Today’s blog includes the introduction to a new Bible Study that will be coming out this fall, called Digging Sideways. The name comes from the digging and research I needed to do to rewrite Ruth’s story (Less Than a Widow). I imagined working at an archaeological dig. Scientists choose a site, map it out in blocks, and then go through it layer by layer with precision. Experts often delve sideways with sieves and brushes through each layer so they don’t miss any tiny artifacts. In this way, they seek to discover something they have not seen known before or something that corroborates what they have learned from other digs.
Not everyone is, or desires to be, an archaeologist or a researcher. Digging Sideways is designed to make this process more accessible to all readers of the Bible.
Have you ever sat in a crowd watching fireworks? Everyone says, “Oooh” and “Aaah” as they point to the sky. What they see really excites them, and they want to share it with others. Afterwards, people take turns describing what
delighted them about their favorites.
That is exactly the kind of reaction I had as I got to know Old Testament story characters through researching and writing “Less Than a Widow,” the story of Ruth, Naomi, Elimelek, and Boaz. I asked questions and made charts:
- What does the Bible say about their character?
- How do they act, and what do they say?
- What kind of temperament and traits do these things suggest?
- What do they believe to be true about God?
- You can see this in their words and actions, even if not
directly told in the Bible. - How old are they? What do they look like?
This took a lot of research and choices. - I searched the internet for faces that connected with the pictures that I had in my head, printed them out, and looked at them as I thought and wrote.
- I asked God, “Is this what they were like?”
These long-ago people became my neighbors—folks I cried and laughed with, worried and wondered over. I knew their life stories. I sweated with them through hard times, laughed with them, and loved with them. They grew to be my friends. And best of all, I found out we are all related; all of us are members of the family of God.
“Character development” is what makes this Bible study unique. We grow to know the people in the Bible stories until they are no longer flat, one-dimensional images on a page. They take shape, and our family grows as we receive insights and understand better who they are.
We will see that Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz were “unlikely people” to become heroes of faith. This should encourage us, because we are just like them! God has a purpose for us in our time and place, just as he had for them in theirs.
Watch for the publication announcement. It will be available on www.empowermentinstitute.org
