Author: Unknown,
possible Samuel
Date Written:
Around 1000 B.C. and 500 B.C.Date Happened: During the period of Judges around 1375 B. C. and 1050 B.C.
First Audience: The golden age of Israelite culture during the days of Solomon.
Key Places: Moab, Bethlehem (also called Ephrath)
Key People: Ruth, Naomi, Boaz
Genealogy: Jesus was from the line of King David and Ruth was the great-grandmother to David.
Genre and Literary Style: Many call Ruth a short story, and it may be called this with the understanding that its events really happened. In the Hebrew Scriptures it was placed in the third section, the Writings (the other two sections are the Law and the Prophets). Among the Writings it was one of the Five Scrolls. Each of these Five Scrolls became associated with one of the Israelite festivals and was read publicly during that festival. Ruth was identified with Shavuoth, “Weeks” or “Pentecost,” which celebrated the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest. Its Hebrew is so carefully polished that Ruth has been likened to a precious jewel.
2. Ruth 1:1, “In days when the judges ruled,
there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together
with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab.”
Moab was the land east of the
Dead Sea. It was one of the nations that
was at war with and oppressed Israel during Judges. The famine had to be quite server for them to
leave Israel to Moab.
3. Ruth 1:4a, “They married Moabite women, one
named Orpah and the other Ruth.”
Marriage to a Moabite or
Canaanite was not allowed. (A Moabite
was someone from Moab living in Moab outside the Promise Land, a Canaanite was
someone from Moab living inside the Promise Land). It was against God’s law to marry a
Moabite. “Do not intermarry with
them. Do not give your daughters to
their sons or take their daughters for your sons,” (Deuteronomy 7:3). While it was forbidden, Naomi’s sons married
Moabite women. This was the time of the
judges and the people did not follow the law as they should. Moabites were not allowed to worship at the
Tabernacle because they had not let the Israelites pass through their land
during the Exodus from Egypt. “No
Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the
Lord, even down to the tenth generation,” (Deuteronomy 23:3). The Ironic things is that God uses Ruth even
thought she is a Moabite.
4. Ruth 1:4b-5, “After they had lived there
about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without
her two sons and her husband.”
Nothing was worse in the
ancient world than being a widow. Widows
were taken advantage of or ignored. They
were almost always poor. God’s law
provided that the nearest relative of the dead husband should care for the
widow; but Naomi had no relatives in Moab, and she didn’t know if any of her
relatives were alive in Israel. The
church and the family is commissioned to take care of widows. “Give proper recognition to those widows who
are really in need. But if a widow has
children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their
religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their
parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God,” (1 Timothy 5:3-4).
5. Ruth 1:8-9, “Then Naomi said to her two
daughters-in-law, ‘Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show kindness to you, as you
have shown to your dead and to me. May
the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband“.
Naomi shows her selflessness
by telling Ruth and Orpah to go back home.
She could have placed guilt on them, but instead she wanted them to go
on with life and be able to remarry. She
is an example of putting the needs of others over the needs of yourself.
6. Ruth 1:11, But Naomi said, ‘Return home, my
daughters. Why would you come with
me? Am I going to have any more sons,
who could become your husbands?‘”
The verse refers to levirate
marriage. This was the law that
obligated a dead man’s brother to care for the widow. “If brothers are living together and one of
them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and
marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her, (Deuteronomy 25:5).
7. Ruth 1:16-17, “But Ruth replied, ‘Don‘t urge
me to leave you or to turn back from you.
Where you go I go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my
God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely,
if anything but death separates you and me.‘”
First thing we see here is
the love Ruth has for Naomi. She is
willing to give up everything for her.
When we hear Ruth say that your God will be my God, what we learn is
that through Naomi’s witness of God, Ruth has learn to love God and Naomi. The second thing we learn is that even though
Ruth was a Moabite, that didn’t stop her from worshipping God. God also accepted her worship and blessed
her. We will see more of His blessings
later. The Jews were not the only people
God loved. He chose the Jews to be the
people that others would come to know Him.
This was fulfilled with the birth of Jesus Christ as a Jew. Peter says in Acts 10:34-35, “I now realize
how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every
nation who fear him and do what is right.”
Although Ruth belonged to a race often despised by Israel, she was
blessed by God because of her faithfulness to Him and Naomi. Ruth is an example of the two commandments
that Jesus gave. “Jesus replied: “ ’Love
the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind.’ This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like
it: ’Love your neighbor as yourself,’”
(Matthew 22:37-39). Ruth became the
Great-Grand Mother of David and a direct ancestor of Jesus.
8. Ruth 1:20-21, “’Don‘t call me Naomi,’ she
told them. ’Call me Mara, because the
Almighty has made my life very bitter. I
went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has
brought misfortune upon me.’”
Naomi means pleasant, but
Mara means bitter. Naomi was not
rejecting God, but only expressing her pain.
9. Ruth and Naomi: In an age of individualism, the story here is
a helpful model of good relationships.
Naomi and Ruth are beautiful examples of this blending of lives. Their cultures, family backgrounds, and ages
were very different. As mother-in-law
and daughter-in-law, they probably had as many times of tension as also
tenderness. And yet they were bond to
each other. They shared deep sorrow,
great affection, and an overriding commitment to God and each other. Between these two we see the themes of
faithfulness, kindness, and love.
10. “Love lightens labor and sweetens sorrow.” Anonymous
