One of the last songs I heard before I got out of my car yesterday stuck in my head. Luckily, it wasn’t something like the theme song to Hawaii 5-0, or something worse. It was My Redeemer Lives by Phillips, Craig & Dean. So “My Redeemer lives, My Redeemer lives,” kept dancing around in my head at random times throughout the evening. I even had a few verses running around up there when I was trying to go to sleep last night.
About two-thirty in the morning, I woke up. I laid there for a little bit. Got up to use the bathroom. Laid back down. I tried to go back to sleep. No Luck. This happens from time to time. When it does, I have learned to just get up. It usually means the Holy Spirit wants some quality time with me. So, about three 0’clock, I got out of bed, grabbed my Bible, and sat down at the dining room table to see if I was right about My Constant Companion wanting my undivided attention. Every time I read my Bible, I ask myself, “What is God trying to teach me?” I also remind myself that God put everything in the Bible on purpose, for a purpose. I may not see a purpose, or lesson, in everything I read, but I read with the intention of finding one.
I finished the last few chapters of Judges. I had already read about Samson the last time I had been reading, and I didn’t see anything that stuck out to me in those last few chapters. The next book was Ruth. I thought, “Okay, Holy Spirit, this must be where you have something to show me.” I read the whole book of Ruth and the most significant thing I got from it was Ruth was King David’s Great Grandma. Well, that was a bit disappointing. I sat there and tried to look for the hidden truth I thought the Holy Spirit was trying to reveal to me. Nothing. As I continued to sit there, my eye lids began to spent more time together than apart. It was four o’clock now and I needed to “get up” in a few hours. Time to go back to bed. False alarm. As I drifted off to sleep, My Redeemer Lives ran through my head again a few times.
After my alarm went off, I hit the shower. Of course, My Redeemer Lives was the tune of the morning. Then it hit me! My Redeemer Lives! After I got dressed, I went back to my Bible and back to the book of Ruth. There it was! The reason for my three o’clock wake up call.
In the “Old Testament Days,” if a man died, his brother would marry, or redeem, his widowed wife. Unfortunately for Ruth, her husband and his brother both died. This left her in a situation that could have left her alone for the rest of her life. Ruth stayed with her mother-in-law, Naomi, when she decided to return to her homeland of Judah. There Ruth met Boaz, who was a close relative of Naomi’s husband. When Ruth asked Boaz to redeem her and save her from a life of hardship and loneliness, he explained that he was not the first in line to marry her. Boaz told Ruth that he would do whatever was necessary to redeem her and he did. Boaz made the sacrifice required to save Ruth from a life of hopelessness and despair.
Jesus did the same thing for me that Boaz did for Ruth. Jesus sacrificed himself. He experienced a painful death on a cross for me. Jesus did what was necessary to save me from hopelessness and despair. He rose from the grave and He redeemed me. My Redeemer Lives!
Thank you, Father, for sending your Son to do what was necessary to redeem me. Thank you, Jesus, for enduring torture and excruciating pain to show me how much you love me and how badly you want to be with me. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for the wake-up call to remind me that My Redeemer Lives!
