“Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Issac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.”
Romans 9: 4–8
The great-grandmother of David, Ruth, was not of Israel, but of an ungodly people of the neighboring kingdom of Moab, yet the Holy Spirit of God, the Christ of God; his Sun, was with Ruth, whom had faith in the God of Naomi of Bethlehem-Ephrata of Judah, insomuch that she forsook Moab and its ways, seeing truth and life in Naomi and in her people, the Israelites, whom at their best, lived according to the love of God, trusting in his protection, benevolence, and blessings, whereas Ruth declared to Naomi, her widowed and bereaved mother-in-law, that where she lived and died, Ruth would also, and whom were her people, would be Ruth’s also. God memorializing Ruth and Naomi, even the lineage of David, exemplifying the promise of God unto the true Israelites, those that be of the promise; that is, those having faith in God, and not in their works, nor in their earthly lineage, nor in material wealth, but through the grace of God. Therefore, righteousness was accounted unto Ruth and Naomi.
The Holy Spirit foreseeing God would justify a great multitude, tells the reader of the Word, “In Issac shall thy seed be called.” Yea, Issac was the son of the promise of God to Abraham; God having fulfilled that promise in Abraham’s old age; and Abraham, himself, having believed God at his word, was found acceptable unto the Lord as being righteous, and that not of himself through his own works, but through the grace of God, the righteousness of God in him. Wherefore, the Holy Spirit cannot be restrained by the will of any, or through the crafty work of some, nor can it be begotten through earthly lineage (John Chapter 1:13–14), but it is the work of God, whom is a living Spirit, and beside him there is no God, nor is there any power, dominion, or principality is above God, or that can undo the work of the Lord.
Ruth having not attained unto righteousness through her love of Naomi, nor her mental sagacity that a better future was with the Israelites of that day, but God, having set his Christ Sun in Ruth, caused her to be a living soul with the Holy Spirit, yea, having mercy on Ruth, set his Light in her, and Ruth therefore, clave unto Naomi, whereas Orpah, her sister-in-law returned unto Moab. David himself, ascribing through the psalms unto God and the people, to not trust in themselves, but to love God as he has called us to love him, and the importance of intreating the Lord as foremost needful in the life of those who proclaim God Almighty as the Creator of heaven and earth, and the Shepard of our souls; this David, in whom was the spirit of supplication unto God, the spirit of thanksgiving unto God, and the diligent declaration of such great love unto the Lord; implored the people of his time to lean no upon their own works, nor their understandings, nor their wealth as having any form of salvation, but to seek the strength of God that they might have faith in his promises.
To them whose speech and language has been washed and made pure once through the work of the sanctification of God belongs not only the promise of an immortal inheritance with God in them, but his gracious work in blessing them with an abundance of the living spirit that in this life, perceiving that they lack nothing of those things of God needed to be fruitful in the spirit unto all in good works, work the work of God, in all lowliness and holy meekness after the pattern of Jesus Christ our Lord. Seeking justice, and bringing down ungodly strongholds, proclaiming the liberty of God from bondage unto this world; from being driven desolately into the attainment of material wealth against the day of mortal death, that our season on this earth may be prolonged further with temporal comfort, whereas we are led to vainly toil in the fire of vanity, with no reward unto our soul, with no divine peace unto our life; each day bringing and demanding the earthly necessity of food, drink, and shelter; that we be clothed, whereas, being ignorant of the grace of God through the reading of his Word, we arrive at the end of our life with desolate hearts and with feeble minds, rather than strong in spirit, brimming with that lowly lightness that is the righteous inheritance of being the sons and daughters of God through our faith in the strength of the Spirit of His Word.
Ruth, whom the Lord was merciful with, having found God, despaired not at the poverty of her temporal situation once arriving upon the fields of the man Boaz, a picture of our merciful, gracious, and kind Lord God, whereupon she gleaned barley from the edges of his field; but having found grace in the eyes of Boaz, worked peacefully and quietly with a spirit of hope showing the grace of faith that she would continue to find the mercy of God, whom ruleth over all hearts and minds. Her great-grandson, David, also calling into remembrance through his psalms and the record of his life as we learn of it through the scripture, that the favor of God is not given because of a goodly earthly heritage, or because we have been raised in great homes, but through the intreating of God, that God be in us; such prayer being the work of the gift of faith within us. Having found such faith, does not the Spirit move us to read the Words of God? or shall we beguile ourselves that we have faith without accepting God at his Word? Our faith in God, not in seeing aside, or doing ‘away with’ the Word, as if it was written by men, but having faith in God’s power that his Word is pure, and if we believe this, then are we not the children of the promise? How shall we order our speech and prove unto god and ourselves soundness of mind and heart, without the pure knowledge of God through his Word? Shall we scoff at the reading of the Word as archaic and of no effect, or will we accept Jesus as The Word of God; yea, the Word and Spirit in the flesh, and the fulfillment of the perfect liberty of God as Christ? Shall we estrange ourselves from the reading of our holy family because their names are foreign to our tongue, and God’s acceptance of them as of nothing to us? God, having set the stumbling stone before all, even calling his only begotten Sun, Jesus, the Word of God and the Spirit of God, that upon those who refuse the precious Lord to be set in the throne of the temple within each, upon such, the stumbling stone pulverizes, but upon those who spiritually stumble upon it, upon these elect, broken hearts and contrite spirits, if so be that their may be hope of salvation unto them, even them who believe on God and his promises, and commandments, and in all the things the Lord calls us to do and be, through his Word; that the graciousness of the Spirit of God be fervent in us as it was in Ruth and Naomi, in Boaz, and in David.
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