Digging Deeper Daily: By Daily Bible Reading PodcastSample

RUTH 3-4:
In yesterday’s start to the book of Ruth, we saw how Naomi was left all alone, and how one of her two daughters-in-law, Ruth, left her family and idols to accompany Naomi and to follow Naomi’s God. Then it just so happened that Ruth was noticed by a man named Boaz while gathering left-behind grain in his field.

If you are using the GNT, you won’t find the word ‘redeemer’, which occurs eight times in Ruth, beginning at 2:20. GNT translated the correct meaning as “a close relative of ours, one of those responsible for taking care of us.” Be aware that the relationship involved much more than that— including redeeming a family member who had been sold into slavery. The nearest kinsman would also revenge a murder, and would marry a widow of a close family member.

The advantage of GNT’s term is that it accurately shows the meaning. But the advantage of translating using the word ‘redeemer’ is that readers will more quickly see the correspondence between what Boaz did with Jesus— who both came from Boaz’ line and is our Redeemer.

PSALM 89b:
Ethan, the psalm-writer was very wise in his prayer. He started his prayer with praise and adoration. Then starting in verse 19 he reminded God of his promises to Israel about the everlasting dynasty of David. But this is all building up to the big problem that Ethan will bring up in verse 38.

1TIMOTHY 6:
Yesterday we heard Paul’s instructions to Timothy about widows and about judging cases where church leaders are accused of wrong-doing. The chapter ended with two encouragements to Timothy.