Sabbath School lessons are part of a global study initiative undertaken by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. As we enter the second quarter of 2025, we will explore the theme “Allusions, Images, Symbols: How to Study Bible Prophecy.” This week’s lesson, titled “Ruth and Esther” covers the period from June 07 - June 13. Join Pastor Mark Finley for a brief preview of what to expect in this week’s study.

<p>Sabbath School lessons are part of a global study initiative undertaken by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. As we enter the second quarter of 2025, we will explore the theme “Allusions, Images, Symbols: How to Study Bible Prophecy.” This week’s lesson, titled “Ruth and Esther” covers the period from June 07 - June 13. Join Pastor Mark Finley for a brief preview of what to expect in this week’s study.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

HopeLives365

Sabbath School 2nd Quarter 2025: Allusions, Images, Symbols: How to Study Bible Prophecy?

Mark Finley

Is Ellen White a Prophet or Plagiarist?

01 Some Principles of Prophecy

02 The Genesis Foundation

03 Images from Marriage

04 The Nations Part 1

05 The Nations: Part 2

06 Understanding Sacrifice

07 Foundations of Prophecy

08 In the Psalms, Part 1

09 In the Psalms Part 2

10 Upon Whom the Ends Have Come

11 Ruth and Esther


Well, these lessons have really sped along. We're on lesson number 11, illusions, images, and symbols. This lesson may surprise you a little bit. Our author, Sean Boonstra, has chosen 2 women to illustrate events that will take place toward the end of time, Ruth and Esther. 1 of the basic questions that people ask me as I travel around the world, and it's a common question, is Why does God allow people to suffer?

Why do we have to go through trials? What's the point? The story of Ruth and Esther is a symbol of last day events. Certainly, these were real women. Certainly, these are real stories.

But there is a deeper lesson in these stories. And that deeper lesson focuses particularly on events that'll take place at the close, the trials that God's people will go through and the triumph of Christ in the midst of trials. So let's pray and jump right into our lesson. Father in heaven, thank you for the divine insight that we receive from these Sabbath School lessons. Thank you for the story of Ruth and Esther and how their lives as they went through trial symbolized the triumph of Christ's people in trial.

So guide us today as we study in Christ's name, Amen. We begin with Ruth. What do you know about Ruth? What do you know about her background and what about her mother-in-law, Naomi? The story is a fascinating 1 and it begins in Ruth chapter 1, verse 1 to 5.

Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his 2 sons. The name of the man was Elimelech. The name of his wife was Naomi. And the names of the 2 sons were Malan and Chulian, Ephradites of Bethlehem, Judea.

And they went to the country of Moab and remained there. And Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died. And she was left and her 2 sons. Now they took wives of the women of Moab. The name of 1 was Orpha and the name of the other was Ruth, and they dwelt there about 10 years.

Then both Malan and Chilian also died. So the women survived, her 2 sons and her husband. I want you to get the picture here. Here is Naomi and her husband Elimelech. They travel from Bethlehem to the land of Moab.

So picture this woman living in a foreign land. As they get there, her husband eventually dies. She has 2 sons that are to care for her. They marry. They marry, Ofra and Ruth.

And then both sons die. And imagine this woman. She is alone in a foreign land with her 2 daughter-in-laws. Her husband has died and her sons have died. Can you understand why Naomi may have felt that the curse of God was upon her?

Can you understand why she might have felt, as it says in the book of Ruth, that things were happening against her and that God had put his curse upon her in some way? Sure. She is discouraged. There's a famine, she's in the land, she wonders how she can support herself. And at that point, she decides, I'm gonna go back to my people.

And she says to Ruth and to Orpah, you stay here in this land, you find yourself husbands, I cannot bear another son for you, I'm too old, and even if I did, you wouldn't wait that long. And so she's about ready to go back. Orpah stays but Ruth says those immortal words to Naomi. We find it in Ruth chapter 1 verse 16 but Ruth said, entreat me not to leave you or to turn back "'from following after you. "'Wherever you go, I will go.

"'And wherever you lodge, I will lodge. "'Your people shall be my people. "'And your God, my God. "'Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything, but death departs you from me." Think of the loyalty.

Ruth says, Naomi, I'm going with you. I'm not leaving you, Naomi." And so they go, they travel back to Bethlehem. The strangers get there. And Ruth goes out and spends her time in the fields. She gleans.

Now, let me give you a little background of gleaning. In the ancient Israeli Hebraic culture, once the crops were picked, anything that was left over could be gleaned. Or if you have workmen going through, picking the crops for the owner of the field and things drop on the ground, or they leave things, you can go and retrieve them and pick them for food. It was a way that God had of providing for the poor. So in the hot, blazing sun, sweating, tired, weary, bones aching, day by day, Ruth went out and gleaned in those fields and brought back that subsistence living for Naomi.

Here we have a story of loyalty, a story of faith, a story of commitment. As Ruth is gleaning that field, Boaz sees her. We find this under Monday's lesson in Ruth 2.5 and onward. Here, Boaz is attracted to this woman. It says in Ruth chapter 2 verse 4, Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, The Lord God be with you.

And they answered him, the Lord bless you. Then Boaz, verse 5, said to his servant, who is in charge of the reapers? Whose young woman is this? And he sees Ruth working in the field. He is so incredibly impressed with this hard working young woman that he allows her to glean not simply the droppings, the leftovers, but he allows her to glean with the workmen in the field.

You know, when you are faithful to God, it impresses others. Ultimately, Boaz develops a love for Naomi. But there's a problem. In ancient culture, not only were you allowed to glean, but if indeed a husband died, The next of kin was to marry, if he's single, he was to marry the widow of his kinsman. And so, Boaz is 1 of the next of kin.

He's 1 of Naomi's relatives. As he senses, though, that there's a next of kin that's closer to him, so they meet at the city gate. And as they meet at the city gate, now meeting at the city gate with the elders, that's kind of like judgment. And the other next of kin comes forth and Boaz talks to him. He said, are you going to take responsibility for Ruth?

Are you going to take her as a wife? Are you gonna take on her debts? Are you going to buy the field? Are you going to redeem it? And this other kinsman closer than Boaz says, no, I'm not going to do that.

So Boaz then says, I will do it. I'll redeem her. And Boaz and Ruth ultimately marry. What are the lessons from this story for an end-time people? 1 of them is found in Ruth chapter 3, verse 12.

You'll find it in Tuesday's lesson. Ruth 3, verse 12. Now it is true that I am your near kinsman. However, there's a kinsman nearer than I, but that kinsman would not marry. And so finally he says in Ruth 3, verse 18, then she said, this is still until you know how the matter will turn out, for the man will not rest until he has concluded the matter this day.

Naomi says to Ruth, we don't know how this is all going to turn out, but we know that Boaz is committed. We know that he's not going to rest. And eventually, Boaz redeems Ruth, redeems all of the land, and Boaz and Ruth eventually marry. What does this tell us? Boaz, the kinsman, draws close to Ruth.

Jesus is our kinsman. Jesus is our elder brother. Jesus takes us, just like Ruth and Naomi experienced trial, difficulty, heartache. They experienced famine. They experienced loss.

They experienced grief. They experienced heartache. They experienced disappointment. They experienced trial. So all of us in life experienced grief, heartache, and trials.

And those trials are going to get larger and larger as we come to the time of the end. But we have a mighty redeemer. We have a mighty kinsman in Boaz who will redeem us. Look at how this story ends. It is quite remarkable how Naomi speaks out.

Naomi says, the God has blessed me. Look, Ruth 4.14-15, Then the woman said to Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day, this is Ruth speaking to Naomi now, Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a near kinsman. May his name be famous in Israel, and may he be to you a restorer of life, nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is better to you than 7 sons that have born him." Boaz and Ruth have a child together. Naomi takes that child in her arms. Think about it.

God restored the blessings of heaven to Naomi. For those of us who are end time people, we have a kinsman, Jesus. We too will go through trials and difficulties, but as we are faithful to Christ, he will restore, he'll nourish our life. And I want you to see something interesting. The child that was born to Boaz and to Ruth, that child's name was Obed.

And Obed begets Jesse, and Jesse begets David, And Jesus comes through that line of David. Remember he said he's the son of David at times? Christ used a Moabitess woman, Ruth, married to Boaz in the very genealogy and the very line of Jesus. God takes human material in all of its weakness, in all of its mistakes, in all of its folly and humanness, And God takes all of that. He takes everything that Satan throws against us, everything that the Satan attacks us with, and Jesus turns it for the glory of his name.

So in Ruth, what do we learn? In Naomi, what do we learn? We learn that if we are faithful in trial, if we're faithful in difficulty, if we're faithful when the hardships come, that Christ himself, our kinsman, redeemer, will redeem us and he will restore to us everything that we have lost. We move from Tuesday's lesson to Wednesday's lesson, the story of Esther. Now you remember the story of Esther well.

Esther, a young girl, is 1 of the captives in the household of Ahasuerus, or Xerxes, same person. And she is there, And as Esther is there, there is wicked Haman. And there is Mordecai, the Jew. Haman looks at Mordecai and he's totally jealous. And he develops a plot where Mordecai can be hung.

He develops a pot also to annihilate the Jews. Esther though is brought by God to that kingdom at the right time. Wednesday's lesson is entitled Haman and Satan. In Haman, we see pride, we see arrogance, we see the desire for the supremacy. We see the same thing in Satan, don't we?

You read about that in Ezekiel 28, verse 11 to 15, and Isaiah 14 and onward. Let's look at the passage in Isaiah. You see the parallelism between the attitude of Satan and the attitude of Haman. We look at Isaiah, the 14th chapter, verses 12 and onward. How are you fallen from heaven O Lucifer?

The word Lucifer comes from 2 Latin words, Lux pharo, light bearer, son of the morning. How you cut down to the ground, you who weaken the nations. For you have said in your heart, now notice the I problem. What does Lucifer need? A divine optometrist.

I will ascend into heaven. I'll exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the congregation in the farther sides of the north. What's that? It's Mount Sinai in the farther sides of the north of the camp of Israel.

It's from where the mount from which the law was given. So what is Lucifer saying? I'm going to ascend into heaven. Wasn't he already in heaven? Sure, but he wanted a higher place.

I'll exalt my throne above the stars of God. The throne is a symbol of rulership, of dominion, of authority. Lucifer wanted to make laws, not obey laws. He wanted to be the 1 in authority, not obey authority. And it says, I'll exalt my throne, I'll sit on the mount of the congregation on the sides of the north, I will give law, I won't obey the law.

I'll ascend above the heights of the clouds. I'll be like the Most High." He wanted to be like the Most High, not in character, but in power, in position. God's character is a character of love. His authority is the authority of love. All of his commands are the loving initiative of a God that cares for us, that wants us saved with him forever.

So you see a real parallelism between Haman, who wants this higher place. Haman wants this position. Haman was filled with pride. I noticed the third paragraph down in Wednesday's lesson where it says, in the book of Revelation, we see that Satan's lust for power and worship brings this world to a final crisis. His deceptions convinced the world to marvel and follow the beast, except for notable exceptions who refuse to worship him.

With these people he resorts to force." And then the comment on Haman, likening Haman and his attitude to the same attitude that Satan had in working through earthly powers at the time of the end. Haman notices Mordecai, 1 of God's chosen people. He notices that Mordecai would not defer to him or acknowledge what he believed to be his right to worship. He's filled with wrath and he becomes determined to eliminate all of Mordecai's people from the face of the earth. I want to look at 2 passages that we're going to compare.

First is Esther chapter 3. We're gonna first look at Esther chapter 3 and compare Esther 3 with the book of Revelation. So you're gonna look at Esther chapter 3 and we're gonna compare that with the book of Revelation. And there is a striking parallel here. In fact, it's really a remarkable parallel between what's gonna happen in the last days and what's actually happened in the days of Esther.

So when you look at this passage, you really see this parallel. Esther chapter 3. And What do we find in Esther 3, verse 1-14? We find restrictive laws that are passed, number 1. Secondly, we find extreme penalties for violating those laws.

You can find that in Esther 3, verse 1-14, and we find the ultimate death penalty. So you see 3 things. Extreme laws are passed, penalties for violating those laws, and in addition to that, the death penalty. When you see that, you see also that the issue is over worship. It's whether King Ahasuerus is supreme.

When you go, for example, though, to Revelation chapter 12, And you look there at verse 14 to 17, you see something quite similar to that. You see again in the Middle Ages, Revelation 12 verse 14 talks about the woman was given 2 wings of a great eagle that she might flee into the wilderness to her place where she's nourished a time, times and half a time from the presence of the serpent. And you notice the serpent spews out water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. The earth helped the woman and the earth swallowed, opened his mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of its mouth." Now a lot of symbolism there that I should explain. First in the Bible prophecy, water represents people's, nations' tongues.

Revelation 17 verse 15 says, the waters which you saw are people, nations, and tongues. So the flood after the woman. What is the woman in Bible prophecy? A pure woman represents the true church. A fallen woman or a harlot woman represents the fallen church, the apostate church, the churches in rebellion.

So here the devil tries to attack the bride of Christ, the woman, he wants to destroy her, Revelation chapter 12. And it says the earth, an unpopulated area, helped the woman. Well, during the Middle Ages, when church and state united, the earth did help the woman. The faithful people of God fled to Northern Italy, Southern France, in the mountains of the Alps there, and they hid in mountain passes and caves, they establish communities. Also, at the end of the 1260 year prophecy, the earth helps the woman, how?

God opens up the United States, an unpopulated area, and Pilgrims sail from Holland, they come here. Why? For 2 reasons. They want a democratic, republican form of government. They want a church without a pope and a state without a king.

They don't want church and state to unite because they know that when church and state unites that leads to oppression of God's people. Notice what it says in verse 17, the dragon, who's the dragon? That's Satan, was enraged. What's that mean? Angry with the woman.

Who's the woman? The church. And he goes to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and of the testimony of Jesus. So God will have an end time people who love Jesus. His prophetic gift through his testimony is speaking to them.

And then it says that they keep the commandments of God, including the Bible Sabbath. So here's an end time people. And what is the penalty? How is the devil gonna manifest his wrath? Revelation 13 verse 15 says, he was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and it cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

Let's look at the parallel. Esther's day, what happens? Haman, filled with pride and arrogance, wants to destroy all the Jews. Why? Because he wants that position and honor.

He wants to be honored at the great banquets of Ahasuerus. So he instigates the passing of a decree, restrictive law that would ultimately cause God's people to disobey the commands of God, a restrictive law that initiates the death decree. What happens in the last days? Once again, church-state unites. Once again, laws regarding worship will be passed.

Once again, religious liberty will be restricted. Once again, there'll be a death decree, according to Revelation 13, that has to do with worship. At the crisis moment, what happens in the kingdom of Ahasuerus? Mordecai speaks to Esther, and he says, Esther, Esther, who knows Esther chapter 4, verse 13 and 14? Esther chapter 4, and we're looking there at verse 13 and verse 14.

And here, Mordecai comes to the wonderful young woman who's been so faithful to God, and as he comes to her, he says to her, Esther, who knows whether you were called to the kingdom for such a time as this? And if you fail in your task, deliverance will come by another hand from another place. Who knows, Esther, whether you've been called to the kingdom by such a time as this. God raised up Esther at that right time to serve and preserve Israel. She goes into the king, and the king invites her into his royal throne room.

And Esther tells him the story. And eventually, there's a banquet held. Haman thinks it's in his honor. But at that banquet, Haman's true colors are revealed and he is the 1 hung on the gallows for Mordecai. Mordecai and the Israelites, the Jews prevail because God had a young woman in Esther who was faithful.

In the last days of verse history, God will have a remnant that are faithful. Once again it is said to this church, once again it's said to this people, who knows whether you are called to the kingdom for such a time as this. Who knows whether God has put you in your community for a time as this. Who knows whether God has put you in your town, your city, your village for a time as this. God has placed you in the divine drama of destiny, exactly where he wants you to be.

So as part of His end time people, you can share His love and grace. You can share the truth of the Bible. It's too late in Earth's history to let Him down now. May we always be faithful and fulfill the purpose that God has given to us in this last generation is my prayer as we pray. Father in heaven, thank you so much for your love and your grace, your power.

Thank you that you are coming again. And of us it is written, who knows whether you are called to the kingdom of such a time as this. Help us to be faithful now and through all eternity. In Christ's name, amen. This media was brought to you by Audioverse, a website dedicated to spreading God's Word through free sermon audio and much more.

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Series

Sabbath School 2nd Quarter 2025: Allusions, Images, Symbols: How to Study Bible Prophecy?

11 Ruth and Esther

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

Is Ellen White a Prophet or Plagiarist?

28m

01 Some Principles of Prophecy

25m

02 The Genesis Foundation

22m

03 Images from Marriage

20m

04 The Nations Part 1

24m

05 The Nations: Part 2

29m

06 Understanding Sacrifice

22m

07 Foundations of Prophecy

24m

08 In the Psalms, Part 1

22m

09 In the Psalms Part 2

23m

10 Upon Whom the Ends Have Come

23m

11 Ruth and Esther

25m

Sound Doctrine