Ruth 1 -2 part 1
The book of Ruth is a story about how a gentile women not only loves her mother-in-law but falls in love with her God and how this love is rewarded by God. According to verse 1 the story of Ruth occurs during the time of Judges and some date the book around 1200 BC. It interesting to find such a wonderful story that happened during the dark times of the Judges. There are only 2 books in the Bible that bare a woman’s name Ruth and Esther. Ruth is about a gentile women who marries a Jew and becomes part of the bloodline of Jesus and Esther is a Jew who marries a gentile.
Some of the key words for this book are love, faith, rest and redemption.
In chapter 1-2 Ruth’s love for God and His people is shown
In chapter 3-4 Ruth’s love is rewarded.
The over all theme of the book is that if a person loves God and put their trust in them they will be redeemed and enter into his rest.
Now that we have taking a very brief overview of this book lets get into the text itself.
Ruth 1:1 Now it
came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the
land. And a certain man of
So the great famine
occurs and apparently this famine was not happening in
3
Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died; and she was left, and her two sons. 4 Now they took wives of the women
of
Elimelech dies and his 2
sons die 10 years later. Obviously his sons were influenced by the people of
Ruth 1:8 And
Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go, return each to her mother's
house. The LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with
me. 9 "The LORD grant
that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband." Then she kissed
them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.
10 And they said to her, "Surely we will return with you
to your people." 11 But
Naomi said, "Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Are there
still sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? 12 "Turn back, my daughters,
go -- for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, if I
should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons, 13 "would you wait for them
till they were grown? Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? No,
my daughters; for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the
LORD has gone out against me!"
Now it was customary that
these daughter-in-law’s would stay with Naomi but she is telling they don’t
have to do that in fact she lets them
know that if they follow her back to her people that they probably will not find
a husband. This made these 2 ladies very sad which shows how much they had come
to love Naomi.
Ruth 1:14 Then
they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law,
but Ruth clung to her. 15 And
she said, "Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her
gods; return after your sister-in-law."
So Orpah made her
decision to return back to the her home and to their God’s. In a spiritual way
this shows us that we all have a choice on which pathway we choose to go. Even
though Orpah loved Naomi she decided to go back to her people and to her Gods.
We can only wonder about Orpah’s fate because this is last time we hear of her.
I can’t help but wonder how much her life would had changed if she had choose
to go with Naomi. But Ruth clung to
16
But Ruth said: "Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from
following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I
will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God. 17 Where you die, I will die, And
there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, If anything but
death parts you and me." 18
When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to
her.
Sometimes these words are found in songs while others speak these at weddings. I think everyone here can appreciate the beauty and the depth of these words. I think it would be safe to say that Naomi had such an impact on Ruth by the way she lived her life and treated those around her that not only did Ruth Love Naomi she had fallen in love with God almighty. Ruth had made up her mind that no matter what faced her in the future she would remain with Naomi and with her people. It know it couldn’t have been an easy decision to leave her family and her home behind. Her sister wasn’t willing to do this but Ruth had counted the cost and decided it that it was worth it. We also see that she was willing to give up her God’s that she was brought up around because she apparently understood that Naomi’s God was the only true God. When Ruth seen how determined she was she didn’t say another Word.
We can learn a great lesson from Ruth that we can apply to us today. We need to have this same dedication and commitment to God. Not allowing anything to separate us from serving him. Being stubborn in the sense that we can stop the mouths of those who try to cause to fall away from God. We must learn to count the cost of discipleship and love God enough to follow through which means even putting him first over your family. Just as Jesus says in:
Matthew
Ruth 1: 19
Now the two of them went until they came to
Here we see that the city
was excited that Naomi had came back very similar to God is excited when the
sinner comes back. Notice Naomi doesn’t feel worthy to have them call her her
name because it means “pleasant” instead she wants them to call her Mara which
means “bitter”. Now is very similar to the story of prodigal son because he to
left his father house full but while he was in far country lost all he had and
came back to his fathers empty with just a shirt on his back not feeling worthy
to be his son. The same thing happens to us today while we are faithful to God
we are full but when we leave and go our own way we will lose the fullness that
we had and if we choose to come back to God we do so empty handed.
Ruth 2:1 There
was a relative of Naomi's husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of
Elimelech. His name was Boaz. 2
So Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "Please let me go to the field, and
glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor."
And she said to her, "Go, my daughter." 3 Then she left, and went and
gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of
the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of
Elimelech. 4 Now behold, Boaz
came from
Boaz was a very wealthy
man and we can see from the scriptures we just read that he had genuine
interest in the poor and in God’s Law.
Leviticus 19:9 ' When
you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of
your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 'And you shall not glean your
vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall
leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the LORD your God.
Not only was Ruth poor
she was a stranger as well. We also see from our text the Ruth catches the eye
of Boaz so much so that he inquires of who she is and he wants her to glean
only from his vineyard and to stay close to his young women. Notice Ruth’s
response:
Ruth 2:10 So she
fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, "Why have I
found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a
foreigner?" 11 And Boaz
answered and said to her, "It has been fully reported to me, all that you
have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you
have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come
to a people whom you did not know before.
12 "The LORD repay your work, and a full reward be given
you by the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for
refuge." 13 Then she
said, "Let me find favor in your sight, my lord; for you have comforted
me, and have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of
your maidservants."
You see Ruth’s love and
dedication to Naomi and to God has been made known. Boaz was ready to show the
same kind of kindness that he had shown to Naomi and he even speaks a great blessing over her because she
was willing to walk away from her family and those false Gods to take refuge
under God’s wings and so begins the relationship of Boaz and Ruth.
Ruth 2:14 Now
Boaz said to her at mealtime, "Come here, and eat of the bread, and dip
your piece of bread in the vinegar." So she sat beside the reapers, and he
passed parched grain to her; and she ate and was satisfied, and kept
some back. 15 And when she
rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, "Let her glean
even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. 16 "Also let grain from
the bundles fall purposely for her; leave it that she may glean, and do
not rebuke her."
Now Ruth was working hard
out in field so that she Naomi could
have food to eat. Well, at meal time Boaz invites Ruth to take a break and eat
with him and she does. You also notice
that she keeps some of the food back so that she could give some if it to
Ruth 2:17 So she gleaned in the field until evening,
and beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.
Ruth certainly wasn’t
afraid of work as she worked all the way into the evening. Now an ephah of
barley is somewhere between 4 to 7
gallons this was due to fact that different vessels of varying sizes were made
which were considered to hold an ephah. This would be enough barley to feed to
2 people for about 5 days. But Ruth had done much more than provide food for
them she had won the favor of Boaz which will eventually lead to her and
Naomi’s benefit.
Ruth 2:18 Then
she took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what
she had gleaned. So she brought out and gave to her what she had kept back
after she had been satisfied. 19
And her mother-in-law said to her, "Where have you gleaned today? And
where did you work? Blessed be the one who took notice of you." So she
told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, "The man's name
with whom I worked today is Boaz."
Now it was up to Ruth to
provide for them at this time and Naomi was excited that Ruth had came back
with food and she was very interested in who
showed her such favor. The same questions that Naomi ask here are good questions for us to
ask ourselves in regards to the harvest of sinners that are in the world.
"Where have you gleaned today? And where did
you work?
Notice what Jesus says in:
Matthew 9: 37 "The harvest
truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
38 "Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out
laborers into His harvest."
We can see that Ruth
understood that simple principle that you have to go to work in the field if you are going to have the chance
harvest the crop. We need understand this principle as well. We can only a
chance of harvesting sinner if we go into the field and work for the Lord.
20
Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "Blessed be he of the LORD,
who has not forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead!" And Naomi
said to her, "This man is a relation of ours, one of our close
relatives." 21 Ruth the
Moabitess said, "He also said to me, 'You shall stay close by my young men
until they have finished all my harvest.' " 22 And Naomi said to Ruth her
daughter-in-law, "It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his
young women, and that people do not meet you in any other field." 23 So she stayed close by the
young women of Boaz, to glean until the end of barley harvest and wheat
harvest; and she dwelt with her mother-in-law.
As we can see this was great news because Naomi husband was
related to this man which will play a big part in development of relationship
between Boaz and Ruth. This story so far has shown us that if we will truly
love God and remain faithful to him he will make sure that we are taken care
through his providence. I want to end this lesson with the words of Paul.
Romans