Wednesday, July 14, 2010
God Is At Work - The Story of Ruth Part II - A "Chance" Meeting, Part 1 of 44
TEXT: "So Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab.
Deuteronomy 23:3—An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the congregation of the Lord; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the congregation of the Lord forever" (Ruth 1:22).
IDEA: Moab had become an enemy of God's people, but Moabites who recognized God as God were made a crucial part of God's program.
PURPOSE: To help listeners understand that those who are enemies of God can become his friends.
We have been studying the story of Ruth. Where was Ruth from?
How did she happen to come to Israel?
The opening of the book of Ruth really asks the questions, "Can anything good come out of Moab?"
I. In Deuteronomy 23:3 there is a law that prohibited someone from the countries of Moab and Ammon from becoming a member of the Israelite community.
Where were Moab and Ammon located?
Why were inhabitants of those two countries excluded from the Israelite community?
II. There were at least two reasons people from Moab and Ammon were shut out of the Israelite community.
Moab had come into existence in a dreadful way after Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. A man named Lot fled Sodom with his family. You can take a family away from the sin, but that doesn't mean that you can take sin away from the family.
His wife disobeyed God's instructions and was turned into a pillar of salt.
Then Lot's two daughters plotted to get their father drunk so that he would commit incest with them and father their children.
One daughter gave birth to Moab and the other to Ammon, Genesis 19:26-38.
Their descendants became rival nations that contended with Israel for centuries.
One of the worst offenses that Moab committed took place toward the end of Israel's wilderness wanderings.
The king of Moab attempted to hire a non-Israelite seer named Balaam to curse the Israelites, but Balaam could not do it. He blessed them instead (Numbers 22-24).
But possibly Balaam earned his money by suggesting that the king of Moab send Moabite women to seduce Israelite men into idolatry. The plan worked perfectly, but 24,000 people died as punishment.
III. Can any good thing come out of Moab?
Yes! Ruth came out of Moab and from Ruth ultimately comes Israel's greatest king, David, and from David comes the Messiah, Jesus.
God chose to include Ruth, a Moabitess, as one of four women in the genealogy of Jesus. The others were Tamar (Genesis 38), Rahab (Joshua 2:1-24), and Bathsheba whom Matthew called "the wife of Uriah the Hittite."
What does that tell you about God?
What does it tell you about Jesus?
God is the God of all people regardless of gender, race, or moral background.
