THE BOOK OF RUTH:
- PREFACE.
It may be helpful to remind the reader that of the five books of Moses (the Pentateuch), four of them after Genesis describe the events surrounding the freeing of Israel from Egyptian tyranny and:-
1. its exit of en masse through the Red Sea;
2. its wondrous, but circuitous journey through the wilderness to the edge of the Promised Land of Canaan;
3. its anti-climactic rebellion when, by mutiny, it refused to enter the Land after the twelve spies reconnoitered the Land forty
days;
4. God’s penalty of forty years delay for Israel in the desert, one year for each of the forty days of disbelief by ten of the twelve emissaries reported back to Moses from Beersheba;
5. the backward steps of the wandering nation until all but two of 600,000 militia had perished.
- RECAP OF SAGA IN BOOKS OF JOSHUA, & JUDGES.
1) Israel ceases its forty years of desert wanderings and enters Canaan;
2) Canaan is conquered by Joshua, but not fully possessed. The Canaanites were not always expelled;
3) Wayward Israel loses sight of God’s deliverance; forgets its purpose & faith.
4) In the endemic cycle of godlessness, wickedness and lawlessness:
a. Israel goes astray and succumbs to Baal’s religion;
b. it receives divine punishment from foreign tyranny;
c. it prays to Jehovah for a deliverer to rescue it in its plight;
d. God answers by raising up a god-fearing, judge, seer, prophet or prophetess;
e. Once relief is experienced Israel quickly becomes wayward again;
f. It reverts to its cycle of backsliding and the pattern repeats itself.
g. Despite notable judges, seers, and deliverers Israel stays apostate.
- BACKGROUND TO THE PERIOD COVERED BY JUDGES & RUTH.
1. Here is a short but wonderful example of God’s mercy inserting hope into the moral chaos of a nation forgetting both its roots and its God in the same period covered by the book of Judges.
2. The Lord of glory according to His promise to Israel (Jacob) by preparing and preserving the Messianic line form Judah to Christ.
3. That lineage was prophesied by Jacob on his deathbed in the end of Genesis.
4. Our amazing God of grace and truth chose a fornicator like Judah who had an illicit but inadvertent relationship with Tamar, his daughter in law, to bear Pharez, the patriarchal progenitor.
5. Of the twelve sons of Jacob, most readers could not have predicted Jacob’s choice. Yet it was God’s own choice through him as he prophesied by the Holy Spirit. Judah would have been last on the list if it had been the reader’s decision.
6. Pharez was a key patriarchal forbear of Christ Jesus through Ruth to Jesse to David, thence to Joseph and Mary and her virgin birth of the Saviour.
7. The genealogies of Matthew and Luke corroborate this lineage of Judah to the. Bethlehem Judah.
8. The avid student of tee Word can also trace this mysterious but wondrous spectacle of grace to those of unmerited favour becoming the illustrious progenitors of the Son of David, Son of Man, Son of God.
9. Not one reader has been worthy of that same grace meted to the Gentile children of God. Paul, indeed, declared that He died for every saint, while we were yet sinners. (Romans 5:4-8) [Cp. Isaiah 53-the ‘few’ and the ‘many’.
MESSIANIC LINEAGE: JUDAH-RAHAB-RUTH THENCE TO DAVID.
Tamar bears Judah’s twin son Pharez & the scarlet thread.
…the midwife took and bound upon his hand (Zarah) a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first. And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand… (Genesis 38:28-30 excerpts)
Rahab & the scarlet thread: the progenitor of Ruth in the lineage of David.
Behold, when we come into the land, you shall bind this line of scarlet thread in the window…and she bound the scarlet line in the window.
(Joshua 2:18;21, excerpts)
- MATTHEW LINKS JUDAH-RAHAB-RUTH TO DAVID & JESUS.
And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab, and Booz begat Obed of Ruth, and Obed begat Jesse;
Matthew 1:5 And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab, and Booz begat Obed of Ruth, and Obed begat Jesse…”And Jesse begat David the king…And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.”
- LUKE LINKS JUDAH TO DAVID & JESUS.
“…which was the son of David…Which was the son of Jesse, which was the son of Obed, which was the son of Booz, which was the son of Salmon…which was the son of Phares, which was the son of Judah…Which was the son of Jacob, which was the son of Isaac, which was the son of Abraham…”
(Luke 3:32-34) [excerpts]
See also Ruth 4:12.
- CHAPTER HEADINGS AND DIVISIONS IN THE BOOK OF RUTH.
RUTH: 1. Naomi and her husband leave Judah & take refuge in Moab from famine.
Naomi’s planned departure home to Bethlehem.
Naomi’s daughter-in-law refuses to be separated and both arrive in Bethlehem.
RUTH: 2. Boaz, kindred of Naomi’s late husband, sustains Ruth.
RUTH: 3. Marriage proposal of Boaz and Ruth; Naomi approves.
RUTH: 4. Boaz satisfies ancestral law; free to marry Ruth; blessed couple: forbears of David & Jesus.
CREDITS:
Holy Bible Quotations: King James Version (Public Domain)
Publication:’The Book of Ruth’: John David, 2019, Jonacy Press, POB 366603, Bonita Springs FL 34136
