Month: July 2019

Kingdom of Judah

Kingdom of Israel

God’s power: The author of Kings uses miracles by Elijah and Elisha to attack Baal worship and demonstrate God’s power. The most well-known was Elijah’s challenge to the Baal prophets on Mount Carmel: send lightning bolts from the sky to ignite the fire for the sacrifice and bring rain to end the drought that was ravaging the country. 450 prophets of Baal tried for most of the day to get their god to light the fire, but nothing happened. As evening approached Elijah poured water all over his wood and, at the time for sacrifice, asked God to light the now-soaked wood. God sent a fire that burned the wood and sacrifice plus the stones of the altar – the fire even evaporated the water in the trench around the altar. Elijah had the Baal prophets executed. And then the rains came and ended the drought.

The “Good” Kings: Judah had four kings who “followed David’s path,” according to the author:

Asa was the third king after Solomon died. He shut down the cults and idol worship and began many religious reforms during his 41-year reign.
Jehoshaphat was Asa’s son. He continued his father’s reforms and deployed teachers of the law to towns and villages in Judah. He also gave Judah a rare period of peace during his 25-year reign.
Hezekiah ruled 29 years. He began major reforms, including re-establishing Passover and eliminating places for cults and idol worship. He followed Isaiah’s advice and God gave him a major victory over Assyria to keep Judah independent for a few more years.
Josiah ruled 31 years, beginning when he was eight years old. The priests discovered the “Book of the Law” during his reign and he began major religious reforms based on its teachings. His onemistake was to challenge Egypt, against the advice of Jeremiah. He died during the campaign and Judah never recovered.

3³ Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David; only, he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places. ⁴ The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the principal high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. ⁵ At Gibeon the Lord  appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask what I should give you.” ⁶ And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. ⁷ And now, O Lord  my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.
⁸ And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. ⁹ Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?”

¹⁰ It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. ¹¹ God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, ¹² I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. ¹³ I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you. ¹⁴ If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life.”

9When Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the king’s house and all that Solomon desired to build, ² the Lord  appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. ³ The Lord  said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you made before me; I have consecrated this house that you have built, and put my name there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time.
⁴ As for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, ⁵ then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David, saying, ‘There shall not fail you a successor on the throne of Israel.’

⁶ “If you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, ⁷ then I will cut Israel off from the land that I have given them; and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight; and Israel will become a proverb and a taunt among all peoples. ⁸ This house will become a heap of ruins; everyone passing by it will be astonished, and will hiss; and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord  done such a thing to this land and to this house?’ ⁹ Then they will say, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord  their God, who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, worshiping them and serving them; therefore the Lord  has brought this disaster upon them.'”  NRSV

Get into the Word:

1. How does the author describe Solomon? What kind of person is he? Who does he follow? What are his worship practices?

2. What happens to Solomon at Gibeon? Why is he there? Who comes to visit him? What does the visitor want? 

3. How does Solomon respond to the question? Who does he talk about? What does he say about God? About his father? About the relationship between them?

4. What does Solomon ask for? Why does he want this? How does God feel about the request? What does he do with the king’s request? What else does he do for Solomon? What else does he promise?

5. What happens when Solomon finishes his construction projects? What does God say about Solomon’s efforts? How does he respond to the temple?

6. What does God say about Solomon’s future? How should Solomon conduct himself. What will happen if he follows God? What will happen if Solomon fails to follow God? How will people remember him?

Get Personal:

Have there been times when God has linked a promise to his expectations for you? How did this affect your walk with Christ?

3:3. High places — even devout Israelites adopted the practice of worshipping at high places, as the Canaanites did, even though the Mosaic Law allowed sacrifices only in the tabernacle.
3:4. Gibeon — a town 5 miles north of Jerusalem, evidently a major center for worship.
Thousand burnt offerings — even though the number of offerings has no relationship to the worshipper’s heart, Solomon did everything to excess.
3:5. Dream — a fairly common way for God to communicate with a person in the Bible.
3:6. Because he walked — Solomon understands the relationship between David’s (usual) obedience and God’s presence and support, and that he is the beneficiary of that support.
3:7. Little child — Solomon is a young man so he probably is referring to his lack of experience in leading God’s people – which he asks for in v. 9.
3:13. I give you also — God responds to Solomon’s heart in giving him the wisdom he asked for and the wealth, fame and power that he did not request, along with the promise of a long life. Solomon ruled a united kingdom from the Euphrates

River to the Red Sea and his “wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east,” [4:30]. But he also had 700 wives and 300 concubines in violation of the law [11:3 – see note on 9:6, below].
9:3. Consecrated — “set apart” – God agreed with Solomon’s efforts and made the temple his holy place (interestingly, it was on Temple Mount, one of the highest places in the city).
9:5. Over Israel — God shifts to warning Solomon about continuing to follow David’s path. God’s promise to David was a royal house over the united Israel; when Solomon fails his line remains ruler of the much smaller kingdom of Judah and Benjamin.
9:6. Turn aside — when Solomon is old his many foreign wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David, [11:4]. God tells Solomon he will give the kingdom to a servant (Jeroboam), but not until Solomon has died, and he will preserve “one tribe” (it turned out to be two) for Solomon’s descendants.
9:8. Hiss — the Hebrew word, also translated “skoff,” means “whistle in amazement.”

7Now when the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, ² the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.” ³ Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you.”

⁴ But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: ⁵ Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? ⁶ I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. ⁷ Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” ⁸ Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; ⁹ and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. ¹⁰ And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, ¹¹ from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. ¹² When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴ I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. ¹⁵ But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. ¹⁶ Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever. ¹⁷ In accordance with all these words and with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

David’s Prayer

¹⁸ Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? ¹⁹ And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God; you have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come. May this be instruction for the people, O Lord God! ²⁰ And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord God!
²¹ Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have wrought all this greatness, so that your servant may know it.
²² Therefore you are great, O Lord God; for there is no one like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. ²³ Who is like your people, like Israel? Is there another nation on earth whose God went to redeem it as a people, and to make a name for himself, doing great and awesome things for them, by driving out before his people nations and their gods? ²⁴ And you established your people Israel for yourself to be your people forever; and you, O Lord, became their God. ²⁵ And now, O Lord God, as for the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, confirm it forever; do as you have promised. ²⁶ Thus your name will be magnified forever in the saying, ‘The Lord of hosts is God over Israel’; and the house of your servant David will be established before you. ²⁷ For you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house’; therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. NRSV

Get into the Word:

1. What is the situation as this section begins? Who is David talking with? What is he proposing to do? How does the other person react to David’s idea?

2. How does God react to the project? What does he say to Nathan? What does he tell the prophet to say about his past experience with the Israelites? What does God promise about the future of the people? 

3. What is Nathan to tell David about his relationship with God? What promises is Nathan supposed to convey to David about his offspring? Who is actually going to build the temple (see Notes)?

4. What promises does God make about David’s future? About his descendants? About his kingdom?

5. How does David respond to all this? What does he say to God? How does he describe the covenant God has made with him? What does he say about his relationship with God? What does he say about God’s character?

6. What does David say about God’s relationship with Israel? About what God has done for the people?

Get Personal:

Which of God’s promises are most important to you? Why? How does God help you to rely on these promises in your walk with Jesus?

7:1. Rest — the Old Testament uses the word to mean relief from stress and struggle.
7:2-3. Prophet — Nathan is the spiritual advisor to the king, not the spiritual and political leader of the people (the role of Moses and Samuel).
Cedar . . . tent — Cedar was a prized wood and symbol of success and permanence, whereas a tent meant transient or temporary.
7:5. Go and tell — God corrects Nathan, who had initially told the king “the Lord is with you.”
7:13. He shall build — David’s son, Solomon builds the first temple.
7:14. Father . . . son — the idea that the king was a “son” of the nation’s god was fairly common in the ancient Middle East.

7:15. I will not take — God promises David that he will punish his offspring when they sin but he will not forsake them.
7:16. Made sure forever before me — God extends the promise of the previous verse, and hints that Jesus will be the ultimate – and permanent – king. Psalm 89 echoes God’s promise: You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to my servant David: ‘I will establish your descendants forever, and build your throne for all generations,’” [3-4].
7:22. No God besides you — David acknowledges God’s uniqueness and the special relationship between God and the Israelites.

How many books? Originally the Hebrew Bible had three major “history” books: “Samuel,” “Kings” and “Chronicles.” When the seventy scholars translated these books into the Greek Septuagint [see Lesson 2], they broke each book into two: 1 and 2 Kings, 3 and 4 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles. Jerome used the same division and titles in his Latin translation. In 1448 the Hebrew Bible restored Samuel’s name to the first two books – which all English translations follow.

Transition: Samuel is a seminal figure in Israel’s history for several reasons:

• He is the last of the judges to lead Israel. He was trained by Eli, the previous judge; but he watched Eli and his sons use their office for personal gain. He became Israel’s judge when Eli and his sons died as a result of Philistine victories over the Israelites.
• He tells the people – at God’s direction – all the reasons why having a king is not a good political option,

• but then he anoints both Saul  and David to be the nation’s leader.
• He is the first Jewish prophet after Moses. His mother dedicated him as
  a Nazarite to God’s service. He relays God’s direction and judgment to both Saul and David and establishes the pattern of providing a moral compass for the nation. He reminds the nation that the real leader is still God, not the human who may be ruling them at the time.

Covenant: God makes a covenant with David, who is called a person “God exalted” and “a favorite of the Strong One of Israel,” [2 Sam 23:1]. But he is a human, with all the complexity and sin that we have. God prevents him from building the temple in Jerusalem because he has killed many people. He also betrays Uriah by sleeping with his wife and then arranging his murder in battle to cover up the sexual crime. Through Jesus God keeps the covenant but David’s sin brings a great deal of trouble to his family and his kingdom.

8⁴ Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, ⁵ and said to him, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” ⁶ But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the Lord, ⁷ and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. ⁸ Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. ⁹ Now then, listen to their voice; only — you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”

¹⁰ So Samuel reported all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. ¹¹ He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; ¹² and he will appoint for himself comman-ders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. ¹³ He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. ¹⁴ He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers.

⁵ He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers. ¹⁶ He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put them to his work. ¹⁷ He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. ¹⁸ And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the Lord will not answer you in that day.” 

⁹ But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, “No! but we are determined to have a king over us, ²⁰ so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.” ²¹ When Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. ²² The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice and set a king over them.” Samuel then said to the people of Israel, “Each of you return home.” 

Get into the Word

1. What kind of meeting opens this section? Who is involved? What is the purpose of the meeting? What are the people demanding? How does Samuel react to this? How does God react?

2. What does Samuel do in response? How does he depict a king? What does he say the king will do? What does he warn the people about? How do the people respond to Samuel’s warnings?

3. What does Samuel do in response to the people’s demand? What does God tell Samuel to do then?

Bible Trivia:
Samuel includes several poems, beginning with his mother’s prayer when she finally becomes pregnant [1 Sam 2]. It also provides a first look at David’s creativity in “The Song of the Bow,” when he laments over the death of Saul and Jonathan, and his “Song of Thanksgiving” at the end of his life.

David volunteers to fight Goliath

17 ²⁴ All the Israelites, when they saw the man, fled from him and were very much afraid. ²⁵ The Israelites said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. The king will greatly enrich the man who kills him, and will give him his daughter and make his family free in Israel.”
²⁶ David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” ²⁷ The people answered him in the same way, “So shall it be done for the man who kills him.” . . .

³¹ When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul; and he sent for him. ³² David said to Saul, “Let no one’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” ³³ Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” ³⁴ But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and whenever a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, ³⁵ I went after it and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth; and if it turned against me, I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down, and kill it. ³⁶ Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.” ³⁷ David said, “The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.” So Saul said to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you!”  NRSV

4. Who is “the man” in 17:24 [see Notes]? How do the Israelite soldiers react to his challenge? Why do they react this way? How does David respond to the man’s challenge? How does he describe the man?

5. Who wants to talk with David? Why? What does David say about Goliath? How does Saul respond to David? What does David tell Saul about his abilities? Where does David get his confidence?

Get Personal

1. How do you think about the role of government in your life? How do think God views governments? How does God help you deal with your relationship with government?

2. How confident are you in God’s promises about protection and security? How does he help you understand his protection in everyday things? In the “big” things?

8:5. Sons do not follow — Samuel’s two sons “took bribes and perverted justice,” [8:3].
Like other nations — for more than 300 years the Israelites had watched other nations with a strong king and standing army defeat them and take their land; they concluded they would be better off if they were like them. The irony is that when they followed God they were safe and secure; they got beat when they ignored God’s law (which God knows – check verses 7-8).
8:11. The ways of the king — Samuel describes a very common and realistic political and military system to govern a country and protect it with a trained, equipped standing army.

8:17. One tenth — the Mosaic Law required a tithe (one tenth) to support the Levite priests, who did not have land of their own; here it is a tax to support the king and administration.
17:24. The man — Goliath – sometimes battles were decided by a fight between two “champions” as representatives of each army. Goliath had been issuing his challenge for forty days.
17:34. Lion or bear — there is evidence for both in the region in ancient times.
17:37. The Lord will save me — divine protection was a common concept throughout the region, but David probably was also aware of his people’s history.

Author

The author of Ruth is unknown, as is the time at which it was written. Like Judges, some scholars believe the prophet Samuel wrote this book, but there is no evidence in the book or elsewhere to support this.

The writer does refer to “the time of the Judges,” [1:1] as if this time is over, which means the book probably was written sometime after the kingdom was established (around 990 BCE.). The inclusion of Obed, Jesse and David, Ruth’s descendants, also points to this general time of writing.

Context

As we learned in Lesson 15, “the time of the Judges” was a very difficult period for Israel. The people’s repeated refusal to follow the commandments and decision to “do what is right in their own eyes,” [Judges 21:25], led to defeat and oppression by the Canaanites who had ruled the land for more than 400 years. Each time the people repented God raised a leader to defeat Israel’s enemies and restore prosperity – until the next round of disobedience.

Famines were not uncommon in Palestine because of the desert conditions, although the particular hardship that led to the events in this book is not identified.

Structure

Ruth is a straightforward narrative of a Gentile woman from Moab who married into an Israelite family when it migrated to Moab to escape a famine in Israel. When all the Israelite men died Ruth’s mother-in-law, Naomi, decided to return to Israel. Ruth joined her in one of the Bible’s strongest depictions of friendship and kinship. Once back in Bethlehem, Ruth met Boaz, a landowner and relative of her deceased husband. Ruth and Boaz married and had children. King David was their great-grandson.

Major Themes

Friendship and kinship are the major themes of this book. Ruth is a shining example of friendship in leaving her own country and family to stay with Naomi; and she is a model for kinship in supporting her mother-in-law in place of her own deceased children.

Boaz is also an example of kinship. First, he honors the position of another person who is more closely related to Naomi’s husband. When that person does not “redeem” his right, Boaz fully redeems his kinship obligation by taking over care of the family’s land and by marrying Ruth so the family name will be preserved [see “Kinship” Note below].

Ruth’s story is also another example of – and hint toward – God’s intention to include all Gentiles as well as Jews in his kingdom.

GET INTO THE WORD

1. What do we know about the author of this book? What do we know about when it was written? What hints does the writer provide?

2. When does this story take place? Where did this occur? What is significant about this time period? What problems did the people encounter?

3. What are the major events of this story? Who are the primary individuals involved? 

4. What are the primary themes of this book? How are the people involved examples of these themes. What does the Bible say about the importance of family? About the importance of names?

5. What does this story tell us about God’s plans for his kingdom?

Bible Trivia:
Sandals were once symbols of agreement or commitment [Ruth 4:7-8], but by Jesus’ time sandals were symbols of worthlessness – John the Baptizer said he was not even worthy to untie the laces on Jesus’ sandals [John 1:27].

More trivia:
Boaz is connected to the only two women named in Jesus’ ancestry: his mother was Rahab [Joshua 2] and his wife was Ruth [check Matt 1:3].

Kinsman-Redeemer: 
Mosaic Law upheld the importance of family by requiring a man to marry his brother’s wife (and perform the “duty” of a husband) if the brother died without having any children – in order to preserve the family name [Deut 25:5-10]. In fact, if the man refused to marry his brother’s widow, the man’s wife was to publicly humiliate him by pulling off his sandal and spitting in his face [vv. 9-10]. Similarly, a kinsman had the right and obligation to purchase land a man might leave if he died without heirs, to keep the property within the family.

Giving:
The Old Testament presents three concepts regarding giving.

First Fruits: the first part of the harvest or the first born from a person’s herd or flock. God established the Festival of Weeks (Pentecost) and required the Israelites to bring the first part of their harvest to the priests. 
      Giving God the first part of our earnings is a sign of our trust in his promise to provide everything else we need: Honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine,
[Proverbs 3:9-10].
      Paul noted that Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died, [1 Cor 15:20].

Tithe: “tenth” – Abraham introduces the concept of a tithe when he gives a tenth of everything he won in battle to Melchizedek, “priest of God Most High,” [Gen 14:20].
      God formalized the practice in his law, requiring every Israelite to give a tenth of his or her produce (grain, wine, animals, oil) at least every third year – for use by the Levites as well as the resident aliens, the orphans and the widows in your towns, [Deut 14:28-29]. The law also says, all tithes from the land, whether the seed from the ground or the fruit from the tree, are the Lord’s; they are holy to the Lord, [Lev 27:30].
      The Israelites did not always honor this commandment. God told the prophet Malachi the people are robbing me – the whole nation of you! Bring the full tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down on you an overflowing blessing, [Mal 3:9-10].
Gleaning: gathering the crops left behind after the harvest. God wanted the people to provide for those less fortunate by deliberately not harvesting every possible grape or grain so that some would be left: When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not glean what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this, [Deut 24:21-22, also check Lev 19:9-10], (Ruth is gleaning when she meets Boaz).

1¹⁵ So she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” ¹⁶ But Ruth said,
“Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 
¹⁷ Where you die, I will die — there will I be buried.
May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!” 
¹⁸ When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

Ruth meets Boaz [2:8-13]

⁸ Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. ⁹ Keep your eyes on the field that is being reaped, and follow behind them. I have ordered the young men not to bother you. If you get thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.” ¹⁰Then she fell prostrate, with her face to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?” ¹¹ But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. ¹² May the Lord reward you for your deeds, and may you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!” ¹³ Then she said, “May I continue to find favor in your sight, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, even though I am not one of your servants.”

Ruth follows Naomi’s instructions [3:6-11]

⁶ So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had instructed her. ⁷ When Boaz had eaten and drunk, and he was in a contented mood, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came stealthily and uncovered his feet, and lay down. ⁸ At midnight the man was startled, and turned over, and there, lying at his feet, was a woman! ⁹ He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant; spread your cloak over your servant, for you are next-of-kin.”  ¹⁰ He said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter; this last instance of your loyalty is better than the first; you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. ¹¹ And now, my daughter, do not be afraid, I will do for you all that you ask, for all the assembly of my people know that you are a worthy woman.

Ruth and Boaz marry and have a son [4:13-17]

¹³ So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When they came together, the Lord made her conceive, and she bore a son. ¹⁴ Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without next-of-kin; and may his name be renowned in Israel! ¹⁵ He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him.” ¹⁶ Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom, and became his nurse. ¹⁷ The women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed; he became the father of Jesse, the father of David.  NRSV

GET INTO THE WORD

1. What is happening as this section begins? How did the situation develop [see above]? Who is speaking? Why is she speaking this way? How does the other person react?

2. Who is involved in the second segment? Where are they? What are they doing? What are they talking about? How do they relate to each other?

3. What does the man tell the woman to do? Why does he feel this way? What type of blessing does he give her? How does she respond?

4. What does Ruth do in the third segment? Why does she do this? What happens as a result of her actions? 

5. How does Boaz respond when he sees Ruth? What does Ruth call him? How does he react to this news? What does he promise her?

6. What happens as a result of Boaz’s actions? What type of family do Ruth and Boaz have? How do the other people respond to this? What do they say about the baby? Who else is part of this family?

GET PERSONAL

How do members of your family support each other? How has God helped you in supporting your family? How do you support your “brothers and sisters in Christ?”

Memory Verse: 
Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God, [1:16].

Next Lesson: 
1 Samuel 8: Warnings about a king, and 17: David and
Goliath

1:1. Bethlehem — a small town 5 miles south of Jerusalem. It did not have a reliable source of water so it did experience famine when the crops were parched.
Moab — the area directly east of Israel was conquered by the Israelites under Moses when the prophet Balam blessed them rather than curse them as the Moabite king Balak had requested [check Numbers 21-22 for details].
1:5. Left without her two sons and her husband — Naomi suffered the loss of social status as a widow and had no financial support because her sons had died as well.
1:13. Wait until they were grown — Mosaic law required that if a man died without children the man’s brother should marry the widow in order to carry on the family name; but in this case any future brothers/husbands would have a different father, not Elimelech.
1:16. Where you go . . . — Ruth’s commitment is to Naomi and her Jewish

heritage, including Yahweh.
2:8. Glean — see “Giving” Notes on above.
2:12. Wings — the Psalms also use this image of protection [check 36:7, 57:1, 61:4, 91:4].
3:7. Lie down — the threshing area was communal so sleeping by your pile of grain helped to keep thieves away.
Uncovered his feet and lay down — sleeping at a master’s feet was a fairly common custom for servants in the culture (in any event both would have been fully clothed).
3:9. Cloak — the Hebrew word also translates as “wing” – the image in 2:12.
Next-of-kin — in Hebrew “a person with the right to redeem” – see Notes above.
4:14. May his name be renowned — little did the women know that Ruth’s descendents would include the two greatest “kings” in Israel’s history: David and Jesus.