Encore Post: In ancient times, a widow was on her own. She had no means of supporting herself or her family. If she was fortunate enough to have adult sons, they would care for her. If she did not, she was completely at the mercy of her relatives. Most ancient societies put great importance on descendants to inherit the family name and fortunes. To be a widow without sons meant the family line would die with her.
God’s laws for Israel provided for that. It required a man’s brother to marry his widow. The children born of that marriage would be the deceased legal heirs and inherit all his property. This duty was a disadvantage to the brother. If he declined to perform it, the nearest relative would take his place.
Naomi and Ruth were in an especially tough spot. They were both widowed and Ruth childless. They lived in a foreign land where no family lived to help them. Ruth so loved and honored her mother-in-law that she would not hear of abandoning her. In addition, she believed in the God of Israel. So they returned to Naomi’s home — Bethlehem.
God had also not forsaken the two women. He protected them and led them home, where Naomi’s relatives looked after them. She helped Ruth understand the culture of Israel, which helped them to find food to eat in gleaning in the fields of Boaz, the relative of Naomi’s husband. Even though Ruth was a gentile, Bethlehem received her as a member of his family. Boaz shows the true, selfless character of a redeemer — one who would establish a line for his relative by marrying Ruth and having a child with her, buying back all the property of Naomi and Ruth’s husbands and preserving it for their descendents.
But, as usual, God had bigger plans for his daughters. It was through their descendents that his Son would be born. The son of Ruth and Boaz was Obed, father of Jesse, father of King David. Through them, the redeemer of all would be born. When Matthew selected generations to mention in the genealogy of Jesus, he did not fail to mention Ruth, one of very few women on the list. God had redeemed her and through her has redeemed the whole world.
Rev. Robert E. Smith Pastor Emeritus Fort Wayne, Indiana
Encore Posts: Through Joshua, God defeated the Canaanites in the land he promised to his people. He instructed them to kill all of these people, since they were devoted to particularly evil gods — chiefly Baal and his wife, Asherah. They were fertility gods. Their religion promised many children and abundant crops to their followers. Part of their worship involved sexual relations with temple prostitutes and child sacrifice to influence the gods to give them what they desired. Yet Israel did not listen to God and let some of them live. This would lead to no end of trouble for them.
After Joshua died, God ruled the people of Israel directly, mostly through judges. Mostly, this worked well. Yet because often the people of Israel would fall into the temptation of worshipping the gods of Canaan, God allowed the Canaanites to raid or conquer one area of the land or another. When His people prayed to Him for help, God would raise up a judge in Israel to gather them together and defeat their enemies. Deborah was one of these judges. She is the only female judge mentioned in Scripture. She is also one of a very few prophetesses mentioned among God’s people. Her role was political — to settle disputes between various peoples in Israel and to summon them to battle.
Deborah brought the tribes together to fight. The battle was not promising. Israel did not have chariots and faced an army that did. When the battle began, a thunderstorm soaked the field, bogging down the chariots in mud. In the confusion, the Canaanite general Sisera was defeated and fled. Once again, it is God Who rescues His people from foreign armies. They turn again to worship Him as long as Deborah lives.
During these years, the relationship between God and the people went through a depressing cycle. When they forgot what God did for them, they started to worship Canaanite gods. God would send their neighbors to harass and oppress them. They would cry to God for help. He would raise up a judge like Deborah to rescue them. They would honor God as long as the judge lived. With each cycle, the people would grow worse.
Like the people of Israel, we also go through a similar pattern. When God has mercy on us and blesses us, when honor him. Eventually, we take his blessing for granted, and he allows us to be afflicted with the consequences of our sins. We call out for help and God rescues us. Ultimately, it leads to physical death. Yet God has sent the Judge of Judges to rescue us. He did battle with sin, death and the devil for us. By his death, he destroyed death and earned for us everlasting life. On the last day, the cycle will end once and for all. We will live forever in his blessing.
Rev. Robert E. Smith Pastor Emeritus Fort Wayne, Indiana
Encore Post: Joshua was a young man when God freed his people from Egypt. When the people of Israel arrived at the border of the promised land the first time, he was one of twelve spies Moses sent into the land. Most of the spies were afraid of the armies in the land, but Joshua was confident that with God’s help, Israel could defeat those who lived there. Because the people were afraid, God decided the people would wander in the wilderness for forty years.
During this time, Moses made Joshua his trusted assistant and named him as the leader who would follow Moses. When Moses died, Joshua took Moses’ place. Not long after that, the Captain of the Army of the Lord appeared to him. Many theologians believe this general is the second person of the Trinity — the Angel of the Lord. Under his direction, Joshua parted the Jordan River and led the people into Canaan. The first challenge was the powerful city of Jericho, located where the Jordan River meets the Dead Sea.
Joshua and Jesus have the same name. It comes from the same Hebrew words that mean God saves. God told Joseph and Mary to name His Son Jesus, because He would save His people from their sins. Joshua’s parents named him Hoshea, which means salvation. Moses changed his name to Joshua. In ancient times, a name was a kind of motto. Joshua depended upon God to give the people of Israel victory when they went to war. Because Joshua trusted God, Joshua led the people of Israel to capture Jericho and the rest of the promised land. Jesus lived a perfect life, suffered, died on the cross, rose from the dead. When He did these things, He paid the price for our sins, won forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Jesus is more than just a man who died for us. He is literally God who saves us.
Rev. Robert E. Smith Pastor Emeritus Fort Wayne, Indiana
In a recent edition of my local paper, a letter to the editor bemoaned the current state of affairs. Many mainline Christian church bodies are embracing CRT, DEI, and LGBTQAI+ ideologies. She rightly observes, in part:
“Through a recent church letter, I have learned that plans have been in the making for a while now … to restructure some of the oldest, most established religions slash churches as diverse, equitable, and inclusive, plans are to allow homosexual marriages, officiated by their clergy, and to also now accept these beliefs into their religions. The clergy themselves may even be LGBQTIA+. In other words, making homosexuality compatible with Christian teachings.”
“[T]he UMC … with the backing of the ELCA, has decided to ratify the plan … to basically align with DEI … I would wager my last dollar that Martin Luther would “not” have been behind this blasphemy.”
“I was instructed as a young child to believe the words of the Bible. … Countless Christians will not support the very churches who chose to go this route of DEI, when previously, these very churches taught them to live by the words in the Bible.”
“When will people start standing up? When will people have had enough? When will God have had enough?” Glynis Tietjen — La Grange
(“Church and Pride,” The Fayette County Record, La Grange, TX, June 14, 2024, Volume 102, Number 64, page D2)
(In response to “Church and Pride,” June 14, 2024) Miss Glynis, I can understand your frustration and disappointment. Christianity used to be more serious about those things forbidden and commanded. You’re right to suggest that DEI and LGBTQAI+ ideologies are opposed to Christianity. The accepted culture of the first quarter of the 21st century doesn’t just encourage DEI and LGBTQAI+, it demands submission. Acceptance, the terminology of my youth, isn’t enough. The new order requires us to glorify sinfulness as a morally superior lifestyle. Movies, gaming, comics, books, music, and other products of the current mainstream culture attest to this.
I pray you’re right that a minority of folks in national church organizations, including the UMC, the UCC, The PCUSA, the Episcopal Church, and ELCA are behind the shift in official positions and activities. Regardless of who it is, the people of whom we speak are in power. They are driving the bus away from the Bible. Without the only certain witness of God’s Word, the Christian faith has no mooring. We’re certain to be lost apart from the Word of God, which entirely testifies to Jesus’s death and resurrection for sinners like us.
There’s been a bit of linguistic trickery for many years. It is as if Jesus’s love undoes the condemnation of the Law of God. It does not. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18) That’s the last day, the judgement, and the resurrection of all flesh.
Jesus forgave and forgives sin even today. The message remains the same. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:8-10)
We are constantly being saved, reconciled by Jesus’s forgiveness. This is where the accepted culture falls down. “Jesus stood up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.’” (John 8:10-11) The Gospel of forgiveness doesn’t grant permission to continue in sin. It also doesn’t bless those things that the Law of God condemns: adultery, homosexuality, idolatry, theft, covetousness, and the like.
The battle for the Bible started over 60 years ago. In those early days, the lines were fairly simple: is the Bible the inerrant Word of God or does it only contain the inerrant Word of God? The error we’re seeing on full display is this: if some of the bible isn’t true or isn’t normative to me, who decides that, and where does it end? Each one of us becomes the arbiter of God’s Word for ourselves. It ends when my pet sin becomes permissible. The temptation has never changed from the serpent in the garden. “… Did God actually say … you will be like God.” (Genesis 3)
All of God’s Word actually matters and He did actually say it. He has preserved His Word for us since ancient times in the original languages and in far better density and reliability than any other ancient texts. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) Even those bits I don’t like, those are still God’s Word. Especially the bits that accuse me in my sin, those are still God’s Word.
In the LCMS and other orthodox Christian traditions, we have held to the Bible as the rule and norm of the Christian faith. “We believe, teach, and confess that the only rule and norm according to which all teachings, together with all teachers, should be evaluated and judged (2 Timothy 3:15-17) are the prophetic and Apostolic scriptures of the Old and New Testament alone.” (Formula of Concord, Epitome, 1576) It’s been a long and lonely road, cleaving to the Word of God. But, it’s worth it.
You’re always welcome back over on the other side of the fence, where we hold fast to the Word of God. We’d love to have you and your friends among us.
Rev. Jason M. Kaspar Sole Pastor Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool La Grange, TX
Encore Post: Once the people of Israel were safe on the other side of the Red Sea and the joy of freedom faded, they realized they had to provide for themselves. They grumbled at Mara that they were thirsty and God provided water to drink. Once they reached the Wilderness of Sin, they grumbled they had nothing to eat. God told Moses that he would provide bread in the morning and quail at night to eat.
When the people saw the bread God provided, it looked so strange to them they said, “What is it?” They called it Manna, which means, “what is it” in Hebrew. Moses answered it was bread God provided for them. God provided this food six days, doubling the amount on the sixth day. On the Sabbath, Manna did not come.
From the time that people planted crops until this very day, bread has been a basic food for people. God fed His people in the wilderness with manna to teach them to trust their Heavenly Father for daily bread.
God would do other miracles with bread. The Prophet Elijah would feed the widow and her son with bread flour and oil that did not run out. Elisha would feed one hundred men with a few loaves. Later Satan would tempt Jesus to make stones into bread rather than trust Him. Jesus quoted what Moses said to Israel about Manna: man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.. (Deuteronomy 8:3). Jesus would feed crowds in the desert with a few loaves and fishes. The crowds knew what it meant Jesus was the Messiah and like Moses and Elijah.
Jesus also used bread in another way. During His Last Supper, He took bread, broke it, blessed it and gave His body for them to eat. To this day, when we gather for communion, Jesus feeds us with His body * the true Bread from Heaven. When we receive this bread, we are given strength for our journey through this life to life everlasting.
Rev. Robert E. Smith Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne, Indiana
Encore Post: The night of the first Passover, the people of Israel prepared for the darkest of the plagues God sent to Egypt to free them from slavery. They killed a perfect lamb for the feast. They spread the blood on their doorposts to mark their homes. They prepared dinner quickly, prepared to leave Egypt in haste. They made their bread without leaven. They wore traveling clothes.
That night, God himself visited every home in Egypt and took the life of every firstborn in Egyptian households. He did this through the destroying angel. Many theologians believe this angel is the Angel of the Lord — the second person of the Holy Trinity. The outcry was great and Pharaoh finally let God’s people go and told them to go quickly.
God led the people out of Egypt to the shore of the Red Sea where they camped. He did so with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. In this pillar, the Angel of the Lord was present to lead them. Soon Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued Israel with his armies. The pillar moved from before the people to stand between them and the Egyptians.
God directed Moses to hold his staff over the Red Sea. Winds blew for hours to part the sea. God then had Moses lead the people through the sea on dry land. Once they were on the other side, the pillar of the cloud of God’s presence moved from between Israel and the Egyptians to the front of the people. The Egyptian army charged into the sea, where the wheels of their chariots bogged down. God then had Moses put down his staff. The sea closed over the Egyptian forces, drowning them. The people of Israel were now free and safe.
When Jesus was transfigured, Moses and Elijah appeared with Him and spoke about Christ’s coming Exodus (a word that gets lost in translation. Most English versions use “departure” for its meaning). By His death and resurrection, He would lead all God’s people through death to life. St. Paul tells us that the cloud and the Red Sea were a kind of Baptism (1 Corinthians 10:1-2), which points to the Sacrament of Baptism. In Baptism, our sinful nature is drowned and we are free to serve God as His redeemed people.
Rev. Robert E. Smith Pastor Emeritus Fort Wayne, Indiana
Encore Post: Nine times, God sent plagues on Egypt to show Pharaoh and his people that their gods did not have the powers claimed for them. Nine times, Pharaoh had agreed to let the people of Israel go to worship God. Nine times, God brought the plague to an end and Pharaoh went back on his word. Now the last and greatest plague would be sent. Every first-born male in the land of Egypt, other than those of the Hebrews, would die. This was the reverse of what a previous pharaoh had tried to do by ordering the first-born male babies to be killed. Now one that had escaped, ironically at the hand of a daughter of Pharaoh, would pronounce God’s answer to that outrage.
God marked the day by establishing a feast. A young lamb would be killed for each family of the Hebrews. The blood of that lamb would be spread on the door frame of each of their homes. The lamb itself would be the entrée of a feast called Passover because on that night, the Angel of Death passed over every house marked in this way. The death of Pharaoh’s heir and every firstborn in Egypt was finally enough. Pharaoh let them go and their Egyptian neighbors gave riches to the people of Israel, so they would leave quickly.
Every year since that first Passover, Jewish families remember that day of freedom. The Passover is a kind of Old Testament sacrament, bringing union with the God Who saves. Luther believed that the Passover, sacrifices and circumcision drew their power to forgive from the cross, which was yet to come, just as our sacraments draw their power to forgive from the cross, where the Lamb of God, Jesus, was sacrificed for us.
By choosing to institute the sacrament of Holy Communion during the Passover, Jesus used all of its symbols to point to what He was to do for us. Now He offers His Body and Blood to us with bread and wine, bringing with it freedom from slavery to sin and the power of the devil.
Rev. Robert E. Smith Pastor Emeritus Fort Wayne, Indiana
Encore Post: The Pharaohs of Egypt thought of themselves as gods, the sons of Osiris. They were thought to be the intermediaries between the gods and people. The people would turn to them for the rains and the floods that caused crops to grow, for fertility and other good things. They would, in turn, approach the gods for these things. To free the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, the true God would do battle with the gods of the superpower of the ancient world.
Having been raised in Pharaoh’s household, Moses was familiar with this. Moses and Aaron would function like a pharaoh of the God of Israel in the view of the Egyptians. Moses confronted Pharaoh and demand that Pharaoh release the Israelites to worship him. When Pharaoh did not comply, God used disasters or plagues, to demonstrate that He is more powerful as the gods of Egypt.
The serpent represented the god of wisdom, fertility, and healing to the Egyptians. When Moses’ snake swallowed those of the magicians, God showed himself superior to them. The Nile River fed Egypt and the ancient world. The Lord showed power over the god that controlled it when He turned it into blood. The Egyptians saw frogs as symbols of the goddess of childbirth. They also worshipped flies and beetles. The earlier plagues showed Yahweh’s power over them.
The rest of the plagues attacked the food supply the gods were supposed to supply through Pharaoh. While they convinced many of the Egyptian people that the God of the Hebrews was almighty, Pharaoh did not, since it did not touch him personally. He was trying to haggle with God to get the best deal possible for him and his people. When God took the pressure off, he backed down. Eventually, the plagues got to the place where even the advisors of Pharaoh advised he relent. Pharaoh did not let them go. This lead to God unleashing the Angel of Death, the last and greatest plague of all.
Rev. Robert E. Smith Pastor Emeritus Fort Wayne, Indiana
Encore Post: Just like David, whom God chose to be King, Moses served many years as a shepherd before God called him to lead His people to freedom. Even though Moses did not think so, he was perfectly suited for the task at hand. Raised by his mother in the household of Pharaoh, Moses was fluent in both Hebrew and Egyptian, possessing the best education available in the world of his time. He was humbled by years as a shepherd and fully familiar with living in the desert of Sinai. He was the son-in-law of a tribal chief and so had resources available to him during the forty years of desert travel to come. Not confident in himself, Moses could trust God, Who alone could free the people from slavery. In the end, it is not Moses who saves Israel, but God.
Moses had left his old life behind. One day, while he was leading his flock near Mount Sinai, he saw a strange sight — a bush was on fire but not burning up. When he went to take a closer look, He saw the Angel of the Lord, the Son of God, before he became a man in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The Angel (the word means Messenger) appeared to him in the burning bush. He identified himself as the God of his fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and told him to take off his sandals and not come closer. Abraham was afraid to look at the Angel, but he need not. The Son of God is the person of the Trinity that can be seen by mortals and the mortals will no die.
God told Moses that he had heard the cries of his people and would send Moses to free them from slavery and bring them to the Holy Land, which God would give them. Moses was not at all comfortable with the task and so tried to stall and make excuses. Each time, God had mercy on him and provided for him. God revealed his personal name, Yahweh. He gave Moses two miraculous signs — turning his staff into a snake and his hand leprous and healthy — so they would believe Moses. He provided Aaron as his spokesman. Finally, God promised to go with Moses — and he did.
Rev. Robert E. Smith Pastor Emeritus Fort Wayne, Indiana
Encore Post: After Joseph died, the descendents of Israel remained in Egypt and prospered. They eventually grew into a small nation — large enough to seem to threaten Pharaoh. The Egyptian king enslaved them, hoping hard work would reduce their numbers. It did not. So he tried to get midwives to kill any male child born. They did not. So he commanded everyone to kill them, anyway. This was especially cruel, given the way both Jews and Egyptians felt about children.
Family and children were important to both the Egyptians and the Hebrews. Egyptians were especially fond of their children. If a couple couldn’t have a baby, they would often adopt children — frequently from among their slaves. The adopted child was treated exactly the same as if he or she had been born into the family. The upper classes of Egypt often used nurses who would move in with the adoptive family. The custom of leaving unwanted children in places where someone would find them was common everywhere but in Egypt.
Moses’ mother cleverly left Moses where the princess bathed, counting on her horror and pity to give Moses a chance. It worked. Through these events, God prepared Moses to be at home both with both Egyptians and Hebrews, making him, his brother and sister prepared to lead God’s people.
The Scriptures see in the rescue of Moses from the reeds a theme that began with the flood. God had Noah build an ark in which he saved Noah, his family, and the animal species in creation. Moses’ mother put him in an ark of reeds, which kept him safe until delivered by Pharaoh’s daughter. Later, God would use Moses to part the Red Sea through which he saved the people of Israel through the sea.
St. Paul points out that we are God’s adopted children, treated the same way as if we had been born into His family. So we own everything in the universe with Jesus. (Ephesians. 1:3-6, Romans 8:15-17) In Holy Baptism, God also carries us to safety, through death to life eternal.
Rev. Robert E. Smith Pastor Emertitus Fort Wayne, Indiana
