Wisdom International Devotionals

by Seth Davey

Monday (June 30)  Blessed Ruth 4:13 & 17 So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went into her, and the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. How unneighborly of these neighbors! How unfeeling and unaffirming of these so-called “friends!” How downright bigoted and unprogressive of these old wives stuck in their old ways! How dare they speak the word “Naomi”—that’s a dead name. She should sue them all. She’s Mara now, remember? Say the word slowly, ladies—it isn’t hard to pronounce. M-A-R-A. Two consonants and two vowels. Have a heart! This old lady has lost her husband and her two boys, and she’s been draped in black ever since arriving home from Moab. She’s goth now. Bitter, hurt, bewildered, hopeless, out of steam, out of luck, out of options—she’s  Mara  from head to toe. Affirm the name ...

Sabbath Psalm (June 28-29) (From Charles Wesley’s hymn “And Can It Be?”) And can it be that I should gain An interest in the Savior’s blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love, how can it be That You, my God, would die for me? Tis mystery all, Immortal dies Who can explore His strange design? In vain the firstborn seraph tries To sound the depths of love divine Tis mercy all, let earth adore Let angel minds inquire no more He left His Father’s throne above So free, so infinite His grace Emptied Himself of all but love And bled for Adam’s helpless race Tis mercy all, immense and free For, O my God, it found out me No condemnation now I dread Jesus, and all in Him is mine Alive in Him, my living Head And clothed in righteousness divine Bold I approach the eternal throne And claim the crown, through Christ my own!

Friday (June 27)  Praying God’s Will Ruth 4:11 Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem.” There’s that word again—Bethlehem. A name you won’t read of in Herodotus’  Histories . A name you won’t read of in Plutarch’s  Lives . A name you won’t find etched in stone or iron in archeological digs. A name you won’t hear spoken by pioneers of Western Thought like Pythagoras and Plato and Aristotle. A name you won’t find explicated in the writings of Confucious or in the Buddhist’s  Tripitaka  or in the Babylonian epics. A name that won’t be chronicled among the greatest cities in World History, next to Athens, Alexandria, Rome, and Carthage. A town with no distinguishing geologic or topographical feature that would make it renowned. A land with ...

Thursday (June 26)  Wise as Serpents, Innocent as Doves Ruth 4:5-6 Then Boaz said, “The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.” Then the redeemer said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.” Boaz has just delivered a masterclass on the art of the deal. Consider his speech through the lens of a commercial, friend. Think of the way a beer commercial frames its advertisements, usually by targeting younger demographics, by splashing images of people laughing around a pool or an outdoor BBQ or a tailgate for the ballgame, making drinking seem like a safe and fun and unifying endeavor, only to tack on a quick warning at the very end like, “Please drink responsibly.” Medicinal drug commercials follow the same template. We’ll hear a calming narration, undergirded by a happy-...

Wednesday (June 25)  Patience and Preparation Ruth 4:1-2 Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the redeemer, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by. So Boaz said, “Turn aside, friend; sit down here.” And he turned aside and sat down. And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, “Sit down here.” So they sat down. Let’s talk about the art of hunting for a moment. Hunting, you might say, is ninety-five percent patience, four percent taking aim, and one percent letting fly. Yet, think of it: if hunting is mostly just sitting around on a tree perch waiting for a shot, can’t  anyone  do that? What’s the difference between sitting on a hunting perch and sitting in a line of cars at rush hour or sitting quietly at a funeral procession? Well, that’s where the five percent comes in. That’s where the skill takes over—the part that doesn’t come easy. Knowing where to be and how to aim and when to shoot is the art that determines whether you’ve got six ...

Tuesday (June 24)  Reputation is Not Righteousness Ruth 3:14 So she lay at his feet until morning, but arose before one could recognize another. And he said, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.”  It is the pilgrim’s mission to avoid evil at all costs, not to avoid the appearance of evil. Consider that there are instances in our lives of faith where advancement toward the good isn’t possible without the appearance of impropriety. Sometimes a good and noble venture will spark suspicion if viewed from the wrong angle or out of context.  “A good name is better than gold,”  says the Proverb, but a good conscience makes even gold look like coal in comparison. And never forget that biblical history is lined with saints who did what was right in the eyes of God but were deemed wicked in the eyes of men. During the reign of Marcus Aurelius in the third Century A.D., pagan mobs dragged Christians into amphitheaters and began a mass persecution effo...

Monday (June 23)  Love Has No Loopholes Ruth 3:11-13 “And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. Remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the LORD lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning.” Reflect on the word “yet” in Boaz’s admission that there’s another redeemer closer in line. That little word is a wall between him and his once-in-a-lifetime love. Think of how it must sting Boaz’ vocal cords to even form the sound. I don’t know Boaz’s backstory here, but it does seem odd that an eligible, wealthy, godly bachelor like him isn’t taken by now. He must have young Jewish women knocking on his door every day, baking him cakes and bringing him cards, all vying to be Mrs. Boaz. Perhaps he’s a widower himself, and maybe th...

Sabbath Psalm (June 21-22) (Adapted from Albert Peace’s hymn, “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go”) O Love that will not let me go I rest my weary soul in Thee I give You back the life I owe That in Your ocean depths its flow May richer, fuller be O Light that leads me all the way I yield my flick’ring torch to Thee My heart restores its borrowed ray That in Your sunshine’s glow its day May brighter, fairer be O Joy that seekest me through pain I cannot close my heart to Thee I trace the rainbow through the rain And feel the promise is not vain That morn shall tearless be O Lamb Who liftest up my head I dare not ask to hide from Thee I lay in dust life’s glory dead And from the altar blossoms red Life that shall endless be

Friday (June 20)  Spellbinding Ruth 3:8-10 At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” And he said, “May you be blessed by the LORD, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich.” This really is a Cinderella story after all, isn’t it? Right on down to the clock striking twelve. Except in this scriptural version, the striking of midnight marks the beginning of the spell, not the ending. Spellbinding. That’s the word I’d use to approach this romance. These pages are filled with enchantment, immersed in symbolism and deep spiritual meaning, each word like a whisper of something forgotten but suddenly remembered, almost like a dream. In fact, a dream has that enchanting quality to it, because it often seems more real than reality...

Thursday (June 19)  The Wedding Planner  Ruth 3:1-4 Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? Is not Boaz our relative? … See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. … Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do.” Naomi can feel the spiritual wind blowing in her direction now, and she’s ready to move with it. Maybe she concocts this plan after a sleepless night of rolling different options around in her head. Or maybe she takes time to develop it, spending days in the market talking with townsfolk, making light conversation, asking when Boaz might be coming back to town and what his typical routine is, but doing so in a way that avoids suspicion. She’s seeing life from 10,000 feet...

Wednesday (June 18)  A Changing Room Ruth 2:19-20 And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law, … “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” And Naomi said, … “May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.” I can picture Naomi’s astonished expression as she kneels down to count the hefty bushels of gleanings that Ruth brings in, amazed by the haul, blurting out words as soon as they rush into her mind while stagnant pools of bitterness begin to drain from her heart. Even if the biblical scribe had slapped a few exclamation points at the end of her questions here or written every word in upper case letters, he still couldn’t have conveyed the atmospheric change taking place in this small room. “Where on earth did you get all of this, R...

Tuesday (June 17)  Painting the Picture Ruth 2:11-12 But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The LORD repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” If God had endowed me with the artistic skill of Da Vinci, I’d set aside my pen and notepad, grab a canvas and some paint brushes, and spend the next few days painting a picture of Ruth through Boaz’s eyes. There’s so much to make of her demeanor and of his joy in seeing it. I’d try to put shape and color to the paradox of Ruth’s beauty, attempting to add form to the dichotomous position of her poverty and royalty, the same way the old Disney artist sketched Cinderella at her loveliest not in glass slippers and shimmering gown, but while sin...

Monday (June 16)  Redemption’s Raiment  Ruth 2:10 Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” Have you ever looked around a room and noticed everyone else speaking a different language and drinking a different drink and eating different food and singing different songs and no matter how hard you tried to fit in, you couldn’t shake that nagging, permeating impression that you didn’t belong? That is, have you ever been a  foreigner ? I’m deeply struck by Ruth’s admission here, friend. She’s doing her absolute best, doing everything she can to help her elderly mother-in-law to make ends meet, rolling up her sleeves and working between the sheaves without a single familiar face beside her, trying to acclimate to a people and a place with deep traditional and historical roots while trying to survive at the same time. And the devil must be whispering in her ea...

Sabbath Psalm (June 14-15) (From Trevor Francis’ hymn, “Oh, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus”) Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free Rolling as a mighty ocean In its fullness over me Underneath me, all around me Is the current of His love Leading onward, leading homeward To His glorious rest above Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus Spread His praise from shore to shore Praise His mercy, praise His goodness Praise His love forevermore How He watches o’er His loved ones Died to call them all His own How for them He’s interceding Watching o’er them from His throne Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus Love of every love the best Tis an ocean vast in blessing Tis a haven sweet with rest Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus Tis a heaven of heavens to me And it lifts me up to glory Lifts me up eternally

Friday (June 13)  Fatherhood: Man’s Ideal Ruth 2:8-9 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.” The juxtaposition between the manhood we saw displayed at the end of Judges and the manhood displayed here by Boaz could not be starker. For Judges effectively ended with a man of the cloth tossing a woman out to the dogs to save his own skin, yet Ruth begins with a man of the cloth using his power and wealth and authority to protect women from the dogs. Not just the one woman he has eyes for, but all his vulnerable servant girls. Men, if you’re reading this, here is the anatomy of spiritual manhood, and it has nothing to do with testosterone levels or bone density or muscle mass. It doe...

Thursday (June 12)  Welcome to the Churchyard  Ruth 2:4 And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, “The LORD be with you!” And they answered, “The LORD bless you.” In its wider, uninterrupted narrative context, this imperative,  “Behold”  can be translated with shock and awe as if to say, “Pay attention, reader—you can’t make this stuff up!”, because it connects the previous action of Ruth happening to enter Boaz’s field with the corresponding action of Boaz happening to arrive at the exact same moment. But, yet again, I’m stopped dead in my tracks by that little word,  “Bethlehem.”  It’s becoming a repeated theme in only the first two chapters of Ruth, as if the broad lens of biblical history is narrowing down now. The drone camera is hovering over this little dot on the horizon of earth, this tiny speck in an unending cosmos, focusing our eyes on the bread now rising from it while fading everything else out around it. And if we list...

Wednesday (June 11)  A Ship in the Wind Ruth 2:1-3 Now Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.” And she said to her, “Go my daughter.” … And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz. Approach these introductory remarks as if you’re watching a play. Picture the stage from your theatre seat, with its red curtain rising and a new scene taking place. Notice the difference in the set-pieces and props. The last scene, the scene of Judges, left a demolished stage in its wake, ashes all over the floor from the fires of Abimelech’s atrocities, and rubble from Samson’s liaisons, and even blood stains from the Benjamite rebellion. Ah, but the curtain has risen and there’s a new scene entirely. Notice how edifying and colorful the props are. New hillsides covered in green gras...

Tuesday (June 10)  Perfect Timing Ruth 1:22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest. Around sixteen years ago, late one Sunday night, as I sat in a car in the church parking lot talking with a friend, a burly, disheveled man suddenly knocked on the car window and startled me. I cautiously lowered the window just enough to get a better look at him, and I noticed that he was sweating feverishly, had a painful limp, and seemed legitimately in need of help. He interrupted my profiling glance with a string of apologies: “I’m so sorry to bother you—I’m not trying to get alcohol or drugs, I swear—but my car is broken down and I’m on empty and I’ve got a bum leg from a recent surgery and I’ve got no money right now; can you please just meet me over at the gas station and get me a few dollars’ worth of gas?” So, I did. I followed the man to the pump, pulled up b...

Monday (June 9)  Missing Identity Ruth 1:19-21 So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. … And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty.” Sometimes I open my Bible for a few minutes in the morning, thinking the immersion into the words will be like a quick, refreshing dip in a shallow mountain stream, but then an undertow thrusts me into rushing rapids of marvel and meaning, and all I can do is flail with one arm for stability, trying to grab some boulder or branch, while frantically swimming with the other to keep up with the current. It’s that word “ Bethlehem”  that baptized my soul just now. “House of Bread,” as it’s translated. Just the sight of it brings thoughts of our incarnate Lord pouring in, of a manger in these same foothills, of Bread broken and offered to weary, famished, wandering pilgrims whose ...

Sabbath Psalm (June 7-8) (From William Cowper’s hymn “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood”) There is a fountain filled with blood  Drawn from Immanuel’s veins And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains The dying thief rejoiced to see  That fountain in his day And there may I, though vile as he,  Wash all my sins away Dear dying Lamb, Your precious blood  Will never lose its power Till all the ransomed church of God  Be saved to sin no more! E’er since by faith I saw the stream  Your flowing wounds supply Redeeming Love has been my theme  And will be till I die! When this poor, lisping, stammering tongue Lies silent in the grave Then in a nobler, sweeter song I’ll sing Your power to save!

Friday (June 6)  The Power of “I Will” Ruth 1:16-17 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”  I’ve been a longtime admirer of the unique feminine voice in poetry and prose, moved by the gritty moralizing of Flannery O’Conner’s short stories and the rhyming mastery of Fanny Crosby’s hymns and the romantic depths of Jane Austen’s novels, yet I’m not sure that even these queens of English verse could’ve matched the inspired succinctness of this Moabite widow named Ruth. You won’t find Ruths’ devotional thoughts on Substack or her musings at Christian bookstores or her autobiography in an award-winning docuseries, but her “I will” statements here belong with the best of them. We have a pharisaical te...

Thursday (June 5)  No Turning Back  Ruth 1:8 & 14 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. …” Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.  The poetic force of this dichotomous imagery, of Orpah kissing Naomi while Ruth clings to her, is almost too profound a picture for words. Pope Julius II should’ve commissioned Michelangelo to paint a fresco of these juxtaposing poses on the Sistine Chapel. I can see it now: a hooded figure with back turned, standing as a pillar in the center, flanked by two  gestures . One is the gesture of a kiss on the cheek with an eye looking backward, and the other is the gesture of a face buried in the hooded figure’s feet with hands holding fast. Oh, that the Renaissance painters had portrayed that profound imagery rather than staining church walls with scenes of nasty little devils jabbing sinners with their pitchforks! Ne...

Wednesday (June 4)  By the Wind, to the Waters Ruth 1:6 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the LORD had visited his people and given them food.  “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert,”  whispers our LORD through the scroll of Isaiah 43. But for us as disciples, merely perceiving the movement of the Spirit isn’t enough. The question is whether we’ll go with Him. What if Almighty God calls you today to leave your comfortable life and step out in faith like Abraham? What if He tells you to sell your possessions and go to the mission field like the apostles? The truth is when Almighty God stirs our hearts to a new advance, when that Pillar of Cloud begins to progress at our head, whether we’ve feared the movement or longed for it, when we hear those murmurs in our midst and see those flower...

Tuesday (June 3)  Barren Ruth 1:3-5 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. I can’t claim from my own experience to empathize with the enormity of the barrenness currently overwhelming Naomi’s life, but due to being a human in a fallen world, and due to sharing a common relationship with suffering and seasons of deep despondency, I feel for her. And I’m convinced that had Jesus been standing among the mourners at Mahlon and Chilion’s graveside, we’d hear His weeping above all the others. Put yourself in Naomi’s sandals here, friend. It’s difficult enough that she had to uproot her life ten years earlier, leaving behind friends and family members, even if the choice was ill-advised from a spiritual standpoint to begin with. Yet...

 Monday (June 2) From the Ground Up Ruth 1:1 In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The closing line of Judges 21 and the opening line of Ruth 1 are the exact same pronouncement just written in different ways. The two phrases,  “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes,”  and  “There was a famine in the land,”  are synonymous, because they’re both descriptions of the emptiness and fruitlessness of a life devoid of God’s benevolent rule.  Almighty God, through His prophet Moses, made the choice abundantly clear to His commonwealth in Leviticus 26:3-5:  “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and...