Thursday, October 21, 2010

God Is At Work - The Story of Ruth Part III - A Strange Proposal, Part 28 of 31

TEXT: The book of Ruth

IDEA: Godly character is made up of ordinary virtues.

PURPOSE: To help listeners understand that what they are and how they act is more important than how they look.

What do you think of "arranged" marriages?

What might be the disadvantages?

What might be the advantages?

I. Do you think that the marriage of Ruth and Boaz was based on romance?

They hardly knew one another. Boaz had heard about her, but actually the two had had little interaction.

What did Boaz know about Ruth?

What do we know about Boaz and Ruth that they may not have known about each other?

Did romance have much to do with it? Do you think there is any hope for a marriage that isn't prompted by romance?

Boaz isn't acting because of a legal obligation, but because of a moral obligation to the family. The lives of genuinely good people are not governed by "laws," but by character and a moral sense of what is right and wrong.

God's covenant with Israel gave Boaz guidance in what to do.

II. If a marriage isn't based on romance, what else might it be based on?

In the story of Ruth, what attracted Boaz to her?

How important is character in a relationship? Can a relationship survive without it?

Can a relationship survive without romance?