Ruth 1:3-5

 There's a kind of modern parable that talks about how, if you want to boil a frog (and who doesn't?!) then you can't simply throw a live frog into a boiling pan... it would just jump straight back out. The trick is to place the frog into cold water and then heat it slowly, the frog doesn't notice the rise in temperature until it's too late...

[Read Ruth 1:3-5]

Not long after the move to Moab, Naomi becomes a widow.
Things have definitely not turned out the way they planned.
Can anyone relate?

Widowed, alone in a foreign country, she now has the difficult task of raising her two sons by herself.
The obvious and logical solution would have been to go straight back to Bethlehem... but she doesn't.
What could be the reason(s) for her to stay in Moab?

Instead of heading back to the 'bread' of home, she remains in the 'dirty washbasin' of Moab.
Back in verse 1, we see that the intention was to only ever be there "for a while" but how long is she actually there for?

[Activity] Read Deuteronomy 7:3-4 & Exodus 34:15-16.
What does God tell the Israelites in both of these readings?

By the end of Ruth 1:5 what else do we find out and why is this important?

Now, with all three men dead, Naomi finds herself completely alone and unable to provide for herself (let alone her two daughters-in-law!)
The family line of Elimelek is over.
Naomi is no considered "hopeless poor".
What are Naomi's options at this point in the story?

We don't know why the three males died.
Jewish tradition suggests that these deaths were punishment for their sins... Elimelek, for leaving the Promised Land in the first place, and Mahlon & Kilion for marrying Moabites.

If you were Naomi, would you allow your children to marry people of a different ethnicity and culture?
Would you stop them from marrying women of different religious affiliations?
Why or why not?

Whatever the reason, one thing is certain... this story begins with tragedy.
This family make a bad decision and exchanges one famine for three funerals.
And we end this scene with three widows.

In the New Testament, Paul talks about being all things for all people... what are the benefits and dangers of assimilating the values of the community we live in?

How can we make sure that we adopt the good and avoid the bad?