The Foreigner

Backdrop 3 - The Foreigner

If ever there was a foreigner in Bethlehem, Ruth was one. And be it known that she was from a place called Moab, which was not at all favoured by the Jews. Here are some interesting and relevant historical, background facts about Moab.

They were enemies of Israel as told in this verse. After Saul had assumed rule over Israel, he fought against their enemies on every side: Moab, the Ammonites, Edom, the kings of Zobah and the Philistines. Wherever he turned, he inflicted punishment on them. 1 Samuel 14: 47.

They were cursed by God because Balak, their king at the time, wanted to have God’s people cursed. Balak, along with all the Moabite people, were very afraid of the Israelites, who had just been liberated from Egypt. Balak sent this word to Balaam, a soothsayer. Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land. For I know that whoever you bless is blessed and whoever you curse is cursed. Numbers 22: 6. Instead, God intervened. He blessed His people and pronounced a curse on Moab.

There was also the period when all Moabites, for generations, were excluded, totally banned and barred from the Assembly, so cursed were they. No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even down to the tenth generation. Deuteronomy 23: 3.

How does this translate to you today? This is the time of Holy Spirit outpouring. It is harvest time in the Holy Spirit, for He has included many a foreigner.

Whatever, may be the field of the Holy Spirit in which you have found yourself, just as Ruth found herself in a field in Bethlehem, remember these facts.

The fact is that you are a foreigner. Like Ruth in Bethlehem, who was not a Bethlehemite, but a Moabite, so are you. You are a sinner, born and raised in sin. You are not like Jesus, a Righteous One.

You are a foreigner.

The fact is that you never came to this promise of God’s Gift on your own. Like Ruth, she is in Bethlehem only because of Naomi, a native-born and bred daughter of the soil, as it were. You are in the Holy Ghost’s Outpouring Field, only because of the grace to receive and follow Jesus.

You are a non – belonger.

The fact is that you are there on the steam of another. When Boaz, the owner of the field in which Ruth was working, saw this foreigner and enquired about her, this is what he was told. She is the Moabitess who came back from Moab with Naomi. Ruth 2: 6b. When Father God asks about you being in His Pentecostal Field, you will be the sinner who is attached to Jesus.

You are a stranger.

The fact is that you do not have the standing of a reaper in that field. Knowing who she was, Ruth never professed to be, or sought to be a reaper in that harvest lord’s field. She was grateful and very thankful to be a gleaner. Likewise you must never place yourself above who you are. Be ever thankful, and grateful to have even the most menial jobs in the field of the HOLY SPIRIT.

You are an outsider.

Have you ever stopped to think of how many foreigners were included in that grand Pentecostal harvest, when the Spirit was outpoured on all the followers of Jesus? Do you honestly believe that Jesus’ followers were only Jews like Himself? Absolutely not! Foreigners, Gentiles, were among His disciples. If you are a foreigner and indeed you are since you are a sinner, know that this does not strike you out, for Jesus Himself has brought you in. You are receiving this, a bumper harvest as it were, all that the Holy Ghost has made available to you as a sinner, ONLY because of Jesus.