Introduction to Ruth
Story. Almost ten years ago, I decided to downsize.
Now when a rural Vicar talks of downsizing, he means reducing the number of parishes he has.
In my case it meant going from 15 parishes to five.
And this also meant moving house.
As we were taking our bedroom apart, I found 2 baskets underneath our bed.
One with three eggs in and the other with £50
So I asked Maddy my wife what the two baskets were about.
"Oh " she said " I must confess that every time you preach a bad sermon, I put an egg in the basket"
Secretly I was quite pleased - I thought” Not bad three bad sermons over three years”
But what is the £50 for in the other basket.
She gave me a sweet smile as all Vicar’s wives do to their husband and said
"Well every time I got a dozen, I sold them!"
Hopefully this won’t be an egg sermon!
I have been asked to prepare the background to the Book of Ruth and so I would like to start by introducing the book of Ruth to you with Acts 1:8
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem: and in all Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth”
May I ask you to hold that verse and I plan to come back to it at the end
Ruth is more than a beautiful love story.
You can go to Israel and see the Shepherd’s Field in Bethlehem where they remember Ruth and Boaz.
But I think we need to look a bit at the background to the story.
1. When did Ruth take place
Moses has led the Children of Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land – Canaan.
He dies before they enter the land and it is left to Joshua to take the land.
Joshua is a fine military commander and he takes the children of Israel into the Promised land, winning battle after battle.
After entering the land of Canaan and dividing up the land among the tribes, Joshua gathers the Israelites together and speaks the words of Yahweh's covenant to the people (see Josh. 24).
In his address he rehearses all that God had done for his people. Beginning with Abraham through the exodus from Egypt, to the conquest of the land of Canaan.
Joshua reminds the people of Israel that it was Yahweh who did all of these things for them.
Joshua then challenges the people to serve Yahweh alone, to which the people respond:
"The LORD our God we will serve, and him we will obey" (Josh. 24:24 NRSV).
At the outset of the book we are told that the events that took place in the book of Ruth took place in the
300-year rule of the Judges
And this period is best summed up by the last verse of the book of Judges that reads like this
In those days Israel had no king: everyone did what he saw fit (Judges 21:25)
Some scholars have dated the book at 1322 -1312BC, which gives you a rough date of about 3,500 years ago
I came across this Jewish commentary on the setting of Ruth and I think it is worth reading
"And it was in the days of the judging of the judges" (Ruth 1:1).
The simply meaning of this is, "When the judges judged."
However, the Sages interpret this homiletically as, "The people judged their judges!"
The 300-plus years of the Jewish Judges in Israel (before the reign of the Kings) was unique in the history of mankind.
A judge was appointed by popular consent (not elected) and he decided private and public affairs, as well as setting national policy.
However, he had no means to enforce his decisions.
He had no police force or army (which was purely voluntary when required for war) to carry out his orders.
The entire nation ran on the "honour system" for over 300 years!
Although in the Book of Judges, we find two national calamities that are attributed to the fact that "there was no king in Israel," implying that a monarch with power might have prevented those events, all in all, two events in 300-plus years is a pretty good track record.
What would happen in New York City in one day without a police force? (or even with a police force!)" (Rabbi Avigdor Miller)
It seems to me that these two calamities were:
1. The Israelites do not fully conquer the land and destroy the Canaanites, which include the Moabites
2. They do not worship YHWH consistently but often introduce false gods
The story of Ruth begins with a famine
Again my Jewish commentator says this. It is a long passage but I think it is worth reading as we can see the background from a Jewish perspective
"There was a famine in the land, and a man left Bethlehem in Yehudah – ie Judah (the center of Jewish life before Jerusalem) to sojourn (temporarily) in the fields of Moab (peace and quiet), he and his wife and their two sons." (Ruth 1:1)
He was the catalyst, and his wife and sons reluctantly accepted his decision.
"His name was Elimelech" from the aristocratic family of Judah.
"His wife's name was Naomi ('pleasant,' well known for her many charitable projects) and his sons were (appropriately) named Machlon ('sickness') and Chilyon" ('finished,' which is what eventually befell them). (1:2)
"They came to the fields of Moab and they were there." (1:3)
To leave Israel for the Diaspora is very easy, just get on the plane and you are there. To return later is much more difficult!
The Death of Elimelech
Although Elimelech may have had many rationalizations to excuse leaving Israel, in the eyes of God he was guilty of deserting his people in their time of need.
Since this was a great "desecration of God's name," he was punished by early death.
Intermarriage
Naomi, the widow, should have immediately returned to Israel.
But she remained on a "tourist visa" for another 10 years!
Without their father's supervision, and for lack of any Jewish women, the sons married local women -- Orpah and Ruth, the daughters of Eglon the Moabite king.
This was also regarded as an affront to the Jewish people, and the brothers were both dealt the consequences by God.
Question: Did Orpah and Ruth properly convert to Judaism or not?
If not, then they were never legally married, so why is Ruth referred to as the wife of Machlon and heir to his fields in the end of the book?
If they were proper converts, then why does Naomi attempt to persuade them to return to their idolatrous worship?
Answer: The commentaries explain that of course they underwent a conversion process, but the conversion's validity depended on whether they were really sincere.
If they returned home (as Orpah did), it revealed that she never fully accepted Judaism in the first place.
If they remained (as Ruth did), that shows she was always Jewish and was a proper widow of her husband.
2. The Moabites
The Moabites were Israel’s enemy and the Israelites were told not to intermarry with the Canaanites, which included the Moabites.
We read in Dt 23:3-4
No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendents may enter the assembly down to the 10th generation.
For they did not come to meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt and they hired Balaam , son of Pethorin Aram Nah-araim to bring a curse on you”
And we read in Numbers 25 how Moab seduced Israel to follow false gods for example Baal of Peor
25 While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, 2 who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods.
The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods.
3 So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor.
And the LORD’s anger burned against them.
4 The LORD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the LORD’s fierce anger may turn away from Israel.”
5 So Moses said to Israel’s judges, “Each of you must put to death those of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor.”
6 Then an Israelite man brought into the camp a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand 8 and followed the Israelite into the tent.
He drove the spear into both of them, right through the Israelite man and into the woman’s stomach.
Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped; 9 but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
3. The Levirite Marriage
The Levirite marriage is something we don’t come across in our generation but it was extremely important for Israel.
One thing it did was to make sure that the property the Jewish husband had - remained in the family and did not go to outsiders.
Secondly it meant that the name of the deceased would not die out in Israel through the first child of the Levirite marriage
Let me read to you
5 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.
6 The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.
7 However, if a man does not want to marry his brother’s wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to carry on his brother’s name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.”
8 Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him.
If he persists in saying, “I do not want to marry her,” 9 his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, “This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother’s family line.”
10 That man’s line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled. (Dt 25:5-10)
The problem came if the second brother already had children.
Because it was usual for the first son (and also his heir) to inherit half the inheritance and the rest of the inheritance was then split among the remaining brothers.
So if you have the situation where the second brother has four sons of his own and then has a Levirite child through the widow of the first son and then the father of the two brothers dies, then that Levirite child will jump the queue and inherit half the inheritance ahead of the second brother.
The second brother (ie the Levirite child’s father) will then only inherit the other half – and on the second brother’s death the four sons have to split the remaining half.
If the second brother does not produce a Levirite boy, then he would inherit all when his father dies and when the second brother dies, his oldest boy would inherit half the inheritance and the other three would split the remaining half of the inheritance.
In short there would be more for the second brother and for his children if he failed to produce a male heir through the Leveirite marriage for the first brother.
That might explain what happened in Ruth 4:1-6
Boaz Marries Ruth
4 Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer[a] he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.
2 Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so.
3 Then he said to the guardian-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek.
4 I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people.
If you will redeem it, do so.
But if you will not, tell me, so I will know.
For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.”
“I will redeem it,” he said.
5 Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”
6 At this, the guardian-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”
If you want to read more about the Levirite marriage please look at Genesis 38, the story of Judah and Tamar
You might wonder why Boaz who was a Jew would even contemplate marrying a Moabitess, but remember his mother was Rahab a Canaanitess.
4. Our Lord’s genealogy
Ruth is part of our Lord’s Jewish heritage – his genealogy as recorded by Matthew
We read in Mt 1:5
Salmon was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab
Boaz the father of Obed whose mother was Ruth
Obed the father of Jesse and Jesse the father of King David (Mt 1:5-6)
What was it about Ruth (and Tamar and Rahab – both Canaanites) that despite being born a foreigners to the Israelite nation allowed them to become a part of the People of God.
Conclusion
You may have been surprised that I chose Acts 1:8
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem: and in all Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth”
to introduce the Book of Ruth.
You see Ruth is an Old Testament prefiguring of an event that happens in the New Testament.
Ruth is a Goy – a Gentile (a non Jew) who became an Israelite through faith.
And Paul reminds us what a Jew is in Romans 2: 28-29
"A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical
No a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly and circumcision is of the heart by the Spirit, not by the written code"
And as James reminds us faith has to be followed by action
"Show me your faith without deeds and I shall show you my faith by what I do" (Jas 2:18b)
No one can reasonably argue that Ruth did not fulfil this requirement.
Look what she says in Ruth 1:16-18.
You may recall that Naomi tries to send Ruth back to her own family.
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.”
18 When Naomi realised that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
Ruth 1:16-18.
When Ruth came to faith it affected her whole life. She left her own family back in Moab to come and worship the God of Israel
What a commitment
But I would like to leave you with a question
So how much of an impact does our faith have on how we live - honestly
Can we say like Ruth to Naomi
“Your God is my God and your people are my people.”
Or do we simply “put up with some people in church who simply annoy us and do nothing to try to resolve the difficulty.”
And if you think I am pointing at you, remember three fingers come back at me!
My prayer is that this has given you a helpful introduction to the Book of Ruth
