Ruth: An Introduction

Ruth, Sunday Night Study

Series Title: Ruth— God’s Providential Love

Message #1

Ruth 1:1-5.

ETS: Naomi was left as a widowed stranger in a foreign land, impoverished and alone with only her two daughters-in-law.

ESS: When life seems hopeless, we continue trusting.

OSS: [Educational with a hint of devotional] {I want the hearers to be introduced to the hopeless situation of Ruth.}

PQ:

What are the important introductory points for Ruth?

UW: points

Intro.:

TS: Let us examine a few points of introduction now:

Fleeing famine, Elimelech led his family out of Bethlehem to Moab.

Bethlehem=house of bread.

Irony: there is famine in the house of bread.

Significant names:

Elimelech: My God is king [Ironic because it was during the time of the Judges when “everyone did what was right according to him” Jgs. 21:25)

Naomi: Sweet and pleasant

Mahlon: Sick

Chilion: Dying

Ruth: Friendly companion

Orpa: Back of neck

Significant history:

Moab: Not the place for God’s people. The original reader would have been familiar with the background of the city, so the writer does not explain this. The city started by an incestuous relationship with a girl who got her father drunk and had sexual relations with him, gave birth to a child, and named the child Moab. Licentious and wild living are the mainstream of the city.

Following the death of Elimelech, Mahlon, and Chilion, life seems hopeless for Naomi, Ruth, and Orpa. [3-5]

Orpa and Ruth were not Moabite names—they were Hebrew names.

The women were left all alone following the death of their husbands.

Naomi is well off in years, and now there is no one to take care of her. “Naomi lacks the provision and protection of a husband in the male-dominated ancient Near East. Moreover, it must be remembered that she lives in a foreign land. Because of her age and poverty, she is effectively cut off from the three options that might normally be open to a widow…Furthermore, she is an old widow without children— the worse fate that an Israelite woman might experience.” (K. Lawson Younger Jr., Judges, Ruth, ed. Terry Muck, Revised Edition., The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2020), 523.)

Widows in the ancient Near East had lost all social status and generally were also without political or economic status. They would equate to the homeless in our American society. Typically they had no male protector and were therefore economically dependent on society at large. (Victor Harold Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, and John H. Walton, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament, electronic ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), Ru 1:3–5.)

Prayer with Peers:

[1] Can you think of a time that you felt hopeless or do you know someone currently who is without hope?

[2] Spend time praying for God to help you understand this story over the next several weeks so that He might encourage your heart to trust Him even when circumstances seem difficult.