**For our study of Ruth and Esther, you will likely find it beneficial to have a notebook for taking notes and writing down questions/comments regarding the narrative as we move ahead in our study.
Monday’s assignment gave us some insight into Israel’s repeated lack of covenant loyalty, God’s punishment and subsequent rescue during the time of the judges. Today we will look in Scripture to discover more about the Moabites. Elimelech and Naomi moved to Moab to escape the famine in Israel, and while in Moab their sons married Moabite women one of which was Ruth.
ASSIGNMENT:
READ:
Gen. 19: 30 – 37 Origin of the Moabites
Num. 25: 1 – 5 What happened when Israelite men took Moabite women into their beds?
Deut. 23: 3 – 4 Why were Moabites excluded from the assembly?
I Kings 11: 7 Who was the god of the Moabites?
**It is interesting that at least 3 of the 5 women named in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus (Matt. 1:1-17) are Gentile (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth). In light of God’s promise to Abraham, that all nations would be blessed through his (Abraham’s) seed, we realize that God set the plan in motion long before the cross.
