Latest / Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan / September 30, 2026 - Ruth 2 & Proverbs 16:21-25

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September 30, 2026 - Ruth 2 & Proverbs 16:21-25 · Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where you are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, with God's word letting the way.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Josiah Smith, lead pastor of Compass South Valley.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Today is Wednesday, September 30th, 2026.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Listen intently to God's written word.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Ruth II.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him whose sight I shall find favor.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And she said to her, Go, my daughter.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come on the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who is the clan of Elimelech.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and he said to the reapers, The Lord be with you.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And they answered, The Lord bless you.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, Whose young woman is this?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, She is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: She said, Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Have I not charged the young men not to touch you?
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: 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?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: 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 in your native land and came to a people that you did not know before.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Then she said, I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And at mealtime Boaz said to her, Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her roasted grain, and she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her, and also pull out some from the bundles for her, and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: So she gleaned in the field until evening.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an epha of barley, and she took it up and went into the city.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And her mother-in-law said to her, Where did you glean today?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And where have you worked?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the man who took notice of you.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, The man's name with whom I worked today is Boaz.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Naomi also said to her, The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And Ruth the Moabite said, Besides, he said to me, You shall keep close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, lest in another field you be assaulted.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvest, and she lived with her mother-in-law.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs sixteen, twenty one through twenty five.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: The wise of heart is called discerning, and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Good sense is a fountain of life to him who has it, but the instruction of fools is folly.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious and adds persuasiveness to his lips.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before we dive into our specific readings for today, I wanted to take just a few moments to answer a question that came in through the lamp and light companion app, as it's called, in the app store.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: So this is available if you listen.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: You can go to the app store, type in lamp and light South Valley, and you'll see the Lamp and Light logo.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you can follow along digitally, both with the podcast and the plan.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: So each day, the home screen is the readings for that day, and you can check off and it'll track your progress.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: And there's other features, one of which is to ask a question, maybe specifically about a verse or the passage from that day, or any question whatsoever that you would like answered within reason on the podcast.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: So a question that came in a few days ago that I'd like to answer.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let me just read it.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: It says, uh, you recently mentioned modern day prophecy on the podcast.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm wondering what your thoughts are on this.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Do you believe there are any modern day prophetic words?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Those are in quotes, modern day prophetic words that are legitimate.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: I was raised in an environment where people would often give each other prophetic words about their lives, etc.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: What does the Bible say about this?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a huge topic, and not one that, of course, we can cover fully on this podcast, but I want to just give you some brief thoughts.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: One, I do not believe that the office of prophet is still for today, meaning I do not believe, biblically speaking, that there are modern day prophets.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think there were, of course, with the time of the apostles that they were uh operating in a very specific way for a very specific purpose that Paul refers to as the establishment of the church, the laying of the foundation.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't think there are modern day prophets, just like I don't think there are modern day apostles.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think that office, those offices have ceased.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And in that sense, no one is a modern day prophet.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what's tricky about as you ask the question, prophetic words, is that this actually can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Some people, when they say prophetic, they actually just mean preaching.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard that before, that you would just say with a kind of authority what God's word has said.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: So there's there's one sense that people sometimes mean prophetic.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Other times people mean that they have kind of a spiritual, maybe you could call it an intuition or a word of wisdom that they feel like the Lord has given them to specifically encourage an individual person.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the reason why I think this is unhelpful to speak in those terms and perhaps even uh unbiblical is because of two primary reasons.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And again, we have to keep this short for today.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but one I would say is that it actually is built on a faulty assumption.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll we'll dig into that a little bit more, but it's built on a faulty assumption, and two, I think it threatens to undermine the sufficiency of scripture.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: So when I mean faulty assumption, what I'm saying there is that oftentimes people think that in the Bible, but in the New Testament specifically, that miraculous things such as healing and speaking in tongues and prophesying were uh sort of the norm, the the default, that this was just the everyday experience uh of the church.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, we do see plenty of instances in the New Testament, in the book of Acts, as an example, of healings taking place, of people speaking in tongues and prophesying.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: We do see that.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: But actually, when you kind of zoom out, both in the New Testament and the Bible as a whole, uh, you will see very clearly that miracles were never the default.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm actually just going to read, I think, a helpful section here from a book just entitled The Holy Spirit by Robert Letham, a great theologian that I have learned much from.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, any idea that extraordinary gifts, such as prophecy, tongues, and healing, any idea that extraordinary gifts have been the norm for the covenant community is untenable.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning you can't really back that up with the data.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Miracles and similar phenomena never happened, never on an ongoing basis.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: They occurred only at particular points in the history of redemption, in the Exodus and the conquest, which of course we've read about on the Lamp and Light Plan, at or following the ministry of Moses, which we can think of some of the miraculous things that happened there with Moses striking the rock, God providing for the nation of Israel with quail, pillar of cloud by day, pillar of fire by night, all of those things.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we have um they occurred only at particular points, the Exodus and the conquest, the ministry of Moses at the beginning of the prophetic period with Elijah and Elisha, and again with the ministry of Jesus and the apostles.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: So talk of continuationism and cessationism, kind of two sides, two opposing sides of uh the different perspectives on gifts, says is misleading and needs some qualification.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: For the norm was absence, not presence.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Only at three key hinges of redemptive history did the miraculous punctuate the narrative.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: The terms of the discussion are misplaced and need to be recalibrated.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: So the reason why I bring this up and I read this in full, because I think a lot of the discussions around prophetic words and prophecy and tongues and healing, I think are built on a faulty assumption.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Again, you you would think the way that people talk that miracles were the norm, and like always says, punctuated that the covenant community.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just not what we see in scripture.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I could say more about that, but we'll just leave it there for now.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: The second reason, which I think is even more important, is that prophecy in this prophetic words actually threatens and undermines the sufficiency of scripture.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, again, I'm going to quote here from Robert Letham because I think he handles this in a way that both I would agree with, but also is very clear.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: So he's addressing this and he's making the same claim that I am that quote-unquote words of prophecy are either illegitimate, they are at best, uh maybe unneeded, unhelpful, and at worst actually undermine the sufficiency of scripture.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, first, the prophecy, here are the options, right?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: When you think about prophetic words that someone thinks that they have to give you.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: First, the prophecy contradicts scripture, in which case it is unequivocally false and must be rejected, or else it repeats the words of scripture.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the second option.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: So option one, the prophecy contradicts scripture, which of course we we cannot have, we cannot allow.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: The second option that you have is that the prophecy itself just repeats the words of scripture, and in that case, it renders it superfluous, which means meaningl meaningless, for the Bible has already spoken on the matter.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: So one, it contradicts it, you throw it away entirely.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Two, it just says what's already been said, which means it is meaningless in that in that sense because God has already spoken and it has already been already been recorded in scripture.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the third option it adds to scripture, right?
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Contradicting the words of the apostle that the scripture has been given, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work, and it entails that the Bible is not sufficient to guide us.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I think what inevitably happens when you think about prophetic words and saying prophetic words.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: One, I don't think that office is for today.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: We don't see prophets, we don't see apostles that has ceased.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And even those who would be more on the continuation of his charismatic side would largely agree with that.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but here, you know, the three options I think that are helpful and true is that one, it either contradicts scripture, which means you can't accept it to begin with, two, it just says what scripture already says, which is why would you need something different, right?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Said in a different way, or you know, in some sort of different medium than what God has already preserved and recorded, all right.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the word is enscripturated, right?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: He has written it down for us.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: So at that point, it's superfluous, it's it's meaningless.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, or third, it it adds to scripture, right?
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it either uh is not meaningful in any sort of real sense because God has already said it, right?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And of course it's meaningful in scripture, but it wouldn't be any more or less meaningful if you said it.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's superfluous, it's redundant, right?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or you you contradict, right?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh we don't want to add to scripture, we don't want to contradict scripture, uh, and of course we do actually want to say what scripture has said, right?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so in that sense, I do not think the language of prophetic words uh is legitimate.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think it is something that we ought to be uh pursuing in that sense.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh largely, hopefully, a lot of people that say these things, what they're really just hoping for is to be an encouragement.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: And in that sense, yeah, we we want to just say encouraging things.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: We want to say what the scripture has says, we want to encourage others with the scriptures, we want to speak the truth in love, but we don't need to wrap that in this sort of ethereal language of this is a prophetic word, or the Lord, you know, gave me a word of wisdom, or something like that.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I think there's just a lot of ambiguity.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I think it does undermine the sufficiency of scripture, and it's built on a faulty assumption that that was the norm for the people of God throughout biblical history, and in fact, that is not the case.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully that is a helpful, just brief uh answer to the question of modern-day prophecy, prophetic words, and things like that.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as we get to Ruth chapter two, I love this chapter because this is where the providence of God is on full display.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let me just define quickly the providence of God, because God's sovereignty is often perhaps what we talk about more familiarly.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we what we mean by God's sovereignty is that he has all authority, that he has all uh right to reign.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Think of you know a king occupying a throne.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: He has authority, he has a sovereignty that spans the scope of a specific kingdom.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: So God's scope of authority, of course, is over everything, over all the earth.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: It is his right to rule, it is his authority, his power, if you will.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, providence, on the other hand, uh is has been defined, I think, helpfully in the past as God's purposeful sovereignty, right?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, not that sovereignty is non-purposeful, but uh purpose with an intention, with a destination, with something that is intended to be accomplished, right?
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: So God has purposes that he utilizes his authority, he utilizes his rule, his reign to accomplish, right?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that's providence, God's purposeful sovereignty aimed in a particular direction to accomplish real things and purposes in the world.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: So here in Ruth 2, we see God's purposeful sovereignty with Ruth and Naomi.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because the way that the text reads is that Ruth just kind of happens to stumble upon the right field to meet the right guy.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Boaz, we're gonna get into more even in chapter three, uh, the significance of who he is and the role that he plays.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's referred to as a redeemer here.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get more into that tomorrow.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but we have Naomi in the in the or Ruth in the right field at the right time, meeting the right guy who happens to be a godly guy who is just overly generous with her, right?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: So part of what's going on here is uh we need to understand some Levitical categories.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: There's actually laws in the Mosaic law for those who are in need to essentially uh glean on the outskirts of a field, right?
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: So it was illegal for a field owner to pick up all of the grain that has fallen to the ground on the outskirts of their field.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: They were supposed to leave it there so that the poor, the widow, uh, they they would have some some form of provision.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that was baked into the law, and you could think of that in a sense as bare minimum.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Boaz, on the other hand, not only does he let her glean from the outskirts, but he also even says, Hey, take from my own stash, right?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: He sits her down, he provides her with a nice meal, he gives her uh from his own stash, he instructs his servants to protect her.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is a man of character.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is a man who is a godly man, even the way that he first speaks.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the Lord be with you.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: And his servants answer, the Lord bless you.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: So when I say the providence of God, right, you see Ruth just choose in her mind at random a field to go and try to help her mother-in-law Naomi.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: But she chooses, right, by God's providence, the right field at the right time to meet the right man who provides the very things that she needs and that her mother-in-law needs.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so the providence of God is so clearly on display here in Ruth 2.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Such a great encouragement to even remember that the details of our lives, even if we're not fully aware of it in the moment, you got to think Ruth's not, you know, she doesn't have some five-step plan here.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: She just picks a field.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: She needs food, right?
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Naomi needs food.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so she picks a field.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: And God, just even through a decision like that, that might have felt random to Ruth, is is purposefully leading her to the right place at the right time to meet the right man.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and that all is going to become clear as we get through the rest of Ruth.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully you see God's providence here and Ruth, too, in a way that's just so encouraging, uh, that God is uh utilizing his sovereignty purposefully for intended purposes that uh he will accomplish for your good and for his glory.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in Proverbs 16, we see a lot of different proverbs about words and how we are to uh speak.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and even the wise of heart is called discerning.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Sweetness of speech increases uh persuasiveness.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, good sense is a fountain of life to him who has it, but the instructions of fools is folly.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious and adds persuasiveness to his lips.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: So again, Proverbs, one of the one of the number one things that Proverbs speaks to is actually how we utilize our words.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so gracious words are like a honeycomb, they're they're sweet, sweet to the soul and health to the body.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so we want to use our words, we want to speak in such a way that it honors the Lord, that it flows from a sincere fear of the Lord.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we want to recognize, right, sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's a sense of even you could be more compelling, practically speaking, because of sweetness of speech, right?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we think we're more persuasive when we're harsh, but the proverbs say the opposite.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, uh a common proverb that you're perhaps familiar with, Proverbs 16, 25, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so the way to life and flourishing and blessing and wisdom is through the fear of the Lord, not going your own, not blazing your own trail.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: None of those things, right?
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully you're encouraged today as you reflect on the providence of God and the life of Naomi and Ruth, and even here to think about the fear of the Lord that should shape the way that you and I speak.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bob Reading Podcast.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass Bible SV.org.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Keep reading, keep growing.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.