I’ve already done my Forum on Joshua, but this is how I memorized their placement in the Bible: Joshua Judges Ruth. I think it is so interesting that the Lord used Joshua to deliver the Israelite people but once he died, it was every man for himself. Instead of a Godly Leader, the next course of action was the Judges of Israel. And, my goodness, did these people ever need judging!! According to Judges 4:1, 6:1, 10:6, and 13:1, they just could not stop doing evil in the sight of the Lord! So they were in a constant cycle . . . they sinned, they suffered, they cried out to the Lord, and He would raise up a deliverer. Over and over again. Lest we judge the Israelite people, however, through history I do not see that much has changed. God knew that humankind has a short – a very short – memory. One generation was all it took to wipe out their collective memory card and forget God. We should learn from history and be very diligent to teach our children about the Lord, lest they forget. This does not mean they will not “do evil in the sight of the Lord,” but it could give them a better chance.
Once Judges closes, the curtain of time is pulled back to yet another deliverer, Boaz, in the book of Ruth. Such a beautiful love story, reflective of God’s love for us (our Kinsman Redeemer-the Central Message of this book). Ruth and Orpah, Naomi’s daughter-in-laws, lost their husbands as had Naomi. Naomi was done with Moab and decided to return to her home: the land of Judah. Orpah stayed in Moab but Ruth begged Naomi to take her. “Where you go, I will go. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God.” Ruth’s display of loyalty to choose to love and serve her mother-in-law brought her into a foreign land to be the poorest of the poor, gleaning in the fields of Boaz after the gleaners had taken the best. Because Boaz was her kinsmen and fell in love with her, he saved her and Naomi from a harsh life of poverty, redeeming Ruth from his own kinsmen, and protected them. This is what Jesus has done for us. Only, Jesus gave everything, His very life, blood and all.
