Intermediate lesson seven - book of Ruth

MESSAGE FOR PEOPLE TODAY FROM THE BOOK OF RUTH

Please watch the Video Before Reading the Lesson Plan      

Church: Smyrna                         12 of 39 lessons                                  Theme: Mercy

Background Information:

ü  The church of Ephesus taught us how to turn back to our first love, God.

Statement of Faith to Say Amen to for the Book of Ruth:

I can learn to share mercy with my neighbor with love by asking for wisdom and fearing the Lord.

Essential Question:

Can I share God’s mercy if I am proud?

Book of Ruth:

Have students read pages 35-38 in the book, The Pattern of Sound Teaching.

After students read the information ask them, "What do you want to talk about?"

Remember the Issue:

Does the world teach us to love our neighbor? How does the world get us to build our foundation of faith on sinking sand instead of The Rock of Faith?

The world is trying to turn us against our neighbor with a worldview that celebrates pride and lives in fear of not being the best. We need to know the truth to combat the enemy’s lies.

Remember the Truth Jesus Brought:

When the world teaches us to celebrate pride, we can look at the sacrifice Jesus made to understand how we are to love our neighbor and deny ourselves. In Luke 3:36 Jesus said, “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” Jesus’ teachings on pride can be misunderstood because Satan, the father of lies, likes to put prideful thoughts into our path. However, we can look at the life that Jesus lived to understand that we should look to our eternal inheritance as more important than a worldly inheritance. As it is written in 1 John 2:16, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” Just as the world taught a message to associate the sacrifice of animals' blood with not sharing mercy in the past, the world today is teaching a message to associate the sacrifice Jesus made with not fearing the Lord. The Old Testament helps us understand how when people sacrificed to false gods, they denied God shared mercy.

The Old Testament has a message for people today. In the book of Ruth, we learn how when Naomi left Bethlehem because of a famine and went out to live among the people who were sacrificing to a false god in Moab, the false god at Moab did not share mercy. The world was teaching a sacrifice that only punished people and never shared mercy, but in Bethlehem, Naomi remembered being taught to share mercy and to look to the coming of a kinsman redeemer (Jesus) who would bring mercy.

Remember the Rock God Established:

While living in Moab, Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, died. Naomi was left with her two sons. Naomi’s sons had already taken wives of the women of Moab, their names were Orpah and Ruth. After ten years, Naomi’s sons also died. Naomi and her two daughters-in-law were now all three widows.

Naomi rose up and said, “I am going back to Bethlehem (Judah) because there is food there now.” When Naomi told her daughters-in-law she was going back to Bethlehem, they said they were going to go with her. Naomi was bitter and told them to stay and worship their god. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law and said goodbye, but Ruth grabbed her mother-in-law and would not let go. Ruth then told Naomi that wherever she went she would go, and said she would not leave her. Then Ruth let Naomi know that Naomi’s God was also Ruth’s God.

When Naomi got to Bethlehem, she was telling everyone to call her a new name, Mara, which means bitter, because the Lord had dealt with her bitterly. She blamed God for all her problems. However, when she began to look to the coming of the kinsman redeemer, she had hope. Boaz was a kinsman redeemer, and he told Ruth that the Lord was aware of what she had done and that she would be rewarded. When Ruth told Naomi all that Boaz had told her. Naomi remembered that Boaz was the kinsman-redeemer, which meant he could marry Ruth. The realization gave Naomi hope, and she was no longer bitter. Naomi focused on the mercy of the kinsman Boaz.

Ruth and Boaz were married and had a son named Obed. Obed had a son named Jesse, and Jesse was the father of King David. King David was in the line that Jesus came from. Jesus, the savior, who brought a message of a merciful, forgiving God came from the line of Ruth and Boaz.

Today we can look back at this message and understand how people in the Old Testament were quick to only focus on fearing the Lord because Jesus had not come yet. But note that during the story of Ruth, people were only talking about mercy. They had not yet been able to go to a temple and share mercy. There were ideas of how to share mercy, but no real teaching yet.

When Naomi went to live among the people in Moab, the people in Moab sacrificed to a false god who only punished people and did not share mercy. This was how the world was excluding the message of mercy from the sacrifice. The sacrifice that God had taught the Hebrews included mercy.

Jesus brought great mercy when He came and forgave all sin with His sacrifice. This is still a message that includes love and wrath. Just as the world was excluding the message of mercy from the sacrifice in the Old Testament, the world is trying to separate God from His creation today by teaching God’s servants of righteousness to exclude fearing the Lord from their living sacrifice when they build their internal temple in the church age.

Activity:

The activity directions are located in Appendix 1 – Step 3.

Students will take on the role of a creator in this activity by observing how the creator explains the relationship to the creation by stacking books on top of the creation.

Conclusion:

As it is written in James 2:13, this issue was addressed and explained in how there will not be mercy

for those who deny mercy to others. However, for those who choose to share mercy with others, God

will share mercy with them..

Next Lesson:

Ruth’s great, great, great grandson King Solomon was awakened to build a temple. There people could see the miracle of an actual cloud that filled the temple to know that God offers great mercy. Now we are awakened to build an internal temple by sharing mercy with our neighbor through love.

"The best way to teach someone what something is, is for the person to know what it is not."~ Melody of Churches Island

"True communism can only be understood by someone who has lived in a capitalistic society."~ Melody of Churches Island

"Behaviors are controlled with fear of punishment or anticipation of reward." ~ Melody of Churches Island

"Intentional sin is human nature while unintentional sin is when we turn to do something else." ~ Melody of Churches Island

"The word of God will teach us how to control our dark emotions by fearing God." ~ Melody of Churches Island

"In teaching someone the word of God is it important to teach people how to build a temple with the Chief Cornerstone that includes fear and mercy." ~ Melody of Churches Island