Life comes at you fast.

Background on the Book of Ruth

The book Ruth comes right after the book of Judges and took place around the same time as the Judges as referenced in the first verse.

This was after the exile and before the monarch in Israel.

Ruth is one of only 2 books of the Bible to be named after gentiles in the Bible (Luke being the other one)

Ruth is also 1 of only 2 books of the Bible named after women.

The authorship of Ruth is some what unknown but most traditional sources give the credit to Samual.

If it was Samual one of the reasons for writing this story down was to help legitimize the authority of Davids line to the throne.

1.) Loss of Family

- there was a famine in Israel

- they left Israel to go live in Moab

- They left the land god told them to stay in

- they married pagan wives

- they tried to fix their situation but only made it worse

- They went against gods wishes

Often times we take control of our own lives and we mess it up

2.) Loss of friends

- she turned her daughter in laws away to go back to their own people

- she knew that the three of them could not survive with out a male.

- she loved her daughter in laws like her own children

- when they got ready to leave they cried and wailed together which is like a bitter weeping of the soul.

- one left and one stayed

- Oprah made the natural choice Ruth made the supernatural choice

3.) The declaration of Ruth (vv16-18)

-1.) a pledge of constant companionship

-2.) a pledge of commitment

- 3.) a pledge of commemoration

- the unfaithfulness of Naomi lead to the faithfulness of Ruth

- even in times of unfaithfulness god is still faithful

4.) The loss of face

- Naomi had become bitter at God

- she even changed her name from Naomi which means pleasant to Mara which means bitter

- she still saw God but she only saw half of him

- she saw power not pity

- she saw sovereignty but not sympathy

- she saw justice but not grace

-Often we only see the bad things in life, we take control and do what we want only to blame God for the consequences

- Would Naomi and her family of left Moab if things had of been good?

Naomi had her faith restored later in the way of

-barley

- boaz ( the son of rahab)

- baby ( the great grandson of Ruth was king David)

Are you a Naomi or a Ruth