Tag: Ruth and Naomi

A Restorer of Life

Old Testament: Ruth 3 & 4

Poetry: Proverbs Introduction below

New Testament: Luke 19

Shalom! This is Stephanie Schlegel writing this week while my husband and youngest daughter are in Israel for a few weeks. 😊 We lived there for about 30 years and moved back to the States five years ago to care for his aging parents.

The passages for today are so fitting for my life right now, and I hope yours too. 😊 The Scriptures bring us so much hope and peace and sustain us, sometimes verses strike and encourage us more than other days. Overall, the faithful commitment in them isn’t disappointing!

When I met my husband (Bill Schlegel) in Jerusalem, he said he found his Ruth. A woman that would be willing to leave her home country and live with him in Israel where he wanted to stay. Both Boaz and Naomi call Ruth their daughter multiple times, and the LORD/Yahweh is acknowledged for having brought about events.

  • People and elders said, “The LORD make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two pillars who built the house of Israel.” (4:11)
  • “Because of the offspring which the LORD will give you from this young woman.” (4:12)
  • “The LORD gave her conception.” (4:13)

It is good to acknowledge that the LORD is the giver and sustainer of life.  Ironically, these days I’m caring for my mother-in-law, like Ruth did. The women told Naomi “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a close relative, and may his name be famous in Israel: And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him.” (4:14,15)

My mother-in-law has four sons, but she really needs a daughter-in-law these days, especially in rehab with three broken limbs, and I love her! Naomi had had two sons previously, but in her later days, she needed a daughter-in-law to care for her. In general, younger people (grandchildren) can be a restorer of life and nourisher in old age for the elderly.  Maybe this week, think of an elderly person or relative you could visit and encourage them, even a neighbor.  It can be a lonely time for them as they can’t move around as much. Hug them and speak words of encouragement to them in their days of old.

The passage in Luke 19 is also fitting!  Jesus was in Jericho with Zacchaeus and walked up to Jerusalem. He walked past Bethpage and Bethany and came to the Mt. of Olives. Now when one reads those places it sounds fairly simple to walk them, but the walk from Jericho to Jerusalem, which I’ve done, is quite an incline! It took 8 hours to walk the 15 miles with a 3,400 ft elevation increase. Jesus probably walked this a dozen times in his life, including when he was a 12-year-old boy. So, I didn’t have much sympathy when our 14-year-old daughter texted me the other day that Abba (Dad) made her walk from Jerusalem up to the Mt. of Olives, which was less than a mile. Lol I told her Jesus walked multiple times from Jericho to Jerusalem, and not only that but all the way from Galilee to Jerusalem, which is about 80 miles and would’ve taken about 4 days to walk. So, I didn’t want to hear any complaining about a little hike up to the Mt. of Olives.  Here’s a picture of her smiling at the top of it. 😊

“Now as he drew near the city, he saw the city and wept over it.”  (Luke 19:41) This would’ve been a similar view Jesus would’ve seen minus most of the buildings, and it would’ve been the temple instead of the Dome of the Rock. “And he was daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes, together with the leaders of the people sought to destroy him” (19:47)

So, despite difficulties we may have in our lives, seek the peace of God and reach out to the encourage the broken. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!” (19:38)

-Stephanie Schlegel

Reflection Questions

  1. Think of an elderly person or relative you can visit and encourage. What do you think you would find helpful and encouraging when you are older than you are now?
  2. How can you be a restorer of life? How is Jesus a restorer of life?
  3. What do we learn about the LORD in our reading today? What do we learn about His Son Jesus?

Proverbs Introduction

The book of Proverbs is a collection of “sayings of the wise” which was mostly written by King Solomon.  According to Proverbs 1:2-4, the purpose of the book is, “for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight; for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair; for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young.”

Spoiler alert: Proverbs 1:7 gives the answer right away, where it says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.”

Solomon gave advice on many topics, some of which include.  

  • How to live life – Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”  
  • Money – Proverbs 3:9-10, “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.”
  • Hard work – Proverbs 6:6, “Go to the ant you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!”
  • Alcoholism – Proverbs 20:1, “Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.”
  • Compassion – Proverbs 21:13, “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.”
  • Childraising – Proverbs 22:6, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”
  • Revenge – Proverbs 24:29, “Do not say, I’ll do to him as he has done to me; I’ll pay that man back for what he did.”
  • Enemies – Proverbs 25: 21-22, “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.  In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.”
  • Obeying God’s law – Proverbs 28:9, “If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable.”
  • Defend the poor – Proverbs 3:8-9, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.  Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

As you read through Proverbs, I challenge you to consider how you can benefit from applying these proverbs to your own life.  

-Steve Mattison

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Beauty in the Midst of Chaos

Ruth 1

March 3

One of the major themes of the entire Bible is God blessing the entire world through His people, not just taking care of His own in one particular land. This was part of the original promise to Abraham, that he would be a father of many nations, not just one (Genesis 17:4). It was also the original mission of Israel, to be a “light to the nations” and bring God’s glory to other lands outside of their own (Isaiah 49:6). That mission has now extended to the Church, as we proclaim salvation to the ends of the earth, not to just one people-group or nation (Matthew 5:14-16). With this in mind, we come to the story of Ruth, a non-Israelite who was blessed by God for her faithfulness to her mother-in-law.

Ruth’s mother-in-law, Naomi, had just lost her husband and both of her sons. I can’t even imagine the pain that she must have been feeling; no parent should ever have to bury their child (let alone two!). She was wanting to go back to Judah amongst her native people, but Ruth refused to let her go alone. Ruth followed her into a country that she didn’t know, and put herself at the mercy of Naomi’s God, YHWH, to take care of her. Because of her radical faithfulness and trust, she eventually meets the man of her dreams, Boaz, and the two live happily ever after. In fact, their family line is the one that Jesus would eventually come through (see Matthew 1:5). What’s even more impressive about this love story is that all this was happening during the tragic reign of Israel’s judges, just one book before this one. In one of the darkest times in Israel’s history, God was still working behind-the-scenes, creating beauty in the midst of chaos.

-Talon Paul

Questions to Consider

  1. Do you trust that God is doing wonders outside of your native country? Do you consider believers of other countries to be brothers and sisters? Will you pray for them today?
  1. When people are going through a difficult time, sometimes the best thing we can do is simply be there for them and walk with them through it. Have you ever had a friend be there for you when you needed them most? Are you willing to be that friend to someone else? Sometimes people don’t need advice; they just need a shoulder to cry on.
  1. If you are in a dark season of life, God is still working out something beautiful, even if you can’t see it yet. Will you continue to trust God when life seems bleak? Will you remain faithful to Him, even when it seems like nothing is going right?
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Little Decisions, Lasting Consequences

Ruth 1-2 and John 14

  Have you ever looked back on an event or person in your life that, at first seemed very inconsequential at the time, but when you looked back you realized that that person or event profoundly impacted your life?  I have.

            When I was about 16 my brother-in-law, Dale, who was a pastor but also drove a charter bus part-time asked if I wanted to go with him on a trip to the city.  He was bringing a group of young people from across the country on a Youth Caravan into nearby Washington DC to tour the national landmarks.  He thought it might be fun for me to come along and spend some time with other young people from the Church of God.  So I said, “sure”.

            This Youth Caravan had been together and had travelled cross-country for several weeks bonding and were coming to the end of their trip.  I didn’t know any of them well and I was a bit shy so I sat up in the front of the bus near my brother-in-law, Dale, while they sat in the back and visited with each other.  Then, one of them left the safety of their group and came up and sat next to me and we had a friendly chat.  We ended up spending the day touring the Smithsonian museums and other famous DC landmarks.  Making a new friend was nice but also nice is that through that friend I was able to make several more friends among that group.  After the day spent sightseeing they gave a concert at our church and then they headed out for their next caravan stop and I went back to my normal life and didn’t think a whole lot more about it, other than grateful for making some new friends who lived around the country.  This was before social media, texting, snapchatting etc… so staying connected wasn’t easy, but we did write a few letters via snail mail over the next couple of  years.

            A couple of years later this friend’s brother became my new pastor at my church.  This friend came to visit him at our Church and we briefly reconnected.  The friend was getting ready to attend Bible College and I was going to a local university.  By the following summer I made the decision to also attend Bible College and during National Church Camp I reconnected with that friend.  By the end of that camp we decided to be more than just friends and just over a year later my friend Karen and I were engaged and then married.  37 years later we have 11 children, 12 grandchildren and have served in ministry side by side in 4 states and two countries. 

            All those initial little decisions- to accept my brother-in-law’s offer to ride on the bus, her decision to leave the group and come up and talk to me, her brother’s  decision to come and be the pastor at my Church, my decision to attend Summer Church Camp and Bible College- and almost 40 years later the impact those initial decisions had not only on our lives but our children, grand-children and future generations.  Who knows how many lives will ultimately be impacted by those first little choices.

            Ruth is that kind of story in the Bible.  It starts with some little choices that were made- An Israelite man and his wife and two children are living in a time when there’s a food shortage so they leave their country to go to a place to find food.  They are refugees looking for a place to live.  They make the choice to go to Moab- outside of Israel.  There the sons make choices to marry women from among the Moabites- who are not their people.  The man dies and both of his sons die.  This leaves his wife a widow living with no family in a foreign land with no one to provide for her.  She makes the decision to go back home to Israel to see if her family will help her- another small decision.  She tells her two young daughters-in-law who are also widows to go back to their families and find new husbands while they are still young.  One daughter-in-law goes back home, but the other, Ruth, refuses to leave her mother-in-law.  She is steadfastly loyal to her deceased husband’s mother and will not abandon her.  Ruth makes the choice to leave Moab with her mother-in-law and go to Israel and she herself becomes a stranger in a foreign land.

            While in Israel an extended member of Ruth’s husband’s family chooses to be kind to her and makes sure that they have enough food and other provisions.  Again, a simple decision to be kind by Boaz. 

Where do all of these little decisions lead?  Ultimately, they lead to Jesus.  As you will see in tomorrow’s reading- Boaz and Ruth eventually get married.  Ruth becomes the grandmother of a man named Jesse who was the father of David who later becomes King of Israel, and eventually one of their descendants was Jesus (when you look at Jesus’ family tree in Matthew 1 you will see Ruth’s name).

God takes little decisions that at the time we might not pay much attention to, and uses them to make amazing things happen that have lasting consequences.  God is always at work, even in ways that we don’t see at the time or fully understand.  God is at work in ways that we sometimes don’t realize until long after the fact.  Trust that God is at work in the day to day choices you make.  Should I go to church today or stay home?  Should I talk to this new person or should I stay in my comfort zone?

In today’s reading from John 14 Jesus affirms that we should not “let our hearts be troubled.”  Jesus says he’s going to prepare a place for us.  Jesus is working behind the scenes getting everything ready for the day when he will bring to earth his father’s Kingdom forever and ever.  We don’t always recognize the importance of  our choices or events as they are happening in real time,  but if we trust God to be a loving Father and Jesus Christ to be a faithful savior and king, we can trust that they are working every day, often behind the scenes in seemingly small ways, to bring about a future when everything will be as it should be. 

-Jeff Fletcher

Today’s Bible reading passages can be read or listened to at BibleGateway here – Ruth 1-2 and John 14

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