Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?
Interesting Ideas to Consider:
Ruth 1:8-11, 14-18, 22; 2:2-3, 17, 19-20, 23; 3:1-11; 4:13-15, 17
• This reading follows the character of Ruth, but reading further into 4:14, identifies Naomi as the character who is “redeemed.” Farmer writes that the reader is meant to identify with Naomi, and that Ruth is a story of redemption for Israel in that like the effort God made to redeem Naomi through Ruth, so too will God work to redeem Israel. The story is not that we OUGHT to be like Ruth, but that we ARE like Naomi. Farmer writes, “A redemptive reading of Ruth will assume that the story is primarily concerned with the faithfulness of God rather than with the faithfulness of the people of God.
• In 1:8, Naomi encouraged her daughter-in-laws to “go back to [their] mother’s house” in order to find new husbands, since her family could no longer provide for them.
• “Kindly” is the Hebrew word hesed, which is a word rich in theological significance. It is an essential part of the nature of God. Hesed is lovingkindness and loyalty far beyond the requirements of the law. Naomi is indicating that both her daughter-in-laws have been kind and loyal, and Naomi hopes God will do the same.
• There is a tone of indignation in Ruth’s response to Naomi in v. 16-17 that the English doesn’t fully capture. Ruth is indignant that Naomi is asking her to abandon her present loyalties.
• The “will” in v. 16-17 are not in the Hebrew, in fact there are no verbs at all. Hebrew is a much more succinct language than English, it reads simply “your God, my God; your people, my people.” The “will” is intended to make it read clearer in English, but the Hebrew has more of a present tense reality then the future tense translation. Ruth has already committed herself to this family, there’s no turning back for her now.
• “Ruth the Moabite” in v. 22 is meant to emphasize Ruth’s outsider status.
• “Glean” in v. 2 refers to a law in Leviticus that forbade Israelites from fully stripping their fields as they harvested their crops. Instead they were to leave some behind for those who had no land of their own to cultivate. See Leviticus 19:9-10, “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus 23:22, “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am the Lord your God.” Deuteronomy 24:19, “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings.”
• “Nearest kin” in v. 2:20 is a Hebrew term “kinsman redeemer.” This gets to Israelite inheritance law, like was talked about in the story of Tamar. A kinsman redeemer had the obligation, like the brother of a deceased man, to make sure that property stayed within a family by doing whatever was necessary to regain whatever was lost to family control, be the item lost by death, war, poverty, etc.
Matthew 11:2-11
• The purpose of this section is to identify the identity and role of Jesus within salvation history, who is Jesus in relation to the identity and role of John the Baptist.
• In Matthew 3, John spoke decisively about who Jesus was and what his role would be. Now, in chapter 11, after Jesus had been teaching and healing for a while, and his work was marked with compassion rather than judgment, John began to question whether Jesus really was the Messiah he was expecting.
• Jesus’ response in v. 4-5 references the promises made in Isaiah 35:5-6, “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;” and Isaiah 42:18, “Listen, you that are deaf; and you that are blind, look up and see!”
• The “reed shaken by the wind” and the “soft robes in royal palaces” are references to the ongoing struggle in Matthew between the kingdoms of the world and the Kingdom of heaven. Herod’s fortress palaces of Herodium, Machaerus, and Masada, full of people wearing soft robes, were all in the wilderness along the Jordan. And some Herodian coins featured the symbol of a reed from the Jordan valley. But people hadn’t gone to the wilderness to see those things, they’d gone to see a prophet. John was the opposite of those things.
Works Sourced:
Boring, M. Eugene. “The Gospel of Matthew.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume VIII. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.
Robertson Farmer, Kathleen A. “The Book of Ruth.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume II. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1998.
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