#10: “The Typology of the Story of Ruth”
SCRIPTURE: The book of Ruth
INTRO:
The book of Ruth is a fascinating story of a Gentile woman from Moab named Ruth.
Because of a famine in Israel, a Jewish family moved to Moab, a country not far from
Israel on the east side of the Dead Sea. This family from the town of Bethlehem in Judea
consisted of Elimelech, his wife, Naomi, and two sons: Mahlon and Chilion. While they were
in Moab, the two sons married Moabite girls. While they were in Moab, Elimelech and both
his sons died.
Naomi decided to return to Bethlehem to be with family, and she prepared to leave
her two daughters-in-law in Moab. However, they told her that they wanted to go with her,
but she reasoned with them that it would be better for them to stay in Moab with their own
people, since she had no more sons, and even if she remarried and had more sons, they
couldn’t wait for them to grow up. So, she planned to return home alone.
Her daughter-in-law Orpah then decided to stay in Moab with her people, but the
other daughter-in-law, Ruth, decided to go with her to Bethlehem. It was during their
conversation that Ruth uttered the words that have become a part of so many wedding
ceremonies: “I will go where you go, I will live where you live; your people will be my people,
your God will be my God. I will die where you die and be buried beside you. May the Lord
punish me if we are ever separated, even by death!” (1:16-17).
So, Ruth and Naomi went from Moab to Bethlehem together. Naomi’s family and
friends took them in, and Ruth went into the fields to glean whatever grain she could. One
landowner by the name of Boaz saw to it that his workers left plenty of grain for her and
Naomi, not realizing at the time that they were relatives of Elimelech.
Once Naomi found out Boaz was her late husband’s kin, she told Ruth about the
Jewish tradition of “kinsman redeemer,” a tradition that allowed widows of marrying and
childbearing age to appeal to their closest relatives for care and support. Well, Boaz wasn’t
the closest relative, but the man who was chose not to exercise his “kinsman redeemer”
right, so Boaz was left with the opportunity to bail them out of their debt and take Ruth as his
wife.
So, Boaz and Ruth were married, and eventually became great-grandparents to none
other than King David, from whose lineage Jesus came.