Ruth - Intro & Chapter 1

indeed The Little Book of Ruth the little four chapter book and we're going to this what's gonna make this session kind of fun we're not going to be in a hurry this book lends itself to fairly limited time if you have just a an hour or two or three with a group you can have a delightful time exploring this little book we're going to take our time and try to go through it not exhaustively but carefully and I think you'll see one of the reasons why I'm so in love with this little book The Book of Ruth and we'll take a chapter one of course at this time why do we study this book the first reason might surprise you it's one of the most dramatic books of prophecy in the Bible it's also the and it's interesting of the ancient Jewish Scriptures sometimes group this book not with the book of Judges which it fits historically but with the book of the prophets and the basic theme that we have in our entire ministry is that these 66 books are a single message system an integrated message system in which in every book and every name every detail is there by deliberate design and one of the lessons you'll carry away from our exploration of the Book of Ruth is the discovery that every subtlety in this book carries significance to not just the theme of the book but much much broader than that every detail not only carries this romance along but the romance of redemption but it also gives us hints about God's entire plan for the human race and it's it's in fact I often call this book the romance of redemption this book by the way is studied in colleges that have no interest in the Bible particularly they study it as an elegant piece of literature that studied in literature courses because just simply by the elegance of the way this thing is crafted and I think that's provocative it carries along several key concepts to us one of the key concepts that it exempt fyz is the concept of a kinsman-redeemer we're going to understand what that really means kinsman-redeemer because that is one of the titles of Jesus Christ we need to understand and I don't think you can understand Revelation chapter 5 until you've really understood the Book of Ruth interestingly enough something else about this book is I think it's going to teach us a great deal about one of the most muddled up concepts in the church today the distinction between Israel and the church it's amazing how many concepts we encounter in today's society and in today's ecclesiology that are muddled up about the distinction between God's plan for Israel and God's plan for the church and this little book in the Old Testament is just a gem in that regard now it we're going to take an approach and we're gonna I think this our study is going to exemplify this approach that really fits any piece of Scripture but this one's a such a nice little contained package it'll be instructive to see that there are multiple levels of study the primary application in any book of course is its historical reality it records a history that really happened it's not an allegory or just a nice tale it really occurred in this case it occurred in a very unusual period of history called the judges judges this is after Moses and yet before they had a king this very very strange time that we'll explore well that's the first level just the historical or actual practical level that next one I should say is the practical level some people would call it the homiletic and that's the application to our own lives when we study a scripture there's usually the X there's the exegesis that's what does the text really say then there's the exposition what did the text mean and then there's the homiletic how does it apply to us our lives okay it doesn't stop there then there's the prophetic revelations the mystical our prophetic insights what is this little book and that quaint little story back then tell us about the future and it tells us a great deal as we'll see and then of course there is the what the rabbi's would call the remiz the hint of something even deeper and we'll we'll discover some of that as we go in the past one of the ways I've taught this book would be to go through it and just read the history chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 3 chapter 4 understand the history then go back and see what it's really telling you under the current and you can and you get a whole other perspective well we're going to do all that together I think as we go forward here because we're not rushed for time and something else the book is going to teach us a lot is about hermeneutics that's your theory of inspiration every one of you has a hermeneutic that is you have an attitude or an approach or a belief about the text and that some many people have an attitude that's very broad very casual that well it's just a story but it's useful it's a soft what we would call a softer minuti others of us have a very strict hermeneutic we think that it's designed by God in every word and we have what a very high view a very tight view a very rigorous view of hermeneutics and that's every one of us will have something in between those two extremes probably now the Greek mind most of us have a Gentile attitude I'll call it the Greek model we tend to think of prophecy as a prediction and it's a fulfillment it passages predict something and then we see in history it happened that to us is prophecy prediction as fulfillment that's the Greek model the Hebrew model is a little different their mindsets a little different they see prophecy s pattern they study the Scriptures in terms of not just what it says but the pattern is laying out and they note with great validity that the history of Israel is a history is a is a profile of the Messiah in many ways so they're constantly studying patterns we do - we call them types or my anticipatory models and our basis for that is Hosea chapter 12 verse 10 where it got expresses very directly says God says I have spoken by the prophets and I have multiplied visions and used similitudes similitudes similes allegories and so forth in the minute by the mystery prophet so we're going to be alert to that now we're going to discover as we go this little book provides very key pieces of a chain of references this book establishes the basis for Bethlehem being in the Messianic tech story why was Jesus born in Bethlehem because of this little book when the Shepherd's are in the flux by night that we set with Christmas they're in the fields of brew that boys why what's going on why is the City of David Bethlehem I thought he conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites but Bethlehem is known as the City of David why because of this little book okay and the cross everything goes to the cross this is going to do underscore what really in effect happened at the cross and the fact that Jesus is destined for a crown a crown David and he's going to sit on the throne of David all these things are this book is right the pivot of each of these issues and their number of basic is that the concept of a kinsman redeemer is going to be dramatized in this story and of course this is the distinction between the church and the nation Israel these are all elements of things that we're going to be confronted with in very subtle and yet very clear terms the Book of Ruth it occurs in the days the judges ruled that's a key phrase it's an opening phrase in the book but we need to understand what do you mean the days of the judges and we're going to talk about that I'm also going to suggest to you the reason this book is so charming and so dear to me it's the ultimate love story it's the love story between Boaz this wealthy landowner and Ruth who's a Gentile and we're gonna it's a charming elegant little love story at the literary level is studied in college for that for just because of its structural components at the prophetic and personal level it will impact every one of our lives it's one of the most significant books of the church if you take the if you ask me what book in the Old Testament is the book about the church you say well the church is not mentioned in the Old Testament it's not revealed in the Old Testament that's true Paul tells you that in Ephesians 3 and yet what we really understand the church from is the Book of Ruth and interestingly enough to the Jewish pattern they always read this book at the time of the vote feast of weeks that we call Pentecost because that's the feast that predicts the church and its length in Jewish terms strangely to that very issue the role of the kinsman redeemer essential prerequisite to the book of Revelation just to give you a perspectives here now it is in four chapters the first chapter you could call loves resolve we're going to see a resolution made a commitment made that is a model of this kind of a commitment and that's in Chapter one the main event of chapter one setting the stage and that resolved that's when Ruth this Gentile daughter-in-law insists upon cleaving to Naomi we'll get into that the next chapter is going to talk about Love's response and Ruth is going to provide the gleaning if that will explain how the welfare of a destitute Widow dealt with how that was dealt with in ancient Israel and that leads to chapter three a very unusual request that is given and granted in Chapter three that's the the big scene the big plot twist that comes in Chapter three and the big that's the threshing floor scene that will take on there and then of course the fourth chapters love's reward so we have Love's resolve its response its request and reward for those that like seminary models that they're at alliteration always seems to underscore it must be true of its alliterative and I'm being facetious of course but anyway the redemption of both the land and the bride occurs what does that really mean we'll see that in chapter 4 button our challenge to kick this whole thing off is simply chapter 1 as I say the the the scroll of Ruth is read it should vote the feast of weeks so that'll be profoundly significant as we go and that's the only Feast of Moses that uses leavened bread and the significance of all that we'll review and we have the whole thing under our belt let's just jump right in Ruth chapter 1 verse 1 this the text says now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land and a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab he and his wife and his two sons so that's the opening shot here this first sentence tells you what the incident is where it took place when it took place and generally how it took place just like a good newspaper article you got to the first paragraph as the grabber lays it all out for you now the days when the judges ruled what we talked about there the days when the judges ruled that phrase opens our story we need to understand the time of the judges that was a period of time after Josh would conquer the land Moses and Joshua we know the story they conquered the land that closes the book of Joshua the book of Judges ends when Samuel orders he's the last of the judges in effect and he the monarchy starts in this period of time it's a repeated time of failure they failed to do what God says they get into servitude under one of the other ruling pagan forces there they plead to God for a deliverer God gives them a deliverer they get delivered and they fail again and what and and it's a it's a it's a half a dozen of these things sick servitudes and one after the other it's a dark time in a sense it's a it's a repeated failures and one of the phrases that reoccurs all through the book is everyone did what was right in their own eyes now when you see that just a scattered sentence that sounds pretty did what they thought was right in their own eyes you think that sounds pretty good not in context they were doing what they thought they should do not what God told him to do that phrase is used in the Bible as a measure of darkness everyone did what was right in their own eyes it's a negative if you will so that period of the judges is a pattern of repeated failures but there is one element in the scripture that's the gleaming light and that's the Book of Ruth because it occurs during that time that's why it usually fought find your Bible right after judges because it's at the time of the judges and but that if you study the book of Judges it's one failure after another so it's the year between Joshua and the monarchy when the rulership was under the judges not a king it's also time of scandals by the way their scandals in time of Gideon and that's the time probably that this took place also saw Samson we always celebrate the colorful pranks of Samson but they they didn't accomplish anything they didn't accomplish much Samson was a you know Samson's perhaps the best example of moral failure moral failure so it's not a spiritually high time and Ruth takes place in that period it's a contrast if you will to that period so it came to pass the time the judges when the grudge's rule that there was a famine in the land famines occur at least 13 times in the Bible and the reason why the family leaves where they live which is Bethlehem and they go to Moab is is really a that's why they leave is because of the famine so that also in a tip illogical sense in the case the famine was the judgment of God and it also may have been a response to the spiritual condition in the country that's a speculation but one that can be defended famines took place in the life in the times of Abraham in Genesis 12 in David and second Samuel 2 in the days of Elijah first 17 in Gideon and the time of Judges chapter 6 and for a number of reasons most scholars seem to come to the conclusion that this event occurs probably in or near about the time of Gideon if you will and so the drought and famine were among the many judgments God said he would put on the land it's a result of their failure to keep the law that's Leviticus 26 says that four times and Deuteronomy 28 the first half of Deuteronomy 29 are the blessings the last half of Deuteronomy 28 are the curses and and one of these things if they don't keep the law they could expect famine and that apparently what was going on in that region at the time this family decides to leave and so the the book of Judges of course is just a repeated sequence of their failure to keep the law in the judgments that came and then God delivers them and it's that if the pattern now the fact that the drought did not affect Moab which is close to Israel separate separated only by the Dead Sea so it's a region they could get at about seventy five miles away and that was not apparently experiencing this famine you know I read a lot of these commentaries a number of the commentators are really hard on this family they shouldn't have really left that part of their mistake was leaving and going to Moab and and people try to make it a moral case that I'm not here to disparage that I think it's also a little unrealistic there's famine they're starving I think there's another area where they that isn't third land they're going they're leaving they're there you can you can make a big moral case that they shouldn't have left but it was a practical result to survive it would seem and yet they didn't survive we'll get into that so this there was a local family in Israel only and that's why it seems to most scholars most commentators seem to see the famine in Judah as a judgment of some kind it had to be a very serious one because you know it extended over that whole and otherwise they could have simply soldier another part of Israel rather than leaving Israel you follow that's one point of view it also had lasted for several years that's another is this wasn't no you know just a bad season several years that's caused him to leave the land ten years we're gonna go by before the way is clear for them to come back that's part of the story of course when they come back and so now the Midianites had oppressed Israel for seven years the oppression included the destruction of the produce of the soil from this famine that would naturally follow and that's one of the reasons we tie this to druffle Judges chapter 6 as a time frame okay a certain man of bethlehem judah that sounds like a strange way to call it bethlehem judah see there's another bethlehem up in Zebulon that's really see it mentioned once everything in joshua chapter 19 so there's more than one bethlehem so but the how the book of oath this whole story is about the one that's in bethlehem that you and i know about six miles south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem Ephrata is another way you see it mentioned some time effort was the ancient name for Bethlehem and the name of the region the area that Bethlehem the town of Bethel and finds itself and that's mentioned all through the scripture and that there shouldn't be any confusion about that a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to sojourn now that word we usually take quite casually the word is Gera which means a resident alien the root meaning means to live among people who are not blood relatives be a foreigner in other words they left you Judea to go to this place where there was where they could survive knowing that they would be a they were foreigners there they'd never be really accepted why because it's different religion they're still Jewish trying the best they can to be Jewish but they're going to go into the region of Moab which is a pagan environment and many commentators are very you know judgmental on that I don't something to share that view but the it's a practical thing I went to sojourn realizing that that would be a hardship on them but at least they'd survive and as yeah so we have the purp the purpose of trip was not permanent residency they didn't have civil rights they'd be dependent on the metallicy of the natives is the point that's what the word sojourn brings along into the country of Moab now you need to understand Moab here a little bit Moab you may recall was the son of lot and there was the result of an incestuous union with one of his daughters both you know the it did a grisly story there in Genesis 19 so they and also their history is pretty dismal it's the Moabites that later on in numbers 22 will hire Balaam to curse Israel during Israel's pilgrimage to Canaan so their adversaries and under normal circumstances Moabites were barred from participation in the national or corporate life of Israel Deuteronomy 23 expressly forbids marriage with Moabites yet this lobster is going to be all about marrying the Moabite it's going to be an exception to the general practice and there were nevertheless in spite of all that friendly relationships between some of the individual Israelites and the Moabites the example of that is when David was fleeing from Saul he found a friend in the king of Moab so there even though they're still their enemies in a sense they're good you know there was salutary that same relationship by the way should be sensitive is between Israel and the Persians they have a history of harmony in spite of fact that they were that's other times enemies now that okay we get down to verse 2 the name of the man is a limo lek and the name of his wife is Naomi and the name of his two sons Mahon and Jillian efj recites of Bethlehem Bethlehem Judah 'if of facts it's sort of the regional area that FFM rising and they came into the country of Moab and continued their the name of the man the name of his wife the name of Tucson you get the impression even way the text underscores this names are significant they're not incidental they're going to be a very key part of this story the name of the man okay named Anna man was a limo like that turns out to mean God is my king and some some experts even say it means God is king but the Mayas inferred but it's interesting name though because it's the name of a living like God is my king at a time when there was no king in Israel that comes later this is in time of the judges naomi's means Pleasant Pleasant and incidentally just anticipate something here Israel is sometimes referred to in the scripture as the pleasant land so we can begin to suspect that Naomi somehow idiomatically is going to be a lute and allusion to the nation Israel in some sense Mahon comes from Mukalla which means to be sick his name he's unhealthy or sickly that's a tough let handle to go through a school on right hey sickly you're on our team come on over here and be on our team doesn't work very well is it hey hey I got a blind date for you he's unhealthy and sickly but trust me it's gonna be great you know did that doesn't work too well and Killian isn't much better it means wasting or pining he's the one that marries Ruth it turns out but anyway all these names by the way appear in the heretic text which were discovered that chosen be typical names of the that time these are not unique names there apparently we encounter these names in some of the ancient archaeological discoveries not necessarily the same person but those words were not unusual well then the trouble starts Elimelech Naomi's husband dies and she was left with her two sons and they took them wives of the women of Moab the name of one was ARPA and the name of the other was Ruth and they dwelled there about 10 years that's quite a length of time women of Moab now again Moab you want to get the picture several times in the Psalms God says Moab is my wash pot or we might say as my garbage can okay and so Gentile marriage was forbidden at Deuteronomy 7 and also in Deuteronomy 23 verse 3 so we need to be sensitive fact that it was not considered kosher to marry him Oh - but grace is going to rule here because by grace all things are possible and we could divert into a whole study of grace there but you can go to Romans 8 in John 6 and Ephesians 2 and capture it on your own and again I want to remind you Israel's without a king here the name of the one that marries is ARPA and it means like a it has to do with a neck but it has to do it suggests a faun or a gazelle something graceful if you will or purr and the other one is Ruth which means friendship or desirable one okay and those are the two gals Mahon married Ruth and Killian mentioned Orpah it won't matter much because they're both going to die I mean both the guys husbands gonna bribe but anyway Jews who were forbidden to marry Gentile women especially those from Amman or Moab Deuteronomy 7 Nehemiah 1309 that's a so we're here now we're suddenly confronting a very very non kosher practice here and and it reminds you what happened back in numbers 25 in Moses day back then a couple of generations back here it was a Moabite women that seduced the Jewish men into immorality in idolatry and because that twenty-four thousand died back in numbers 25 so you know this this this is a pair of these mobile women very attractive and they were the mechanism by which Israel was seduced into idolatry back then just a footnote here well ma : and Killian died also both of them and the one woman was left of her two sons Naomi that is was left of her two sons and her so suddenly she has neomi is really clobbered here she's lost her own husband and also her two daughters husbands her two sons-in-law also died so she's really stranded here in a foreign land in trouble here now you understand when a limo lek left Bethlehem ten years ago he lost his property he either sold it or he lost it through indebtedness he somehow got disenfranchised which is another contributing factor to their leaving town that's the factors can be very very significant when we get to chapter three and four so so the context here's the land is lost and part of this story we're going to deal with is redeeming the land whatever that means how does that work okay then she arose they only that is with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab for she had heard that the in the country of Moab how the Lord had visit his people and giving them bread in other words they're living in Moab been there ten years the the three men have died she's got these two daughters-in-law she gets word that back home and Bethlehem things are better the famine is over there's a seven-year famine and they've been there ten years that all kind of fits by the way what we think we know about the history but now that things are better back home she's going to go back home what she goes back home she's destitute she's a widow and her daughters-in-law are widows so she's dependent on the peculiar technique they had in that culture that we'll get to next time how they but she point she's Institute but nevertheless she realized that at least God is blessing Israel she wants to go back to her homeland okay giving the visitest people giving them bread key word what is the word for bread like him what's the name of the town Bethlehem House of bread not accidental not accidental it's part of the tapestry we're watching here Bethlehem House of bread we're for she sent forth out of the place where she was and sent her to Dalton and her two daughters-in-law with her and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judith so they apparently are starting to leave the they've picked the on-ramp of the freeway heading back to Beth I'm being facetious of course okay and they only said unto her two daughters-in-law go return each to her mother's house the Lord deal kindly with you as ye have dealt with the dead that are that is their husbands and with me so she's on her way there with her she's sending them come on you stay home you you don't want to go to our strange place where Jewish and it's all Jewish there you go home to your own mother's house and and and Mary again listen is the concept the Lord grants you that she may find rest each of you in the house of her husband that she kissed him and they lifted up their voice and wept to the young girls of that day having rest meant having a husband to provide for them their husbands have died but they're still young enough to stay in their culture and find a husband and have a life the Lord grant you that you may find rest each of you in the house of you her husband that is your husband to come then she kissed them and they lifted up their voice and wept and they said her surely we will return with thee unto thy people they both indicate that they're going to stick with their mother-in-law this is not a place for mother-in-law jokes Nome is quite an exception here these two girls are willing to leave what they know and stay with Naomi to go to this land where they're so Jewish which has that's not just a a cultural thing that's a deeply rooted thing they would be buying into here know me now and I wish I had the gift of dialects some of my friends are so good at this I'm not but this coming passage you really need to have a good New York dialect because in the Oh me is to argue like a Jewish mother okay Nomi says turn again my daughters will you go with me are there yet anymore Suns in my womb that they may be your husband's okay turn again my daughters go your way for I'm too old to have a husband and if I should say I have hope and if I should have a husband also tonight and should also bear sons would you carry for them till they were grown would you stay with this so contrary to fact reasoning here would you care it for them till they were grown would you stay for them from having husbands named my daughters for it grieve with me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me oh that's an interesting phrase that's not just a complaint that's an ascription Naomi realizes that the judgment of God has been against her her husband's gone her she said she sees in all this God's provision or lack thereof however you want to put that you know but it's interesting how she's arguing with them that how stupid to you you can't stick with me because if I had a if I should find a husband and we should have more sons and by the time they're grown you're gonna hang around till their marriage age you you're gonna be 20 years too old yeah you see the whole thing is but notice that Naomi recognized that all that happened to her was not pure chance but the hand of the Lord and the hand the Lord is indeed upon her in ways she has no ability to forget for to anticipate and they lifted up their voice and wept again and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law but Ruth clave unto her see Oprah was going to stay but Naomi talked her out of it so Orpah is going to disappear from the pages of history okay we don't know what happened here I assume she got back to Moab and found a neat young man and they had a wonderful life and who knows but she's in Oblivion as far as the text is concerned they lift up their voice and wept again both him and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law but Ruth clave unto her so ARPA goes back off the pages of history but Ruth claimed that's interesting word debauch which means to stick like glue that's what lexicon actually calls it that's Ruth you know that's an interesting thing she's a Gentile she's a Gentile she's a Moabite us and she chooses to cling to Ruth and see it's the same the same thing that induce operative return homes would cause Ruth to state the fact that the only will no longer have a husband or sons meant that she needed someone to take care of her Ruth understands that when the only goes back home she's destitute she has no property she has no what she has no husband she's gonna need someone to take care of her she's getting older Ruth is stepping into that role of serving her brother-in-law she understands that she's going to need help and Ruth isn't gonna be equipped to do much else but beg or whatever they do and we'll come to that next in the next chapter and she said behold thy sister-in-law has gone back done to her people and unto her gods we turned thou after thy sister and all know me stay you know nor pasensya her head she's going back you should go to Ruth that's what she's saying in effect okay notice this here thy sister-in-law has gone back unto our people and unto her gods this isn't just a geography thing this is a religious thing your gods what were her gods they're National Guard was called Hamas numbers 21 first Kings 11 and among other things to give you a quick snapshot here they accepted human sacrifices we are talking a pagan culture here ok that's what they were brought up in that's what they understood and that's what Orpah returned to ok now by the way this stuff is we found in the Moabite stone I'll come to that King Mesha wrote Moe bite stone the Moabite stone is a black basalt memorial stone that was discovered in Moab by a German missionary back in eighteen sick viii okay that's roughly what it looks like it's about four feet high it contains about 35 lines in an alphabet that is very close to Hebrew little different but discernible it was probably erected about 850 BC call it almost three thousand years ago by a Moabite King Mesha it's interesting his story is written in the store celebrated his overthrow of the nation Israel that's his version the account in second Kings three makes it clear that Israel was victorious in that battle but measure has his view of it claimed he minded when I was in Cairo I was stunned to see all these incredible monuments celebrating their victory in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and you know you may got wiped out Heckscher Ohlin heads a third Egyptian army surrounded they were could totally at the mercy of Israel until Kipp you know Keplinger it's not right what's it huh yeah anyway he's dispatched there to unwind that because that we wanted to give them something to hang on us and pray so it was diplomatically snatched out from Israel's you know they snatched the defeat from the jaws of victory if you will but from the Egyptian point of view they celebrated like it's a victory it's a so ironic so it's actually so contradictory to the actual history well it's similar kind of thing parently going on here but the passage shows that misha honors has got here mosh in terms similar to the old testament reverence for the Lord there's a parallel commitment if you will the inhabitants of entire cities were apparently slaughtered to appease Gamache and so anyway very very parallel thing now the Moabite stone has profound biblical relevance reason I bring it into our study here it confirms the Old Testament accounts that is the existence these things it's valuable geographically because it mentions no less than 15 sites that are in the Old Testament they're you know they're looted in the Old Testament and mobile stone makes reference to these it also resembles Hebrew the language in which most of the Old Testament was originally it's paleo Hebrew the ancient Hebrew that it was originally written in now some pieces of that stone are still on display in the Louvre in Paris by the way if you're there may be something you want to look up anyone let's get back to verse 16 Naomi's try to talk Ruth into joining marpa and going home and Ruth said entreat me not to leave thee or return from following after thee and she now is going to express a commitment that's go echoes throughout history as one of the most eloquent expressions you've got your lover for you'll find anywhere so we're gonna take a look at this very carefully here's what Ruth says to her for whither thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will Lodge thy people shall be my people and thy God my god Wow that's not a casual little sunday-school commitment kind of thing this is serious stuff we're dealing with here she was raised in Moab an idol worshiping Gentile country she was abandoning everything okay and not because she was married to a husband he's dead but to follow her mother-in-law including adopting a totally strange way of life from her point of view she continues where thou Dyess I will die and there will I be buried and the Lord do so to me and more also if aunt but death part thee and me she's taking a death hell fear a commitment that goes to death Wow she also uses a very unusual word here the Lord do so to me yeah ova yo neva hey in the rabbinical terms she invoked the name of God in her oath and not the name of Chemosh you get the impression that she's learned a lot in the brief time she's been with Naomi and apparently her husband and so on Sevenfold decision for whither thou goest I will go where thou lodgest I will Lodge thy people shall be my people thy God my God where thou Dyess I will die and fair will I be buried two different things the Lord is sold to me and more also if aught but death part thee and me who quite a statement a similar formula you'll find seven times in the books of Samuel C Kings Eli concerning Samuel solver of Jonathan's execution these are all Jonathan's friendship with David David's concerning the bald David concerning Amasa Ben hey Dad concerning Samaria and the king of Israel regarding Elisha the the death all kind of thing anyway but let's keep in mind now there's an overlay on all this in Deuteronomy 23 verse 3 and am benign or a Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord they're not allowed to be part of that society even to their 10th generation remember that 10th generation thing that's going to come up later shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord forever the Hopkin Ruth enter into the congregation of the Lord how could she do that well same way you and I can by trusting in God's grace and throwing herself entirely on God's mercy which is what she's actually doing the law excludes us from God's family but grace includes us if we put our faith on our kinsman redeemer but that's coming later it's interesting to another comment I'll make the genealogy of Jesus Christ that we find detailed for you in Matthew 4 includes the names of five women four of whom have questionable credentials Tamar committed incest with her father-in-law genis 38 Rahab was a Gentile harlot she ran a house of ill repute Ruth was an outcast Jen trial mope itis she's in that list if you will and of course Bathsheba is mentioned by name but the wife of Uriah is and she of course was an adulteress for questionable credentials who's the fifth woman marry but we go on how did they ever become part of the family of the Messiah through the sovereign grace and mercy of God God is as Peter reminds us long-suffering towards us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance praise God let's go on here when she saw that she was stead for he when when the Oh me saw that Ruth was steadfastly minded to go with her she left speaking unto her I assume that means they just didn't discuss it anymore I don't think she went in to pout and stopped speaking to her altogether but then again you can draw your own conclusions so they went until they came to Bethlehem and came to pass when they were come to Bethlehem that all the city was moved about them and they said is this Naomi that's a journey of about 75 miles that's not a casual stroll gang you want to go on foot for 75 miles and not straight or level by the way they would have to descend from the Moabite Highlands to the Jordan Valley that's a descent of about 4,500 feet almost a mile in altitude followed by then an ascent to Bethlehem about 30 750 feet walking through desert territory through the wilderness of Judah so a non-trivial thing but what interests me - when they came a kid that's when they were come to Bethel and that all the city was moved about them now admittedly Bethlehem was not probably a big burg with estimates typically are the neighborhood of 70,000 you know trivial by our standards at the same time in terms of a rustic town non-trivial and yet their arrival stirs up a lot of discussion from the residents that's interesting all the city was moved about them is this Naomi they haven't seen her for ten years she's back really what's going on here what Naomi says that Naomi said then call me not Naomi call me Mara for the almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me so new homies got a pretty low morale here the only means Pleasant that's what it means so she says don't call me Naomi I'm not pleasant call me Mara that means bitter that means bitter no X's fifteen gives you exemple y of that but she uses also interesting word for the Lord she says for the almighty shaadi I which actually refers to a breast it means the provider but it also this becomes the label meaning the almighty whenever you see it translated in your English it'll be the almighty that's used 48 times in the Old Testament 31 times in the book of Job alone el shaddai I L God Almighty said I God's almighty but he's dealt very bitterly with me I've lost my two sons I've lost my husband I lost my two sons she quickly will start counting her blessings Ruth was with her but at the moment she's really dragging here she says I went out full and the Lord hath brought me home again empty why call ye me Naomi seeing that the Lord has testified against me and the almighty hath afflicted me heavy stuff so Naomi returned and ruth the moabite us her daughter-in-law with her which returned out of the country of Moab and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of the barley harvest in the beginning of the body of it okay the only returned routes them all by this we guess we've we've got that clearly out of the country of Moab so they come from this hostile land they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of the barley harvest now one of the things that rabbis will teach you in the in the in in the text when you see an unnecessary detail that's a signpost that says dig here is a treasure tucked away you're going to discover there are all kinds of little Jewish indicators throughout this story that you'll miss as you just read it through but I want you to notice this is the beginning of the barley harvest when we get to chapter three we're going to be dealing with the wheat harvest and it's going to be useful for us to get a feeling for the calendar the barley harvest barley happened before - before we began to reap roughly early march but sometimes but generally it's April or a beep in there on the Jewish calendar the barley harvest is the first hint of this story this this mournful tale taking a twist let's understand the agricultural calendar of Israel it's amazing how many of our conceptions are marginal at best if we don't really understand that calendar we're on a Gregorian calendar and our calendar there's a region that we would call March or April on the Jewish calendar it's the first month of the year after Exodus 12 the the month of nice on an earlier label for that same month was a Biba but that's the first of the religious calendar got ordained zet as such in exodus 12 the farming calendar this is the time of the later rains that may confuse you because it's early in our administrative year but it's the later years later rains on the farming calendar and this is where the barley harvest starts and the flax harvest starts the special days of nasaan are of course Passover the 14th is Passover on the 10th they inspect the Lambs and 14th is Passover and that's ordained in Exodus 12 but at the details are it's celebration are in Leviticus 23 and then that also kicks off a period of that we call the the feast of unleavened bread that's Leviticus 23 from 6 to 4 verses 6 to 8 and then there is a many count many of your references to speak of the firstfruits that's not really the way it's actually described the way it's often described in your helps is incorrect in Leviticus 23 9 through 14 makes it quite clear that it's the morning after Shabbat after Passover that's a Jewish way of saying it's the Sunday following Passover that was the feast of firstfruits it's always on a Sunday why it's the morning after Shabbat after Passover Passover can be any day of the week depending on the year you know the weekly cycle it could be on a Monday or Wednesday or whatever but whatever it is the following Shabbat then the next morning is the feast of firstfruits and that's the biblical way of pointing to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and so for what it's worth now if you were in the early church the first few centuries of the church and you attempted to honor Passover as a believer in Christ by using the biblical calendar you'd be excommunicated from the church you were called a courted essence which is the Latin 4:14 because the church was trying very hard to separate herself from Jewishness now if you if you tried to be biblical then you were considered a heretic strange days strange days well let's go to the next month on the calendar April may on our calendar would be the second month of the Jewish calendar er also early an early rendering school right run Ziva and on the farming calendar it's the dry season begins the next month made June period on the Jewish calendar it's the third month of the year at Sivan on the farming count that's when the early figs begin to ripen and vines are tendered attended and so forth and and it has a special day it's fifty days after first fruits anomaly on the counter the sixth of Sivan but that it really depends the main point is fifty days after first fruits which depends on where first fruits is okay and this is what we would this Shevat is what we would call what's also call the feast of weeks it's what we would call the feast of Pentecost it's the feast of Moses that predicts the church it's the only feast in the in the celebration of Moses that uses leavened bread interestingly enough it's interesting that the Jewish liturgy the scroll of Ruth is always read at Shevat which is the mosaic feast that we now know is anticipatory of the birth of the church in Acts chapter two how interesting that the little Book of Ruth is somehow linked to the to the feast of Pentecost I think that's fascinating okay the fourth month we would have called June or July but in the Jewish calendar is Thomas fourth month on the farming calendar that's the wheat harvest and we're going to encounter that when we get to chapter three that's where you also get the first ripe grapes note that your grapes start earliest is may be in what we would call July then that brings you to the fifth month of their calendar July August the month of AAB and that now that's when they harvested the grapes now what I find fascinating about this I have read more papers trying to justify grape juice at Passover bread the Lord's Supper the Lord's Supper is a time of Passover which is the spring they couldn't have grape juice in the spring they had no refrigeration let's get serious the grape harvest is in the fall if you want grape juice great you better get it in the month of August or it's going to spoil because grapes naturally preserve themselves through fermentation it's called wine it's interesting by the way there are special days of the month of AAB the 9th of AAB is the date that is a day of mourning for Israel because that's the date that the temple fell that's the date of the Kristallnacht you can go through Israel the Jewish history and every time they are really oppressed by the Babylonians or the Romans or the Nazis what-have-you it's always on the ninth of off so it gets that so they get very I'll use the term superstitious about that month because that's always the month that seems to be picked for there being crushed but anyway you might just remember the grape harvest is in the fall I think that is an important thing to understand and that brings you talk of September which is the sixth month of their calendar and that's when the dates are harvested and that's where the summer figs are still being harvested and then you get to September October that's the month of Tishri an early label for that month was ethylene but it's the seventh month of their calendar if you're taking my son is the first month Tishri was the first month of the genesis calendar but that gets all revised by God in the book of Exodus chapter 12 so this is a month of Tishri this is when they get the early rains the month in the month but the early rains are in the fall on their reckoning and they're early because that was the beginning of their original civil calendar special days of course the first of Tishri is the fit is the Feast of Trumpets the first of Tishri is also a civil celebration called Rosh Hashanah their civil new year starts on the 1st of district but distinguished between the Rosh Hashanah which is a civil celebration and the Feast of Trumpets which is the religious celebration 10 days later on the 10th of Tishri yom kippur day of atonement and then five days later begins a week-long feast called su cot or the feast of tabernacles and so that's the the fall feasts you have three feasts in the spring of the month of Nisan you've got passover feast of unleavened bread and feast of firstfruits you have three feasts at the end of the cycle Tishri trumpets Yom Kippur and Sukkot between those two groups you got this weird 150 days after feast of firstfruits not after Passover after piece of raw fruits you have the feast of Pentecost the feast of weeks show vote at which time the church is born in all set which time the Book of Ruth is on the Jewish reading list how interesting look a Ruth it's going to be full of these little things so just as a quick summary of what we've seen in the days the judges ruled very they're not there isn't a king yet famine drives the family to Moab and then we have all these names ulema lek God is my king Naomi pleasant land Mahon unhealthy to blot out Kilian puny those two guys die as well as inland like Naomi deters her daughter's from following her arpa yields and doesn't follow Ruth's sticks Cleaves like blue Danny oh me so for your next session I want you to read very carefully chapter 2 because it's a very colorful direct little story and yet it is littered with little surprises hidden underneath the sentences and I also want you to study one of the reasons The Book of Ruth is so rich in in eliminating us it depends on understanding the ancient laws of Israel Israel had some practices that are very strange the law of gleaning the law of the lever right marriage and the law of redemption and this is that the book of the Bible it is legislated in the Torah but it is exemplified in the story of Ruth so I want you to study the law of gleaning it's in Leviticus 19 9 and 10 and Deuteronomy 24 19 and twenty nine thirty nine twenty what how does the law of gleaning work that was their provision for the destitute if you owned a a area of land you are allowed to bring let your Reapers go through it once and only once whatever they missed you had to leave there for the destitute the widows and orphans and people in need because they were allowed to follow your Reapers and take what glean what was missed that was their form of the welfare state gleaning so obviously neomi and Ruth and Ruth because she's younger would do it for Naomi she would follow the Gleaners and that was legal and you were you it was against the law to go back a second time what you couldn't get on your first pass was the property then of those that were in need and that's operative there to understand the peculiar dynamics of going on chapter 2 except pay attention because chapter 2 has some very subtle surprises in it that sets you up for the rest of the story so that's your time for next time let's stand for a closing word of Prayer

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Length: 58min 57sec (3537 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 18 2020