Sunday, November 24, 2013

Ruth 1:1-5 – “Playing with Numbers”



As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

1And it was in the days of judging one judging, it was a famine in the land and it was a man from Bethlehem Judah going to sojourn in the fields of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2And the name of the man [was] Elimelech and the name of his wife [was] Naomi and the name of his two sons [was] Mahlon and Chilion. [They were] Ephrathites from Bethlehem Judah and they went [to] the fields of Moab and they lived there.3And Elimelech the husband of Naomi died and she was left and the two of her sons. 4And they carried to themselves wives of Moabite women. The name of the one [was] Orpah and the name of the second [was] Ruth and they dwelt there about ten years. 5And also died both of them Mahlon and Chilion and the woman was left from the two of her children and from her husband.

As I have often related in my posts, I believe the basic logic of life is predominantly fractal, not linear. Our Western culture minds, for whatever reason, want to see everything linearly, like timelines and number lines and Roman Numeral outlines. We think everything is a “this then that, then this then that”. Years ago I realized there was something very strange about the logic of the Bible, that it utterly defied outlining. Then I had opportunity to study the mathematical concept of fractals, which are basically patterns which repeat themselves an infinite number of times on an infinite number of scales. I realized then that a repeating pattern is actually an entirely different but valid form of logic, and that was what I was seeing so prevalently throughout the Bible. With fractal logic, and so often in the Bible, what is important is not the order, but the pattern. Then I began to realize the world is full of fractal logic, and, in fact, that it is the very logic of life itself – the logic of repeating patterns.

While I’m at it, that is why we can speak of a “family tree.” Both trees and families are living things, and so they share this logic of repeating patterns. A tree repeats the pattern of branching (repeating its own pattern) and families do too. Not only that but trees produce trees that look the same, and so do families. That, you see, is the logic of life, and it is fractal, not necessarily linear.

Anyway, I need to get off my incorrigible fascination with math and get back to Ruth! Well, actually, … not completely. Math has everything to do with what I want to post today, just for the fun of it!

The most basic cycle in life is the week or 7 days. That being the case, 6 of anything is naturally incomplete, 7 is complete, and 8 is a new beginning. What absolutely fascinates me right off the bat is that the book of Ruth (like the rest of the Bible) is full of this same cycle.

As related in the text above, the book starts with 6 named persons: Elimelech, Naomi, Mahlon, Chilion, Ruth, and Orpah. The whole point of the book is that somehow these six are “not enough.” In spite of their efforts in various ways to survive and prosper, everything they do seems to fail. Of course. There are only six of them. Then enters the 7th – the Kinsmen Redeemer, Boaz! All of this of course is typical of Jesus. The whole book of Ruth is, in a sense, a picture of the entire human race (which, by the way, measures time and space in multiples of 6 – both clocks and compasses use a senary (base-6) number system – our very essence of time and space is inherently incomplete). Everything we try to do to survive and prosper in the end fails. Our only real hope, that which will “complete” us, is the coming of the Kinsman-Redeemer Jesus. His coming into our lives today in a sense “fixes” us, and then His Coming will finally “fix” our universe.

It is also of note that Ruth is the 8th book of the OT. It is highly significant that the book of Judges (the 7th book) ends with two accounts mentioning Bethlehem (2, by the way, being the number of testimony – can’t get into that now). Bethlehem, we know, is the birthplace of the Savior, the Completer. Following Judges, the book of Ruth is the 3rd (God’s number) account in a row mentioning Bethlehem and the 8th book -- which should tell us to expect some kind of new beginning – which, in fact, it does. Ruth herself is all about a new beginning, but more than that, the book will finally reveal the coming of David, and through him ultimately, of course, the great Completer Jesus. So, in the “days of the judging ones judging,” with all its hopelessness and confusion, the book of Ruth reveals a new beginning – a beginning of hope.

Interesting too, that Naomi and Ruth arrive back in Bethlehem “as the barley harvest was just beginning” (1:22). Would anyone believe that, according to the ancient calendar, the barley harvest occurred in the 8th month(!). Naomi and especially Ruth arrived in Bethlehem to make a new beginning, right at the beginning of the “8th month,” a great time (mathematically) to make a new beginning! (PS – That the beginning of barley harvest (late April/early May) occurs in the “8th month” is according to the Gezer Calendar – a calendar dated to about 1000 BC, a limestone plaque unearthed by archaeologists about 20 miles west of Bethlehem).

While I’m on the subject, we see the 8th of anything being a new beginning throughout the Bible. Eight people stepped off the Ark to populate the new world. Jewish boys were circumcised on the 8th day. Cleansed lepers presented themselves to the priests on the 8th day (Lev 14:10,11) – a serious new beginning! And, of course, Jesus arose on the 1st day of the week – the “8th” day. Very serious new beginning! After the 70 weeks of Daniel and at the end of the 7 years of Tribulation, Jesus will return to initiate the Millennium – another serious “new beginning!”

All of this is absolutely fascinating to me, but, to bring it all back to planet earth, what it tells us is to see in the book of Ruth the whole concept of new beginnings. Throughout the book, I will try to keep that in mind as I try to understand the text and its application to my life.

I loooooourve numbers!

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