HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE: Firstly, you will notice that at the start of each lesson there are three important bits of information. These will be the basic tools you need to lead the study. All Scripture will appear in this BLUE colour. All Scripture references are taken from the NIV version of the Bible unless otherwise stated. All discussion questions are in this GREEN colour. These discussion questions are meant to help open up times of sharing in your group. Occasionally you will see text in RED. Red text are some ideas and thoughts that you may want to use for your group. The bulk of the text will be in BLACK. This is the script and information for your lesson. However, please do not stick to the script word for word. The information is there just to serve as a guideline. Please feel free to lead or facilitate the discussion in the way which GOD is leading you.
The Genealogy of Jesus: Rahab and Ruth Susanna Lynam (Elder) 9 December 2018 Opening Discussion Question: What is one of the most exciting invitations you have ever received? What have you been included in that has made you feel special? This week one of our Elders, Susanna Lynam, continued our Advent sermon series The Genealogy of Jesus. She shared her own moving story of being adopted as a baby girl into a new family, a new genealogy. She said, I know what it s like to be written into a new family. To be transplanted into a new story. She turned our attention to Rahab and Ruth, two women who were transplanted into a new story. Both women are found in Jesus genealogy. In Matthew 1:5 it says, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Susanna pointed out that both Rahab and Ruth were not Jews, yet they were invited into the Story of Jesus. Both Rahab and Ruth had stories rife with sin and brokenness and yet God chose to include these women in His son s genealogy. You see, Susanna said, it doesn t matter the place we start- it doesn t matter how broken or sinful we are. God chose to include these women and He is still choosing to include every broken, every sinful, every disillusioned, crushed by life, forgotten by society, family failures, lonely, neglected, disappointed, left behind, proud, selfish, lying person on the face of this planet. No exceptions- this inclusion rule applies to everyone. Susanna made the important observation, All we have to do is accept the fact that God has already accepted us just as we are. Accept your starting point- that it s just that, a starting point. It doesn t exclude you from God s story in fact as Rahab s and Ruth s lives show us, it absolutely qualifies you. What was your starting point when you first began following Jesus? If you haven t started following Jesus yet, what is your starting point right now? What do you think Susanna means by saying Accept your starting point that it s just that, a starting point? Rahab s Story: Joshua is about to enter the promised land and he sends two spies out to check out the land and he tells them to especially explore Jericho. Read Joshua 2:1-14: Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. Go, look over the land, he said, especially Jericho. So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. 2 The king of Jericho was told, Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land. 3 So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land. 4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. 5 At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I Page 2 of 6
don t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them. 6 (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) 7 So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut. 8 Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof 9 and said to them, I know that the Lord has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 10 We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. 11 When we heard of it, our hearts sank and everyone s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. 12 Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign 13 that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them and that you will save us from death. 14 Our lives for your lives! the men assured her. If you don t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land. What stands out to you about Rahab in this story? Why? What is Rahab s starting point? (see verse 1) What does it mean for Rahab to accept her starting point? How does Rahab choose a different ending to her story? Susanna challenged us, Some of you here today need to choose a different ending to your story. Do you need to choose a different ending to your story? Why or why not? Where is your life currently heading? What trajectory are you on? Do you believe that there can be a different ending to your story? Read Joshua 6:22-25: 22 Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, Go into the prostitute s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her. 23 So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel. 24 Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord s house. 25 But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho and she lives among the Israelites to this day. Page 3 of 6
Susanna pointed out that Rahab didn t just look out for herself. She was concerned for her family and their families and risked greatly to get them out. See especially Joshua 2:12 and 6:25. Susanna pointed out the effort it must have taken on Rahab s part to gather her family. The spies had given Rahab the condition that in order to spare her family they had to be in her house the day Israel attacked Jericho. Susanna said, I can t imagine that this was an easy task- to convince all these people to choose a different story, to secretly bring themselves and all that they held dear and not to tell anyone what was going on. I think of my family and their families and I am overwhelmed by what it would have taken in time, energy, planning, strategy, emotion. Rahab would have had to convince the doubters; she would have had to encourage those who were reluctant to leave all that they had known. It was dangerous and it involved risk. What does it look like for you to not give up on your family? How can you show love, appreciation and concern for your family during this season? Christmas is God s story of Him choosing to not leave any of us behind. What does it mean to you that God does not want your family to be left behind? Is there a broken relationship you could pour love into this Christmas? Those of you with deep brokenness in your family- what is God asking of you? Is He asking you to stretch the capacity of your heart? Is He asking you to risk again, to try again, to give again- to have that conversation that s needed, to forgive and move forward? Ruth s Story: Susanna, provided the following overview of Ruth s story: The book of Ruth in the Bible begins with the story of a Jewish family, Elimelech and Naomi and their two sons leaving Bethlehem and traveling to Moab. They leave because of famine, they leave Bethlehem (House of Bread) and go searching for a better life in a pagan nation, Moab. This was a definite departure from the Promised Land of Israel, and a return towards the wilderness from which God had delivered Israel hundreds of years before. Their choices were leading them in a direction away from God s promises. While in Moab, Elimelech dies and the family continue to drift further away from God s plans as Naomi s two sons marry Moabite women which again was something that God had directed His people not to do. One son marries Orpah and one son marries Ruth. Tragedy strikes again and Naomi s two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, die. Naomi, Orpah and Ruth are now all widows and not just widows but childless widows. To be a childless widow was to be among the lowest, most disadvantaged classes in the ancient world. There was no one to support you, and you had to live on the generosity of strangers. For Naomi it was even worse because she had no family in Moab. It was a desperate situation. Naomi made the decision to return home: Read Ruth 1:6-13: 6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-inlaw she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah. 8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go back, each of you, to your mother s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband. Page 4 of 6
Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, We will go back with you to your people. 11 But Naomi said, Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord s hand has turned against me! Naomi has lost her husband and her two sons and now she finds herself in a place of misery and grief in a foreign land. She decides to return back home to the Promised Land. Susanna made the observation, You don t have to be in a good place, you can be angry, bitter, disappointed, disillusioned and grieving, you can be a long way down a path that has taken you away from God and His promises for you BUT your footsteps can still lead you back home. Are you close to God right now or are you a long way away from God? Where are you on your spiritual journey right now, and what next step is God inviting you to take? Into Naomi s intense season of disorientation, Ruth steps in and chooses a very different ending to her storyshe chooses to walk with Naomi back into God s story. Read Ruth 1:16-17: 16 But Ruth replied, Don t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me. Ruth chooses God s story. There is such incredible faith, and loyalty and love expressed in the words Ruth spoke to Naomi. Ruth went against all the conventional thinking of her day- the seemingly smart move would have been to return to her mother and father, in the hope that she could get remarried and have children. Naomi made it very clear to Ruth, by following me you have no hope of marriage and children. But God s story is never conventional, doesn t follow human logic and often asks unreasonable things of us. Ruth s unconventional choice makes room for God to redeem her life in every possible way. Read Ruth 2:11-12: 11 Boaz replied, I ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 12 May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. Here we see a beautiful reflection of how God embraces each of us when we choose His story. Susanna observed that, Ruth was a poor widow and a Moabitess, living in a foreign land away from family and Boaz covers Ruth with his wings - he tells his male workers not to touch her, he tells them to drop extra grain for her, he gives her access to his water and to the food on his table and most importantly he works to redeem her. He purchases everything that had once been Elimelech s, Chilion s and Mahlon s. Boaz makes Ruth his own and writes her into his family. A family genealogy that would include God s own Son. This is what God has done for us- He chose to redeem us, He purchased our life, He made room in His family for us. Page 5 of 6
How have you experienced God taking you under His wings as you chose His story? Susanna concluded: Rahab and Ruth s lives speak to us of Jesus. Their selfless sacrifice, their bravery, their compassion, their desire for a different ending to their stories and their love for others points to the life and mission of Jesus. His selfless sacrifice, His deep love for all of us has made a way for us to choose (just like Rahab and Ruth) a different ending for our stories- we can choose life, we can choose bravery, we can choose compassion- we can choose God s story. Some of you here today need to choose a different ending for your stories. Is there anyone here who wants to choose God s story or who wants to understand how to choose God s story? Take some time and praise God that he accepts everyone and desires for everyone to be included in the genealogy of Jesus. Pray End Page 6 of 6