Ruth

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THE BOOK OF
RUTH
 
 
 
Overview of the Book. The Book of Ruth is set in the days of the judges given there was no king in Israel, and “every man did that which was right in his own eyes”. Judges shows that the light of conscience is insufficient. The remedy for this is seen fully in 1 Samuel, where a prophet is raised up, to bring the Word of God, a superior guide. Meanwhile, the book of Ruth gives what God is doing behind the scenes while there was no king in Israel: it shows the operations of the grace of God.
 
Grace. While Judges describes the ruin of Israel, Ruth shown God’s counsels according to grace. “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom. 5:20). The book of Ruth therefore is all about: 
  1. God’s restoring grace as shown to Naomi, and 
  2. growing in grace as seen in Ruth. 
David’s line: The Promises Secured. Through the book of Judges the tribe of Ephraim took the lead, but God was about to prepare the way for David, and further for David’s greater Son. The book of Ruth centers around Bethlehem Ephrathah, the very place of which the prophet would later say, “out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel” (Mic. 5:2). Ruth shows God working quietly in grace, in the darkest days of the judges, to preserve the line through which David would come, and ultimately Christ Himself. This is part of God’s eternal counsels concerning His Son, whose “goings forth are from of old, from the days of eternity.”
 
Prophetic Application. Sometimes we make an application of this to us as Gentiles being brought in a strangers and foreigners into the church of God. However, the real prophetic application is to the Jews.1 Naomi represents the nation of Israel under the Old Covenant, outside of the land, having forfeited their inheritance by unfaithfulness.2 The famine represents the hardships faced by the Jews, especially in the tribulation period. As a Gentile, Ruth pictures not the Church, but the Jewish remnant which God will take up with when in a Lo-ammi state (“not my people”, Hosea 1:9), outside their land, scattered among the Gentiles, having lost their special place. Like Ruth leaving Moab, the remnant will turn their back on the comforts, covetousness, and idolatry of the Gentile world, and return as foreigners to the God of Israel, acknowledging no merit of their own, and staking all their hopes on Him, without material proofs of future prosperity. Israel (Naomi) will be brought into blessing through a remnant (Ruth) under grace. When she humbles herself under the mighty hand of God, she is exalted in due time. The whole book is really God’s grace to Israel, restoring them in the future. Boaz, the the kinsman redeemer, is a type of Christ who takes upon Himself Israel’s cause. A mighty man of wealth, Boaz pictures the grace of God toward Israel under the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31), though Christ first had to meet the claims of the Old Covenant – the law, a nearer kinsman – which could never redeem Israel, only condemn them.3 Micah 5:2-3 similarly connects the coming of Christ from Bethlehem with Israel being “given up” for a time, followed by the return and restoration of His brethren. Nonetheless, since God’s love is unchanging, there is much that we can apply to ourselves as Christians.
 
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  1. “Ruth then lets us see what I have ventured to call the quasi-Gentile condition of those that will form the remnant: Jews undoubtedly, but Jews that have been out of their land, and dispersed among the nations, where they will have learned their ways, in whom God will begin to work. He will attract their heart and face towards Himself; He will decide them to turn their back upon the Gentiles’ pride and idolatry; He will use the frightful evils of the last days, the antichristian times, to produce true repentance and a cleaving in faith to the God of Israel, and the Branch He has made strong for Himself. This will be the work which grace will then carry forward in the godly Jewish remnant, of whom Ruth, it appears to me, is so clear a prefiguration.” – W. Kelly. The Book of Ruth.
  2. “Naomi, who in her destitution is a type of the nation, acknowledges her condition: she calls herself Mara (bitterness).” – J.N. Darby. The Synopsis of the Books of the Bible.
  3. “The law was never able (nor the assembly either) to re-establish Israel in their inheritance, nor to raise up in grace the name of the dead.” – J.N. Darby. The Synopsis of the Books of the Bible.