{"id":811,"date":"2025-06-09T18:37:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T18:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ojtoks.com\/Blog\/?p=811"},"modified":"2025-06-09T18:40:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T18:40:19","slug":"what-are-you-wearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ojtoks.com\/Blog\/what-are-you-wearing\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are You Wearing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even Ruth had to be sanctified or set apart completely before she could marry Boaz. She went through some of the five steps of sanctification that I discussed previously before she got set up with Boaz. Let\u2019s look at how she was set apart for Boaz.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her sanctification started when she left Moab to reside in Israel. She set herself apart from her homeland and ended up in the vicinity where her husband resided. Just like Adam was moved from the dust of the earth and placed in the Garden of Eden, Ruth was put, placed, positioned, moved, set in Israel\u2014apart from Moab. That was her step 1.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her step 3, not step 2, occurred right after her mother-in-law, Naomi encouraged her to hook up with Boaz. She told her to:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026wash yourself and anoint yourself, put on your best garment and go down to the threshing floor\u2026. (Ruth 3:3 NKJV)<\/span><\/p>\n

Obviously looking and smelling good is important to attract someone. Notwithstanding let\u2019s look at some finer points from that statement. If you recall, I mentioned that one of the <\/span>synonyms for <\/span>sanctify <\/span>is <\/span>wash<\/span>. Ruth was told to wash herself. Like I discussed previously, when we leave an environment, chances are that we brought part of that environment with us. Ruth left Moab but she took part of Moab with her. Before she could espouse Boaz she had to wash Moab from herself.<\/span><\/p>\n

More specifically, she had to get rid of the past that she brought along with her. In this case, I\u2019m talking about the memory of her husband. You see, Ruth was previously married to Mahlon in Moab. But Mahlon died in Moab (See Ruth 1:1-5). And in Old Testament times, the way people dressed signified their status. For example, lepers dressed a certain way to indicate to people that they were lepers. Blind people dressed a certain way to indicate that they were blind. Likewise, widows dressed a certain way, to indicate that they were widows (See 2 Samuel 14:2).<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, when Naomi told Ruth to dress up, she wasn\u2019t just saying this to encourage her to be presentable to Boaz, but also because she wanted her to shed off her widow\u2019s garment. She wanted her to give up her past. It was time to let go of her dead relationship. Along the same lines, if this applies to you, let go of that relationship that didn\u2019t work. He or she has let go of you. You are no longer in that relationship. It\u2019s dead to you. You also be dead to it. Move on.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be like the women who took spices with the intent to embalm Jesus\u2019 <\/span>dead <\/span>body. They wanted to spice up someone that was dead. Sometimes some of us inadvertently spice up dead relationships. We glamorize and fantasize about things that did not work. We can do this by carrying pictures or souvenirs of old flames. And occasionally, maybe when we\u2019re feeling lonely or emotional, bring those old memories up and fixate on them. We reminisce on things of the past. Let them go. Get rid of them! Why are you seeking the living among the dead? Like Ruth, change your garment.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. O. J. Toks, While You Are Single<\/em> (Paoli, PA: Elevator Group Faith, 2015), 181-182.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even Ruth had to be sanctified or set apart completely before she could marry Boaz. She went through some of the five steps of sanctification that I discussed previously before she got set up with Boaz. Let\u2019s look at how she was set apart for Boaz. Her sanctification started when she left Moab to reside … Continue reading What Are You Wearing?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspirational"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ojtoks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ojtoks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ojtoks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ojtoks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ojtoks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ojtoks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":815,"href":"https:\/\/ojtoks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions\/815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ojtoks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ojtoks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ojtoks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}