Ruth, a Moabitess, Comes to God Through A Pathway of Love

Book of Ruth 

POY! SKIT GUIDELINES:

• In a small group, participants might simply read their lines, or glance at their lines to get the idea so they can speak in their own words.
• Most POY! skits require no practice in advance.
• Have any small children play a brief part. Most scripts have an optional part for children, listed last under Participants.
• Most scripts have a Narrator who should read the script beforehand to see how to keep moving the story along.
• It is not necessary to employ costumes and objects, unless the skit recommends such.
• It is not required to have an audience watch the skit. All present may participate.
• Scripture and paraphrases, if any, usually appear in bold.

PARTICIPANTS:

Reaper (also serves as Narrator)
Naomi
Ruth
Orpah
Boaz

Prompter (Optional). Prompter shouts a brief line and Companions repeat it.
Companions (Optional): children and all adults who want to take part. Make sure Companions know who the Prompter is, and that they are to repeat Prompter’s words.

 

SCRIPT:

ReaperÂ	I work in the barley fields of ancient Bethlehem, long before Israel had kings. A famine has driven a family from Bethlehem to go live in the country of Moab. The father dies there, and his two sons take Moabite wives, Orpah and Ruth. Soon both sons die, leaving their mother, Naomi, and her daughters-in-law as widows. Naomi hears that the famine has passed in Bethlehem, so she starts back home.
OrpahÂ	Ruth and I are going with you, Naomi.
NaomiÂ	Go back, Orpah and Ruth. Return to your mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with my sons and me.Â
OrpahÂ	No! No! We will go with you, back to your people.
NaomiÂ	Return, my daughters. Why go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? Go, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I bore sons, would you wait until they were grown, to marry them? No, my daughters. The Lord’s hand has dealt bitterly with me. I shall live alone! All alone.
Prompter & CompanionsÂ	All alone! All alone!
ReaperÂ	Orpah and Ruth weep bitterly. Orpah kisses Naomi and starts back to her parents, but Ruth clings to her mother-in-law.
NaomiÂ	Look, Ruth, Orpah has gone back to her people and to her gods; go with her.
RuthÂ	Do not urge me to leave you; where you go, I will go, and where you live, I will live. Your people shall be my people, and your God shall be my God. Where you die, I will die. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.
NarratorÂ	They come to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest, and Ruth ventures out to glean grain that the harvesters have left behind.
BoazÂ	Who is that pleasant young lady gleaning my field over there?
ReaperÂ	She is a tenderhearted young lady, Boaz. She’s the Moabite widow that returned with Naomi. She has been very kind to her mother-in-law.
BoazÂ	(To Ruth) My daughter, do not glean other fields; stay with my reapers. I have told them not to bother you. Eat the food I provide for them. May the God of Israel reward your work, for you  have come to seek refuge under His wings.
ReaperÂ	Then Boaz tells us reapers something that surprises us.
BoazÂ	Let her glean where she chooses. Do not rebuke her. Let some handfuls of grain fall on purpose for her.
RuthÂ	Oh, sir! You are so kind to me, a foreigner! May God bless you!
Prompter & CompanionsÂ	 Bless you! Bless you!
NaomiÂ	Back home that night, I am amazed at how much grain Ruth has gleaned.Â
RuthÂ	Mr. Boaz, the owner of the field, was very good to me.
NaomiÂ	Boaz! Oh! He is a relative and has the right to buy back my late husband’s property.
ReaperÂ	Ruth avoids the young reaper’s attentions, and Boaz admires her virtue. After celebrating the harvest, Boaz takes Ruth as his wife. She bears a son, Obed, who will bear Jesse, the father of King David, ancestor of Jesus Christ.

 

DISCUSS:

Why was it easy for Ruth, a pagan Moabitess, to adopt the Israelite culture and faith?

    (Good answer: Love between Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi, made bonding easy.)

How should God’s workers who go to foreign lands bond with a people and their culture?

    (Good answer: To bond with people and their culture, one must live among them. One’s deepest social needs should be met by local people, except for one’s immediate family. Too often, missionary teams made up of expatriates bond with each other instead of with the people whom God sent them to serve. Doing so results in problems.)

What did Boaz do for Ruth, as her “kinsman redeemer” that corresponds to Jesus’ work for us?

    (Good answer: The Law required a relative to purchase land that had been sold by a poor relative, and restore it to that poor relative’s heirs. By His death, Jesus redeemed sinners, paying the price to restore their position with God.)