SWHW Bible Reading Plan: October 2021Sample

Top Takeaway from Joni Stepp:

The story of Ruth is often used to teach about marriage or waiting, and while that’s all well and good, the real story of Ruth is far more beautiful than just that.

The book of Ruth is a beautiful foreshadowing of Christ, our Redeemer.

The story begins in Moab, a place the people of God were never supposed to live. Here a woman named Naomi, an Israelite, had lost her husband and her sons. 

Due to famine and loss, she and her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth were traveling back to Naomi’s homeland of Bethlehem to find food.

As the book unfolds, Naomi realizes there is a kinsman-redeemer in Bethlehem.

A kinsman-redeemer in those times was a person who was basically the family guardian. The kinsman-redeemer could redeem or buy back a family member who had been sold into slavery, or buy back family property that had been sold due to poverty. And a kinsman-redeemer could marry a family widow to keep the family lineage going by providing her a son.

Naomi realizes a man, Boaz, in Bethlehem was from her husband's family line and could potentially be the kinsman-redeemer.

By the end of the story, Boaz agrees to redeem the family by marrying Ruth, and ultimately she gives birth to a son, Obed, the grandfather of King David, the lineage of Christ. 

Boaz stepping into being kinsman-redeemer, not only fulfilled the Levirate law, but ultimately continued the lineage promised by God to the Israelite people.

This story points to our Redeemer.

Christ redeemed His Bride (the Church) and bought us back from the grip of the enemy and the slavery of sin.

What started out as heartbreak and desperation, ends with God being faithful to a family who had turned its back on His ways.

How true is that of our own lives and salvation?

Our Redeemer paid a price we couldn’t pay, for a debt He didn’t owe, to give us the fulfillment of a promise we didn’t deserve.

What a mighty God we serve! Our redemption for His glory forever Amen!

“Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may His name be renowned in Israel!” (Ruth‬ ‭4:14)

Father, we praise You that despite our sin or our circumstance, You saw fit to redeem what we could not. You have made us part of Your bride, the Church, and You are a faithful husband. We give You all honor and glory for our redemption, for as long as we have breath!  Amen.