamar by not
(09:05):
giving her as a wife to hisyoungest son, and relents of his
judgment, and eventually Tamargives birth to twins, whom she
names Zara and Perez.
Imagine the gossip that musthave surrounded this chain of
events.
Well now we fast forward toarrive at Ruth.
A woman from Moab.
(09:27):
Remember, Moab is a nation bornof the incest of Lot and his
daughters.
A woman from Moab named Ruthmarries a man descended from
Perez, the son of Tamar, bornin scandal, who is named Boaz.
The story of the marriage ofRuth and Boaz will become one of
the great romance stories ofthe Bible.
(09:50):
But Ruth has a history beforeshe meets Boaz, and part of that
story is that Ruth has beenleft a widow herself.
The way that transpired is thatmany years before there had
been a famine in the city ofBethlehem.
A man whose name is Elimelechtook his wife, whose name was
(10:10):
Naomi, along with his sons,Mahlon and Killian, to Moab to
find food there.
But while they lived in Moab,Elimelech dies, leaving Naomi a
widow.
The young men Mahlon andKillian then marry two Moabite
women, one of whom is Ruth.
After living in Moab ten moreyears, both of the sons also
(10:34):
die.
The widowed Naomi now has twowidowed daughters-in-law living
with her, and so she decides toreturn to Bethlehem.
She urges her daughters-in-lawto stay behind in their native
Moab and find other husbands.
One daughter-in-law does staybehind, but Ruth loves Naomi and
refuses to turn back and sogoes with her to Bethlehem.
(10:58):
The book of Ruth is a wonderfulromantic story about how God
provides a husband for Ruth, aMoabite, in the land of Israel.
Naomi and Ruth have no othermeans of support, and so Ruth
goes gleaning for some grain ina field, and while she is
working, she meets a remarkablykind landowner whose name is
(11:19):
Boaz, who makes certain she issafe and able to gather an
abundance of grain.
Ruth relates this kindness thatBoaz has shown to her, and
during the telling of it, Naomirealizes that this Boaz is a
relative of hers and is one ofthe men who can redeem the
family land by marrying Ruth.
(11:41):
To accomplish this, Naomiorchestrates a plan that Ruth
carries out with some success,and Boaz and Ruth are married.
Ruth at last has a son withBoaz, who is named Obed, which
means servant of the Lord.
So that was kind of a long wayof getting to the point of how
(12:01):
God redeems the circumstances ofthese abused and widowed women
from enemy tribes by giving themthe children who will fulfill
the promise of bringingsalvation to Israel through the
Messiah Jesus Christ.
It's another story that showshow everybody from every
generation matters in thekingdom of God to accomplish
(12:22):
God's plans for the world.
Well, finally, in the book ofRuth, chapter four, we learn
that in just two moregenerations, King David of
Israel will also be born ofObed's descendants.
And if you read chapter one ofthe New Testament book of
Matthew, you will also see thenames of Tamar and Perez, Ruth
(12:45):
and Obed are all listed in thegenealogy of our Lord and Savior
Jesus.
Out of our mess God bringsredemption.
Unfortunately in our culture,the evils of incest,
prostitution, rape, and abuseare all too well known.
In their wake are left women,men, and children who are broken
(13:07):
and in need of many differentkinds of care.
You might be one or you mightknow someone who is a victim of
sexual abuse.
The stories we read in God'sWord reveal the redemptive
nature of God and his farreaching love towards humanity.
You might feel alone andabandoned, mistreated and
(13:28):
abused, hopeless and lost, butGod has a plan to bring good
from all the evil that you haveexperienced.
Even when it's our own sin thatbrings evil consequences upon
us like Lot's daughters, Goddoesn't leave us without
recourse.
His Son Jesus Christ has comeinto the world to forgive our
(13:49):
sin and to restore and rebuildour lives and give us hope and
inner peace.
Well, I really love connectingthe dots in Scripture through
the stories of the lives of realpeople.
I'm always amazed that some ofthe people that call the Bible
irrelevant as though it doesn'tcontain the facts of life and
human evil in exactly the sameways that we experience them
(14:13):
ourselves four thousand yearslater.
The human condition doesn'tchange, but thankfully neither
does God's faithfulness towardsus.
There are many sins that callfor the heavy hand of judgment
from God, but only when the fullweight of judgment is our
potential penalty is the full,free gift of mercy necessary.
(14:35):
Thanks be to God for hismarvelous love!
And now let's take a quickbreak to put a bookmark in the
book of Ruth so you can go backand read it again.
And then come back and hearabout Baby Chris's week 36,
Development in the Womb.
Announcer (14:53):
Viable is a heartwarming, triumphant play of
a mother burdened with secretshame, sorrow, and
self-condemnation for 30 yearsbecause she chose abortion as a
teenager until she experiencesthe healing, renewing, and
restorative love of Jesus Christin a most unexpected and
unusual way.
Presented by a five-memberensemble cast, Viable leads the
(15:16):
audience through a journey ofhealing and restoration for
post-abortive women and menthrough the love of Jesus
Christ.
Viable is endorsed by theNational Right to Life
Committee.
You can find out how to presentViable to your church or
pro-life group atViablePlay.org.
Host (15:43):
This devotional matches up really well with our lesson
about Lot's daughters and Tamarand Ruth, the women whose
children were born among thethorns of life.
Hear the word of the Lord.
"When these things begin tohappen, look up, be watchful,
for your redemption draws near."Luke 21:28.
(16:06):
Thanks be to God.
At thirty six weeks, baby Chrisis starting to feel the squeeze
as he crowds the uterus.
He's probably turned with hishead in a downward position,
lower in the pelvis, which atthis stage is ideal for a
vaginal delivery.
This position is calledlightening or dropping.
(16:29):
There is just one more weekuntil he is considered full term
and ready to be born at anytime.
As his due date comes closer,his mother's prelabor or Braxton
Hicks contractions can getstronger and can be mistaken for
true labor.
One of the most importantdifferences between Braxton
(16:50):
Hicks and true laborcontractions is timing.
During true labor, contractionscome at regular intervals and
occur closer and closertogether.
Braxton Hicks contractions,though, come at irregular
intervals and can sometimes berelieved by moving around or
changing positions.
(17:10):
Still, now is the time to packfor the hospital.
Many Bible commentators havepuzzled over God's declarations
in Genesis 3 that Eve and herdescendants would experience
increased pain in childbearing.
After Adam and Eve disobeyedGod's sole command, the serpent
(17:31):
was cursed to crawl on his bellyand eat dust, and the earth
itself was cursed with thornsand thistles.
Adam and Eve, however, were notthemselves cursed.
Eve did not suffer punishmentbecause she bore responsibility,
instead she suffered theconsequences of her sin.
And Adam was punished "becauseyou have listened to the voice
(17:54):
of your wife instead of to thevoice of God."
As a result, Eve and all womenwho came after would suffer an
increase of pain andchildbearing in order to bring
forth the fruit of the womb, andAdam would suffer and toil with
the sweat of his brow as heworked the uncooperative land in
order to bring forth the fruitof the earth.
(18:18):
The Hebrew language has no wordfor pain.
The word used instead issorrow, having the multiple
meaning of pain, grief, labor,or sorrow.
The same word is used in bothverses sixteen and seventeen and
has been traditionallytranslated as pain in Eve's
(18:38):
case, and toil or labor inAdam's case.
But what if we were to addsorrow and grief to both verses?
Would men and women be grievedand sorrowful as they both
labored?
Ray Steadman suggests that thepain, grief, labor, and sorrow
that the human race suffers inbringing forth fruit outside the
(19:00):
garden is the discipline ofgrace, and he compares it to
Jacob's limp that we read aboutin Genesis 32;25, and the thorn
in Paul's sidein 2 Corinthians 12:7.
These lingering disciplines aremeant to be daily reminders of
(19:22):
what we have lost.
There is no escape from thesorrow and grief of death, pain,
and never ending labor, and wecannot go it alone.
We need the Lord.
Our actions curse the worldwith thistles and thorns, and
the prick of the thorn of thediscipline of grace is our
common experience.
(19:43):
As roses laboriously cultivatedalso have thorns.
Our children are born asblessings in the midst of the
briar patch of a pain thatcannot be escaped, but which we
are promised will be forgottenin the joy of new life.
As we enter the season ofAdvent, we might ponder its
(20:04):
focus on our sorrow as theBraxton Hicks contractions that
precede the real thing that weanxiously await, the fulfillment
of the promise that willdeliver us from our inheritance
of pain, sorrow, grief, andlabor.
Hear the word of the Lord.
"For we know that the wholecreation groans and suffers the
(20:28):
pains of childbirth togetheruntil now.' Romans 8:32
Thanks be to God.
Announcer (20:40):
We hope you enjoyed this week's reflection.
We encourage you to share itand join us next time on Pro
Life Kitchen Table.
May God bless you.
Just a note before we begin this week's podcast, you
should know we're going to talkabout the lives of women who
have experienced some serioussexual sin.
So if you need to listen to iton your AirPods or hustle your
kids into some other room, takea pause and do that before
listening further.
(00:37):
Welcome back to the ProLifeKitchen Table where we are
loaded up for Thanksgiving! Myname is Deborah Hollifield, and
while my turkey is defrosting,we're going to learn a little
bit more about how the accountsof the pregnant women in the
Bible teach us about the neverchanging attributes of God, the
things that we can be thankfulfor throughout our lives,
(00:58):
especially that God is merciful,even when we have no one else,
when we have been wronged, andwhen we need His help.
This week we will focus on thebeloved story of Ruth.
Even if you're not familiarwith the Old Testament, you may
have heard this verse from Ruthread at weddings.
It goes (01:19):
"...
for where you go I will go, andwhere you lodge I will lodge.
Your people shall be my people,and your God my God.
Where you die I will die, andthere I will be buried."
Ruth has a whole book namedafter her.
It's quite short, and youshould definitely read it after
(01:41):
you listen to this podcastbecause it is a great story.
Like our story of Samson'smother from last week, this
story is also set during thetimes of the Judges of Israel.
In this lesson we're going tolook at the pregnancy stories of
two other women along withRuth, who are part of a common
thread of pregnancies resultingfrom relationships gone wrong.
(02:05):
In all three stories the womenare widows, yet their responses
to hardship could not be moredifferent.
These are not warm andcomfortable stories.
These are women wrestling withterrible circumstances of grief,
loss, neglect, and injustice.
They must have found itdifficult to see what God was
(02:27):
doing in and through thecircumstances of their lives.
Yet when we look back on theirstories from our century, we are
amazed at how God's plan ofredemption comes through to us
through them.
I ask you to pay a bit ofattention to the history leading
up to the story of Ruth and thewomen who were setting the
(02:48):
stage for what happened to Ruth.
We have to go back beforeAbraham and our lesson on Hagar.
During Abraham's long journey,his nephew Lot settled near the
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah,which Genesis tells us were
filled with wicked men.
There came a time when Goddetermined to destroy those
(03:09):
cities for their wickedness, andGod sent two angels to warn Lot
to get out before thathappened.
Lot told his two sons-in-law,his daughters' husbands, about
the coming judgment, and theythought it was a joke.
When Lot hesitated to leave thecity without his family, the
(03:29):
angels grabbed the hands of Lot,his wife, and his daughters,
and led them out, for the Lordwas merciful to them.
These were all who escaped,because remember Lot's
daughter's husbands didn'tbelieve his warning.
The angels instructed them toflee and not to look back.
But Lot's wife did look back,and she became a pillar of salt.
(03:53):
That's Genesis chapter 19,verse 26.
Genesis 19 goes on to tell thesad story of Lot's two
daughters.
Lot is grieving his wife, hisdaughters have lost their
mother, and they have also losthope that they will ever find
husbands.
This emotional chaos leads oneof the daughters to speak to her
(04:17):
sister, saying, "There is noman here to lie with us, as is
the custom all over the earth."And so both of Lot's daughters
became pregnant by their father.
These days social media is fullof sad posts from both men and
women who are single and who areexpressing their hopelessness
(04:38):
about finding a spouse andhaving children.
This is true of not only peopleof no faith, but also a lot of
Christians.
It's not as though the worldhas had all the eligible single
people die off, but it can feelthat way.
When people believe that allthat lies before them is
(04:59):
singleness and loneliness, manyof them will turn to casual sex
and dating apps like Tinder, inthe false hope that mimicking a
marriage bed will lead tomarriage.
But still, resorting to incestin order to have children
remains rare, and anyone who hasexperienced the sin of incest
(05:20):
has known a particularly cruelkind of sexual abuse.
Both of Lot's daughters boresons, one of whom they named
Moab, meaning from father, andthe other was named Ben Ami,
meaning son of my people.
Moab grew to become the fatherof a people called the Moabites,
(05:43):
while Ben Ami became theancestor of a tribe known as the
Ammonites.
In later years theirdescendants brought constant
trouble and war between theMoabites, Ammonites, and Israel,
and relationships with them,including intermarriage, would
lead Israel into worship offalse gods.
Yet a time is coming when Godwill show his redemption through
(06:06):
a Moabite woman.
In the meantime, there's anotherconvoluted story about a woman
named Tamar, whose story isrecorded in Genesis chapter
thirty eight.
Tamar was married to a mannamed Er (E R) Er, who was the
grandson of Jacob and Leahthrough their son Judah.
(06:29):
The scripture says that Tamar'shusband was wicked, so the Lord
put him to death.
In the tradition of the day,Judah, Tamar's father in law,
instructed his second son Onanto lie with Tamar and then
provide an heir for his deadbrother.
This sounds perverse to us inthe twenty first century, but it
(06:51):
was a social norm at the time,so that the family name and
property could be preserved.
Onan, however, wanted no partin fathering an offspring for
his dead brother, because thatwould cause him to have to share
his inheritance.
For his unwillingness topreserve his brother's
inheritance, God puts him todeath as well.
(07:13):
Their father Judah, not wantingto jeopardize his remaining son
Shelah, suggested that Tamarshould live in her own father's
house as a widowuntil Shelah grows up.
But when Shelah reaches the ageto marry, Judah makes no move
to give Tamar to him as a wife.
We've seen in previous lessonshow childless women in this
(07:36):
culture have done desperatethings to take matters into
their own hands.
This time Tamar hatches a planto deceive Judah by pretending
to be a prostitute and trickinghim into sleeping with her.
She sits beside a well traveledroad wearing a veil, and when
Judah comes by, she offersherself to him as a prostitute.
(07:59):
Judah doesn't recognize her, sohe lies with her.
But then he doesn't have anymoney to pay her.
Tamar takes some personal itemsfrom him as pledges for
payment, and then goes back homeand resumes her life as a
widow.
Later, Judah sends her friendback to where he met the
(08:19):
supposed prostitute with themoney to pay and get his things
back, but Tamar has alreadygone.
It turns out that Tamar hasconceived, and after a few
months go by and her pregnancybegins to show, this widow is
predictably accused ofprostitution.
Judah pronounces judgmentagainst her and sends a message
(08:41):
to bring her out and have herburned to death.
But Tamar sends back themessage that "I am pregnant by
the man who owns these." Andwith her message she sends back
a seal, a cord, and a staff thatbelonged to Judah, which were
the items that she had taken inpledge.
Judah immediately understandsthat he has wronged Tamar by not
(09:05):
giving her as a wife to hisyoungest son, and relents of his
judgment, and eventually Tamargives birth to twins, whom she
names Zara and Perez.
Imagine the gossip that musthave surrounded this chain of
events.
Well now we fast forward toarrive at Ruth.
A woman from Moab.
(09:27):
Remember, Moab is a nation bornof the incest of Lot and his
daughters.
A woman from Moab named Ruthmarries a man descended from
Perez, the son of Tamar, bornin scandal, who is named Boaz.
The story of the marriage ofRuth and Boaz will become one of
the great romance stories ofthe Bible.
(09:50):
But Ruth has a history beforeshe meets Boaz, and part of that
story is that Ruth has beenleft a widow herself.
The way that transpired is thatmany years before there had
been a famine in the city ofBethlehem.
A man whose name is Elimelechtook his wife, whose name was
(10:10):
Naomi, along with his sons,Mahlon and Killian, to Moab to
find food there.
But while they lived in Moab,Elimelech dies, leaving Naomi a
widow.
The young men Mahlon andKillian then marry two Moabite
women, one of whom is Ruth.
After living in Moab ten moreyears, both of the sons also
(10:34):
die.
The widowed Naomi now has twowidowed daughters-in-law living
with her, and so she decides toreturn to Bethlehem.
She urges her daughters-in-lawto stay behind in their native
Moab and find other husbands.
One daughter-in-law does staybehind, but Ruth loves Naomi and
refuses to turn back and sogoes with her to Bethlehem.
(10:58):
The book of Ruth is a wonderfulromantic story about how God
provides a husband for Ruth, aMoabite, in the land of Israel.
Naomi and Ruth have no othermeans of support, and so Ruth
goes gleaning for some grain ina field, and while she is
working, she meets a remarkablykind landowner whose name is
(11:19):
Boaz, who makes certain she issafe and able to gather an
abundance of grain.
Ruth relates this kindness thatBoaz has shown to her, and
during the telling of it, Naomirealizes that this Boaz is a
relative of hers and is one ofthe men who can redeem the
family land by marrying Ruth.
(11:41):
To accomplish this, Naomiorchestrates a plan that Ruth
carries out with some success,and Boaz and Ruth are married.
Ruth at last has a son withBoaz, who is named Obed, which
means servant of the Lord.
So that was kind of a long wayof getting to the point of how
(12:01):
God redeems the circumstances ofthese abused and widowed women
from enemy tribes by giving themthe children who will fulfill
the promise of bringingsalvation to Israel through the
Messiah Jesus Christ.
It's another story that showshow everybody from every
generation matters in thekingdom of God to accomplish
(12:22):
God's plans for the world.
Well, finally, in the book ofRuth, chapter four, we learn
that in just two moregenerations, King David of
Israel will also be born ofObed's descendants.
And if you read chapter one ofthe New Testament book of
Matthew, you will also see thenames of Tamar and Perez, Ruth
(12:45):
and Obed are all listed in thegenealogy of our Lord and Savior
Jesus.
Out of our mess God bringsredemption.
Unfortunately in our culture,the evils of incest,
prostitution, rape, and abuseare all too well known.
In their wake are left women,men, and children who are broken
(13:07):
and in need of many differentkinds of care.
You might be one or you mightknow someone who is a victim of
sexual abuse.
The stories we read in God'sWord reveal the redemptive
nature of God and his farreaching love towards humanity.
You might feel alone andabandoned, mistreated and
(13:28):
abused, hopeless and lost, butGod has a plan to bring good
from all the evil that you haveexperienced.
Even when it's our own sin thatbrings evil consequences upon
us like Lot's daughters, Goddoesn't leave us without
recourse.
His Son Jesus Christ has comeinto the world to forgive our
(13:49):
sin and to restore and rebuildour lives and give us hope and
inner peace.
Well, I really love connectingthe dots in Scripture through
the stories of the lives of realpeople.
I'm always amazed that some ofthe people that call the Bible
irrelevant as though it doesn'tcontain the facts of life and
human evil in exactly the sameways that we experience them
(14:13):
ourselves four thousand yearslater.
The human condition doesn'tchange, but thankfully neither
does God's faithfulness towardsus.
There are many sins that callfor the heavy hand of judgment
from God, but only when the fullweight of judgment is our
potential penalty is the full,free gift of mercy necessary.
(14:35):
Thanks be to God for hismarvelous love!
And now let's take a quickbreak to put a bookmark in the
book of Ruth so you can go backand read it again.
And then come back and hearabout Baby Chris's week 36,
Development in the Womb.
Announcer (14:53):
Viable is a heartwarming, triumphant play of
a mother burdened with secretshame, sorrow, and
self-condemnation for 30 yearsbecause she chose abortion as a
teenager until she experiencesthe healing, renewing, and
restorative love of Jesus Christin a most unexpected and
unusual way.
Presented by a five-memberensemble cast, Viable leads the
(15:16):
audience through a journey ofhealing and restoration for
post-abortive women and menthrough the love of Jesus
Christ.
Viable is endorsed by theNational Right to Life
Committee.
You can find out how to presentViable to your church or
pro-life group atViablePlay.org.
Host (15:43):
This devotional matches up really well with our lesson
about Lot's daughters and Tamarand Ruth, the women whose
children were born among thethorns of life.
Hear the word of the Lord.
"When these things begin tohappen, look up, be watchful,
for your redemption draws near."Luke 21:28.
(16:06):
Thanks be to God.
At thirty six weeks, baby Chrisis starting to feel the squeeze
as he crowds the uterus.
He's probably turned with hishead in a downward position,
lower in the pelvis, which atthis stage is ideal for a
vaginal delivery.
This position is calledlightening or dropping.
(16:29):
There is just one more weekuntil he is considered full term
and ready to be born at anytime.
As his due date comes closer,his mother's prelabor or Braxton
Hicks contractions can getstronger and can be mistaken for
true labor.
One of the most importantdifferences between Braxton
(16:50):
Hicks and true laborcontractions is timing.
During true labor, contractionscome at regular intervals and
occur closer and closertogether.
Braxton Hicks contractions,though, come at irregular
intervals and can sometimes berelieved by moving around or
changing positions.
(17:10):
Still, now is the time to packfor the hospital.
Many Bible commentators havepuzzled over God's declarations
in Genesis 3 that Eve and herdescendants would experience
increased pain in childbearing.
After Adam and Eve disobeyedGod's sole command, the serpent
(17:31):
was cursed to crawl on his bellyand eat dust, and the earth
itself was cursed with thornsand thistles.
Adam and Eve, however, were notthemselves cursed.
Eve did not suffer punishmentbecause she bore responsibility,
instead she suffered theconsequences of her sin.
And Adam was punished "becauseyou have listened to the voice
(17:54):
of your wife instead of to thevoice of God."
As a result, Eve and all womenwho came after would suffer an
increase of pain andchildbearing in order to bring
forth the fruit of the womb, andAdam would suffer and toil with
the sweat of his brow as heworked the uncooperative land in
order to bring forth the fruitof the earth.
(18:18):
The Hebrew language has no wordfor pain.
The word used instead issorrow, having the multiple
meaning of pain, grief, labor,or sorrow.
The same word is used in bothverses sixteen and seventeen and
has been traditionallytranslated as pain in Eve's
(18:38):
case, and toil or labor inAdam's case.
But what if we were to addsorrow and grief to both verses?
Would men and women be grievedand sorrowful as they both
labored?
Ray Steadman suggests that thepain, grief, labor, and sorrow
that the human race suffers inbringing forth fruit outside the
(19:00):
garden is the discipline ofgrace, and he compares it to
Jacob's limp that we read aboutin Genesis 32;25, and the thorn
in Paul's sidein 2 Corinthians 12:7.
These lingering disciplines aremeant to be daily reminders of
(19:22):
what we have lost.
There is no escape from thesorrow and grief of death, pain,
and never ending labor, and wecannot go it alone.
We need the Lord.
Our actions curse the worldwith thistles and thorns, and
the prick of the thorn of thediscipline of grace is our
common experience.
(19:43):
As roses laboriously cultivatedalso have thorns.
Our children are born asblessings in the midst of the
briar patch of a pain thatcannot be escaped, but which we
are promised will be forgottenin the joy of new life.
As we enter the season ofAdvent, we might ponder its
(20:04):
focus on our sorrow as theBraxton Hicks contractions that
precede the real thing that weanxiously await, the fulfillment
of the promise that willdeliver us from our inheritance
of pain, sorrow, grief, andlabor.
Hear the word of the Lord.
"For we know that the wholecreation groans and suffers the
(20:28):
pains of childbirth togetheruntil now.' Romans 8:32
Thanks be to God.
Announcer (20:40):
We hope you enjoyed this week's reflection.
We encourage you to share itand join us next time on Pro
Life Kitchen Table.
May God bless you.
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