Ruth
Updated: Mar 29
Ruth 1-4
The story of Ruth starts with her mother-in-law, Naomi. Naomi and her husband left Israel and went to Moab because there was a famine in Israel. While in Moab, Naomi’s two sons married. One of her sons married a woman named Ruth. After some time had passed, Naomi’s husband and both her sons died, leaving only her and her daughter-in-laws. One daughter-in-law went back to her homeland, but Ruth wanted to go back to Israel with Naomi.
When they got back to Israel, Ruth and Naomi had a hard time providing for themselves since there wasn’t much work women could do in that time. So Ruth walked behind the harvesters and picked up the grain that they left behind. Ruth worked very hard and the owner of the field, Boaz, noticed. So Boaz told his harvesters to purposefully leave extra grain behind so she could gather it and have enough.
When Naomi heard what Boaz was doing, she developed a plan. Boaz was a part of Ruth’s family; he was in the role of what they called a kinsman redeemer. Basically, during that time when a woman’s husband died, the next closest relative was responsible for taking care of them.
Naomi told Ruth to put on her best clothes and perfume, and when Boaz went to sleep, she was to lay at the foot of his bed. When Boaz woke up, he was surprised to see a woman there, so he asked her who she was. Ruth told him who she was and told him that he was her kinsman redeemer. Boaz was excited because he had seen how great of a woman Ruth was. Boaz married Ruth, and he took care of her and Naomi.
Ruth is one of the most faithful people we see in the Bible. She loved her mother-in-law so much that when her husband died, she told Naomi that she wouldn’t leave her side. She said that Naomi’s people would be her people and that Naomi’s God would be her God.
Because of this faithfulness, Ruth was introduced to her kinsman redeemer, Boaz. After her marriage to Boaz, she was forever placed in God’s family. God blessed her family and her family line. King David was Ruth’s great-grandson and much later down the line, Jesus was even born into Ruth’s family line. All of this is because Ruth was loyal and faithful to her family and to God.
This is a great story that highlights what Jesus does for all of us. Jesus acts as a kinsman redeemer for all of us. By putting our faith in him, we can be accepted into God’s family forever.
Key Takeaways:
Work Hard
Be Faithful
Parents, 3treesKIDS will also be learning about Ruth, both in-person and online, this Sunday.
Be sure to check out their lesson at www.3trees.com/kids.
To find service times and locations, visit https://www.3trees.com/planyourvisit