This has been a struggle for me. I couldn’t figure out why God kept insisting on having Naomi in this study. When I thought about it, Naomi didn’t seem to fear the Lord but her husband. When he said that he was moving the family to a place that God had forbidden to live in. But then I got to thinking about Sarah who obeyed Abraham even when she knew what he wanted her to do was wrong, yet she was blessed by God. So likewise, Naomi was obedient to her husband when he was in the wrong. So Naomi, fits into 1 Peter 3:5-6.
We will be spending the next two weeks going over the book of Ruth. This week focused on Naomi. Next week, on Ruth. But right now we are going to go back to Rahab. She would have known Naomi. It appears that Naomi’s husband was somehow related to Rahab’s husband, Salmon. How do we know this to be true? Boaz, Rahab’s son, became Ruth’s kinsmen redeemer, although there was someone who was in line before him. What we don’t know is how close Rahab and Naomi were. Did Rahab try to get Naomi to talk sense into her husband to stay and wait out the famine?
Use the book of Ruth to find the following.
Where was Naomi from? What is so special about it?
In Hebrew the meaning of the name says a lot about a person. Use the Blue Letter Bible to look up the meaning of Naomi’s family names and what she wanted to go by when she returned.
Did God ever see Naomi the way she saw herself? In other words, was she ever mentioned in Ruth by that name?
Why did Naomi want her daughter-in-laws to go back to their parents’ home?
What time of the year did Naomi and Ruth return?
What were Naomi’s instructions to Ruth in chapter three?
Did Naomi receive a blessing in the end?
(Photo by Erda Estremera on Unsplash)
Bonnie Sue Writes 