Not me, but you
26 January - 23 February 2025
The book of Ruth · The American clothing range Fanjoy launched a number of different slogan design T-Shirts last year. Two of these included the slogans ‘take care of yourself’ and another ‘take care of your friends’. The ‘take care of yourself design’ quickly sold out whereas the ‘take care of your friends’ design is now for sale at a heavily reduced price.
It can often seem like we live in a world where we are told that true happiness comes when we focus on ourselves and take care of our own needs. But what if we realised that something else might be true? That rather than focusing on ourselves, instead, the greatest source of fulfilment we could ever find comes when we focus on ‘You’. As we journey through the book of Ruth, we will discover the radical difference putting God at the centre of our lives can make, both for us and for those around us.
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In today’s western world we are so often told to focus on meeting our own needs and our own self care. However, Ruth is a book that turns this narrative on its head. It's a story about someone who changed the lives of others for the better because they put God, not themselves, at the centre of their story.
Study Questions
If you had to give yourself a name that described your mood, what would it be?
Read Matthew 1:1-6.
What do you know about any of the five women in the lineage of Jesus?
If you have time in your group, read the book of Ruth together.
Who/what do you think the book of Ruth is about?
Bethlehem means ‘house of bread’. What do you think is significant about that name?
Have you ever lived anywhere where you were considered a foreigner?
Is there a group of people alive today that would be as vulnerable as Naomi was after her sons died?
Ruth didn’t do what Naomi asked her to do but as a result Naomi was blessed. Have you ever been blessed by God when he has not done what you asked?
Chat about how/when you will accept Nate’s challenge to read Ruth this week and pray that God might speak to you through it.
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Ruth put her focus on God, and in doing so found the strength to support Naomi in her greatest time of need. How can we point others to Jesus through the love and support we give to them, even if it comes at a cost to us?
Study Questions
Read Ruth 1:6-22.
Except for Jesus, what or who do you love?
Did Ruth love Naomi more than Orpah?
What do you think finally convinced Orpah to return to her parents. Do you think Ruth was tempted to leave?
Do you think God deliberately caused Naomi’s misfortune? What did she believe?
Naomi and her husband left Bethlehem for Moab because there was more food available there. How often do you make decisions purely based on a practical need over a spiritual need? Which should be more important?
Can you give examples of love being expressed with and without conditions?
How can we show God our love for Him?
Pray for a Ruth character in your life.
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When we come into God’s kingdom, we realise there are no outsiders. See how Ruth brings redemption to those who had been left out of God’s family.
Study Questions
Read Ruth, chapter 2.
Do you ever take time to look up or explore words or parts of the Bible that you don’t understand?
How has this, or how do you think this would, add to your understanding of the Bible?
What do you know about the Moabites?
Did you learn anything about them from the talk on Sunday?
Why was Ruth's decision to follow Naomi back to Bethlehem so radical?
Have you ever made a decision based on your faith that others did not understand or would see as radical?
Before he met Ruth, Boaz had already heard about her. Who do you think told him, and what do you think they said
Read Leviticus 19:9-10.
Was Boaz just obeying the law in the help he offered to Ruth?
Read Deuteronomy 23:3-4.
How does this verse help us to understand how radical it was for Boaz to help Ruth and for Ruth to decide to go with Naomi?
Can you think of a place that would reject you for simply being who you are? (race, gender, sexual orientation etc)
On Sunday, Sarah quoted Rebecca McLaughlin, “When Jesus calls His followers to love each other just like he loves them, He’s not just going with the natural grain of friendship. He is calling people who might never have gone near each other into sacrificial love relationship”.
How does this quote challenge you?
If you are honest with yourself, who are those you see as your Moabites?
The Kingdom of God is one which is above the kingdom of the world. Jesus called tax collectors and zealots to be part of the 12 disciples - people who were politically opposed to one another and often seen as enemies.
Pray for one another - that your life and outlook would reflect the Kingdom of God over the kingdom of the world.
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When we try to go it alone, our plans can often falter and fail or not live up to our expectations. As we follow God’s plan, we can find a fulfilment and outcomes way beyond our own expectations. We can trust God for our future.
Study Questions
Read Ruth 3.
‘Those who give everything into God’s hand will eventually see God’s hand in everything.’
As we look at the plan that unfolds for Ruth in chapter 3, how does this quotation challenge us around trusting God’s plan for our lives?
‘Qarah’ is the Hebrew word Judy mentioned in the talk. It means a moment of God’s intervention - an interruption of our plan that reveals God at work.
How does this word encourage you as you think about the days ahead? Or how you have seen this at work in your life in the past?
Judy encouraged us that when we feel we’re in the wilderness and don’t know what God is doing, we can emulate Ruth and just do the next right thing. What ‘next right thing’ could He be calling each of us to do as we wait for Him to act?
Naomi tells Ruth that they must find a ‘goel’ or ‘kinsman-redeemer’. A kinsman-redeemer set a slave free, continued the line of the family, bought back the land that was taken and avenged injustice.
As you reflect on Jesus as our true kinsman-redeemer, which of these descriptions resonates most in how Jesus has redeemed you and your life?
‘God’s vision for our future is to move forward into that future in the full operation of love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness and self-control with a fearlessness and assurance that could only come from him.’
In this quote, Sarah Bessey lists the fruits of the Spirit available to us as we move forward into the future.
Read again these fruits as listed in Galatians 5:22-23 and pray for more of one of them in your life as you move forwards in trust and faith.
Ruth’s bold and obedient actions in chapter 3 have consequences for all eternity, as the baby later born to her and Boaz will lead to the lineage of David and ultimately Jesus.
How does this affect the way you view the bible as whole?
What legacy would you like to leave here on earth for others to live in the goodness of?
Pray that you will grow in knowledge of God’s goodness and love and you trust him for your future.
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When life seems hard or circumstances seem challenging, what do you do when God seems to be hidden or not present? In the closing chapter of Ruth, we’ll see that God is not only present—he was there the whole time, working in the meanwhile.
Study questions
Are you going to the Big weekend away?
Read Ruth 4:1-13. Summarise the story so far, and then outline what happens in the chapter.
In what ways are the various challenges in this book resolved in chapter 4.
Read Leviticus 25:25.
Do you think God wanted the original guardian-redeemer (i.e. not Boaz) to buy Naomi’s land?
Why, according to this chapter, did he not want to?
In Tim’s talk on Sunday, he mentioned God being the God of ‘meanwhile’. Notice in 3:18 that Naomi and Ruth are waiting for the situation to be sorted, and in 4:1 things have already been happening. How does this encourage you in your life?
Why is it so significant to us that David is a descendent of Naomi?
If you could only give one piece of advice, what would you say to a Christian who stops sensing that God is at work in their life?
Read Genesis 38.
What do Tamar, Perez and the story of Ruth have in common?
Who is the redeemer in this story?
What impact does this have on your life?
Pray that this week God gives us a glimpse of one of his plans, and the part we can play.