A Story of Lost and Found

The truth is that we cannot find ourselves. The reason so many of us feel disconnected from God and others is that we are trying to find ourselves. But we can't. The reality is that only God can find us. In fact, in Jesus Christ, God has taken the ultimate step to find His lost people. Have you been found?

This devotional contains the story of LIFE. The story of life simply put is that we are lost and can't find ourselves. But God can. Centuries before Jesus was born, God was at work to “find” His people. This devotional looks at the Old Testament individuals that God found. All of them together lead directly to Jesus Christ. Now in Jesus God's people have been found. That's something to celebrate!

    Joshua 2:1-14

Sunday, December 5th

The Wrong Crowd

       “…whose mother was Rahab .”          

By the time Matthew mentions Rahab, the second woman in Jesus' genealogy, we have been through more than 400 years of history since Tamar.   The 12 sons of Jacob have grown into the Israelites nation.   God has delivered them from centuries of slavery in Egypt, lead them in the wilderness with Moses at the helm, and now is ready to bring them into the land promised to Abraham so many years ago.  

There's just one problem.   Rahab and her people already dwell in the land that God has promised to his people.   That's right, Rahab is the enemy.   Rahab is a pagan.   She dwells right in the impenetrable wall of Jericho.   Oh yeah, one more thing: she's a prostitute.  

How does Rahab end up in Jesus genealogy?   Somehow, inexplicably she sides with the rag-tag Israelite nation against her own people.   She harbors the foreign spies, lying to her own city's soldiers to protect the spies.   She has heard the great stories of how the God of Israel has been with his people.   Somehow, while her fellow townspeople are simply filled with fear and ready to fight, she is filled with faith ready to believe.   She confesses “The Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.”   Because of her faith and protection of the spies, she is spared when the city is destroyed.

Rahab reminds us that God's finding energy is always directed at all the nations in his world.   He doesn't find just Israelites.   He doesn't find just people like us.   He finds his people wherever they are, even in houses of ill-repute and in the walls of foreign fortresses.    

Not only is Rahab and her family spared, but she also becomes the great, great grandmother of David, and as they say, the rest is history.   Man, who is God going to find next?  

Ruth 1:1-18

Monday, December 6

King David's Great Grandpa

         “…whose mother was Ruth ”        

One of the richest themes in the Bible is the theme of great sorrow turned to great joy.   For example, Abraham and Sarah have their sorrow turned to joy with the birth of Isaac.   Likewise, at Christmas time we remember Jesus' forerunner, John the Baptist, who was also born to barren parents.   God is always coming into impossible situations of sorrow and transforming them into powerful happenings of happiness.   This is what happens with Ruth.

From a human perspective nothing has gone right in Ruth's life.   First, as a perfectly respectable Moabite woman, she chooses to marry a foreigner who worships only one God.   Her family couldn't have been happy.   Second, the man dies leaving her a widow.   Third, she leaves her land, her people, and her gods to go to the backwater land of Israel with her mother-in-law, who is also a widow.   Fourth, she is forced to glean whatever is left over from the harvest, just like a common beggar.   Life has not gone well for Ruth.   In fact, her own mother-in-law, Naomi, had urged her to stay in Moab saying, “Why would you come with me?”   Indeed, why would she?

Ruth herself never really answers that question for us.   Instead she makes a remarkable statement of faith.   She says, “Your people will be my people and your God my God.”   Ruth leaves all that she knows behind, her people, her gods and her life.   Why?

Once again we find ourselves left with the unavoidable conclusion that God is at work here.   God the Father has picked a Moabite widow to be in the line of his Son.   As He chose Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and now Ruth, God continues to choose His people.   The gospel of salvation is the good news of lost people being found!

Ruth 2:1-13

Tuesday, December 7

King David's Great Grandpa

“ Boaz was the father of Obed”  

We don't actually know that much about Boaz's life.   By the time we are introduced to him he is already an older, apparently unmarried man, who owns some land.   He clearly has some wealth, and the Bible calls him a “man of standing.”   He is also clearly a God fearing man who greets his workers in the Lord's name.   God has been good to him, but the best is yet to come.  

A widow named Ruth comes into Boaz's life.   Many men would not have necessarily considered this a blessing.   After all, Ruth is a foreigner from the despised people of Moab.   Yes, she now lives with her Israelite mother-in-law Naomi, but Naomi is also a widow.   Ruth and Naomi are destitute, dirt poor, completely dependant on the kindness of landowners like Boaz. Worse yet, Boaz is a relative, which means he may have an obligation to care for these women.

But Boaz is kind.   When he is given the opportunity to care for the in-law of a relative, he jumps at the chance.   When he is given the opportunity to marry Ruth he actually thanks her for the opportunity.   Did he know that he would become King David's Great Grandpa and that he would join the line of Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior of the world?   No, he was just receiving the unbelievable blessings of God.   God found him and he responded faithfully.

I Samuel 16:1-10

Wednesday, December 8

Beyond the Surface

“ Jesse the father of King David”

As a father, Jesse must have known this same feeling of pride in his children.   He must have been especially proud as the Prophet Samuel approached his sons to pick a new King for Israel.   Indeed, Samuel was extremely impressed with the young men he saw.   They are tall and handsome in appearance.   Samuel thinks to himself, “Surely the Lord's anointed stands here before the Lord.”   It seems so obvious to Samuel, and one suspects to Jesse as well, that one of the older, bigger, more mature sons will be anointed.   But God has already found another that Samuel has not yet seen and Jesse has left out in the fields.

One by one God says, “no” to the impressive sons of Jesse.   God is not looking at the outward appearance.   He is not looking at the things that we so often look at.   We are impressed by beauty.   We delight in the tinsel and bright lights of Christmas.   We want a well-proportioned tree, with just the right ornaments and expensive presents underneath.   These things impress us, but God is looking deeper and finding more.

God, looking beyond the superficial things of man and woman, finds David.   David leads to Christ.   The question for us this Christmas is, will we look beyond the superficial things of man and woman this Christmas to see that we have been found in Christ?

I Samuel 16:11-13

Thursday, December 9

The Eighth Son

      “ King David …”       

 Seven is the biblical number of perfection.   Jesse had seven sons.   An Israelite with seven sons was considered perfectly blessed by the Lord.   Jesse and his seven sons were perfect.   Except that God did not chose one of the seven to become king.   He wanted the eighth son.

Both Jesse and Samuel are dismayed that God has not chosen one of the perfectly respectable seven oldest sons of Jesse.   But Samuel has the good sense to listen to God.   He knows that God has something else in mind.  

God's eye is drawn towards a little shepherd boy named David.   David is so insignificant in human eyes that he is hardly thought of as a worthy son of Jesse.   He has been left out in the fields while all the other sons are brought before Samuel.    Even when Samuel asks if Jesse has any other sons, David is dismissed by his father as the youngest, the one “tending the sheep.”   Surely God doesn't want the youngest, the eighth, the shepherd boy.   But yes, He does!

Not only does God want David, He turns him into the greatest king Israel ever sees until Christ.   There are many kings in the line of Jesus.   But Matthew only honors David with the title “King” in his list of Jesus' genealogy.   Why does God pick David?   God only knows.  

Does God want you?   Maybe you have limited ability.   Maybe your older sisters called you the ugly duckling.   Maybe your parents left you out back slopping the pigs or mucking the barn whenever the important guests came over.   God doesn't care.   If you believe in His Son Jesus Christ, He has found you.   Do you believe?

2 Samuel 7

Friday, December 10

God's Power!

“ David was the father of Solomon.”   

Do you remember the old “He-Man” cartoons from the 1980's?   He-Man was a rather ordinary individual until he picked up his special sword.   When he held that special sword up in the air and shouted, “I have the power,” he suddenly was transformed into a muscle bound man of extraordinary power.   I have always wanted that kind of sword.   I once stood in the middle of my family room holding a kitchen knife up in the air shouting, “I have the power,” only to have my daughter Krista tell me to stop acting like a dork.   So much for my power.   Don't you wish you had the power?

David's whole life is a story of God's overwhelming power flowing through him.   He kills a giant from Gath, slays thousands of enemies, conquers Jerusalem, unites the tribes of Israel into a solid kingdom, increases Israel's territory, writes dozens of Psalms that become a treasured part of Holy Scripture, and God himself testifies that David is “a man after my own heart.”   Wow!   That's quite a legacy and I have only scratched the surface of David's greatness.   How did all this happen?  

Well, to be sure David's faithfulness had a whole lot to do with it.     But David's faithfulness was all in response to God's faithfulness.   Late in his life David writes, “Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?”   Here David himself acknowledges that all his faithfulness and mighty deeds have been done only through God's power.   The wonderful lesson that we learn here is that God's blessings and our faithfulness go hand in hand. God blesses and we are faithful; we are faithful and God blesses.

David didn't need some special sword or magical saying because he had God's power.   What do you have?

2 Samuel 12:24

Saturday, December 11

Where's My Name?

“...whose mother was Uriah's wife .”

Has your name ever been left off some important list?   A friend of mine had that deflating experience just this past summer. We were at an important and prestigious gathering of church leaders. Everyone had a name tag except my friend whose name had inadvertently been left off the list.   Worse yet, when it came time to honor the youngest pastor in attendance, my friend, who was two years younger than any other pastor, was overlooked again.   The final blow came when the chairman of the meeting tried to correct the mistake only to forget my friend's name.   Sometimes life is humbling.  

Bathsheba's name is left off of Matthew's list.   She was King David's wife, the mother of King Solomon, and the fourth woman that Matthew places in his genealogy of Jesus. One would think that this would give her a place of honor and distinction.   Yet, Matthew does not mention her by name.   Instead, Matthew only mentions her in reference to her former husband:   “Uriah's wife.”   Worse yet, the mention of Uriah can only serve to remind us that Bathsheba had become David's wife through David's sin of adultery and murder (see 2 Samuel 11).   What purpose can be served by mentioning Uriah instead of Bathsheba?    It is hard to tell.

What is clear, however, is that neither Matthew nor the Lord who is inspiring Matthew's writing, have any interest in “cleaning up” history.   Our Father is not afraid to tell the truth of the sordid past and sinful behavior of His people.   Instead, He takes dramatic action to overcome the truth of sin with the Way, the Truth and the Life of Jesus Christ our Savior.   While so many of us rush around trying to make ourselves look good, feel good, and be good, God simply comes and forgives, redeems and restores a bunch of sinful people like you and me.   He finds us in Christ.   Isn't that great?