Category: Ruth

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Besides being a love story with some unusual, humorous and romantic twists, Ruth is a book that brings us down to earth where spiritual things is concerned. Ruth’s salvation is part and parcel of the redemption of the land! Our salvation is part and parcel of the redemption of the earth! We are saved in order to LIVE on the earth life to the full! John 10:10.

SJA Notes

* Dear Lord God, have mercy upon us according to Your steadfast love. According to Your abundant mercy please blot out our transgressions.

“And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, ‘A son has been born to Naomi.’ They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.”

Here is the build-up and conclusion to this wonderful story of love and hope.

Ruth and Boaz are bound up in marriage, and Naomi now nurses her grandson in her lap.

We see this son of hope born, and the writer makes it very clear what that hope was about.

Obed -> Jesse -> David.

The king would come!

How blessed are God’s people to know the true King of kings, Jesus – God in the Person of the Son.

Jesus was around long before David was born. He is the one to whom David gave glory and worship and submission.

Praise God for our King Jesus, whom all our hope rests and finds its weight and worth in.

Hallelujah, what a Saviour!

* God Above,

We thank You and praise You for how You work in our lives.

Please help us to point to You. Please make us more like Jesus.

Thank You Lord!

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Boaz is one of Ruth’s kinsmen-redeemers. This was a precious relationship that the Lord made sure was clearly understood by Israel. As Boaz is to Ruth, so Jesus is to us. He is our kinsman-redeemer. It is His right and privilege to redeem His own!

SJA Notes

* Mighty God, Lord of all the earth, out of Zion the perfection of beauty, You shine forth.

“The LORD repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

While Israel is still doing what is right in their own eyes, without a king, Ruth is a wonderful story of hope.

Boaz is a man who loves the Lord, who knows the Lord.

In Psalm 91, a psalm generally attributed to Moses, we read,

“… He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge;”

In Psalm 61, a psalm of David, we read,

“Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings!”

David was Boaz and Ruth’s great-grandson.

It is very possible young David sat on his great-grandmother’s knee and heard her sing or recite these wonderful truths.

Truths passed down from Moses generations before. Moses who knew God face-to-face.

This!

This is what we are about.

Seeking God’s face. Living out the reality of taking shelter in His wings.

We are to do what we read in Deuteronomy 11,

“You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

Amen!

* God Above,

Thank You for Boaz and Ruth, for the teaching of taking shelter in Your wings.

Thank You that You are our rock and our defender.

Please write Your word on our hearts today.

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

This is the story of God’s grace. Someone of Moabite descent was not given citizenship even after 10 generations. Deuteronomy 23:3 David is the fourth generation descendant of a Moabite! What is impossible for man, is possible for God! There are many lessons you can learn from this narrative.

SJA Notes

* Mighty God, You have ransomed the souls of Your people from the power of Sheol, You have received us as a Good Shepherd brings in His sheep.

“Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

Our religion is powered by the Lord. It is HE who saves, HE who works salvation in some and rejects others.

Here at the start of Ruth we see a mixed family. Israelite parents and sons, married to Moabite women.

Marrying outside of Israel, and to women of Moab!

Balaam the son of Beor was hired to curse Israel by the king of Moab.

We read of when Israel were still sojourning (but close to entering the promised land) in Numbers 25,

“While Israel live in Shittim, the people began the whore with the daughters of Moab.”

And we read in Deuteronomy 23,

“No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD.”

And yet.

We see here God calling some and not others.

Orpah chooses to return to Moab, to her people and (as Naomi says) to her gods. Israel earlier in Numbers had yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor.

But Ruth.

Ruth has a strong clear faith in the Lord.

“Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

Here we see blessing to all nations through Abraham, we see bringing in of a gentile into God’s people, we see God at work in a wonderful way.

Because Ruth is a part of the line of David, and onwards through to Jesus.

A Moabite woman, a gentile, grafted into the true vine!

Hallelujah!

* God Above,

We give You thanks for this passage today.

Thank You for calling us from all nations to be Your people.

Please show us Jesus today.

Amen.