Book of Ruth

[m&m]

My Bible study I had a few weeks ago call the three loves of Ruth. It is truly one of the great love stories of the bible. but more than anything else it is a story of the kinsman redeemer. It takes place in the time of the judges. The time of the judges was a dark spiritual time in the land of Israel . It says in the last verse of Judges that every man did that which was right in his own eyes. It mirrors our time today some thirty two hundred years later, when everyone does that which is right in their own eyes/ Today there is no standard of morality and the bible is thought of being out of date and not relevant to modern society. During this time we see a rise in apostasy, as the people habitually turned from one true God of Israel and turned to the pagan gods of the people that they were suppose to conquer and destroy. We see that the religious leaders(the judges) were often weak and morally deficient such as Samson. And the people turned to sexual perversion like homosexuality and condoned it. Look at the last story in the book of judges. the spiritual and moral temperature was very low at this time in the country in verse one it says there was a famine in the land and they mention Bethlehem specifically. Now Bethlehem was a rich agricultural region . in fact Bethlehem means the house of Bread. it was a rich area to grow grain like Valencia is a good area to grow rice. There was a man called Elimelech had a family and decided to go where there was not a famine.'

[m&m]

The last time we looked at the story of Ruth, her husband had left the land of promise and blessing for the Moab. He did not consult God or his will in the matter, but left because it was the most convenient thing to do, and Moab was not that far away . maybe twenty or thirty miles. and depending on how far they went into moab, it would take just a week to ten days journey. Bethlehem meant house of bread but was experiencing a famine at this time, No doubt because the Jews had forsaken The one true God of Israel, and God had promised ff they forsook Him he would send famine as a judgment so he did the natural thing, he went for for greener pastures. It says that he took his journey. no doubt Elimelech that it wiould be for a short time maybe a year two just until the rains came back and the famine in the land was lifted. It was a good plan, it was logical but it was not Gods desire for his people to leave the land of promise once they had conquered it. And maybe Elimelech was doing what other Jews were doing at the time.We are told that he took both sons and his wife, NIomi . Let me point out that God will often send faminies sometimes to correct us but other times just to test our faith. It is so easy to get scared and try to figure out a human way to solve a problem rather than trusting in Gods answer to our situation. God could have supplied their needs in the of famine because it says that God will supply all our needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus, Phil 4:19 I am sure he rationalize it in his own mind. So off they went to a better place and no famine. From the language of the scripture they were planning to come back soon, But sometime after they come to Moab, Elimelech dies suddenly. we know that whatever happened that Elimeleich and his family had settled down in the is foreign land.Let me point out that it is often easier to leave the will of God than to come back to it. 2 they stayed much longer than they first planned, it is easy to stay out of Gods will for our lives longer than you think. and of course the unexpected happened, Elimelech died suddenly, things happen outside of Gods blessed will that we can not control
or much less like It was very important to be buried in the land of your ancestors rather than a foreign land . Elimelech would never be able to go back. How sad because his name meant my God is King. but he lived and acting just the opposite.

Last time, we left off just after Elimelech died. He had not been a good spiritual leader in his family. They had left the land of promise in time of famine instead of trusting God. He was not planning to stay long but then he died very suddenly. His wife and two sons were left She had two sons one was named Mahlon, meaning sickly, the other was named chillion meaning pining away. you wonder just what kind of boys they were with names like that. But after a while they married two local girls. Again this was definitely against the command of God. God had forbidden His people to marry the pagans of the land. They worshiped false Gods. In this case the Moabites worshipped Molech. Part of their worship was to throw
life infants into the fire. Let me remind you that nothing is too evil that we can not convince ourselves the righteousness of our actions. Maybe Niomi which meant pleasant said that her boys needed wives to carry on her husbands name or they were lonely or whatever. So one married Ruth meaning companion, and the other married Orpah, meant Gazzel. But ragedy struck again = the two boys died very suddenly.

[m&m]

Back to Ruth, Naomi had her husband died and her two sons had married two local pagan girls. they had decided to stay outside the land of
blessing. How often are we willing to stay outside the blessing of God. It was comfortable and I am sure the girls were pretty and after
all they were not the far from Israel. It was literally right up the road. But had to move Naomi back to Bethlehem. It was the place of
promise and God took some severe action. He took her two boys from her. How painful. It was bad enough that she had lost her husband early but to loose your children before their time. How painful

[crisipicada]

This Book of Ruth is an example of love story. It is about obeying the Lord's will and all you desire will be given to you more than you can imagine

[angel]

Obedience in everyday life pleases God. When we reflect His character through our interactions with others, we bring glory to Him. Ruth’s sacrifice and hard work to provide for Naomi reflected God’s love. Boaz’s loyalty to his kinsman, Naomi’s husband, reflected God’s faithfulness. Naomi’s plan for Ruth’s future reflected selfless love.

The book of Ruth showed the Israelites the blessings that obedience could bring. It showed them the loving, faithful nature of their God. This book demonstrates that God responds to His people’s cry. He practices what He preaches, so to speak. Watching Him provide for Naomi and Ruth, two widows with little prospects for a future, we learn that He cares for the outcasts of society just as He asks us to do (Jeremiah 22:16; James 1:27).

[crisipicada]

Obedience in everyday life pleases God. When we reflect His character through our interactions with others, we bring glory to Him. Ruth’s sacrifice and hard work to provide for Naomi reflected God’s love. Boaz’s loyalty to his kinsman, Naomi’s husband, reflected God’s faithfulness. Naomi’s plan for Ruth’s future reflected selfless love.

The book of Ruth showed the Israelites the blessings that obedience could bring. It showed them the loving, faithful nature of their God. This book demonstrates that God responds to His people’s cry. He practices what He preaches, so to speak. Watching Him provide for Naomi and Ruth, two widows with little prospects for a future, we learn that He cares for the outcasts of society just as He asks us to do (Jeremiah 22:16; James 1:27).

I always trying to live an obedient life. When I read His word, I try to pray and meditate what it applies in life about what I read in the Scripture. Obedience brings blessing while disobedience brings curse. One thing we can obey is when we ask the Lord to give us a heart to obey Him. For, we can do nothing if we only trust our own self to do things.