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27 August 2011
Ruth, the faithful Moabite women, Ancestor of Jesus Christ
Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God – Extracted from Ruth, Chapter 1
1 In the days when the Judges were governing, a famine occurred in the country and a certain man from Bethlehem of Judah went-he, his wife and his two sons - to live in the Plains of Moab.
2 The man was called Elimelech, his wife Naomi and his two sons Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem of Judah. Going to the Plains of Moab, they settled there.
3 Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she and her two sons were left.
4 These married Moabite women: one was called Orpah and the other Ruth. They lived there for about ten years.
5 Mahlon and Chilion then both died too, and Naomi was thus bereft of her two sons and her husband.
6 She then decided to come back from the Plains of Moab with her daughters-in-law, having heard in the Plains of Moab that God had visited his people and given them food.
7 So, with her daughters-in-law, she left the place where she was living and they took the road back to Judah.
8 Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, 'Go back, each of you to your mother's house.
9 May Yahweh show you faithful love, as you have done to those who have died and to me. Yahweh grant that you may each find happiness with a husband!' She then kissed them, but they began weeping loudly,
10 and said, 'No, we shall go back with you to your people.'
11 'Go home, daughters,' Naomi replied. 'Why come with me? Have I any more sons in my womb to make husbands for you?
12 Go home, daughters, go, for I am now too old to marry again. Even if I said, "I still have a hope: I shall take a husband this very night and shall bear more sons,"
13 would you be prepared to wait for them until they were grown up? Would you refuse to marry for their sake? No, daughters, I am bitterly sorry for your sakes that the hand of Yahweh should have been raised against me.'
14 They started weeping loudly all over again; Orpah then kissed her mother-in-law and went back to her people. But Ruth stayed with her.
15 Naomi then said, 'Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Go home, too; follow your sister-in-law.'
16 But Ruth said, 'Do not press me to leave you and to stop going with you, for wherever you go, I shall go, wherever you live, I shall live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.
17 Where you die, I shall die and there I shall be buried. Let Yahweh bring unnameable ills on me and worse ills, too, if anything but death should part me from you!'
18 Seeing that Ruth was determined to go with her, Naomi said no more.
19 The two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. Their arrival set the whole town astir, and the women said, 'Can this be Naomi?'
20 To this she replied, 'Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for Shaddai has made my lot bitter.
21 I departed full, and Yahweh has brought me home empty. Why, then, call me Naomi, since Yahweh has pronounced against me and Shaddai has made me wretched?'
22 This was how Naomi came home with her daughter-in-law, Ruth the Moabitess, on returning from the Plains of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
I have been told all you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband’s death – Extracted from Ruth, Chapter 2
1 Naomi had a kinsman on her husband's side, well-to-do and of Elimelech's clan. His name was Boaz.
2 Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, 'Let me go into the fields and glean ears of corn in the footsteps of some man who will look on me with favour.' She replied, 'Go, daughter.'
3 So she set out and went to glean in the fields behind the reapers. Chance led her to a plot of land belonging to Boaz of Elimelech's clan.
4 Boaz, as it happened, had just come from Bethlehem. 'Yahweh be with you!' he said to the reapers. 'Yahweh bless you!' they replied.
5 Boaz said to a servant of his who was in charge of the reapers, 'To whom does this young woman belong?'
6 And the servant in charge of the reapers replied, 'The girl is the Moabitess, the one who came back with Naomi from the Plains of Moab.
7 She said, "Please let me glean and pick up what falls from the sheaves behind the reapers." Thus she came, and here she stayed, with hardly a rest from morning until now.'
8 Boaz said to Ruth, 'Listen to me, daughter. You must not go gleaning in any other field. You must not go away from here. Stay close to my work-women.
9 Keep your eyes on whatever part of the field they are reaping and follow behind. I have forbidden my men to molest you. And if you are thirsty, go to the pitchers and drink what the servants have drawn.'
10 Ruth fell on her face, prostrated herself and said, 'How have I attracted your favour, for you to notice me, who am only a foreigner?'
11 Boaz replied, 'I have been told all about the way you have behaved to your mother-in-law since your husband's death, and how you left your own father and mother and the land where you were born to come to a people of whom you previously knew nothing.
12 May Yahweh repay you for what you have done, and may you be richly rewarded by Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!'
Your daughter-in-law who loves you and is more to you than 7 sons - Extracted from Ruth, Chapter 4
13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. And when they came together, Yahweh made her conceive and she bore a son.
14 And the women said to Naomi, 'Blessed be Yahweh who has not left you today without anyone to redeem you. May his name be praised in Israel!
15 The child will be a comfort to you and the prop of your old age, for he has been born to the daughter-in-law who loves you and is more to you than seven sons.'
16 And Naomi, taking the child, held him to her breast; and she it was who looked after him.
17 And the women of the neighbourhood gave him a name. 'A son', they said, 'has been born to Naomi,' and they called him Obed. This was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
18 These are the descendants of Perez. Perez fathered Hezron,
19 Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab,
20 Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon,
21 Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed,
22 Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David. After note: This is the same King David, the ancestor of Jesus Christ
Here’s Ruth in the ancestry records of Jesus – Extracted from Matthew, Chapter 1
1 Roll of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham:
2 Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers,
3 Judah fathered Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram,
4 Ram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon,
5 Salmon fathered Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse;
6 and Jesse fathered King David. David fathered Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife,
7 Solomon fathered Rehoboam, Rehoboam fathered Abijah, Abijah fathered Asa,
8 Asa fathered Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat fathered Joram, Joram fathered Uzziah,
9 Uzziah fathered Jotham, Jotham fathered Ahaz, Ahaz fathered Hezekiah,
10 Hezekiah fathered Manasseh, Manasseh fathered Amon, Amon fathered Josiah;
11 and Josiah fathered Jechoniah and his brothers. Then the deportation to Babylon took place.
12 After the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah fathered Shealtiel, Shealtiel fathered Zerubbabel,
13 Zerubbabel fathered Abiud, Abiud fathered Eliakim, Eliakim fathered Azor,
14 Azor fathered Zadok, Zadok fathered Achim, Achim fathered Eliud,
15 Eliud fathered Eleazar, Eleazar fathered Matthan, Matthan fathered Jacob;
16 and Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary; of her was born Jesus who is called Christ.
17 The sum of generations is therefore: fourteen from Abraham to David; fourteen from David to the Babylonian deportation; and fourteen from the Babylonian deportation to Christ.
Love is the greatest commandment – Extracted from Matthew, Chapter 22
34 But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees they got together
35 and, to put him to the test, one of them put a further question,
36 'Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?'
37 Jesus said to him, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
38 This is the greatest and the first commandment.
39 The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself.
40 On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too.'
8-) Here’s a shortcut to prosperity, want to try? -Extracted from Psalms 128
1 [Song of Ascents] How blessed are all who fear Yahweh, who walk in his ways!
2 Your own labours will yield you a living, happy and prosperous will you be.
3 Your wife a fruitful vine in the inner places of your house. Your children round your table like shoots of an olive tree.
4 Such are the blessings that fall on those who fear Yahweh.
5 May Yahweh bless you from Zion! May you see Jerusalem prosper all the days of your life,
6 and live to see your children's children! Peace to Israel!
Here I am, Lord, I come to do your will - Extracted from Psalm 40: 4-11
Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord and has not gone over to the rebels who follow false gods.
You do not ask for sacrifice and offerings, but an open ear.
You do not ask for holocaust and victim. Instead, here am I.
In the scroll of the book it stands written that I should do your will.
My God, I delight in your law in the depth of my heart.
Your justice I have proclaimed in the great assembly.
My lips I have not sealed, you know it, O Lord.
You, Yahweh, have not withheld your tenderness from me; your faithful and steadfast love will always guard me. 27 August 2011
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