Intermediate Level, Block 5—Occupying the Land
Week 50
The Story of the Book of Ruth
Point to Emphasize: We can be wise in the choices we make.
Reference Reading: Ruth 1—4
Memory Verse: Who then is the man who fears Jehovah? / Him will He instruct concerning the way that he should choose. (Psalm 25:12)
Story Sample
The book of Ruth is a very short book in the Bible—only four chapters! But it tells a very important story. It tells of the ancestry of Christ Jesus. The story of Ruth is a wonderful story about making choices! We make choices every day, don’t we? We choose what to wear to school, who our friends will be, whether to do our homework or not, whether to obey our parents and teachers, and so on. One day we will choose who to marry and where to live. Almost everything we do requires making a choice. There are big choices, small choices, good choices and poor choices. Let’s go through the story of Ruth and see some of the choices that people made. [Storyteller, as you tell the story, write on the board the names that are on bold letters as you talk about the choice they made, whether good or poor.]
The story of the book of Ruth begins with a man named Elimelech. Elimelech made a poor choice in not talking to God about how to provide for his family. He had a wife, Naomi, and two sons. They lived in Bethlehem in Judah, where there was a famine. What would he do to feed his family? He had to make a choice about the best place for his family to be. He chose to go to the land of Moab. The only thing was, the Moabites were not children of God, and they had nothing to do with God, so it was not the best place to go. They remained in Moab until Elimelech died, leaving his wife Naomi and his sons in a foreign land without any other family.
Eventually, Naomi’s sons Mahlon and Chilion married women from Moab. Again, a poor choice, because they were not children of God. One married a woman named Orpah and the other married a woman named Ruth. They lived there for ten years, and after that, Naomi’s sons both died.
Poor Naomi! What would she do now? Now she had a choice to make. Should she stay in Moab or return to her homeland? She chose to return to the people of God, which was a very good choice.
Orpah and Ruth also had to make a choice. Would they remain in Moab where they had lived their whole lives, or follow Naomi to Bethlehem? And they each made a different choice, though they both loved Naomi. Orpah chose to return to her parents’ house in the land of Moab. But Ruth made the better choice—to follow Naomi. She told Naomi, “Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you dwell, I will dwell; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.” (Ruth 1:16-17). Ruth was willing to leave her family, her friends, and the country she had grown up in just to be with Naomi.
When they returned to Bethlehem, it was the beginning of the barley harvest. Ruth made a choice to go glean in the fields. Does anyone know what it is to glean? This was an Old Testament regulation that provided for the poor, the sojourners, the orphans and the widows. The reapers were not allowed to go back in their steps so that there would always be some grain left behind for the poor (Dt. 24:19-21). The poor were then allowed to enter the field after the hired reapers, so that they could gather and keep the gleanings. This was God’s way of caring for these people, and it was their right to work in this way. Ruth made this choice in order to care for herself and her mother-in-law, Naomi.
Now, Naomi had a relative, a relative of her husband Elimelech. His name was Boaz, and he was a man of great wealth, and a man who chose to be a man of God. Well, Boaz also had a choice to make. What would he do about Ruth, who was gleaning in his fields? Boaz appreciated that Ruth was such a hard worker. He appreciated the report he had heard about her, how she had taken such good care of Naomi, and how she had been willing to leave her family and home and come to a strange country. So he chose to make sure she was taken care of as she worked.
Naomi knew that God meant for Ruth and Boaz to be together so she came up with a plan. She told Ruth exactly what to do. And Ruth did exactly what she was told. She went to Boaz and reminded him that he was a kinsman and it would be his duty as a kinsman to care for her. This was the custom of the time.
Boaz had another choice to make. Should he marry Ruth? Boaz was a very honorable person. He told Ruth that he would be willing to take her, but the custom at that time was that the closest relative would marry a widow. So he wanted to be sure that he had the right to marry her before he did anything. There was another kinsman who was a closer relative to Elimelech than Boaz, so this other kinsman should have the first choice. In the morning, Boaz went to the city to seek out the kinsman and gathered ten of the elders of the city to be with him. He chose to act in an honorable way, obeying the custom of the time. The other kinsman chose not to buy the parcel of land and marry Ruth. This was more responsibility than this man wanted.
So in the end we see that Boaz and Ruth were married, had a child named Obed, and the ancestor of Jesus was born! All because of a series of choices. Naomi, Ruth and Boaz all chose to take the way of God. And the others chose to go according to what they thought best in their own mind.
As you go through life, you will have many choices to make. When we are young, our parents teach us how to make good choices, so that when we grow up we will continue to make the best choices. I hope you will think about every choice you make so that they will all be good choices!
[Storyteller, end with asking the children about some good choices and some poor choices that they have made—start with your own examples of each.]