ATTENTION: I am sorry to have to keep mentioning this but a site continues to take our content without permission so if you are reading this anywhere other than http://theadultsundayschool.blogspot.com/ please return to my blog as I try very hard to help you in your lessons! Please note that this is The Adult Sunday School Lesson, Empowering the Needy, on Ruth 2:8-18 for the 8-21-11 International Sunday School Lesson. You will find the 8-14-11 lesson, Making a Choice aka Choosing a Community directly beneath this message and on the right side.
Jed
Empowering the Needy
Ruth 2:8-18
International Sunday School Lesson
August 21, 2011
Commentary
By
Jed Greenough
Sometimes I work on these lessons weeks if not months in advance and as I attempted to come back to this one I kept coming to a standstill and a bit of confusion would set in as I would get confused between this lesson and the one that followed. As a result I had to basically go back and read from the beginning about Ruth and Naomi.
What leapt out at me was a common theme, but an often forgotten one, that God is in charge of all things. We can see this as we read the scriptures but too often we forget it when events happen in our own lives. When things turn out well it often seems we think that we are solely responsible for the successes. And when it seems that everything is spinning out of control we think that God has abandoned or afflicted us.
Naomi must have thought that her life was spinning out of control for quite some time. First she had moved away from everything that was familiar to her as a famine forced her husband Elimelek to move the couple and their sons to Moab.
The famine forced the move and after a time Elimelek died leaving her not alone but with two sons who as a result of this displacement married women of Moab. Ten years later the sons also died and Naomi was alone with her daughters-in-law but with no men to provide for them.
Eventually Naomi heard that her homeland was again providing food for the people but Naomi thought in her own words found in Ruth 1:13a that “the Lord’s hand has turned against me!” In reality however we can see that through it all God’s plan was being lived out, through the use of famine, relocations, death, marriages so that the line of David, the line of Christ would emerge.
Naomi was bitter, empty and afflicted; all words from Ruth 1 but as in today’s scripture of Ruth 2:8-18 we see how God was bringing everything into place not to empower or provide for Naomi or Ruth but to glorify in the end Himself.
Boaz told Ruth that she was being rewarded for all that she had done for his relation, Naomi. However, it wasn’t about Ruth either; some grain gleaned, some bread and some vinegar were not what any of this was really all about.
The next time things turn out well and you receive accolades or you are provided for, try and turn the glory to God. The next time the service engine light comes on, the dishwasher breaks, the clothes washer floods the room, the kids grades aren’t what you think they should be and the check book balance becomes suddenly sparse all in the same day, don’t proclaim how afflicted you are. Rather think of how God can in the end be glorified!
For Discussion:
1. Research and discuss the process of harvesting grain at that time. A concise and fine example of which can be found in the NIV Study Bible.
2. Read Leviticus 19:9-10 and Deuteronomy 24:19-22
3. Discuss Naomi’s feelings of being afflicted by God and how these events ultimately turn out.
4. Discuss how events in our life could similarly point ultimately to glorifying God.
5. Discuss the character traits demonstrated by Ruth throughout chapter 2.
6. Discuss the character traits demonstrated by Boaz throughout chapter 2.
8-28-11: Respecting Community Standards (Caring for One Another) Ruth 4:1-10
9-04-11: Righteousness and Wisdom (Trust in the Lord), Proverbs 3:1-12
9-11-11: From Generation to Generation (Walk the Straight Path), Proverbs 4:10-15, 20-27
9-18-11: Teaching Values (Instruction in Wisdom), Proverbs 15:21-33
9-25-11: Wisdom and Discernment (Wisdom and Government), Proverbs 25:1-10
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment