Week 14: When the Walls Come Tumbling Down | Day 4

Tasks for this week:

  1. Watch all three parts of When the Walls Come Tumbling Down
  2. Complete daily Bible reading
  3. Memorize Psalm 19:14 and Galatians 4:4-5

Week 14: Day 4

Today’s F260 Bible reading: Ruth 1-2

1:1 During the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land of Judah. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah went to live as a resident foreigner in the region of Moab, along with his wife and two sons. 2(Now the man’s name was Elimelech, his wife was Naomi, and his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were of the clan of Ephrath from Bethlehem in Judah.) They entered the region of Moab and settled there. 3Sometime later Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, so she and her two sons were left alone. 4Both her sons married Moabite women. (One was named Orpah and the other Ruth.) And they continued to live there about 10 years. 5Then Naomi’s two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, also died. So the woman was left all alone—bereaved of her two children as well as her husband! 6So she decided to return home from the region of Moab, accompanied by her daughters-in-law, because while she was living in Moab she had heard that the Lord had shown concern for his people, reversing the famine by providing abundant crops. 7Now as she and her two daughters-in-law began to leave the place where she had been living to return to the land of Judah, 8Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Listen to me! Each of you should return to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you the same kind of devotion that you have shown to your deceased husbands and to me. 9May the Lord enable each of you to find security in the home of a new husband.” Then she kissed them goodbye, and they wept loudly. 10But they said to her, “No! We will return with you to your people.” 11But Naomi replied, “Go back home, my daughters! There is no reason for you to return to Judah with me. I am no longer capable of giving birth to sons who might become your husbands! 12Go back home, my daughters! For I am too old to get married again. Even if I thought that there was hope that I could get married tonight and conceive sons, 13surely you would not want to wait until they were old enough to marry. Surely you would not remain unmarried all that time! No, my daughters, you must not return with me. For my intense suffering is too much for you to bear. For the Lord is afflicting me!” 14Again they wept loudly. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung tightly to her. 15So Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law is returning to her people and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law back home!” 16But Ruth replied, “Stop urging me to abandon you! For wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you live, I will live. Your people will become my people, and your God will become my God. 17Wherever you die, I will die—and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I do not keep my promise! Only death will be able to separate me from you!” 18When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to dissuade her. 19So the two of them journeyed together until they arrived in Bethlehem.When they entered Bethlehem, the whole village was excited about their arrival. The women of the village said, “Can this be Naomi?” 20But she replied to them, “Don’t call me ‘Naomi’! Call me ‘Mara’ because the Sovereign One has treated me very harshly. 21I left here full, but the Lord has caused me to return empty-handed. Why do you call me ‘Naomi,’ seeing that the Lord has opposed me, and the Sovereign One has caused me to suffer?” 22So Naomi returned, accompanied by her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth, who came back with her from the region of Moab. (Now they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.) 2:1 Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side of the family named Boaz. He was a wealthy, prominent man from the clan of Elimelech. 2One day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields so I can gather grain behind whoever permits me to do so.” Naomi replied, “You may go, my daughter.” 3So Ruth went and gathered grain in the fields behind the harvesters. Now she just happened to end up in the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech. 4Now at that very moment, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “May the Lord be with you!” They replied, “May the Lord bless you!” 5Boaz asked his servant in charge of the harvesters, “To whom does this young woman belong?” 6The servant in charge of the harvesters replied, “She’s the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the region of Moab. 7She asked, ‘May I follow the harvesters and gather grain among the bundles?’ Since she arrived she has been working hard from this morning until now—except for sitting in the resting hut a short time.” 8So Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen carefully, my dear! Do not leave to gather grain in another field. You need not go beyond the limits of this field. You may go along beside my female workers. 9Take note of the field where the men are harvesting and follow behind with the female workers. I will tell the men to leave you alone. When you are thirsty, you may go to the water jars and drink some of the water the servants draw.” 10Ruth knelt before him with her forehead to the ground and said to him, “Why are you so kind and so attentive to me, even though I am a foreigner?” 11Boaz replied to her, “I have been given a full report of all that you have done for your mother-in-law following the death of your husband—how you left your father and your mother, as well as your homeland, and came to live among people you did not know previously. 12May the Lord reward your efforts! May your acts of kindness be repaid fully by the Lord God of Israel, from whom you have sought protection.” 13She said, “You really are being kind to me, sir, for you have reassured and encouraged me, your servant, even though I will never be like one of your servants.” 14Later during the mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and have some food! Dip your bread in the vinegar.” So she sat down beside the harvesters. Then he handed her some roasted grain. She ate until she was full and saved the rest. 15When she got up to gather grain, Boaz told his male servants, “Let her gather grain even among the bundles. Don’t chase her off! 16Make sure you pull out ears of grain for her and drop them so she can gather them up. Don’t tell her not to!” 17So she gathered grain in the field until evening. When she threshed what she had gathered, it came to about 30 pounds of barley. 18She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much grain she had gathered. Then Ruth gave her the roasted grain she had saved from mealtime. 19Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you gather grain today? Where did you work? May the one who took notice of you be rewarded!” So Ruth told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked. She said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.” 20Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be rewarded by the Lord because he has shown loyalty to the living on behalf of the dead!” Then Naomi said to her, “This man is a close relative of ours; he is our guardian.” 21Ruth the Moabite replied, “He even told me, ‘You may go along beside my servants until they have finished gathering all my harvest!’” 22Naomi then said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “It is good, my daughter, that you should go out to work with his female servants. That way you will not be harmed, which could happen in another field.” 23So Ruth worked beside Boaz’s female servants, gathering grain until the end of the barley harvest as well as the wheat harvest. After that she stayed home with her mother-in-law. (NET Bible)

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),
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Used by permission. www.Lockman.org