Tag: Ruth

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Faith Through The Famine

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Ruth 1 Listen: (3:33) Read: Hebrews 9 Listen: (4:40)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Ruth 2 Listen: (3:56) Read: Hebrews 10 Listen: (5:33)
Read: Ruth 3-4 Listen: (6:24) Read: Hebrews 11 Listen: (6:22)

Scripture Focus: Ruth 1.20-22

20 “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” 22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

From John: After the tough-to-read stories of Judges, I hope you enjoy Ruth this weekend. Take some time to soak in this story, remembering that it happened right in the midst of the chaos of Judges.

Reflection: Faith Through The Famine

By John Tillman

Ruth’s tale cuts through despairing clouds of Israel’s chaos and civil war with hope-tinged sunlight. After Judges, Ruth is a much-needed palate cleanser. Chapter one starts with a famine and ends with a harvest.

The famine forced Elimelek and Naomi’s family to immigrate to the hostile nation of Moab. Moab was one of the first oppressors Israel suffered under in Judges. The famine must have been severe for them to flee to Moab.

While in Moab, things got worse. Elimelek died. Then Naomi’s sons died. Having nowhere else to go, Naomi prepared to return to Bethlehem. She told Ruth and Orpah to return to their families because God’s hand was against her. But Ruth stayed.

Despite Naomi’s dark bitterness, Ruth must have seen glimmers of hope in Naomi’s God. She uprooted herself from Moab, cutting herself out of Esau’s vine.

Ruth didn’t yet know that she could be grafted into Jacob’s vine. (Romans 11.17-24) She didn’t yet know that she would bear fruit that would bless the entire world through Jesus. She just knew that this God Naomi worshiped would be her God too.

There’s a common simplistic teaching that tells sufferers to celebrate because, “God is using it” or “God sent this for a reason.” These well-meaning people have no idea if their unpalatable platitudes are true.

First of all, truly evil things are not from God’s hand. (1 John 1.5; James 1.13-17; Psalm 92.15) Second, though God may discipline or test us with suffering, he doesn’t expect “happy-clappy” celebrations in the midst of it. God didn’t demand Job to throw a party or berate Naomi for her bitterness.

God is not the author of evil, but he does take evil and write a better ending than evil intends. (Genesis 50.20) Naomi’s story has a similarity to Israel’s.

Famine drove Israel to immigrate to Egypt and Naomi to Moab. As refugees, Israel reunited with Joseph and Ruth was united to Naomi. Through Joseph, Israel, Egypt, and surrounding nations were saved. Through Ruth, Naomi, Israel, and all nations were blessed, first through David, who saved them from political instability and oppression and ultimately through Jesus, who saves us from sin and death.

Have faith, even through famines. Don’t try to force feelings you don’t have, but recognize that the story’s end is known. We are moving from famine to harvest. No matter where you are in the story, God is with you.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

Restore us, O God of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved. — Psalm 80.3

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Ruth’s Story

She, like Rahab, heard the stories of God in her foreign land…decided by faith for “your God” to become “my God.”

Ruth’s Story — Love of Advent
Read more: Ruth, the Immigrant

Ruth shows us how God’s grace helps us immigrate from our own selfish kingdoms to the kingdom of God.

Ruth, the Immigrant

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Women Interrupting History

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 38 Listen: (4:24), Read: Mark 15 Listen: (5:16)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 38:26-27

26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.

27 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.

Ruth 4:11-12

11 Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 12 Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”

Reflection: Women Interrupting History

By Erin Newton

The story of Tamar interrupts the narrative of Joseph. It is a jarring interruption at that. The scandalous nature by which the men withhold their duties of levirate marriage and her tactics are both perplexing as well as sordid.

The narrator doesn’t cast much of a critical shadow over the actions. Was such behavior acceptable in the ancient world or did the author simply prefer to focus on the greater purpose of the text (to tell the history of Israel’s genealogy)?

The outcome of Tamar’s plan is clear in the text. She conceived not just a child but twins. In a culture that did not fully grasp the concept of eternal life, “living forever” was generally seen in one’s offspring. Not only was Tamar’s lineage continued but it was doubled, a blessing for this once discarded woman.

Laying aside the ethical questions of Genesis 38, the birth of the two boys is seen generations later as a blessing on par with the offspring of Rachel and Leah.

Once again the question of levirate marriage is in focus in the story of Ruth. The elders of the city speak of Ruth as a blessing for Boaz. She is not marked by her foreign identity or her status as a widow. She is a woman that can bring blessing.

Women are not often named in the Old Testament and even less are they given central roles in the telling of Israel’s history. But the story of Tamar interrupts the narrative and, I think, intentionally.

The next story returns to Joseph but with his own trouble with a scheming woman. Joseph is not like Judah; the reasons for their situations are different. Joseph is portrayed as honorable and full of integrity. Judah is marked as self-serving and untrustworthy. Even the women are seen differently.

The interruption of Tamar’s story calls attention to her. But such attention to foreign women is nothing new in the Old Testament. It is Zipporah, Moses’s wife who rushes out to save their son Gershom. It is Rahab who saved the Hebrew spies. It is Ruth the Moabite who enables the line of David.

The two distinctions that should have placed Tamar outside or on the periphery of the narrative—being foreign and being a woman—are honored by God and highlighted by the narrator.

We serve a God who honors that which the world dismisses.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy.

Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves. — Psalm 126.6-7

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Tamar’s Story

Tamar is not defined by the abuse she suffered at the hands of men or by her assertive (and questionable) actions…She is a matriarch of Jesus.

Tamar’s Story — Love of Advent
Read more: Ruth’s Story

Ruth stands in the spotlight…Boaz redeemed her, but Ruth’s character is the focus…she decided by faith for “your God” to become “my God.”

Ruth’s Story — Love of Advent

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Ruth’s Story — Love of Advent

Scripture Focus: Matthew 1.1, 5b
1 This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:

5 …Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth

Ruth 4.15
15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”

Reflection: Ruth’s Story — Love of Advent
By Erin Newton

These are the matriarchs of Jesus: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. This is Ruth’s story.

Ruth rarely needs an introduction. Her story is told in nearly every women’s bible study.

She was not part of a scandalous story like Tamar or Rahab. But like Tamar and Rahab, she was also not part of Abraham’s family. She was not an Israelite but a Moabite. And her story opens with sorrow.

Three deaths cover the first five verses of the book. The book begins with emptiness. Famine and empty bellies. Death and empty households. Immigration and the parting of sisters.

Without a husband or heirs, Ruth joined her mother-in-law to return to Israel and said goodbye to her Moabite sister-in-law. The rumor was that God had been gracious to Israel. The barren land was filling with food.

Despite being a foreigner and a woman—a double disadvantage—she worked to provide for herself and Naomi. You get the sense that Ruth was humble yet intelligent. She understood her place in the Israelite culture but also how to make the most of each situation.

Israelite stories of marriage follow a pattern. Robert Alter points out the typical nature of such scenes: a man journeys from a foreign land, comes upon a well, meets a woman, she draws water for him, a marriage proposal occurs, and she rushes home to tell her family. We see this scene in stories about Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel, and Moses and Zipporah.

The expected story of betrothal is met with unexpected turns. It is Ruth who stands in the spotlight of the story. In this story it is the woman who travels to a distant land. It is Boaz who ensures Ruth has something to drink. In a story that ought to focus on the patriarch, it is Ruth who exemplifies such qualities.

Boaz redeemed her, but Ruth’s character is the focus of the story. She, like Rahab, heard the stories of God in her foreign land. Like Rahab, she decided by faith for “your God” to become “my God.”

Ruth has both the disadvantage of too much estrogen and a foreign ethnicity, but she is a matriarch of Jesus. Her story reveals how God works in unexpected ways.

Ruth, someone from the outside, is chosen and honored as one of five women named in Jesus’s family.

In the love of Jesus belong the outsiders and the disadvantaged.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. — Matthew 5.6

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


Today’s Readings
2 Chronicles 14-15  (Listen 5:49)
Psalms 119-73-96 (Listen 15:14)

Read more about Ruth, the Immigrant
Ruth shows us how God’s grace helps us immigrate from our own selfish kingdoms to the kingdom of God.

Ruth, the Immigrant

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Creator of Worlds :: Readers’ Choice

Selected by reader, Michelle Perez, from New York, NY
This extols the beauty of the Lord’s creative work with such reverence and joy! I especially love that the prayer from Jamaica includes the importance and beauty of each created human life and pleads with the Lord to remember those who do not look at “life” through that lens.

Scripture Focus: Psalm 148.1-4
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
    praise him in the heights above.
Praise him, all his angels;
    praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
Praise him, sun and moon;
    praise him, all you shining stars.
Praise him, you highest heavens
    and you waters above the skies.

Reflection: Creator of Worlds :: Readers’ Choice
Originally published July 12th, 2019
By John Tillman

Scripture tells us that creation groans to be released from sin. If the beauty and wonder of creation is what shines through despite its being shackled with sin, how much more beautiful may it be when all has been restored?

And…if creation is still capable of beauty and wonder through its groaning and pain, so much the more are we. We are not mere rocks that cry out, but God’s children whose mouths are filled with ordained praise. 

We are not trees that clap our hands with the breeze but God’s own family who celebrate the grace of God our Father even with our faces set firmly against a blowing gale.

With joy, we join this prayer from Christian brothers and sisters in Jamaica, praising and calling on the Almighty God, creator of all worlds!

Creator of Worlds
Prayer for the preservation of creation from Jamaica

Almighty God: Creator of all worlds!

We honor you for the marvels of your creation, and thank you for that part of it which is our home— the mountains, the green fields, and the sea— the abundance and energy of life in us and around us.

We confess that we have often forgotten that the world is yours and so we have misused and abused your gifts, causing distress and pain to others and to ourselves.

Out of your forgiving grace—hear us now as we pray for healing in our world.

Remember those who behold but cannot appreciate your wonderful world and those who abuse and deface its beauty—that they may discover the joy of tending the garden of the Lord.

Remember those who squander and waste resources you have entrusted to them, but are not concerned that others are starving.

Remember those who respect not life, your precious gift, in themselves and in others, and who from greed, or anger, or malice destroy human life without pity or fear.

Remember those who bear rule in communities and nations, acting with arrogance and without wisdom—that they may know that power is a trust for which they must give an account to you the only Absolute Ruler. May they in humility exercise the stewardship you have allotted them. May their labors promote peace and prosperity among the peoples of our troubled lands.

Oh Lord, help us all to be good stewards of this beautiful universe your mighty hand has brought into being.

In Jesus’ great name.

*Prayer from Hallowed be Your Name: A collection of prayers from around the world, Dr. Tony Cupit, Editor.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm
The trees of the Lord are full of sap, the cedars of Lebanon which he planted,
In which the birds build their nests, and in whose top the stork makes his dwelling.
The high hills are a refuge for the mountain goats, and his stony cliffs for rock badgers. — Psalm 104.17-19

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Ruth 1 (Listen – 3:33) 
Acts 26 (Listen – 5:17)

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Read more about Overgrown by the Gospel
May the gospel make ruins of our pride and selfishness. May we be overgrown by the gospel.

Overgrown by the Gospel
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Redemption at Work in Generosity

Scripture: Ruth 2.20
He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.

Reflection: Redemption at Work in Generosity
By John Tillman

Our culture is obsessed with romance. (To the tune of thirty percent of the fiction market and over a billion dollars a year) However, as tempting as it is to interpret Boaz’s actions in Ruth’s second chapter to an instant romantic attachment, gleaning doesn’t make for a good “meet-cute.”

Gleaning was a part of the social safety net put in place by the communal regulations of the Old Testament covenant. Ruth’s story puts a relational microscope on this practice.

Landowners, the CEOs of Israel’s agrarian society, had a holy responsibility to not wring every grain of profit from their fields—to not harvest the edges and corners of the field, and to not pick up dropped grain or return for forgotten sheaves. This runs counter to our modern business mentality of efficiency at all costs and it seems that the community of Bethlehem wasn’t fully living up to these ideals either.

Boaz’s warnings not to glean elsewhere and his assurances of good treatment in his field are strong indicators to us that gleaners were seldom well treated. His statement, “I have told the men not to lay a hand on you,” is a particularly telling hint at the kind of treatment that Ruth was likely to get elsewhere and may indeed already have received before Boaz arrived.

Then as now, the marginalized are the easiest targets for harassment and violence, and it is up to people of faith to intervene.

The redemptive view of work, profit, and charity in Ruth, asserts that ownership is custodial—that the fruits of investment are meant to benefit the entire community. The initiative to provide assistance must sync up with the initiative to seek it. Systems and programs for the marginalized are nice and societies should have them. But compassion goes further.

Living generously is more than giving out of “our” profit that we have harvested. It is recognizing that the profit never belonged to us. It is more than giving a prescribed percentage of income to carefully vetted charities or happily paying taxes for social programs. Generosity is making room in our lives, our fields, and our communities for the marginalized and the needy. Fulfilling religious or social law is compliance. Generosity means going beyond what is expected.

The Call to Prayer
Let the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; let them be merry and joyful. — Psalm 68.3

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Ruth 3-4 (Listen – 5:24)
Acts 28 (Listen – 4:56)