OASIS – Spring 2024 – April 30-May 1, 2024 - RUTH: part 1 of 2
“Bethlehem Love Story” – Ruth chapters 1-2
Background to the book of Ruth:
• 8th book of the Bible, right after the book of Judges.
• The Chronological setting is during the period of the Judges, between Moses/ Joshua (about 1450 BC) and the first Kings of Israel (about 1000 BC). Jewish tradition states that Samuel was the author of the book of Ruth, but it is really unknown (and probably unlikely considering Ruth 4:17 and 4:22)
• Understand the Worldview during this period of time: Judges 21:25: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.”
Ruth 1:1-5: In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there. 3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.”
• An account of an AVERAGE family in a NOWHERE village.
We live on the other side of history, so the village of Bethlehem is one of the great places we know about in the Bible: King David was from this village, and of course the birth of Jesus Christ happened in Bethlehem. But here, before the first king of Israel has taken the throne, Bethlehem is really no big deal. This is just another nowhere village and a narrative about a very average family doing whatever it takes to survive. They just want to stay alive.
• What about the name Orpah? Born Oprah Gail Winfrey, her first name was spelled Orpah (not Oprah) on her birth certificate after the woman in the Book of Ruth chapter 1, but people mispronounced it regularly and "Oprah" stuck.
• Storms of LIFE are unfolding. Foreigners living in Moab, Naomi experiences loss repeatedly, losing first her husband and then both sons.
Ruth 1:6-20: 6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah
8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the LORD show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”
11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD’s hand has turned against me!”
14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. 15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” 16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” 20 “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter 21 I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” 22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
Three realities are bubbling up to the surface in chapter 1:
#1: DIVINE PROVISION:
This family traveled toward Moab looking for food during a time of famine in Judah. Then, following the death of her husband and both sons, Naomi prepares to return to Judah. What is the difference between v. 1 and v. 6?
#2: COMMITMENT: Ruth goes above and beyond as a daughter-in-law!
Does Orpah get a bad rap? Didn’t she do exactly what Naomi asked of her?
Ruth is exceptional in contrast with Orpah! Verses 16 and 17 are as beautiful as any in all of God’s word! Some consider this the ideal standard for human relationships.
#3: SPIRITUAL AGONY: The picture of Naomi is as brutal as any in scripture.
• Naomi: the name means “PLEASANT.”
• “MARA”: means “BITTER.”
• Ruth 1:21: “The Lord has afflicted me” = a better and more literal translation would be “the LORD has testified against me.” Sounds like book of Job?
• Naomi is convinced her storms of life come from one source: The LORD!
Ruth 2:1-23: Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz 2 And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.” Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” 3 So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.
4 Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The LORD be with you!” “The LORD bless you!” they answered. 5 Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?” 6 The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. 7 She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”
8 So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. 9 Watch the field where the men are harvesting and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.” 10 At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”
11 Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-inlaw since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 12 May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
13 “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have put me at ease by speaking kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servants.” 14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.” When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. 15 As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her. 16 Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”
17 So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. 18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.
19 Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!” Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with
today is Boaz,” she said. 20 “The LORD bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-inlaw. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers. ”
21 Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’” 22 Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.” 23 So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law
• You can’t really understand the story of Ruth without understanding the Barley harvest and how it would unfold in the life of farmers during this time. The harvesting of the Grain would happen in April and May (right now!) They would begin with the barley and then a few weeks later tackle the wheat.
Steps of HARVESTING during the period of the Judges:
1st – Cutting the ripened standing grain with hand sickles, usually done by men.
2nd – Binding the grain into sheaves, usually done by women.
3rd – The Gleaning would happen behind this process.
• To “Glean” means to go behind the harvester and pick up the leftover grain
The practicing of GLEANING had been around for centuries. In the book of Leviticus 19:9-10, God commands his people to allow the poor or the foreigner to GLEAN: it was a command of the LAW!
4th – Transporting the sheaves to the threshing floor, often by donkey, but sometimes by cart.
5th – The threshing happens. This is the loosening of the grain from the straw, sometimes by toothed threshing sledges or the wheels of carts.
6th – The winnowing, done by tossing the grain into the air with winnowing forks so the wind would blow away the straw and chaff, leaving the grain at the winnowers feet
7th – Sifting the grain to remove any residual foreign matter.
Finally – Bagging the grain for transportation and storage.
• An “Ephah”
Ruth is very successful in her “gleaning” as she comes away with an Ephah, about 22 liters of grain, or 3/5ths of a bushel. Obviously Boaz has given orders to assist
Ruth without her knowledge (love will do that men), but Ruth is very blessed by this effort and Naomi is quite impressed!
• A “Kinsman Redeemer”
A key term in the book of Ruth. A Kinsman Redeemer is a man of some status and wealth that is charged with caring for relatives and especially family members in need. The Hebrew term – “go el” – designates one who delivers or rescues or redeems property or person. Boaz is a Kinsman Redeemer to Naomi.
The concept of Redemption is central to the book of Ruth, and it is central in the lives of Christ Followers!
2024 Lessons from chapters 1-2 of Ruth:
1. Bad things happen to God’s people! The STORMS of LIFE will visit.
o It is important to build your spiritual house on the ROCK!
o Matthew 7:24-27: 24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
o And for the person that says, “I’ve never experienced ANY storms of life,” I have this encouragement: JUST WAIT!
2. The loyalty of Ruth toward her mother-in-law is almost unheard of! Each of us should have a “RUTH” in our lives.
o Ruth 1:16-17: “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”
Characteristics of a Godly Friendship:
Bryan Wilkerson is a preacher in the Boston area, and he shared in a sermon a several years ago from the book of Ruth where he identifies 5 characteristics of a Godly friendship. Consider the importance of the following:
o MUTUALITY
o HONESTY
o ACCEPTANCE
o ATTENTIVENESS
o SPIRITUALITY
3. The Providence and Sovereignty of God is working in lives of Ruth and Naomi when they least expect it . . . and it’s working in OUR lives as well.
Love this quote from one of the commentaries . . . “One of the most important features of faith in God’s Providence is that it teaches us that even our accidents are within God’s care.”
o The longer I walk with Jesus, the less I believe in coincidence.
o The more I walk with Jesus, the more I see God at work not just on the mountaintop but also in the valley. You might even say “especially” in the valley!
Next week: Ruth part 2, chapters 3-4.
May 14/15: Hannah, 1 Samuel 1-2.
May 21/22: Samuel, 1 Samuel 2-3.
REMINDER: Evening Oasis concludes for the summer after the May 22 study.
Beginning Sunday in Main Auditorium: 13-week series on the life of David