Liam Hungate
The Redemption Series continues, and this week we moved into a new book: Ruth. Last week was Samson. This week the students saw what God does in a dark season through one ordinary family.
The goal was two-fold. Walk through what actually happens in the book of Ruth, then see how it points us to Jesus and what that means for our lives today.
Passages: Ruth 1-4, Judges 21:25, John 6:35
Samson had every advantage: a calling, the Spirit of the Lord, and godly parents. He still lived in disobedience. He was born under a Nazirite vow (a special vow of dedication to God) with three rules: no grapes, no cutting his hair, and no contact with dead things.
The big takeaway: being gifted by God does not equal immediate obedience to God, and God's patience is never the same thing as God's approval. Samson did finish well, but his story still ended in tragedy, shadowed by a lot of wasted potential. We are called to be believers who are obedient to the Lord.
Zooming out, Judges shows Israel stuck in the same cycle: sin, oppression, crying out, a judge rescues them, peace for a while, and then the judge dies and it all restarts. The book closes with one verse that sums up the era: "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25). Israel was a mess, with some of the darkest chapters in the whole Bible, full of idolatry, violence, and anarchy.
Right in the middle of all that, God tucks away a short, four-chapter story about one family. Ruth 1:1 sets it "in the days when the judges ruled." Same time period, different feel. No armies, no battles, no big miracles. Just ordinary people, a really hard season, and a God working behind the scenes.
Judges asks, "What happens when there's no king?" Ruth answers, "God is still at work," and it ends by pointing toward the King who is coming. That is David first, and ultimately Jesus.
Students were reminded that one of the biggest mistakes we can make is reading ourselves out of Scripture. So the question to keep asking is: Where am I in this story? Unlike Samson, Ruth starts with no advantages. She is a poor widow in a foreign land, and God writes her directly into the family line of Jesus.
The story starts with a famine in Bethlehem. Bethlehem means "house of bread," and even there food was lacking. That is how bad it was.
Because of the famine, the family leaves Israel for Moab, a pagan Gentile nation that was born out of the incest in Genesis 19. A Gentile is anyone who isn't part of Israel, God's chosen people. That means unless someone in the room is of Jewish descent, we are Gentiles.
Scripture doesn't say whether the move was wise. But notice where they ended up: when life got hard, they went to a place that didn't know God. The question for students: when things get hard, where is the first place you run?
Abraham made the same mistake first. He fled the promised land for Egypt because of famine instead of trusting God. In Egypt, Sarah collected Hagar as her servant, who ended up mothering Ishmael. The descendants of Ishmael are all those in the Middle East today who threaten Israel.
The teacher also shared a personal story: much of their childhood was spent running to the things of this world when life got hard. It was not until their parents divorced, and they saw that Jesus was their only constant, that they began to run to Him in hard times.
Then the hits start coming. Elimelech dies, leaving Naomi a widow. Her sons marry Moabite women named Orpah and Ruth. Ten years later, both sons die too. Now there are three childless widows: Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth. In that day, that was about as low and vulnerable as you could get, with no one to provide and no one to protect.
Naomi hears that the famine in Israel is over. The Lord had provided for His people, so she packs up to go home. She tells her daughters-in-law to go back to their families and start fresh. Orpah kisses her goodbye and leaves. Ruth clings to Naomi and says words that show four things (Ruth 1:16-17):
Ruth isn't only committing to Naomi. She is turning from the gods she grew up with and embracing the God of Israel. Naomi saw how determined she was and stopped arguing. The point: only a bold stance for Jesus will persuade others of the goodness of trusting Him for themselves. Anyone can say "I'm in" on day one. It is the people still persevering months or years later that others really listen to.
Back in Bethlehem, Naomi asks to be called Mara. Naomi means "pleasantness." Mara means "bitterness." She says, "I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty."
Naomi is honest about her pain, but even in her bitterness she doesn't walk away from the Lord. Hard seasons don't mean He is gone. It is usually Him working behind the scenes, setting the stage.
Naomi has a relative on her husband's side named Boaz. Ruth heads out to the fields to gather grain, and it "just so happened" that she ended up in Boaz's field. But really, it is God working in the details, even when His name isn't flashing in neon lights. God's law told farmers to leave the edges of their fields unharvested so the poor could come behind them and gather. That is what Ruth is doing.
Boaz shows her incredible hospitality (Ruth 2:8-9). The law said leave the corners. Boaz left a feast: protection, water, a place to stay, and a seat at the table.
Ruth brings home a huge bundle of grain, and Naomi praises the Lord for Boaz (Ruth 2:19-20). For the first time, Naomi's tone changes. She finally sees God's hand in this, and she shares something important: Boaz is a close relative, one of their kinsman-redeemers.
A kinsman-redeemer was a male relative responsible for protecting the interests and welfare of the family, especially widows and orphans. He could buy back land that had been lost and step in to rescue a family member in trouble. Imagine drowning in a debt you can never pay, and a relative walks in and says, "I've got it." Not because you earned it, but because you're family.
That is a wonderful picture of Jesus. He redeems us from our slavery to sin, and He restores the inheritance Adam lost. And just as a kinsman-redeemer had to be a relative, Jesus had to become one of us, flesh and blood, to rescue us.
Because of Boaz's hospitality and provision, Ruth stays close and works in his field daily through the end of the harvest. Naomi then makes a plan: since Boaz is a kinsman-redeemer, Ruth should go and ask him to take that role (Ruth 3:1-7).
Boaz wakes up in the middle of the night, startled to find a woman at his feet (Ruth 3:8-9). Ruth says, "Spread the corner of your garment over me." That is a marriage request: take me as your wife, Boaz, and be our redeemer.
Boaz's response is a character check (Ruth 3:10-13). He is willing. He praises her great character and calls her a worthy woman. But there is a relative even closer than he is, and that man has the first right to redeem. Boaz could have taken a shortcut in the dark. Instead, he chose to do it the right way. Back to Samson: Samson had every opportunity and followed his desires into disaster. Boaz had every opportunity and chose integrity instead.
Naomi gives Ruth one last piece of advice: "Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today." Ruth made the request, and then she rested. Boaz was the one who had to do the work. We can't earn our redemption, and we can't save ourselves. We come to the Redeemer and ask Him to cover us.
Boaz goes straight to the town gate, where legal business was settled, and gathers ten elders as witnesses. He tells the closer relative that the land belonging to Naomi's family is available to redeem, and the man says yes. Then Boaz adds the catch: the day he buys the land, he also takes Ruth. Suddenly the man changes his answer. He doesn't want to risk losing his own inheritance.
That clears the way for Boaz to become their kinsman-redeemer (Ruth 4:9-10). He buys the land and takes Ruth as his wife in front of the whole town. Boaz paid the full price, and he did it gladly. That is exactly what Jesus did for us. Ruth's original faithfulness to Naomi, with nothing to gain, has now produced abundant blessing through Boaz.
Ruth and Boaz marry, and the Lord blesses them with a son named Obed. Remember "Mara"? Naomi said she came back empty. Now she is holding her grandson. God took her from empty to full.
Obed becomes the father of Jesse, who becomes the father of David, Israel's greatest king. Matthew tells us the family line keeps going all the way to Jesus. Ruth the Moabite, the poor, foreign widow, is the great-grandmother of King David and an ancestor of the Messiah.
Judges ended with no king. Ruth ends by pointing to the King. And Ruth's story is our story as Gentiles: God has always had a plan to bring outsiders in.
The students were challenged to find themselves in the story.
The most important person to find in this story is Boaz, because Boaz points to Jesus. We were also outsiders, strangers with no hope. Now in Christ we have been brought near by His blood. Like Ruth, we had no inheritance and no way to buy it back. We couldn't redeem ourselves.
So Jesus became one of us, our kinsman-redeemer, and paid the full price on the cross. Not because we earned it, but because He loves us. Boaz paid for a field and a bride. Jesus paid with His own life to bring us in, restore the inheritance Adam lost, and make us part of His family.
What do we have to do? The same as Ruth: come to the Redeemer, ask Him to cover us, and rest daily in the work He has already finished. And live like her, too: faithful and loyal in the ordinary days. Gleaning in a field, taking care of family, being kind when nobody is watching. God took that quiet faithfulness and wove it into the story of redemption.
Judges ends with "no king." Ruth ends with the family line that leads to the King. That King came. His name is Jesus, and He is inviting every one of us in.
These are the discussion questions the students worked through in small groups. Each one has an optional follow-up.
A few easier openers if you want to start smaller: