Ruth 3

Recap-Chapter 1: Naomi's husband and sons die, widowing her, Orpah and Ruth. Naomi heads back to Israel, but tries to send Orpah and Ruth back to their fathers. Orpah goes, but Ruth says no, your God is now my God and your people, my people. Naomi (call me Mara) and Ruth arrive in Bethlehem in time for the barley harvest.
Chapter 2: Ruth gleans in Boaz's field and catches his attention so he shows her favor.

Read verses 1: Naomi is now getting over her misery and helping Ruth out.

Read verses 2-4: Naomi comes up with a plan for Ruth. According to the Law, there were customs of which man was to step up to care for a woman in place of her deceased husband and also that man would get his land (Deut. 25:5; Lev. 25:23-28).
Winnowing is a time of celebration and work, a party-like atmosphere, tied in with the Feast of Booths (Deut. 16:13-15).

Read verse 5: Ruth says ok to Naomi's plan.



Read verses 6-7: Ruth heads to the threshing floor and does as her mother-in-law said.
Just to clarify, there was nothing awkward or sexual about what Ruth did. It is just cultural customs that we don't understand.

Read verses 8-9: Boaz awakes and sees Ruth, asks who she is. Ruth identifies herself and asks him to be her redeemer (same wording as 2:12).

Read verses 10-11: Boaz is glad she came and plans to do as she asked. Boaz also refers to Ruth as a "worthy woman."
What do you think of when you hear the phrase "worthy woman"? For me, I automatically think back to the phrase "worthless fellows" that we kept on seeing in Judges and how every time it referred to them as worthless fellows it meant something bad was about to happen… This makes me think Ruth is being held in stark opposition to those men. Also, don't forget in the last chapter, we saw that Boaz was also referred to as being "worthy."

Read verses 12-13: But before Boaz can proceed, there's another guy in line first before him. Boaz will discuss the matter with the other guy in the morning.

Read verses 14-15: Not wanting to arouse suspicion, he sends her home early in the morning and gives her barley to take too.

Read verses 16-18: Ruth goes home and like a true woman shares all the details of what went down. Naomi knows Boaz will take care of figuring things out as soon as possible (aka TODAY!!).


Application:

• Follow the rules. Who knows how the story will turn out, but they follow God's instruction (from Leviticus and Deuteronomy) and do things the right way. They don't take matters into their own hands.
• God has plans, even when we don't see them or understand them. He is in control!! (Jer 29:11)

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In Sunday School, we all took turns teaching the Book of Ruth. I only actually taught this chapter (3), but the rest of the chapters are here as well.