Chapter 3: The Final Turning Point In chapter 2 Samuel gives the account of Boaz and Ruth’s first meeting. In chapter 3 the reader discovers the couple’s second meeting, the most pivotal circumstance of the whole story. Like the meeting in chapter 2, this is not a mere chance encounter; this meeting is divinely arranged. […]
The Levirate Laws The book of Ruth is one of the places in the Bible where the levirate laws find their fullest expression. In fact, readers can see the levirate laws in action throughout the whole story. Ruth’s story, however, has so many interesting twists and turns that readers really need to view her story […]
Perhaps you have heard of a heart-warming story about a family so deeply in debt that it would never be able to pay its way out. Then out of nowhere a philanthropist comes along, pays the debt, and delivers them in a way that they could have never delivered themselves. There is a very popular […]
The story of Ruth concludes with a genealogy—but why? “Why end this beautiful story with a family tree, a piece of dusty historical information about long-dead people?”1 Samuel moves the reader from famine to harvest, from faithlessness to faithfulness, from widowhood to marriage, from barrenness to fruitfulness, and ultimately from death to life. In this […]
Introduction Imagine . . . morning in New York on a late summer day. Your husband Bob is ready to walk out the door to catch the train into Manhattan. Just before he does, you confront him about the light switch he promised to fix over the weekend but didn’t. Again. You exchange cross words. […]
This is the first in a series of articles planned to introduce the readership of The Outlook to resources on the web that can be helpful to Reformed Christians. Whether you are a web guru or relatively new to the digital world, I hope you will benefit from these reviews of websites and blogs that […]
“For you have not passed this way before.” — Joshua 3:4b Only the swollen rivers of the Jordan River separated the children of Israel from the Promised Land. After forty years of wandering in the desert, they were ready to cross over into Canaan, only to have their plans frustrated by a flooded river. So […]
From the General Manager Dear Readers: The Lord has continued to bless the work of Reformed Fellowship in 2009. We have published The Outlook for fifty-nine years and counting. In 2009, we also published the book, In Living Color: Images of Christ and the Means of Grace, by Rev. Daniel Hyde. This brings to […]
In one of Paul’s earliest letters, he expresses the cry of his own heart and that of every faithful minister after him: “Brothers, pray for us” (1 Thessalonians 5:25). In this verse, he desires that the congregation in Thessalonica will continually pray for those who minister God’s word to them. Pray on our behalf! Paul […]
“My prayer is . . . that all of them may be one” (John 17:20, 21). In these few words of Christ we catch a glimpse of God’s ideal for church unity. Does the church share His view? Shortly after Jesus uttered these words to His Father, one of His “friends” betrayed Him, another disowned […]