regularly. We rejoice -in your salva tion and dedication to the Lord. Your greatest work and most difficult mis sion is right there in your home. This will sometimes have to take precedence over the church; God or dained the home long before He did the church. Make very sure you do not nag your husband in any sense. Be a loving and faithful wife, even at the sacrifice of some service in the church in the days ahead (I Pet. 3:1-7). We would qualify this by saying that if it is a matter of serving the Lord or serving your husband, the Lord must come first. Be very careful in your evaluation. Q . Redding, Calif. — “Can you tell me where in the Bible it says, ‘Weep at a birth and rejoice at a death?’ ” A. There is no such specific pas sage. You might look at Jeremiah 22:10 and Ecclesiastes 7:2. Q . San Diego, Calif. — “Why did Ruth go to the threshing floor, as is sug gested in 3:9, and place herself at the feet of Boaz?” A. She was not a Jewess, but a Moa- bitess. Both she and Naomi were widowed. One in such a position then and in that area didn’t have the status as one would today in our Western culture. This entire chap ter is a beautiful representation of the marvelous communica tion of thought from Naomi to Ruth. The latter obeyed the words explicitly. In the Old Testament the covering of one ■with a garment and one lying at the foot was an acting out of one’s desiring to come under the protection of the household. Ruth had a claim on Boaz, recognizing that he had no wife and that she was a widow from his kindred. In Deuter onomy 25, we see that if a kinsman died without children, the nearest relative was to take his widow, mak ing sure that her needs and welfare were protected and not in jeopardy.
name and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.” This Name is never to be used for idols; they can use god with a small “g.” In Hebrew, there are no capitals. This is why God told them no one else was to use His name. No passage in Scrip ture says we have to use this name, Jehovah, exclusively. God, as well as the Lord Jesus Christ, has more than one name. In Exodus 6:3, the Lord is illustrating this very 'truth. He appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as El Shaddai, the God who is all sufficient. He did not use Jehovah, for that was another truth yet to be revealed to them. This is the name which God uses in His realm refer ring to redemption. He had not yet redeemed them by blood and by pow er as He did at the Passover and the time of the Red Sea miracle. There is a tradition that the High Priest alone, only on the Day of Atonement, was allowed to pronounce this name, YHWH ; however, this is not in Scripture. The rabbis held that this sacred name was like a chemical for mula, having inherent in it the real essence of God. We don’t believe that the High Priest had to pronounce it just once, and as a matter of fact, in Leviticus 16, there is no indica tion that he said anything at all in the presence of God. Habakkuk states, “The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him.” Q . Billings, Mont. — “/ have been a Christian for about one year. My only thought and goal is serving the Lord. The sad part of it is that my husband is not a Christian. When I spend too much time in church work, my husband gets very angry. He is such a wonderful and kind man that it breaks my heart to see him lost. How can I get my husband to become more interested in God and church?” A. Many similar letters are received 26
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