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Title: Four Levels of Blessing
Intro:
Who here thinks pretty quick on their feet, and doesn’t mind being put on the spot? Name something that is a blessing/name as many ways that thing is a blessing?
v13 We don’t know exactly how much time had passed, but the text seems to suggest that the Lord’s blessing upon Ruth’s conception was very early into the marriage.
This pregnancy was a HUGE blessing in many different ways, consider:
- First: The line of Naomi’s family would be continued. (If the other relative had taken Ruth as his wife, he may very well have protected her, but may NOT have made her pregnant, and the line of Elimelech and Naomi would have perished.)
Consider the words of Ruth 4:10 in this case where Boaz says, “Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the Widow of Mahlon, I have acquired as my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among the brethren…” (emphasis mine)
In Hebrew culture, the disappearance of one’s family name was considered to be an extreme misfortune.
Question: This concept of the “Family Line” is not nearly as prevalent as it was back then. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
Secondly, Naomi inherits TWO new sons.
Through the wedding, she gets a wonderful son-in-law in Boaz, a man who’s praises we’ve been singing for 10 months now, AND she gets a baby grandson, who (we will look at this more next week) she will take an active role in raising.
There is no consolation for losing the three most important men in her life (Naomi’s husband and her two birth sons), but the addition of Boaz and Baby Obed to her life signifies that her name should NOT be changed to “Mara”, because the Almighty has NOT “dealt bitterly” with her. (Ruth 1:20). But indeed her true name of Naomi (which means “my delight”) is once again most appropriate.
Question: Can anyone here relate to and maybe even share of the concept of great blessing coming through great heartache?
3. The pregnancy shows God’s favor
Favor: It was hard to get pregnant. It was hard to stay pregnant. It was hard to deliver successfully, much more so than it is today. All throughout the O.T. children are seen as a blessing from God because it literally was the gift of life from God. (How far our society today has fallen from this view, where children and/or pregnancy is so often seen as an inconvenience and hassle!)
Question: How many here today know someone who has struggled to get or stay pregnant? Can anyone speak to the particular heartache that comes with such a struggle?
4. The Pregnancy Shows God’s Plan
(anyone care to guess how?)
Plan: We will dive into this more in the next few weeks, but for now: Ruth (a Gentile) being grafted into the Hebrew line, and giving birth to the grandfather of King David, fulfills and foreshadows the idea that the Gentiles were always going to be part of God’s plan for Salvation through HIS son Jesus.
Question: How does Ruth becoming part of the ancestry of Jesus “pave the way” for the New Testament Church to accept the Gentiles as equal partakers of Christ?
Close:
Any Other ways in which this pregnancy can be seen as a great blessing? Anything else we did not talk about?
Pray/QA