Ruth- Rest & Redemption

Ruth- finding Rest and Redemption

Today we are going to look at what is said as one of the beautiful short stories ever written. The gifted German poet and scientist in 18C Goethe said Ruth was “the loveliest complete work on a small scale” ever written

More than that though it is a book with multiple messages for us.  Not only is it a book that provides for the tracing of the genealogy all the way to David and hence to Jesus, there is parallel story  of the redemption of Gentiles and Jews through a coming Messiah. In fact this book tells us more of the coming Messiah than any other book of the Old Testament. Further there is a third story in this book that relates to end times. Today however we will be focussing on the first two stories

This book of Ruth is written in the time of Judges. This is what the book of Judges says about Israel at this time

Judges 2:11-12  Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger

God warns Israel

Deuteronomy 11:16-17 Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. 17 Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you

And this is exactly what happens. Let’s have a look at the story

Ruth 1:1-5

Naomi Loses Her Husband and Sons

1 In the days when the judges ruled,[a] there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband

So here we have a story of Elimelik leaving Israel, in many ways turning away from Gods discipline to go and live with Israel’s arch enemies. If you remember back in Genesis Lot’s daughters got Lot drunk and had an incestuous relationship with him. Two sons were born Ammon and Moab and both these tribes became Israel’s greatest enemies- the Ammonites and Moabites.  Their land covered parts of Jordan and Syria and became the Islamic nations to the East of Israel

The whole situation was made worse by the marrying into these tribes. Marrying Ruth was a was against the Jewish law

Deut. 7:3 “Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons.

In the end you cannot escape God’s authority. After about 10 years Naomi’s husband dies and both her sons.

With the famine over in Israel Naomi decides to go back to Israel. Ruth makes a decision to return with Naomi and Orpah decides to stay

 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.”

Naomi and Ruth return back to Israel and return to Bethlehem

Ruth 1:22  So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning

Naomi is very bitter about her experience in fact she says in vs 20 “Call me Mara because God has made my life bitter” We look at life in these worldly ways but if you think about her situation, they were out of the land in a time of judgement, marrying Moabites was a sin of their own making that had consequences, In the end though she had returned  to a land of plenty with a devoted daughter who would eventually be the ancestor of King David. And through her daughter she would be more than cared for her whole life. Although we can understand why she was bitter,  I think if she looked back at her life now she would say yes there were difficult times, but that darkness was just a precursor to a new dawn and a warm and beautiful day. We all have difficulties and losses and there is mourning, but there is also an eternal perspective that is easy to lose sight of and darkness always precedes the dawn

At that time a widow without sons was a pretty desperate situation. Woman couldn’t own property, generally couldn’t earn a living, and couldn’t testify in court. Would lose her claim to the land, lose her support, and if you don’t work you starve! 

Ruth 2:2-3  And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose sight I may find favour.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” 3 So she departed and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and [a]she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech

In v1 we see that Boaz is a kinsman of Naomi. It doesn’t just mean he is a relative of Elimelech’s  the term kinsman describes someone who is eligible according to the Law to perpetuate Elimelech’s family line. In Deuteronomy25:5 we see that when a wife’s husband dies without having a son, a brother or a close relative, takes the widow as his wife, and a son born to them retains the the dead husbands family name and eventually his property.  This is so that when that son was an adult, he would inherit the estate of his deceased “father” and continue the family name

Ruth is working in the fields when Boaz arrives

Ruth 2:4-6 Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you!” “The Lord bless you!” they answered. 5 Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?”6 The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi Boaz takes Ruth under his wing and shows great kindness towards her 14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.”

When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. 

So they arrive in Bethlehem (Ruth 1:22) at the beginning of barley harvest. Keep in mind we have 3 main feasts in Israel

1. We have the Passover where we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus

2. Then we have the Feast of weeks which started just after Passover with the “waving of the omer (sheaf)”- the first fruits of the barley harvest and ended 50 days later with Shavout and the waving of the two breads denoting the first fruits of the wheat harvest. This is where we celebrate Pentecost

3. Feats of Tabernacles (Sukkot)

So they arrive at the beginning of the barley festival there she happens to meet Boaz a kinsman from Bethlehem.  Boaz will become her  kinsman redeemer. Note though that it is Boaz that finds Ruth and is introduced to her through the overseer.

Naomi tells Ruth how to approach Boaz to encourage a proposal for marriage. First, Ruth is to wash herself, anoint herself and put on her best clothes.  Naomi asks Ruth to lift up Boaz’s cloak to expose his feet. In doing so she’s sending a clear message to Boaz.  By uncovering his feet, Ruth is inviting a marriage proposal. She’s implying that when Boaz acts to cover his cold feet, he is welcome to cover hers as well

So let’s start looking at the parallel story in Ruth. Keep in mind the Word of God is a Holy Spirit inspired word and the intricacies are deeper than we could ever imagine. In this second story we have a picture of a coming Messiah, a coming redeemer pictured in the form of Boaz. We have Gentiles as pictured by Orpah who choses to stay in a foreign land and worship their idols and the other gentiles that are of the  Church pictured by Ruth that turn to a Jewish God. We and Ruth were in a foreign place and were the enemies of Israel, but here we have Ruth, a Moabite, a gentile that says to Naomi, who is a picture of Israel

Ruth 1:16-17, “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

As we do in church today. Ruth turns her back on her past and choses to be part of the family of Naomi and God

Eph. 2:12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and Without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

At this stage Israel  (Naomi) is bitter and destitute, but out of all this turmoil, the gentile Ruth (the church), despite her background, despite the evil of the Moabites is about to find a saviour, a redeemer- a kinsman-redeemer, in the form of Boaz a picture of Christ. A risen Christ at the barley harvest.

We see how  in Ruth 2:5 an unnamed servant/overseer who introduces Ruth to Boaz This servant is a picture of the Holy Spirit who introduces us to Jesus .So we have Christ, having introduced himself through the Holy Spirit to his future Bride, the Gentile Church, pictured by Ruth

Boaz then invites her to a meal and if you look at the meal it’s not without significance

Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.” Meals in those days were significant events ands were commonly used to seal solemn agreements or covenants. In this case the symbology of a meal of bread and wine is a clear sign of a covenant relationship with our Lord. Clearly in this case it was highly symbolic of a covenant because you will notice in: 2:14 at the end she has the main meal of roasted grain

Note that Israel (Naomi) is not there at this time, only the gentiles are with the Messiah pictured by Boaz. 

So let’s have a look at this bigger picture and of how Jesus works in our lives as mirrored by Boaz and Ruth

1. We too were in a land, as was Ruth, of idolatry and sin, in a sense opposed to all that was good just as Ammon was to Israel. But like Ruth we made a decision. Remember how  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.” A decision is made. You make that choice as did Ruth. This meant leaving our native lands spiritually. Some like Orpah choose to stay. As Exodus  6:6 says ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I.e. bring you out from a place of bondage of evil.

2. Like Ruth and Naomi we come to a place where we realise that we do not have anything, that we are spiritually destitute, but we arrive at the start of the barley festival, just after the Passover when Jesus has risen. This is the time of the festival of first fruits. We happen to come across a man who owns the fields and the harvest. Luke 10:2

2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field

And He puts us to work in His service in His fields. Not only that  but when we read 

Ruth 2:9 …. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.

 Immediately we receive the covering of the owner of the fields and we need never thirst again John 4:14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

3. Just a Boaz was a kinsman-redeemer,  so too Jesus is our redeemer Galatians 4:4-5 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship

So too is Jesus our kinsman 

Hebrews 2:11Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters

And as Exodus 6:6 says I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.

4. We see that the Lord of the harvest has supplied our very need and even more

Ruth 2:17-18 So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah.18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough

In other words every need and more is met. After Ruth moving from a place of sin and famine to feast (literally- Feast of the harvest) and sees the generousness  of the owner of the fields, we too can look back and see the grace , the mercy and the generosity of our Father in heaven

4. And as Ruth was purchased at a price by the kinsman-redeemer whereby he purchased the land from Naomi and Ruth (Ruth4:5) and subsequently became bridegroom, so we too have been purchased at a price and we know the church is the bride of Christ

5. In the end Ruth marries Boaz  and the future of Naomi is secure as she too falls under his protection. Similarly the gentile church is betrothed to Jesus and is saved. And in the end, Israel (Naomi) will also find their Saviour 

Romans 11:25-26 All Israel Saved 25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, 26 and in this way all Israel will be saved

So to summarise we are living out Exodus 6:6. God brings us out, He redeems us, He free’s us and he takes us to be His own. But the central theme in this book of Ruth, is God’s faithfulness to redeem His people and give them rest

• He will redeem Ruth by providing a husband leading her to rest in the security of his home

•  And through Ruth, the Lord will grant her mother-in-law, Naomi rest and security in a new son

• And through that son the Lord will provide a king to grant the nation rest

•  And through that king’s line, the Lord will provide a Redeemer and King to secure eternal rest for the nation

• And through that nation, the whole world will find redemption

The  first ten numbers have the following meanings in scripture:

• The number 1 stands for God’s sovereignty

• 2 means division

• 3 means the Godhead

• 4 means the Earth

• 5 means grace

• 6 is the number of fallen man

• 7 is perfect completion

• 8 is a new beginning

• 9 is judgment

• And 10 is the number of testimony

Ruth 1:9 New American Standard Bible

"May the LORD grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband

Acknowledgements-  Verse by Verse Ministry. 

https://www.versebyverseministry.org/