Location, location, location : Baptist Bible Hour

Location, location, location

Posted by: Justin on November 17, 2011

There is a well-known real estate maxim that lists the three most important characteristics of any property: “Location, location, and location.”

This famous real estate lesson holds true in the Bible, as well.

In a message Sunday continuing through the book of Ruth, we noticed that there was a crucial difference in Naomi and Ruth’s experience once they move from pagan Moab to Bethlehem (which means the “house of bread”). In the Old Testament in particular leaving Israel is seen as departing from God, and returning to Israel represents one’s returning to God.

As Solomon would pray in dedication of the temple, “And if thy people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee; and shall return and confess thy name, and pray and make supplication before thee in this house; then hear thou from the heavens, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest to them and to their fathers.” (2 Chronicles 6:24-25).

But this is not an exclusively Old Testament concept. In the New Testament, the same truth is stressed — only now the emphasis is not on physical location but on where one’s faith is planted!

This is why Peter would write:

“[Christ] his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls” (1 Peter 2:24-25).

Similarly, Paul declared, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:1).

So the way to return to “the house of bread” in New Testament terms — as faithful Naomi and Ruth did in the Old — Jesus tells us in his own words, is to partake of his person and work by faith: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life” (John 6:47-48).

Where do you find yourself today? Are you trusting in the provision, power, or protection of man-centered solutions to life’s problems, or are you resting in the finished work of Christ at the cross, on behalf of sinners?

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