03/6/2009
Speakers:
RUTH - Chapter 1:1-22
1. Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons.
Moab means: What father?
2. And the name of the man {was} Elimelech, and the name of his wife, Naomi; and the names of his two sons {were} Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah. Now they entered the land of Moab and remained there.
Elimelch means: My God is KING
Naomi means: My pleasantness
Mahlon means: sickness
Chilion means: consumption
3. Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died; and she was left with her two sons.
4. And they took for themselves Moabite women {as} wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. And they lived there about ten years.
Orpah means: her neck
Ruth means: SATISFIED
5. Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died; and the woman was bereft of her two children and her husband. 6. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the land of Moab, for she had heard in the land of Moab that the Lord had visited His people in giving them food.
MOVEMENT
7. So she departed from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
8. And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go, return each of you to your mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. 9. May the Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband." Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.
10. And they {Both Ruth and Orpah say this} said to her, "{No,} but we will surely return with you to your people."
11. But Naomi said, "Return, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? 12. Return, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, if I should even have a husband tonight and also bear sons, 13. would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters; for it is harder for me than for you, for the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me. "
14. And they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. {Orphah moves from Naomi and walks away from her}.
15. Then Naomi said, "Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law."
16. But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you {or} turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people {shall be} my people, and your God, my God. 17. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if {anything but} death parts you and me."
18. When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, Naomi said no more to Ruth.
ACT I sc ii: CITY of BETHLEHEM, House of Bread
19. So they both went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came about when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was stirred because of them, and the women said, "Is this Naomi?"
20. And she said to them, "Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21. I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?"
22. So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the land of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.
Mara means: bitterness or he was arrogant.
In Christ, our only hope; Christ in us, our hope and unity in His glory,