Daily Bible Reading: Ruth 3 and Mark 5:1-20

Ruth 3 – Naomi wishes to find some better situation for Ruth.  She instructs her to go down to Boaz when he is done eating and drinking, “uncover his feet and lie down” there. What she is doing is offering herself for the purpose of giving Boaz the opportunity of providing his close relative—the deceased Elimelech—with a lawful heir. He is “next of kin” or “one with the right to redeem.” He wakes in the middle of the night, finds her there and is duly impressed with her virtue. He must go and first give an even closer male relative “the right of first refusal.”

Mark 5:1-20 – Immediately upon reaching shore a “man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met him” (5:2). He is clearly mentally disturbed and perhaps represents the condition of the people Jesus ministers to. The fact that his name is “Legion” might infer that there are many souls represented by him, or that his soul is many-layered, confused.  The spirit he has is the spirit of unholiness, of uncleanness before the things of God—all that is associated with the swine into whom Jesus banishes the evil spirit.  When word gets around that Jesus has exorcised the demoniac, people “beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood” (5:17).  The healed man begs Jesus to permit him to go with him, but Jesus only tells him to go and tell his friends.  This is the first time Jesus does say this—previously he asked to remain unmentioned.