Shabbat- Shavuot II
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Shabbat- Shavuot II
Shabbat- Shavuot II
Synopsis: When the traditional second day of Shavuot falls on Shabbat, there is a special Torah reading which joins Deuteronomy 14:22–16:17 with Numbers 28:26–31, bringing together themes of covenant faithfulness, worship, generosity, and the Moadim of HaShem. Moses instructs Israel concerning the tithe of produce and livestock, emphasizing that these offerings are to be brought before ADONAI in the place He chooses, teaching the people reverence and dependence upon Him. Provision is also made for the Levite, the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow, reflecting the covenant responsibility to care for the vulnerable within the community.
The reading then moves through the cycle of the Shalosh Regalim (the three pilgrimage festivals)—Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot—detailing how Israel is to appear before ADONAI three times a year. Shavuot is presented as the Feast of Weeks, celebrated after the counting of seven weeks from the harvest, marked by freewill offerings given according to the blessing of God. The passage repeatedly stresses rejoicing before ADONAI together as a covenant people. Numbers 28:26–31 concludes the reading with the additional sacrificial offerings appointed specifically for the day of Shavuot, including grain offerings, burnt offerings, and sin offerings presented as a pleasing aroma before ADONAI.
But we’re going to transition to an entirely different angle that the Torah reading for today. Instead, we’re going to focus on the Book of Ruth which is traditionally read on Shavuot because of the timeframe and theme focused on the spring harvests in Israel.
Principle: G-d may be building restoration while you are still grieving the ruin.
(Repeat)
Shabbat- Shavuot II
1 It came to pass in the days when judges were governing, there was a famine in the land. A man went from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to dwell in the region of Moab with his wife and his two sons.
2 The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name was Naomi, and his two sons were named Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephratites from Bethlehem in Judah. They came to the region of Moab and remained there.
3 Then Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, so she was left with her two sons.
4 They married Moabite women—one was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth, and they dwelt there about ten years.
5 Then those two, Mahlon and Chilion, also died. So the woman was left without her children and her husband.
Naomi’s two sons names are an interesting piece of the puzzle:
Mahlon means “sickness” or “weakness”
Chilion means “wasting away” or “annihilation”
Shabbat- Shavuot II
11 Now Naomi said, “Go back, my daughters! Why should you go with me? Do I have more sons in my womb who could become your husbands?
12 Go home, my daughters! I am too old to have a husband. Even if I were to say that there was hope for me and I could get married tonight, and then bore sons,
13 would you wait for them to grow up? Would you therefore hold off getting married? No, my daughters, it is more bitter for me than for you—for the hand of Adonai has gone out against me!”
14 Again they broke into loud weeping. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye. But Ruth clung to her.
15 She said, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Return, along with your sister-in-law!”
Shabbat- Shavuot II
16 Ruth replied, “Do not plead with me to abandon you, to turn back from following you. For where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.
17 Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May Adonai deal with me, and worse, if anything but death comes between me and you!”
18 When she saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she no longer spoke to Ruth about it.
Shabbat- Shavuot II
19 So the two of them went on until they arrived in Bethlehem. As soon as they arrived in Bethlehem the whole city was excited because of them, and the women asked, “Is this Naomi?”
20 “Do not call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara—since Shaddai has made my life bitter.
21 I went away full, but Adonai has brought me back empty. Why should you call me Naomi, since Adonai has testified against me and Shaddai has brought calamity on me?”
22 So Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess returned from the region of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Mara means “bitter” and is from the same word as the Waters of Marah in Torah
Naomi begins the story emptied by grief:
famine drove her family from Bethlehem
her husband dies
both sons die
her future appears cut off
her security is gone
even her name feels shattered
When she returns to Bethlehem, she tells the women:
“Do not call me Naomi [pleastness], call me Mara [bitterness]—since Shaddai has made my life bitter.”
That is raw pain. And yet the powerful reality of Ruth is this: while Naomi believes her story is collapsing, God is actually positioning redemption.
She cannot see it yet.
She cannot see Ruth becoming part of Israel.
She cannot see Boaz.
She cannot see restoration.
She cannot see Melekh David’s future line.
She certainly cannot see Messiah.
All she can see is loss.
That tension is where many people actually live spiritually.
Shabbat- Shavuot II
Principle: G-d may be building restoration while you are still grieving the ruin.
Shabbat- Shavuot II
God is still working when all you can see is what you lost.
God is still working when all you can see is what you lost.
Ruth is a book about hidden providence. There are no parted seas. No fire from heaven. No audible voice of God. No dramatic miracles.
Instead:
ordinary conversations
random field assignments
legal proceedings
harvest timing
faithful decisions
But behind all of it, God is quietly building redemption.
9 Boaz announced to the elders and all the people: “You are witnesses today that I have bought from Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and Mahlon.
10 Moreover, I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon to be my wife in order to raise up the name of the deceased over his inheritance, so that the name of the deceased will not be cut off from his brothers or from the gate of his town. You are witnesses today.”
11 All the people at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May Adonai make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, who both built up the house of Israel. May you prosper in Ephrath and be renowned in Bethlehem.
12 May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, through the seed that Adonai will give you by this young woman.”
Shabbat- Shavuot II
13 So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. When he went to her, Adonai enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.
14 Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be Adonai, who has not left you without a goel today. May his name be famous throughout Israel.
15 Moreover, He will be to you a renewer of life and a sustainer of your old age, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”
Shabbat- Shavuot II
16 Naomi took the child and held it to her bosom, and took care of him.
17 The neighboring women gave him a name saying “A son has been born to Naomi!” So they called him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
18 These are the generations of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron,
19 Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab,
20 Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon,
21 Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed,
Exile often looked like abandonment to Israel, yet the prophets continually declared that God was still preserving covenant purposes beneath the surface.
Naomi interprets her suffering as divine rejection.
God interprets it as the beginning of restoration.
That does not minimize her pain.
Ruth never trivializes suffering.
But it does declare that grief is not always the final chapter.
At the beginning:
Naomi returns empty
Ruth is a childless foreign widow
Bethlehem is associated with famine
At the end:
Naomi holds a child
Ruth is fully embraced
Bethlehem becomes the birthplace of Davidic hope
Shabbat- Shavuot II
Principle: G-d may be building restoration while you are still grieving the ruin.
Shabbat- Shavuot II
(Call worship team back)
1 The book of the genealogy of Yeshua ha-Mashiach, Ben-David, Ben-Avraham:
2 Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers,
3 Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram,
4 Ram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon,
5 Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse,
6 and Jesse fathered David the king.
The woman who thought her life was over becomes part of the lineage of the Davidic Throne and Messianic Kingdom.
Many people assume God has stopped working because they cannot yet see resolution.
But Ruth teaches:
God may be arranging redemption long before you recognize it.
Sometimes Heaven is most active in the seasons that feel most silent.
The rabbis pay close attention to Naomi’s words in Ruth 1.
She says: “I went away full, but ADONAI has brought me back empty.”
The Midrash treats Naomi as a picture of exile and restoration.
At the beginning:
husband gone
sons gone
inheritance endangered
future cut off
By the end:
family line restored
inheritance redeemed
joy restored
grandson born
Ruth Rabbah connects this reversal to the larger biblical pattern that God raises the fallen and restores those who return to Him.
In Ruth 4 the women state that a son has been given to Naomi, which becomes an important reality…
Rabbinically, this is astonishing because Ruth gave birth, but Naomi is treated as restored through that birth.
The rabbis see restoration not merely as replacement, but as redeemed legacy.
The book ends with David’s genealogy intentionally.
The rabbis viewed Ruth as messianic groundwork.
Ruth Rabbah repeatedly emphasizes that God was preparing the line of King David through hidden providence:
famine
migration
loss
widowhood
chance encounters
Nothing looked messianic while it was happening.
That became a major rabbinic lesson:
God often builds redemption underneath ordinary suffering.
Restoration in Ruth therefore becomes national and messianic: from famine to kingdom.
Shabbat- Shavuot II
Principle: G-d may be building restoration while you are still grieving the ruin.
Shabbat- Shavuot II
