Toward a Practical Theology of Good Works: The Practice and Teaching of Good Works in OT Historical Books

Let’s review

Having looked at the practice and teaching of good works in the Pentateuch, we learned several things about doing good works.

First, a believer’s sin affects in a negative way how he or she experiences God’s plan for their good works, but not God’s ultimate outworking of his plan itself. Moses’ sin affected his experience of the Israelites entering the Promise Land, but not the ultimate fulfillment of that promise.
Second, believers pay a price for doing God’s good works because we live in a fallen world that is antithetical to them. Joseph made a prophecy about his brothers, but then they sold him into slavery in Egypt as a result.
Third, there are two basic types of good works: unique good works and communal good works. Unique good works are those good works that God calls individual believers to do in their particular time, place, and circumstances. God called only Abraham and no one else to sacrifice his son. Communal good works, on the other hand, are good works that God calls all believers to do as an expression of their covenant relationship with him. All believers are to love their neighbors as themselves. Interestingly, while there are dozens of examples of individual good works in the Pentateuch, there are only a few examples of communal good works.
Fourth, unique and communal good works are different in nature. Unique good works promote the purpose of God (the means to the end), while communal good works promote the character of God and the healing of the community (the end itself).
And finally, obeying the communal good works as commanded in the Pentateuch are “heaven on earth” for the believers who practice them as an expression of the Mosaic Covenant with God. They are God’s will being done “on earth as it is in heaven.”

We now turn our attention to the practice and teaching of good works in the Old Testament historical books: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.

Below is an extensive (but again, not exhaustive) list of good works in Old Testament historical books. Some of these I have highlighted in bold and separated with verse quotes. The good works highlighted in bold are communal good works and are highlighted in bold to set them apart from the unique good works.

Examples of believers practicing good works in Old Testament historical books

Joshua 2:1-24 – Rahab hides two Jewish spies
Joshua 3:1-17 – Joshua leads his people into the Promise Land
Joshua 5:1-8 – Joshua circumcises the men of Israel
Joshua 6:1-27 – Joshua conquers Jericho
Joshua 7 – Joshua spares Rahab
Joshua 8:1-28 – Joshua conquers Ai
Joshua 10-12 – Joshua makes several more conquests
Judges 1:20-21 – Caleb occupies Hebron
Judges 3:7-10 – Othniel, Israel’s first judge, delivers Israel from the king of Aram
Judges 3:12-30 – Ehud kills the king of Moab with a hidden sword and delivers Israel from their oppression
Judges 5:24 – Gideon builds an altar to the angel of the Lord
Judges 7:1-25 – Gideon defeats the Midianites
Judges 11:32 – Jephthah subdues the Ammonites
Judges 13:19 – Manoah, Samson’s father, offers a burnt offering to the Lord

Judges 21:25 – “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.”

Ruth 1:1 “In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land.”

Ruth 1 – Ruth obligates herself to help Naomi as she returns to Bethlehem from Moab
Ruth 2:1-3 – Ruth goes out to glean in the fields for Naomi
Ruth 2:4-3:18 – Boaz shows Ruth favor in his vineyard
Ruth 4:1-12 – Boaz becomes Ruth’s kinsman redeemer
Ruth 4:13-17 – Ruth and Boaz give birth to a son, who becomes the grandfather of King David

Ruth 4:16-17 – “Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.”

1 Samuel 1:11 – Hannah promises to dedicate a son to the Lord
1 Samuel 1:12-28 – Hannah dedicates Samuel to the Lord at Shiloh
1 Samuel 2:18 – Samuel ministered to the Lord in spite of his wicked step-brothers
1 Samuel 3:10 – Samuel responds to the Lord’s call with “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”
1 Samuel 4:1 – Samuel speaks as a prophet to all Israel
1 Samuel 7:6-17 – Samuel serves as a judge of Israel
1 Samuel 7:12 – Samuel sets up a memorial stone and names it Ebenezer
1 Samuel 10:1 – Samuel anoints Saul as the first king of Israel
1 Samuel 11:11 – Saul defeats the Ammonites
1 Samuel 12 – Samuel gives a farewell speech
1 Samuel 14:1-23 – Jonathan attacks the Philistines

1 Samuel 17 – David slays Goliath
1 Samuel 20:16-42 – Jonathan and David swear friendship with each other
1 Samuel 23:1-6 – David and his men save the people of Keilah
1 Samuel 24:1-22 – David spares Saul’s life
1 Samuel 25:1- 44 – Abigail intercedes for her husband Nabal before David and David spares him
1 Samuel 26:1-26 – David spares Saul’s life again
1 Samuel 30:6-8 – David begins once again to seek the Lord’s leading and destroys the Amalekites
2 Samuel 1:17-27 – David laments Saul and Jonathan’s deaths
2 Samuel 3:31-39 – David laments the death of his former enemy, Abner
2 Samuel 4:12 – David avenges the murder of Ishbosheth
2 Samuel 5:6-8 – David conquers Jerusalem
2 Samuel 5:17-25 – David defeats the Philistines
2 Samuel 6:1-23 – David brings the Ark to Jerusalem
2 Samuel 7:18-29 – David prays to the Lord and humbly thanks the Lord for the covenant he made with him
2 Samuel 9:1-12 – David shows kindness to Saul’s grandson, Mephibosheth
2 Samuel 12:13 – David repents of his sin with Bathsheba
2 Samuel 16:5-14 – David refuses to allow Abishai to kill Shimei for cursing him
2 Samuel 16:15-23 – Ahithophel, David’s secret ally, gives Absalom bad advice
2 Samuel 18:33 – David mourns the death of Absalom
2 Samuel 19:22-23 – David spares Shimei’s life again
2 Samuel 21:14 – David has the remains of Saul and Jonathan buried in the tomb of Saul’s father
2 Samuel 24:24 – David insists on paying for Araunah’s threshing floor to offer a sacrifice to the Lord
1 Kings 1:28-40 – David has Solomon anointed as king
1 Kings 1:49-53 – Solomon spares Adonijah’s life
1 Kings 2:26, 27 – Solomon spares the life of Abiathar the priest
1 Kings 3:1-15 – Solomon asks the Lord for discernment in administering justice
1 Kings 3:16-28 – Solomon discerns the true mother of a contested baby
1 Kings 4:29-34 – Solomon manifests supernatural wisdom and knowledge
1 Kings 5:1-6:38 – Solomon builds the temple
1 Kings 7:13-47 – Huram creates bronze objects for the temple
1 Kings 8:1-66 – Solomon brings the ark to the temple and dedicates the temple
1 Kings 15:11-15 – Asa king of Judah leads a revival
1 Kings 17:1 – Elijah predicts famine to Ahab
1 Kings 17:15 – The starving widow at Zarephath serves food to Elijah first
1 Kings 17:22 – Elijah raises her son from the dead
1 Kings 18:16 – Risking his life, Obadiah tells Ahab that Elijah has arrived
1 Kings 18:21- – Elijah confronts the false prophets of Baal
1 Kings 19:21 – Elisha becomes Elijah’s disciple
1 Kings 22:1-28 – In spite of persecution, Macaiah prophesies Ahab’s death
2 Kings 2:19-21 – Elisha purifies a town’s water
2 Kings 4:1-7 – Elisha enables a widow to pay her debts by creating a surplus of olive oil
2 Kings 4:8-36 – Elisha raises the Shunammite’s son from the dead
2 Kings 6:1-6 – Elisha floats an axhead
2 Kings 6:8-22 – Elisha feeds his blinded enemies
2 Kings 12:1-21 – King Joash leads a revival in Jerusalem and rebuilds the temple
2 Kings 14:5, 6 – King Amaziah of Judah does not put to death the children of his father’s assassins
2 Kings 18:1-5 – King Hezekiah removes the high places in Judah
2 Kings 19:14-19 – Hezekiah prays for deliverance from Sennacherib
2 Kings 22:1-23:30 – King Josiah leads a revival in Judah
1 Chronicles 23-26 – King David organizes the Levites, priests, musicians, gatekeepers, and other temple officials in preparation for Solomon building the temple
2 Chronicles 11:2-4 – The prophet Shemaiah stops Rehoboam from attacking the northern tribes
2 Chronicles 15:1-8 – The prophet Azariah encourages Asa to seek the Lord
2 Chronicles 15:1-19 – King Asa leads the people into a covenant to seek the Lord
2 Chronicles 16:7-10 – The prophet Hanani rebukes Asa
2 Chronicles 20 – Jehoshaphat leads his people in prayer before fighting the Moabites and Ammonites and defeats them without a fight
2 Chronicles 33:10-20 – King Manasseh repents of his sin and is restored to his kingdom
Ezra 1:1-4 – Cyrus, King of Persia, issues a decree to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem in Judah
Ezra 1:5- Leading heads of the exiles prepare to return to Jerusalem
Ezra 1:6 – The exile’s neighbors gave them expensive gifts in support of their journey
Ezra 1:7-11 – King Cyrus returns 5,400 articles of gold and silver to the returning exiles
Ezra 3:1-6 – Joshua and Zerubbabel and their associates rebuild the altar
Ezra 3:7-13 – Zerubbabel and Joshua and their associates rebuild the temple
Ezra 5:1-2 – Haggai and Zechariah prophecy and Zerubbabel and Joshua start rebuilding the temple again
Ezra 6:13-18 – The people complete building the temple
Ezra 9 – Ezra addresses the issue of intermarriage
Ezra 10 – The people repent
Nehemiah 1:1-11 – Nehemiah fasts and prays in Babylon about the state of Jerusalem
Nehemiah 2:1-10 – Nehemiah request leave from King Artaxerxes to go and rebuild Jerusalem
Nehemiah 2:11-4:23 – Nehemiah inspects and rebuilds Jerusalem’s walls
Nehemiah 5:1-13 – Nehemiah makes the nobles and officials forgive their loans to their poor Jewish brothers and return their property
Nehemiah 5:14-18 – Nehemiah takes no salary while he is governor
Nehemiah 8 – Ezra reads from the Book of the Law
Nehemiah 13:30 – Nehemiah purifies the priests and the Levites of everything foreign
Esther 2:7 – Mordecai raises his cousin, Hadassah (Esther), who is an orphan
Esther 2:21-27 – Mordecai uncovers a plot to kill King Xerxes
Esther 2:9-14 – Mordecai refuses to honor Haman at the gate
Esther 7 – Esther intercedes on behalf of the Jews before King Xerxes resulting in Haman’s death

The first thing to notice about this list is that there are many more unique and individual good works than there are communal good works.

The second thing to notice is that there are no examples of communal good works listed in the books of Joshua and Judges, which cover a historical period of hundreds of years. In other words, when it comes to communal good works, Joshua and Judges extend the dearth of communal good works in the Pentateuch.

The third thing to notice is that there is a sudden burst of communal good works with the Book of Ruth. In fact, communal good works are the only kind of good works we find in the Book of Ruth. Here are four of Ruth and Boaz’ communal good works listed with the communal commands they represent.

The Book of Ruth records the first “explosion” of communal good works in the Bible

The Book of Ruth is the story of two people, Ruth and Boaz, doing communal good works from the first chapter to the last. The book only has communal good works in it and nothing else and Ruth and Boaz obediently doing these communal good works is what doing God’s will on earth as it is in heaven looks like. The Book of Ruth is heaven on earth.

Ruth 1 – Ruth obligates herself to help Naomi as she returns to Bethlehem from Moab

Deuteronomy 10:18-19 – “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”

Ruth 2:1-3 – Ruth goes out to glean in the fields for Naomi

Leviticus 19:9-10: “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.”

Ruth 2:4-3:18 – Boaz shows Ruth favor in his vineyard

Leviticus 19:34 – “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

Ruth 4:1-12 – Boaz becomes Ruth’s kinsman redeemer

Leviticus 25:25 – “”If one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells some of their property, their nearest relative is to come and redeem what they have sold.”

The Book of Ruth, then, is one gigantic spiritual and moral explosion, however brief, of heaven manifesting itself on earth. As such, obedience to these types of communal commands in the Book of Ruth represents God’s will for the entire nation. God wants all of Israel to act the way these two people are acting. Unfortunately, God had to go outside the nation to the land of Moab to find one person who would start doing these communal good works, that is Ruth. Then God finds one more person in the country itself, Boaz, who also is willing to do these communal good works.

As we continue on through the above list of good works, time passes. But Ruth’s and Boaz’ good works were not for naught. They once again find their expression in the lives of two of their descendants, David and Solomon.

The next “explosion” of communal good works occurs during the reigns of King David and King Solomon

The next long period of communal good works happens during the reign King David, and at the beginning of King Solomon’s reign, and are recorded in 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 Kings.

1 Samuel 20:16-42 – Jonathan and David swear friendship with each other
1 Samuel 24:1-22 – David spares Saul’s life
1 Samuel 25:1- 44 – Abigail intercedes for her husband Nabal before David and David spares him
1 Samuel 26:1-26 – David spares Saul’s life again
1 Samuel 30:6-8 – David begins once again to seek the Lord’s leading and destroys the Amalekites
2 Samuel 1:17-27 – David laments Saul and Jonathan’s deaths
2 Samuel 3:31-39 – David laments the death of his former enemy, Abner
2 Samuel 4:12 – David avenges the murder of Ishbosheth
2 Samuel 9:1-12 – David shows kindness to Saul’s grandson, Mephibosheth
2 Samuel 12:13 – David repents of his sin with Bathsheba
2 Samuel 16:5-14 – David refuses to allow Abishai to kill Shimei for cursing him
2 Samuel 18:33 – David mourns the death of Absalom
2 Samuel 19:22-23 – David spares Shimei’s life again
2 Samuel 21:14 – David has the remains of Saul and Jonathan buried in the tomb of Saul’s father
2 Samuel 24:24 – David insists on paying for Araunah’s threshing floor to offer a sacrifice to the Lord
1 Kings 1:49-53 – Solomon spares Adonijah’s life
1 Kings 2:26, 27 – Solomon spares the life of Abiathar the priest

This list describes two kings, David and Solomon, suddenly acting very differently from the way kings in the Ancient Near East normally act. In this list, we see that David and Solomon both have a conscience. They show their enemies mercy and even honor them when they die. David forms an unusual friendship with Jonathan that is based on character. Solomon asks for wisdom. In short, David and Solomon love God and fear God and are acting in a manner that demonstrates that love for God. And when David sins, he does something that no other earthly king had done before, he publicly confesses it, repents, and accepts the consequences.

Thus. at this point in time, David and Solomon are doing God’s will on earth as it is in heaven. They are applying God’s communal commands to their reigns, and in David’s case, he did so even when he sinned.

Now that we have looked at these two historical periods of obedience to God’s communal commands -Ruth/Boaz and David/Solomon, there are two questions we need to ask: why is there a Book of Ruth and why is it in the location that it is in the Bible?

The Book of Ruth is a transitional book that explains how two believers obeying their communal commands as recorded in the Pentateuch radically changed Israel’s history and brought in the reigns of David and Solomon

The key to understanding the purpose of the Book of Ruth is to look at the first verse of the book and the last verse of the book:

Ruth 1:1 “In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land.”

Ruth 4:17 – “And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.”

Ruth 1:1 references the moral decay and social chaos of the time in which Ruth and Boaz are living in. On the other hand, Ruth 4:17, the last verse in the book, indeed, the last word in the book, references David and his righteous reign. The author is saying, “Do you want to understand David? Then look at his ancestors, Ruth and Boaz. They are qualitatively different from the moral chaos that was going on in their lifetime.” They are different because they know and love God through faith and do his communal good works.

Ruth Pleading the cause of a widow had a greater spiritual and moral effect on the rest of Israel’s history than all of the unique miraculous good works of Moses and all of the unique military good works of Joshua and the judges

The Bible is making a massive point with the Book of Ruth. It is telling us that the Exodus, with all of its miracles, along with the conquering of the land, with all of its military victories, ended in abject failure due to the spiritual condition of the children of Israel. It was only when Ruth, acting with faith in the living God, sacrificed her existence in order to protect the widowed and childless Naomi, that things began to dramatically change for Israel. It was her communal good work, along with the communal good work of Boaz that followed, that laid the foundation for the righteous reigns of David and Solomon.

Examples of teaching about good works in OT historical books

By definition, Old Testament historical books are not didactic. So we should not be surprised when we do not find much by way of teaching about good works in these books. Nevertheless, we do find some teaching, as we see in these examples.

Joshua 1:7 – “Be strong and very courageous”
Joshua 4:4-7 – Joshua sets up a memorial of their crossing the Jordan river to teach future generations about it
Joshua 8:34-35 – Joshua reads the blessings and the curses from the Book of the Law before the people
Ruth 3:1-4:12 – Information about kinsman redeemers
1 Samuel 12:1-5 – Samuel asserts that he acted righteously in ruling over Israel
1 Samuel 15:22 – “And Samuel said, ‘Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.'”
1 Kings 17:7-16 – Elijah instructs the Widow at Zarephath about putting the Lord first
2 Kings 4:8-10 – The story of the Shunammite woman who provided hospitality to Elisha, demonstrating kindness and generosity.
2 Kings 14:5,6 – King Amaziah of Judah does not put to death the children of his father’s assassins according to the Law: “Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.”
2 Chronicles 24:16 – “And they buried him [Jehoiada] in the City of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and toward God and his house.”

Some of the teaching in these passages is commemorative in nature and meant to be absorbed by future generations. And like Ruth, who comes from outside Israel and has deep faith in God in contrast to her Israelite mother-in-law and father-in-law, we see other instances of this theme of the outsider who believes God, such as the Shunammite woman and the widow at Zarephath.

But in general, teaching about good works in OT historical books is very light.

Close, but no cigar

In summary, by focusing on the practice of good works in Old Testament historical books, we have learned an important lesson: it was only when Ruth and Boaz started obeying the communal commands in the Pentateuch that the moral and spiritual state of the nation dramatically improved, culminating with the reigns of David and Solomon, but then petering out again because of sin.

We should note that, sadly, the reigns of David and Solomon occurred during a time when there was a political power vacuum in the Ancient Near East. Called the “Bronze Age Collapse,” there were no national “superpowers” that were able to exert influence beyond their borders. Egypt was in disarray, and Assyria and Babylon had yet to ascend. Thus the theocracy of David and Solomon had almost infinite potential to dominate the Ancient Near East had it not been for David’s sin, Solomon’s disobedience, and the division of the kingdom. Even so, Solomon’s reign reflects the potential of how the practice of communal good works could have spread throughout the known world as people came to faith in the living God of Israel.

This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.

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