WWUTT 1830 Q&A Ruth at Boaz’s Feet, Jesus is the Word, Operation Christmas Child

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December 9, 2022

Responding to questions from listeners about Ruth's gesture uncovering Boaz's feet, what does it mean that Jesus is the Word, and what are the problems with Operation Christmas Child. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!

00:00: When Ruth uncovered Boaz's feet, was there something scandalous going on there? Why is
00:06: Jesus called the Word in John 1 .1? And is Operation Christmas Child a wise use of our charity?
00:13: The answer is when we understand the text. This is
00:25: When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of God that we may comprehend with all the saints how wide, how high, and how deep is the love of Christ.
00:35: Tell all your friends about our ministry at www .tt .com. Here once again is
00:40: Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky, who is not with me this week. She is sick.
00:46: So hence why she couldn't join me for this episode. Earlier in the week, she even had a touch of laryngitis.
00:52: So if we had been trying to record on that day, she couldn't have talked. She would have just sat next to me and breathed into her microphone.
01:00: Right now, whatever it is that's affecting her lungs and her throat has manifested itself into a cough, so she didn't want to sit here and cough all the way through this.
01:09: So be in prayer for us as sickness has once again afflicted the Hughes household. Our infant son, well, he's 15 months old now, but he has an ear infection.
01:19: We've got that checked out. He's on a prescription. The rest of us are doing pretty healthy.
01:24: We actually came to a Christmas party at our church last night that my Sunday school class was having.
01:30: I so love my Sunday school class. And thank you to their generosity toward me and to my family.
01:37: It's been a blessing to be a part of that class. You hear the lessons from that class on Sunday morning.
01:42: That's what I'm posting on the Sunday edition of the podcast is the lessons that I teach to my class, which meets in the sanctuary at the church.
01:50: So I'm very limited on what I can do and how much time I have. I have to finish at a certain time because the next service needs to needs to be able to come in.
02:00: But that was Pastor Tom's class. Tom Buck was teaching that class when I first got here. And it was summer a year and a half ago that he gave that up to me.
02:09: And so it's been a blessing for me to be able to teach that class. And everybody in there is so wonderful.
02:14: We have some great Sunday school classes at our church, incidentally. So if you're ever making it through Lindale, Texas, you want to stop in, drop in on any of our classes.
02:23: You don't have to come to mine or Tom's. Any of these teachers are great. We are blessed with some great Bible teaching.
02:29: And that's credit to the years of ministry that Tom has been putting into this church to get it to this particular point, some sound doctrinal teaching.
02:38: And I pray that your church would be able to receive the same. Find a church to be a part of.
02:44: If you are not yet a member of a church, commit your membership there and grow with that particular body, as we're fond of talking about here on when we understand the text.
02:53: We love that you listen. I'm glad that you enjoy the Bible lessons that I teach.
02:59: But this is not a replacement for church. It's not a replacement for the fellowship that you need with other believers in the faith who can help grow you, who can admonish and encourage you wherever needed.
03:13: We need a fellowship of believers to be able to do that with. So find a good church in your area.
03:19: I think I've got some links to church finders like websites where you can look for a good church.
03:27: If you go to WWUTT .com and you click on the links tab, there should be a list there right at the top.
03:33: I think right at the very top, I've got church finder. It's like the first thing on there. So look for a good church.
03:39: Be a part of a church body, especially as we get into this holiday season. To start off here,
03:45: I wanted to read a passage. It's a verse that your church has probably already read here during the holidays.
03:51: You certainly hear it every year. The prophecy of the coming Christ in Isaiah chapter nine, verses six and seven.
03:59: I'll be reading from the Legacy Standard Bible for a child will be born to us. A son will be given to us.
04:06: Now, that might sound a little different than you're used to hearing. You're probably used to it sounding like unto us a child is born to us.
04:14: A son is given. Right. I think the the New King James reads that way. The English Standard reads that way.
04:20: This is the legacy. So let me let me start there again. For a child will be born to us.
04:25: A son will be given to us, prophesying the Christ who is to come and the government will rest on his shoulders and his name will be called
04:36: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
04:44: There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.
04:59: The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this. And we know that this prophecy was fulfilled 700 years later when the
05:10: Christ child was born. He has come to us and the government rests on his shoulders.
05:16: Amen. Now, I've been meaning to make a what video out of this particular verse, especially concerning the way that Jesus is described as everlasting father, because that particular descriptor is often twisted by Unitarians in particular or modalists and Trinity deniers.
05:35: They will say, see, Jesus is referred to as father. So the father and the son are actually the same.
05:42: So I want to do a what video explaining that I talk about it in my book, 25
05:47: Christmas Myths and what the Bible says. It's one of the myths that I address that Jesus is the father. Nope, that's not true.
05:54: But you can you can find the book to read about that. By the way, the Kindle version is much cheaper than the paperback.
06:00: If you don't want to buy the paperback, you just want to spend, I think it's like three bucks or something like that to get the Kindle version.
06:06: And then you can just read it right now on your electronic device. There are other Christmas what videos that have been put out.
06:13: Most of the videos that I'm going to be releasing between now and the end of the year will be either Christmas or I'm remastering older videos.
06:20: And then at the at the end of the year, probably first or second week of January, I'll do my top 10 list.
06:27: Here were the 10 biggest what videos for 2022. But subscribe to the channel.
06:33: Go to YouTube dot com slash WWU TT. Look for the Christmas videos that I have on there.
06:39: There is one video that I did. I was actually the first one that I did of the Christmas season. I posted it the last day of November.
06:46: I took the the 10 most popular Christmas videos and put them into one video.
06:52: I've had people contacting me since then saying this was great for family devotional times is about a 16 minute video or something like that.
07:00: We watched it together as a family. One guy contacted me and said, hey, can I use this to lead into my lesson that I'm doing with my youth on Wednesday?
07:09: Yes, by all means, take those videos and use them. That's what I made them for. You don't even have to ask my permission.
07:15: I'm glad they can be useful to you to share the gospel with somebody else. So so, yeah, look for those videos for free.
07:23: I'll post them on the Facebook page through Twitter or just go straight to the
07:28: YouTube account. YouTube dot com slash WWU T .T. Subscribe to the channel.
07:35: And any time I post a new video, you'll get some kind of alert or notice about it.
07:41: Well, here on the broadcast, we typically respond to questions from listeners on a
07:46: Friday, and I would do that with my wife if she was able to be here with me. But since I'm flying solo this week,
07:52: I'm still going to answer your questions, but just do it by myself. So Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we do
07:59: New Testament study. I've been in the book of Hebrews just finish up Hebrews chapter five.
08:04: On Thursday, I do Old Testament study and I've been in the book of Isaiah. I was kind of hoping that when
08:09: I started Isaiah, I might get to like a Christmas passage around Christmastime, like in Isaiah seven, where you have the prophecy of the virgin will be with child.
08:20: But it looks like we're not going to hit those chapters until after Christmas. Unfortunately, I'm just not on pace fast enough to be able to get there by the time we get to Christmas.
08:30: But that's the study that I'm doing on Thursday, since that's the Old Testament study. And that's the book that I'm in right now.
08:36: And then Friday, of course, we do our Q &A. So let me get to some questions here. This first one comes from Ellie says,
08:43: Dear Gabe and Becky, I'll tell her you said hello. A friend of mine shared this video from a pastor named
08:51: Brandon Robbins on YouTube. I think he has something to do with the chosen, but I can't be sure.
08:58: Anyway, in this video, he talks about how in the book of Ruth, when Ruth uncovered
09:03: Boaz's feet and laid down, this was actually a euphemism for her doing something intimate with Boaz.
09:12: Now, we tried to say that this wasn't scandalous at this particular time. It was actually an appropriate gesture.
09:19: I guess that's what this pastor in this video was talking about. And he tried to get the audience to see that all of this was pointing to Christ.
09:26: But I just could not believe that when Ruth uncovers Boaz's feet, that's supposed to be a euphemism for something sexual.
09:33: And yet at the same time, it isn't something scandalous. Ruth and Boaz were not married. Then I look to see if you had done a video on the subject so I could drop it in the comments section.
09:43: But I could not find one. If you have a video or if you're able to point me to a resource,
09:49: I would appreciate it. Well, I did actually teach on this earlier this year.
09:54: It was February 6th. So if you go back in the history of the podcast episodes on Sunday, February 6th,
10:03: I posted my Sunday school lesson and it was entitled The Relationship Between Boaz and Ruth, where I took my
10:09: Sunday school class through Ruth 3, 1 through 18. And I directly address how that particular passage gets twisted or misused to say that Ruth was doing something inappropriate there or, you know, having relations with Boaz.
10:26: And there was just some sort of euphemism that was used there to not be explicit. But that's not what the text says at all.
10:32: Here's what I want to do. Let's go to Ruth chapter three. I'll do this as tastefully as I can. So let's go to Ruth three.
10:38: We'll read the text. I'm going to play the clip from the video that Ellie here was talking about having seen.
10:46: I guess somebody that she say it was shared on social media or something. Yeah. A friend of mine shared this video from a pastor named
10:52: Brandon Robbins on YouTube. So, yeah, it might have been shared on social media or something like that. So I'm going to play the clip because she sent me the link to the video.
11:00: I'm going to play the clip and then respond to it and show you how you can tell in Ruth three.
11:06: You can tell by the way the language is used there. You don't have to have like a deep understanding of the
11:13: Hebrew or anything like that. You can just tell from the grammar that it is not something scandalous that's going on here or a euphemism for something else.
11:22: So let me start here in Ruth chapter three, verse one. We'll read the text, then go to the video and do and then do a deeper explanation.
11:30: Naomi, her mother in law, said to her, this is Naomi speaking to Ruth, my daughter, shall
11:35: I not seek a state of rest for you that it may be well with you and now is not
11:40: Boaz our kinsman with whose young women you were. Behold, he is winnowing barley at the threshing floor tonight.
11:49: So you shall wash yourself and anoint yourself and put on your best clothes and you shall go down to the threshing floor.
11:56: But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. Let it be that when he lies down, you shall know the place where he lies and you shall go and uncover his feet and lie down.
12:09: Then he will tell you what you shall do. She said to her, Ruth replied to Naomi, all that you say
12:16: I will do. So she went down to the threshing floor and did according to all that her mother in law had commanded her and Boaz ate and drank and his heart was merry and he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain and she came secretly and uncovered his feet and lay down.
12:34: Then it happened in the middle of the night that the man was startled and bent forward and behold, a woman was lying at his feet and he said, who are you?
12:42: And she answered, I am Ruth, your maidservant. So spread your wing over your maidservant for you are a kinsman redeemer.
12:51: Then he said, may you be blessed of Yahweh, my daughter. You have shown your last loving kindness to be better than the first by not going after young men, whether poor or or rich.
13:03: So now my daughter do not fear all that you say I will do for you for all my people within the gates of the city know that you are a woman of excellence, but now it is true.
13:15: I am a kinsman redeemer. However, there is a kinsman redeemer closer than I stay this night and it will be in the morning that if he will redeem you good, let him redeem you.
13:26: But if he does not desire to redeem you, then I will redeem you as Yahweh lives.
13:32: Lie down until morning. So she lay at his feet until morning and rose before one could recognize another.
13:38: And he said, let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor and he said, give me the cloak that is on you and hold it.
13:46: So she held it and he measured six measures of barley and placed it on her. And then she went into the city.
13:52: She then came to her mother in law and she said, Naomi said to Ruth, how did it go? My daughter and Ruth told her all that the man had done for her.
14:00: She said, these six measures of barley he gave to me for, he said, do not go to your mother in law empty.
14:07: And then Naomi said, sit then my daughter until you know how the matter falls into place for the man will not remain quiet until he has finished the matter today.
14:19: There you go. We've read a whole chapter of the Bible today. That was all 18 verses of Ruth chapter three.
14:25: So we've read our text. Let me play the clip from this particular pastor. And then we'll come back to our text again.
14:32: The scene is set for Ruth and Naomi to make their move. Boaz will be their redeemer and he seems ready to embrace this role, right?
14:40: He already admires Ruth's honor and character. And so Naomi concocts a plan and here's where things get really interesting.
14:48: Naomi says tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor, wash, put on perfume and get dressed in your best clothes.
14:57: Then go down to the threshing floor, but don't let him know that you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.
15:03: When he lies down, note the place where he's lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down.
15:09: He will tell you what to do. Now, all of this might sound like an innocent fairy tale on the surface, but there's a lot going on underneath, right?
15:19: First, there's the preparation of Ruth, right? People would wash and anoint when preparing for something significant and special.
15:27: So perhaps Ruth was changing from widow's garments to regular garments to show that she was ready for marriage.
15:33: Which makes sense because what she does next makes it very clear that she is ready for marriage.
15:40: It says that Ruth lies down and uncovers his feet. And all of this language here is filled with euphemisms.
15:50: Uncovering feet and lying down are words that are regularly used to refer to intimate moments throughout scripture.
16:00: Now, when I began to study this passage, I searched and searched for the Disney version of this story, right?
16:05: Thinking that maybe people had tried to make this story seem way racier than it was. But ultimately,
16:12: I had to admit that it was a greater leap to deny the suggestive language than it is to accept it.
16:20: Here's the thing, though. This story isn't trying to make Ruth and Boaz look bad, right?
16:25: There's no suggestion of sin here. It feels scandalous for us, and it definitely would have caught the attention of the original readers.
16:31: But in order to understand this moment, we have to understand the context of everything, right? This is why we recapped the story.
16:38: Yeah, and he's dead wrong in his explanation of that story. It's kind of funny, though, that he says that he says,
16:45: I was looking for the Disney version of this story. Yeah, the Disney version these days would be really, really bad.
16:52: You know, some of the content that Disney's throwing in their stuff now, right? They just had a new film totally bombed at the box office.
17:01: It was called Strange World or something like that. One of the characters was in a same sex romance, and parents were just saying, we're not going to have anything to do with that.
17:10: I'm not taking my kids to see that. So this movie just utterly bombed. It was one of the worst bombs that Disney has ever produced.
17:18: They spent over $100 million on it and never there. There's no way they're recouping those expenses.
17:25: So all that to say, it's funny to try to describe an innocent moment as a
17:30: Disney moment when that's not Disney anymore. Anyway, this fellow, this pastor that I just played, his name is
17:36: Brandon Robbins. He is a Methodist pastor, and Ellie had said she thought that Brandon was associated with the
17:44: Chosen somehow. I couldn't find any connection with that. I noticed that he was doing some videos responding to the
17:51: Chosen, so it looked to me like he was taking episodes from the Chosen and just kind of using that to teach
17:58: Bible stories and generate a bunch of views on his YouTube page or whatever else. But I don't think he's actually connected with the
18:04: Chosen. I don't think he's like their official spokesperson or preacher or anything like that. But this description or his attempt to exposit the narrative here that's going on in Ruth chapter three is totally wrong.
18:19: That is not the case at all. And it sure would have been really helpful for him to name his sources here when he said, like,
18:27: I read into this and I was looking for the Disney version, but this is filled with euphemism. OK, where does he get that from?
18:34: Who told him that? Who told him that this gesture of uncovering the feet was filled with euphemism and it's actually suggestive language that's describing an intimate moment?
18:44: I'd sure like to know where he was getting that from. Like I said in the beginning, we can go to the text and just from the grammar, we can tell that this is not a euphemism for some sort of more intimate thing that's happening here that the author just doesn't want to inappropriately describe.
19:03: So let's come back to it again in Ruth chapter three, starting in verse six.
19:09: So we've already heard the description of Naomi telling Ruth, you're going to go, you're going to uncover his feet and lay down at his feet.
19:16: Now, here's the actual action part of it. So she goes to the threshing floor and did all that her mother in law told her to do.
19:25: And Boaz ate and drink in his heart was Mary. That doesn't mean he got drunk, but he drank so that he was happy.
19:32: He even got a little bit tired. So he goes to lie down at the end of the heap of grain and Ruth spotted the place where he was laying and she came secretly and uncovered his feet and lay down.
19:45: Now notice that verse seven, he goes to sleep. His heart is Mary. And so his sleep is probably a pretty deep sleep and she comes secretly and uncovers his feet and lays down verse eight.
19:58: Then it happened in the middle of the night. That the man was startled and bent forward and behold, a woman was lying at his feet.
20:08: Does it sound like in the action there that anything is going on except what is exactly described?
20:15: She uncovered his feet and laid down at his feet. That's all she did. That's not being suggestive of anything else, especially when you consider she lays down at his feet and then time passes.
20:28: It happened in the middle of the night that he was startled. Like the wind blew on his feet that are exposed to any kind of, he kind of sits up and goes, oh, there's a woman down there.
20:39: Okay. If she was doing something else other than that, he would not have slept through it.
20:45: I think I can say at least that much and it doesn't sound too scandalous, right? I don't know. Maybe some of you thought
20:51: I was going a little bit too far with that. What else can I say though? Since this guy is wanting to say that there's some sort of a intimate thing that's happening here, it's not suggestive of anything more than this.
21:05: And he says, who are you? And she answers, I am Ruth, your maid servant.
21:10: Now look at this in verse nine. She says, so spread your wing over your maid servant for you are a kinsman redeemer.
21:18: Now, literally she's saying, spread your cloak over me. Is she laying next to him?
21:26: No, she's not. She's at his feet. It would have been inappropriate for her to be laying next to him because only his wife, it would have been appropriate only for his wife to be laying side by side with him.
21:41: So for her to say, spread your cloak over me is a proposal of marriage. She's saying, make me your wife that I may lay side by side with you.
21:49: Now, of course that doesn't happen right here. They're not married. So nothing scandalous happens here.
21:55: She just lays down at his feet. And then he's going to go handle the matter with the nearest kinsman redeemer to her.
22:03: And if that kinsman will not redeem her, then Boaz is going to do it. And then he will make her his wife.
22:10: But right now they're not married. So she just simply goes to his feet and uncovers his feet and lays down.
22:16: Now, this gesture is just like what she had done previously in chapter two, where she bowed down at the feet of Boaz.
22:26: It was a gesture of humble submission. I am your servant. And he took that as a great honor, as a humility for this woman to bow before him in that way.
22:37: Well, here she comes to him with a request, but he's laying down. So she can't bow before him.
22:43: He's lying down. So the gesture then becomes to uncover his feet and lay down at his feet.
22:50: It's the same gesture, just in a different form. And previously he was standing up.
22:56: Now he's laying down. Now he's prostrate. So she shows her humility in this way. Now, as I explained in the
23:01: Sunday school lesson, if you go back again to that lesson I taught on February 6th, I made a connection also to Leverett marriage in Leviticus 25 and also what's said there in Deuteronomy chapter 25.
23:16: I'm not going to do that now. If you want to hear the greater detail, you can go back and listen to the lesson again.
23:21: That was on February 6th, Ruth three, one through 18. But just by examining the text, just looking at the grammar in the language, we can know that what's being described here is exactly what's being described.
23:35: There's nothing more suggestive to it than what we have just read. And it's really, really silly for pastors to go beyond the text in this way, just for,
23:45: I don't know the clicks, because that's what the title of the video was. The title of the video was meant to gain your attention into,
23:53: Oh, what, what scandalous thing happened here in the story of Ruth. So he does it for clicks.
23:58: He does it for sensationalism. He baits you into the video so he can get lots and lots of views. Looks like that.
24:04: He's got ads that he runs on his videos and he probably makes money off of that. But the man doesn't know how to exposit the text.
24:10: Thank you for your question, Ellie. I hope this was helpful. And with the friend who posted this video, you can either share this podcast episode or you can go back and listen to the
24:21: Sunday school lesson. Like I said that I had posted on February the sixth. I haven't done a short video.
24:27: I won't be able to get to one for a little while, but that's a good idea. It's a good topic for a what video.
24:33: I'll think about that for some time in the near future. This next question comes from Nell and says, studying the gospel of John in Sunday school.
24:42: The question was asked regarding John one, one in the beginning was the word.
24:48: Why did John use the word word? I know it is a Greek word meaning logos or logos, however you want to pronounce it.
24:57: And he used it in communicating to the group. He was explaining who Jesus was, but I couldn't explain why
25:04: John would use word. So that they could understand. Do you have a simple explanation?
25:10: Love your show. And I am learning so much from you and Becky. Thank you for that nail.
25:16: And I will pass that on to my wife. So is there a simple explanation for why
25:21: Jesus is referred to as the logos as the word? Well, this is a major theme over the course of John's gospel.
25:30: That word, which gets translated word comes up over 40 times in the gospel of John.
25:37: It's the very way we start this gospel account. John one, one in the beginning was the word.
25:44: And the word was with God. And the word was God. We have these, this fuller expression of Christ having been from the beginning with God.
25:55: And then the next time that word appears is in verse 14. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
26:03: And we beheld his glory. Glory as of the only begotten from the father full of grace and truth.
26:12: So think about what is meant when we use that word. Word. What do our words mean?
26:21: Well, the words that we use are the expression of our mind and of our heart, correct?
26:27: And so it is the same with God. Jesus is the expression of God, of his will, of his desire, of his intentions.
26:36: The story of redemption culminates with Jesus Christ. And so everything that God had intended from the beginning is fulfilled in Christ.
26:45: Jesus, the very nature of God, everything that we come to know about the father and even the giving of the
26:51: Holy spirit. We know these things through Christ. Jesus came and he spoke to us the word of God.
26:59: He was the very embodiment of that word. Consider what Paul said about this in Colossians 1 15.
27:06: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
27:11: And then verse 19 for in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell everything that we could ever want to know about God.
27:22: We see in the person and work of Jesus Christ, he is the very expression of God.
27:29: And so therefore he is described as the word. Now, there are much deeper things that we can say about that than, than just that short answer that I've given there.
27:39: In fact, I've read lengthy commentaries like pages upon pages of stuff that was written down just about John one, one.
27:50: Let me give you a small taste here. So this is from American theologian, Albert Barnes, and he says about Jesus being called the word, this name is given to him who afterward became flesh.
28:04: He became incarnate. Whatever is meant by it, therefore is applicable to the
28:10: Lord Jesus Christ. There have been many opinions about the reason why this name was given to the son of God.
28:17: It is unnecessary to repeat those opinions. Barnes says the opinion, which seems most plausible may be expressed as follows.
28:25: Number one, a word is that by which we communicate our will by which we convey our thoughts or by which we issue commands the medium of communication with others.
28:38: Number two, the son of God may be called the word because he is the medium by which
28:44: God promulgates his will and issues his commandments. And then he points to Barnes points to Hebrews one, one through three, which we went through that a few weeks ago on the on the podcast.
28:56: Number three, this term was in use before the time of John. It was used in the
29:01: Aramaic translation of the Old Testament. Isaiah 45, 12. I have made the earth and created man upon it in the
29:09: Aramaic. It is literally I by my word have made. And since we're reading here in John one, one that in the beginning was the word
29:19: Jesus was the word through which all things were made through him, all things came into existence.
29:26: Then we know that according to Isaiah 45, when it said there by God, that by my word,
29:32: I brought all things into existence. It's Jesus Christ, specifically his words that brought all things into existence.
29:39: Continuing on with Barnes here, the term was used by the Jews as applicable to the
29:45: Messiah in their writings. He was commonly known by the term Nimra. That is word and no small part of the interpositions of God in defense of the
29:55: Jewish nation were declared to be by the word of God. Thus, in their Targum on Deuteronomy 26, 17 to 18, it is said you have appointed the word of God, a king over you this day, that he may be your
30:10: God. The term was used by the Jews who were scattered among the Gentiles and especially those who were conversant with the
30:18: Greek philosophy. And the term was also used by the followers of Plato among the
30:24: Greeks to denote the second person of the Trinity. The Greek term was commonly given to this second person, but it was said that this noose or mind was the word or reason of the first person of the
30:39: Trinity. The term was therefore extensively in use among the Jews and Gentiles before John wrote his gospel.
30:49: So you're not talking about something that John just kind of invented on the spot and then was put into use, but he was even utilizing language that was in use among the
30:58: Jews and Gentiles to help them understand that Jesus Christ is the word, the word who put on flesh and dwelt among us, which, of course, we celebrated this time of the year, the incarnation of the son of God, which we celebrate every
31:15: Christmas. So that's a good Christmas passage for us to get together and read. John 1, 1 through 14.
31:23: I hope that was helpful to you now. And thank you so much for your question. This next question comes from Keoki in Hawaii, who says,
31:33: Aloha, Pastor Gabe. Well, aloha to you. What do you think about Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse and specifically
31:41: Operation Christmas Child? I have read some people who say they don't like the effects it can have overseas, such as the children.
31:49: These shoeboxes are going to not actually needing or having any use for many of the things the shoeboxes contain and often not even knowing what to do with them.
31:58: Some of the people I have read say that they were on the receiving end as kids and have sad stories about what happens.
32:06: Thank you in advance for your thoughts and wisdom regarding this and for your ministry in general. Since I discovered you through Wretched, awesome.
32:15: Thanks for that, Todd Freel, for playing those what videos. Keoki says your ministry has blessed me immensely, and your
32:22: Q &As are always at the top of my podcast playlist. Blessings to your family as well.
32:27: Well, thank you for that, Keoki. So about Operation Christmas Child, my family and I used to do
32:35: Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, and I say we used to do it. We don't do it anymore.
32:40: We used to do one shoebox per person. I would pick an age group, a boy or a girl of a certain age, and then, you know, we'd all go to Walmart.
32:50: We'd make a family outing out of it, and we would buy stuff for our shoeboxes, and then we'd bring them home, and we would stuff our shoeboxes together.
32:59: I think I only did this with my oldest two kids. I don't think my eight -year -old would remember ever doing this.
33:05: One Christmas, I just decided to stop doing it, and the kids didn't bring it up.
33:11: No one asked, hey, are we going to do a shoebox this year? It just quietly went away.
33:16: Now, this was before I had a podcast, incidentally, so I don't think I've ever talked about this on the podcast.
33:23: Why did I stop participating in Operation Christmas Child? I stopped doing it because if you've been a longtime listener of this program, then you've heard me say this time and time again.
33:35: I'm not the first person who has said it, but you've heard me say it a lot. What you win them with is what you win them to.
33:44: If you're going to win them with stuff, it's going to take stuff to keep them there. Just like I have been critical of churches who try to win people through the doors by promising them stuff or by entertaining them,
33:55: I began to realize that this was exactly what Operation Christmas Child was doing.
34:02: Now, if you were to absolutely convince me that the gospel is being preached in every town or village or wherever Samaritan's Purse goes to distribute these shoeboxes, if you could convince me that they were indeed preaching the gospel, it's still the gospel with the promise of stuff.
34:26: It's the same bait and switch seeker sensitive tactics that are used in many
34:31: American churches, which incidentally is also why Operation Christmas Child is such a popular program in the
34:37: American West. It fits right in with the common ideology on how to do evangelism.
34:44: You promise them stuff. Who cares how you get them to come so long as they come, right?
34:50: Of course, a child is going to sit there and listen to somebody give the gospel to them because they know after this person gets done talking,
34:58: I'm going to get stuff. And this is not the way that we want to be communicating the gospel, how we want to be sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world more often than not for these children that will receive these shoeboxes.
35:13: Life will be very, very hard. Life is hard. When those volunteers came in, it will continue to be hard when they leave.
35:23: And so for the moment that a child received that shoebox and got stuff, they were filled with some sense of elation, but we're not doing them any favors by giving them cheap stuff.
35:36: Give me grace for saying so. But but that's what it is, right? You go down the dollar aisle at the store and you buy a bunch of cheap things and put it in this shoebox.
35:45: Some people go all out and they buy bigger, better stuff. But then that's unfair to the other kids.
35:51: When one little girl gets a super nice doll and the other person just got something in the out of the dollar aisle.
35:58: So and I've heard this, by the way, I've heard from missionaries who have said kids would fight over the toys that they would get.
36:04: They would not be content or happy with what they got. They would be jealous of what the other person got.
36:09: So, yeah, just like Keoki, you were saying that you've read from kids who said that they had negative experiences with the shoeboxes.
36:16: I've read a lot of the same thing, but that's secondhand stories. I've not personally encountered that.
36:22: I'm just going off of the whole ideology of the whole thing. It doesn't work. It's not this is not a biblical way to go about sharing the gospel with others or even doing something charitable for them because we're buying cheap stuff for them.
36:35: It's not helpful stuff. This is all feelings driven. It's all emotionalism.
36:42: And the reason why, again, Operation Christmas Child has been so popular is because we love the feelings we get from doing it.
36:50: Hey, this is fun. Fill up a shoebox, send it to some kids in another part of the world. They're going to be happy with the stuff that we get.
36:56: And I feel better because I spent some time putting this shoebox together that's going to change a child's life, which is not true.
37:03: We convince ourselves of that, but it's really not changing anybody's life. It's cheap fun. And they get a cheap gospel when they get these gifts in that kind of way.
37:14: Now, let me pause here for a moment. Maybe I should have prefaced with this. I'm not trying to say that if you did
37:20: Operation Christmas Child this year, because they've already done it, they've already done the shoebox drive. It's done.
37:25: Those shoeboxes are gone now. I'm not trying to say that if you've done that, you've sinned somehow. That's not what
37:31: I'm doing. I'm not trying to bind anybody's conscience and try to say that you've done something wicked if you participated in Operation Christmas Child.
37:39: Like I said, it was just something that eventually worked into my mind as a matter of wisdom, recognizing
37:46: I don't think that this is the best use of our time and money and energy. It costs a lot of money to put these shoeboxes together and pay for them to be shipped in other places.
37:57: And you have no guarantee that when those shoeboxes get to those kids, that the gospel is actually being proclaimed.
38:05: I'm not convinced that the goal of all of this is to share the gospel.
38:12: I think the goal is to just give a gift of a shoebox with a few cheap trinkets in it to give some kids some happiness for a little while.
38:21: I really think that's the whole goal. I don't think that the gospel is the main goal. And like I said, even if you were to convince me the gospel is absolutely being preached, that that's not the ideology.
38:31: That's not the push behind these shoeboxes in November. So just last month, this was just a few weeks ago.
38:38: I read this in Christianity Today in November. Operation Christmas Child celebrated the distribution of their 200 millionth shoebox.
38:52: 200 million shoeboxes. That's all we got out of that. That was the headline 200 millionth shoebox distributed to a child in another part of the world.
39:05: What do you not hear in that headline? Anything about the gospel, because that's not the focus.
39:12: And I know there are some genuine Christians that work for Operation Christmas Child.
39:17: There are genuine Christians who work at the drives to gather up those shoeboxes and take them to the distribution centers.
39:24: I know because I used to work at one. I worked in this for years, was a part of Operation Christmas Child.
39:31: When I was in Christian Radio, we would collect all of the collection points.
39:38: We would get all the names and we would broadcast them and I would list them off. Hey, if you live in this town, you want to go to this place or this place.
39:44: If you live over here, here's where you can take your Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. And a couple of years that I worked in Christian Radio, the station that I worked for was one of those drop -off locations.
39:55: So we got the big cartons and we loaded up the shoeboxes and then the Samaritan's Purse truck came in and we loaded them on the truck.
40:02: We would even put out, hey, we're looking for some volunteers to help us with these trucks. Yes, I've worked there. Yes, I've worked side by side with genuine
40:09: Christians. We all thought we were making a real difference. But when you really stop and think about what you're doing, when you try to apply some wisdom to this, you begin to recognize this is really not the way that we're to go about sharing the gospel, nor can we really practically say that we're changing any child's life with these shoeboxes that are being distributed.
40:34: Now, on a personal level, I have some problems with Franklin Graham's theology, but that is not the determining thing here.
40:43: I'm just saying that the gospel is not the focus in the distribution of Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes.
40:51: In addition to being concerned about the way that the children who receive these shoeboxes also receive the message of the gospel,
41:01: I was also concerned about how I was communicating these things with my children, with my children.
41:08: Like I said, we were doing this as a family project. So I'm also teaching my kids that evangelism means giving kids free stuff.
41:17: And that's not the message that I want to teach to my own children either. I don't want them to get the impression that charity is buying cheap toys and sending them to kids in another part of the world.
41:32: True charity is way, way deeper than that. I mean, there have to be some deeper investments that are made here.
41:39: And so what are some alternative things that we can do instead of Operation Christmas Child?
41:45: Well, I would recommend that if your church has a missionary, if there are missionaries that your church supports, and I hope your church does.
41:54: I mean, if you're a Southern Baptist church, then your church is probably dumping money into the Lottie Moon Christmas offering or the
42:01: Cooperative Program, the International Missions Board. And you probably don't have a lot of name missionaries whose pictures are posted in your church, people that you can be praying for.
42:11: But I would strongly encourage you if it's somebody that's gone out from your church or it's just someone your church supports.
42:18: Know who your missionaries are. Contact those missionaries and ask them what the needs are in the places where they are.
42:27: What can we do to help you in the ministry that you are doing there? And then whatever money you would have been spending, whatever time you would have been spending on Operation Christmas Child stuff, spend it instead on how you can benefit the missionaries that your church is already supporting.
42:43: There are other things that you can do, too. Like instead of buying a bunch of cheap toys that aren't going to last, if you really want to give a gift of some kind, we'll look at some of those ministries that will, like, for example, buy a goat or buy rabbits or a freshwater well or something like that.
43:02: Look for something else that is more meaningful and long lasting. That's not the promise of cheap stuff, but is actually doing something charitable that lasts a long time and see if those ministries that would do such a thing are in those areas long term.
43:21: So it's not a matter of, like, a missionary coming in. Missionary, volunteer, paid staff, whatever it is.
43:27: They just come in, give a gift, and then they hightail it out of there. Who is in that place with long term connections who are not just going to see that your gift is fulfilled, but is also going to stay with them and help them hands and feet, as well as being the word of God to them that they would share the gospel with them so that they're investing in these people's lives.
43:51: True missions work is not short term stuff. True missions work is going into places and sharing the gospel and planting churches there.
43:59: What sort of church planning work is being done in some of those places? Now, this takes more effort on your part.
44:07: It takes more work for you to look up who needs help contacting them. How can we help?
44:13: So on and so forth. Or maybe there's a missions director at your church. That would be a little bit easier.
44:19: Go to them and ask them, hey, how can we help? What can we do? And that's not a Christmas time thing.
44:24: That's an anytime thing. Anytime go to your missionary or your local missions representative, whoever it might happen to be, and talk to them about how can we benefit our missionaries and then talk with your family about that.
44:38: The head of the household, the dad, you know, he comes to family devotions and he says, I've talked to our local missions representative and here's our local missionary.
44:47: Here's their picture. We're going to pray for them. And here's something that we can do for them to help them with the work that they're doing in investing in these people's lives and sharing the gospel with the people in that area.
44:59: So that churches are planted and raised up and the gospel is continuing to be implanted into their hearts and in their souls.
45:05: And they're growing in the knowledge of the word of God. We can be doing so much more than what's being done through Operation Christmas Child.
45:15: This is a, it's an organization. It's a, I don't want to call it a ministry.
45:21: I really don't. It's some sort of movement that is driven by sentimentalism, more than a real desire to meet the needs of others and give them the gospel of Jesus Christ.
45:32: I'm not convinced that the gospel is the goal of Operation Christmas Child because everything is about the shoebox.
45:39: We always hear about the shoebox. Every OCC drive that I've ever participated in, though there were a lot of Christians involved in the program,
45:48: I just wasn't convinced that Jesus Christ was the star. It was all about the shoebox.
45:54: So I just share these things with you to say that I think that there are better ways that we can go about reaching people for Christ than Operation Christmas Child.
46:05: If you've already done a shoebox this year, maybe you've been doing it for years. I think it started in like 1993.
46:11: So there's going to be a big push in 2023 when they come around to, what is that?
46:17: Let me do my mental math. 30 years. It's the 30 -year anniversary of Operation Christmas Child.
46:25: I'm sure there's going to be a big push for it next year, but I would encourage you to look elsewhere.
46:30: There are some better, wiser things that we can do. Don't do nothing, okay? Don't hear me talking about this and going, well,
46:37: Gabe said we can't do Operation Christmas Child anymore. I'm just moving you toward looking at other ways that we can get the gospel to people and doing meaningful charity, not just cheap toys and trinkets, which really don't have any long -term usefulness to the children who receive those things.
46:58: So anyway, I appreciate your question, Kiyoki. I don't think that I've ever covered any of that on the broadcast before, so happy to answer that.
47:05: Even though we're past the Operation Christmas Child season, look into that for next year.
47:10: Right now, you could do something special for a missionary.
47:16: You don't have to wait for Christmas to roll around because, like I said, this is an anytime of the year thing. So be talking with your family about that.
47:23: I still think Angel Tree is a good idea. In fact, I would say that Angel Tree is more beneficial than Operation Christmas Child because with Angel Tree, the local economy is benefited.
47:35: With Operation Christmas Child, it's not. That's something else that you may have heard from certain accounts from certain missionaries because this stuff is brought in from outside.
47:45: Local merchants don't benefit, and so it doesn't actually enhance the economy of that particular area to be distributing these shoeboxes.
47:53: Whereas if you participate in Angel Tree, you're participating in something that's right there in your neighborhood, whether it's buying a gift for someone who is elderly or buying a gift for a child.
48:03: That's usually the two that I see served by Angel Trees. It's either buying a gift for an underprivileged child or it's buying a gift for somebody who is elderly.
48:12: And look for a way that when you do that, you can actually go visit the person. Can I meet the child who's receiving this gift or meet the elderly person who's getting this and start up a relationship with them?
48:24: Don't let it just be, hey, I'm giving you this gift and that's it. But continue to invest in those people's lives.
48:33: It's okay to buy a gift for somebody for charity. I'm not saying that you shouldn't do that. I just think that on a practical level, it's better to do that locally.
48:42: If you want to help kids overseas, talk to your missionaries on how you can benefit them.
48:49: All right. Well, that's all the questions that I've got. And if you have any others that you would like to send, the email address is when we understand the text at gmail .com.
48:58: Thank you so much. And God bless. Let me pray as we close out here.
49:04: Heavenly Father, we thank you for the goodness that you have shown to us through your son, Jesus Christ.
49:09: As we're in a season of giving, we remember the greatest gift that was given to us.
49:15: The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And this is the greatest gift that we could give to somebody else, sharing the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
49:25: He who died on a cross for our sins and rose again from the dead, whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life with God.
49:35: It is through faith in Jesus that we have fellowship with God right now. This is a relationship that continues to grow until we will be with you in your presence in glory.
49:46: So keep us in holiness, living lives of righteousness, according to what your word says.
49:54: We desire to share the message of the gospel with others. And we grow with our brothers and sisters in the faith, encouraging and admonishing one another with grace as the circumstance calls for it.
50:09: We thank you for the love that you show to us daily. And may we be reminded every day we wake up and there's air in our lungs, that your mercies are new every morning.
50:20: Great is your faithfulness. We ask for your continued guidance upon our lives.
50:27: In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.
50:33: There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.
50:42: Find a good, gospel -teaching, Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend, and join us again