Sat Feb 15

Listen up, little ones

Especially for the littles in your household.

Listen for the words return and turn back

Reading

Ruth 1:6-22—Return

Keys for kids

Also for the littles. Young households might choose, after Keys for Kids, to go directly to praise and prayer.

We must constantly return to God
We can be happy even when things are very bad
God restores his people

Questions

(some read these before notes, then ask them after)

Who returned where in this chapter?
Why did Naomi return empty and bitter?
Who returned life to Naomi?

Notes

Thirteen times in these verses we read the word, return.

Naomi sets out to return to Bethlehem (with Orpah and Ruth).
They head toward Juday on their return to Bethlehem.
Naomi urges her two daughters-in-law to return home.
They say they will instead return with her.
She urges them again and again to return (turn back).
Orpah returns to her people and her gods.
Naomi urges Ruth to return with Orpah.
Ruth says, Don’t urge me to return, and goes with Naomi.
Naomi and Ruth returned to Bethlehem.
Naomi says, the Lord returned me empty and bitter.

Return, in the Bible, can just mean going back to a place you once were. It also means, in several places, to repent—to change your mind. Ruth has repented and believed in the covenant Yahweh. Naomi is returning, but with little faith in the LORD. The story doesn’t end in chapter 1. In the love story between Ruth and Boaz, Ruth has a baby. In this baby’s birth, the LORD returned (restored) life to Naomi (4:15). And this baby would be the father of Jesse, the father of Da-vid, the father of … Jesus, the one who returns us to life if we repent & believe on him.

Swedish Method questions

See the Sunday reading for meaning of the symbols.

Praise

Psalm 25c, 119r

Prayer

Give thanks to Jesus for bringing you to faith and repentance.
Pray for the reading and preaching of God’s word tomorrow.
Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.