In Word AND Deed

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me!” This is maybe one of the biggest lies we ever told as kids. Because words have power, and a lot of it. Proverbs 18:21 says, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Words hold so much power that we must take great care over what comes out of our mouths. Words can wound, heal, destroy, build up, lead people astray or help them find truth. Especially in today’s world, there is so much false teaching and incorrect theology floating around we must choose our words wisely. What we say about Jesus and the gospel and the bible and the church matters!

I’m sure you’ve also heard the phrase, “you’re actions speak louder than words,” and I can’t think of a situation where that isn’t true. If you treat someone in a way that is contradictory to what you tell them, they are going to believe your actions over your words. If our actions and words do not match, then people will have to pick which one to believe. If we do not live our lives according to what we say we believe, then it is hard for people to believe that we actually believe what we say. Which begs the question, “If we don’t believe what we say, then why should they?” Imagine the impact the gospel would have on the world if people didn’t have to pick to believe our words or our actions but they were one in the same.

Have you ever read through any of the genealogies in the bible? There are multiple places you can find them in the Old Testament and they are pretty tempting to skim through. Depending on what you are studying though, they can hold a lot of importance in helping you understand what is going on. They are always there for a reason, even if that reason doesn’t apply to you at the time. I wanted to look at one particular passage of genealogies today, found in the New Testament. This is how the New Testament starts, Matthew 1:1, “This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

Matthew then goes through all the generations, separating them out in verse 17, “Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.”

I’ve read this passage more times than I could number for you. It’s very easy to skim through and thank Matthew for clarifying the timeline and move on in the story where angels start showing up and miracles start happening. But there is a few verses that caught my attention one day and got me thinking. Verses 5&6, “Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.”

I was taken back by how close all these names were to each other in this listing of the generations. Let’s take a quick historical overview.

When God tells Joshua that it is time to enter the promise land, he sends two spies into Jericho to gather information. Some guards get suspicious and the spies need a place to hide. A woman named Rahab hides them and helps them escape. When the Israelites come back to march around Jericho and the walls fall down, Rahab survives, submits her life to Yahweh and is grafted into the Nation of Israel. According to Matthew, she marries a man named Salmon, has a son and names him Boaz.

This stuck out to me because the law of Moses, in Deuteronomy, was clear that the Israelites were not to intermarry with other nations. Chapter 7 goes on to talk about how Israel is a chosen nation, special to the Lord because of the promises He made to her ancestors. It tells Israel to separate themselves and not fall into the life style that the nations around them live. It calls them to be set apart.

Now you can see by the time that Jesus arrives on the scene, the religious leaders have taken these laws given through Moses and run with them. They used the Lord’s calling to be set apart as a way to elevate their worth. They used these laws to defend their beliefs that they were superior to all other nations. They found pride in how extremely set apart they could be, no matter who they hurt or rejected in the process. They would have NEVER married someone who wasn’t born Israeli.

But the heart of the law wasn’t that Israel was better than everyone else, in fact, God says that He didn’t choose them because of their worth. Instead, He chose them based on His love for their ancestors and to fulfill the promises He made. They were to be set apart because of who loved them , not because of how important they were. God wanted their whole hearts, and in order to keep them focused on Him, they couldn’t let the beliefs or traditions of other nations infiltrate their relationship with Him. He knew that if they started connecting their families with those of other nations through marriage, their hearts would be led astray.

Once Rahab gives her life to the worship of Yahweh, her birth place and history no longer define her. She is a child of God.

So Salmon is not living in opposition to the law by marrying her but is actually living out the true heart of the law. It seems that Salmon understands the heart behind the law. The law is against tying your heart to someone who does not follow Yahweh, not rejecting someone just because they were born outside of a certain boundary line.

Then Salmon and Rahab have a son and name him Boaz. One day, after he is grown, Boaz becomes aware that some of his relatives are in trouble, two women, Naomi and Ruth. Naomi is Jewish, Ruth is not. However, Ruth has committed her life to following both Naomi and her God, Yahweh. Ruth had married an Israeli man before, one of Naomi’s sons. Ruth’s husband dies and when she pledges her allegiance to Naomi and her God over her own family and people, the Lord grafts her into the Nation of Israel also. Boaz knows first hand how the Lord takes care of the outcast because his own mother was adopted into the family based on her desire to honor and love Yahweh.

So we see Salmon living a life where his actions support his beliefs. He believes that Yahweh has a heart for all people, not just those born into a certain nation. He knows that God loves and forgives those who trust Him and look to Him for salvation, no matter their past mistakes. He understands that birth place is not a factor here, but instead, a heart that seeks Yahweh.

Immediately we see the impact this makes on the next generation as Boaz marries Ruth, saving both her and Naomi. Boaz recognizes Ruth’s devotion to Naomi and how that has lead her to Yahweh. He welcomes Ruth into the family just as Yahweh does, living out the heart of the gospel.

Time passes and just a few generations later, David, a man after God’s own heart, becomes King of Israel. David has seen first hand how the heart of the law is lived out in front of him. He has been raised by generations of people who have a deep love for Yahweh. Some have welcomed in foreigners to their families, possibly facing ridicule from their neighbors. Others have left everything they know and everyone they loved in order to worship the One True God.

When we use our words to preach the good news of God’s great, passionate love for us and then follow that with a great and passionate love for others, we unleash a power that can resonate through generations. We have to start asking ourselves if our lives prove what we sing and say on a Sunday morning. If we sing that we will not be afraid, then why do we live in fear? If we sing that we surrender all to Jesus, why do we hold onto our possessions, pride, popularity or rights?

If you want to find a real joy, a true freedom and fulfillment, then your life must prove that you believe what you say with your actions. Your actions are not what saves you, but living out what you say you believe is what fulfills you, it’s what brings abundant joy to your life. Our words are not enough to change the world or our lives, they must be followed up by our actions.

I plan to spend the next few weeks looking at different things we say or sing on a Sunday morning and exploring how our lives might look if we lived them as true. If there’s some place you have noticed an inconsistency, please share in the comments and we can explore that together.

Your Fellow Traveler

Lacey