Summer 2008 Study
The  Book of Ruth
Church of the Redeemer 
O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who
call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand
what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and
power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ
our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
 
Amen
 Click on the Scripture references cited to be linked directly to the texts.  

July 15, 2008

Family Relationships

Read Ruth 1:8-13

 

In this heartbreaking scene we taste the grief and bitterness of a family that has

gone through one crisis after another-- famine, emigration, and three successive

deaths in the family. The only family members left are Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah,

three childless widows who are now trying to figure out what to do next. How on

earth do you start over after all this?? These women have been together through

devastating loss; now they face separation from one another, and it's almost too

much to bear.

 

Naomi's deepest desire for her daughters-in-law is that the Lord will provide new

husbands and new homes for them. She wants them to have a fresh start. She has

clearly given up any hope that remarriage is possible for herself. Naomi tries to

dissuadethe girls from coming with her because she is powerless to give them the

one thing she wants most for them: marriage, and all the social and financial security

that would come with it. On top of that, Naomi is convinced that the Lord is against

her. Why would Ruth and Orpah want to hitch their carts to her God-forsaken wagon?

 

Yet in the midst of all this, Naomi appeals to the Lord for help. "May the LORD

show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me." Here we are

introduced to a key theme in the book of Ruth: God's "kindness," or chesed, a word

which is used throughout the Old Testament to describe God's faithful loving-kindness

to his covenant people. We also get a glimpse here of Ruth's and Orpah's characters.

They don't seem to have a stereotypically strained relationship with their mother-in-law.

They have been kind to her and to her sons. We also get a picture of Naomi's faith;

she hasn't given up on asking for the Lord's help, even though she feels thathe's out

to get her. 

 

As we will see in the rest of the story, God hears Naomi's prayer. And he shows

kindness to her as well as to her family. Her story isn't over yet. There is hope yet

to come.

 

  • Are there any areas of your life in which you are tempted to feel that God is against you?
  • Would your mother-in-law describe you as kind?
  • Which people around you need your prayers for the Lord's kindness in their lives?

                                                                                Sarah Hall