Deborah the Prophetess
READ Judges 4:2-7
Who was Deborah?
READ Judges 4:8-9
Why did Barak the warrior tell
Deborah that he would only go to war if she was going?
READ Judges 4:13-15
Who received the revelation
from the Lord regarding the battle plan?
Is priesthood ordination a
prerequisite for possessing the gift of prophesy?
Ruth
Naomi, her husband and two sons leave Bethlehem for Moab to escape a famine. Her sons marry local Moabite girls, Orpah and Ruth. In time, her husband and both of her sons die, leaving the three widows to fend for themselves. Naomi heard that the famine was over in Bethlehem and left for home, 30 miles away.
If we lived in Bethlehem, we might be curious about Ruth’s ancestors, and our ears would prick up to the fact that Ruth was a Moabite. Immediately, we’d think of the scandalous past of her people, and it would cast her story in a different light. We’d recall that when the weary Israelites were journeying to the Promised Land, the Moabites lured the Israelites into sexual immorality and idol worship (Numbers 25:1). From that time on, the Moabites were associated with sexual immorality. To us in Israel, it was even more disgusting because it was how they worshipped their “gods.” Because of that sin, God declared that Moabites were barred from being a part of the assembly of Israel in Deuteronomy 23:3. Was their sin ever forgivable, we’d wonder? Then we’d think back to the origins of the Moabites in Genesis 19:30-38. After Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, we read the not-so-nice story of how Lot’s daughters got their father drunk so that they could become pregnant by him, since their husbands had refused to leave the city and had both died. One of Lot’s daughters gave birth to a son named Moab, and he became the father of the Moabite people. So, that is why the Moabites are so immoral? If we believe that people are defined by their genes and ancestry, this might make complete sense to us...
READ Ruth 1:8-9, 14-17
Why did Orpah go back to Moab
while Ruth begged Naomi to allow her to go to Bethlehem?
READ Ruth 1:18-21
How would you describe Naomi’s
faith vs. Ruth’s?
To enable the poor to care for
themselves, landowners were forbidden from harvesting the corners of their
fields or to pick up what fell to the ground.
“Gleaners” would follow behind the hired servants picking up what grain
they could - it was hard work but enabled people to survive without begging.
READ Ruth 2:3,7-12
What did Boaz see in Ruth, a Moabite
foreigner?
READ Ruth 3:11
What is the significance of
this statement, given Ruth is a Moabite?
Boaz ends up marrying Ruth;
their grandson is Jesse and great-grandson is King David. The scriptures repeatedly stress Ruth’s
Moabite origins. The Law expressly
forbad Israelite men from marrying “foreign” women.
What can we learn from the
Story of Ruth?
Hannah
A man, Elkanah, had two wives, Hannah who was barren, and Peninnah, who had children. Peninnah taunted Hannah, and while her husband loved Hannah very much, he did not fully understand her desire for a child.
READ 1 Samuel 1:10-11
What is Hannah’s response to
her sorrow?
Hannah is blessed to conceive
and has a son, who she names Samuel.
When he is weaned (aged 2 or 3), Hannah takes baby Samuel to the Temple
to live the Nazarite vow she had made on his behalf.
READ Judges 13:4-5
What is a Nazarite?
Think of Hannah, Samson’s
mother and Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist; what is the relationship
between these three barren women and the Nazarite vow they made on behalf of their
sons?
Next week we will continue the story of Hannah and her son Samuel.
Veil Workers
READ John 2:18-21 and 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
What are the functions of a
temple?
How is the body a temple?
READ Ether 2:6
What separates us from God?
The temple is a place of veil
work. Individuals pass from one place to
another, from one level of light to another or from one level of understanding
to another, by going through veils or separating boundaries.
How does this veil-work idea
apply to Christ’s body being a temple?
How does veil-work apply to
the idea that our mortal bodies are temples?
How does the mantra “holiness
to the Lord, the House of the Lord” apply to our bodies as temples?
Who does (or stewards) the
work of “raising up” a mortal temple?
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