Term 1 – Week 12
Big Idea – God provided a redeemer for Ruth
Ruth
Outcomes
- See God’s amazing provision of a redeemer through the kind character of Boaz – who is in the line of and points us to the ultimate redeemer Jesus!
Implications
- Belief – Know that Jesus is the redeemer who has paid the price for our sin and bought us secure eternal life!
- Behaviour – We can live confident and joyful in God’s love because we are a redeemed people!
Introduction
Ruth’s story occurs at the time when Judges ruled over Israel. God’s people were characterized by rebellion and immorality. At a time when the Israelites desperately needed a king to lead them back to God, Ruth’s story of faithfulness points us to Jesus Christ, a coming Redeemer who will make all wrong things right again.
Ruth was the daughter-in-law of Naomi, a woman from Bethlehem who settled in Moab with her husband and two sons to escape a famine. Naoi’s husband died, and her two sons married Moabite women, Orphah and Ruth. They lived in Moab for 10 years, then Naomi’s sons died.
Naomi heard that the Lord provided food for His people during the famine, so she decided to go back to Judah. Naomi encouraged Orpah and Ruth to return to their families. Orpah returned home, but Ruth clung to Naomi. Ruth said, “Wherever you go, I will go … your people will be my people, and your God will be my God” (Ruth 1:16). So Naomi and Ruth travelled back to Bethlehem together.
Naomi permitted Ruth to gather fallen grain in a field. The owner of the field was Boaz, a relative of Naomi’s late husband and a family redeemer. A family redeemer was someone who would help his close relatives if they were in trouble. Boaz noticed Ruth and told her she could safely gather grain in his field. At Naomi’s urging, Ruth sought to be redeemed by Boaz. Boaz bought back the land Naomi and Ruth had lost when their husbands died, and he married Ruth. They had a son named Obed, whose grandson would be King David.
God gave Ruth – a foreigner – a special place in the lineage of Jesus Christ. Within a dark period of Israel’s history God is weaving this wonderful story of redemption and laying the foundation for his ultimate salvation story. Jesus is our Redeemer, who has bought us for our salvation and brought us into his family, paying the price with His blood on the cross.
‘I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”’
Judges 6:9-10
Songs
God’s people in God’s place – Awesome Cutlery
Leaders PDF
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