PART 1:THE BOOK OF RUTH
THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Book of Ruth obtained its title from one prime character named “Ruth.” The book expresses the severe anguish and tragedy a family of Elimelech passed through as well as a turning point for Naomi’s joy and happiness. Though it reflects a time of relative peace (Judges 3:30) between the Moab and Israel, to Naomi, it was a time of tragedy.
The author of The Book of Ruth is unknown, although scholars attribute the penman to Samuel. Its events occurred at the time Judges ruled Israel (Ruth 1:1). To understand the book very well, readers are advised to read the first chapters of The Book of Judges. The era when Judges ruled in Israel was the period when Israelites lapsed again and again. It was an era when the nation of Israel worshiped foreign gods. They had no king and everyone did whatever seemed right in their own eyes (Judges 17:6). Ruth came from an unbelieving nation of Moab, and displays a character contrasted among God’s people. The worship of idols did not influence her. She did not lapse even when her husband died. She continued trusting in God and received God’s providence and enabling power to become pregnant. Ruth’s affection and desire to live with Naomi foregrounded her desire to worship the God of Israel. In the earlier time of marriage, she was faced with the doom of widowhood. Such a situation did not discourage her to show her true love for Naomi, not even after her husband’s death! For Ruth to remain with Naomi, it is reveals that she loved her late husband. She was unable to conceive, and this situation seems that the fist of God was against her and the entire family, as Naomi affirmed. This is because, when Naomi returned back to Israel, God’s mercy returned as well. Naomi desired Boaz to redeem her daughter-in-law because she saw the loving-kindness in him and God granted her that which she desired. Boaz then married Ruth and God enabled her to become pregnant.
Although the book of Ruth is very brief – only consisting of four chapters – it contains lot of moral lessons we need to learn.
Reflecting on some vital events in Israel’s history, including how the Israelites broke the law of God and God’s providence to his people, can be helpful. At this time in history, the Israelites were forbidden to marry those from foreign nations to avoid being led astray from worshiping God (Deut. 7:2-4, I Kings 11:1-2, Neh. 13:23-27).
This intermarriage issue seems to be a direct consequence of Mahlon’s and Kilion’s deaths because they married wives from Moab. Moab had been a rancorous enemy to the Israelites (Judges 3:12). Out of fear of the Israelites, Balak, the king of Moab, hired Balaam to curse the Israelites who encamped in the confines of his territory. When the mission of Balaam failed, Balak used the Moabite women to seduce the Israelites into idolatry, which eventually caused the loss of 24,000 Israelite lives when God’s anger was poured out against them (Num. 25).
The people of Moab worshipped different gods, including Baal of Peor (Num. 25:3) and Chemosh (Num. 21:29). There is no basis to say that both Ruth and Orpah were proselytes before the death of their husbands. It was later that Ruth developed her interest in worshipping the God of Israel.
In the days that judges ruled Israel, the book of Ruth indicates that a severe famine was witnessed in the land. The sense of famine communicated in the book doesn’t imply the absence of rain but rather the shortage of food at the time when God handed the Israelites over to the Midianites. The Midianites reduced the Israelites to starvation, which is referred to as famine because there was no food in the land (see Judges 6:6). Because there was nothing to eat, the author of the book of Ruth reports in an objective manner how Elimelech moved out of the Promised Land to Moab, a land that didn’t worship God, and he died there from an unknown and mysterious cause. From Judges 6:1, we see that the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, which led directly to the consequence of the famine that Elimelech was running away from. Scholars think that God’s anger was upon him. Naomi acknowledges the fact that the fist of God was upon her by taking away her husband and children. Neither Mahlon nor Kilion understood the cause of their father’s death, and they offended God by taking Moabite women in marriage, resulting in their deaths as well. Readers could feel the tragic hoarseness in the story. At the time the death of Elimelech and his two sons are reported, readers have no other option than to join Naomi in mourning her loss. The grief in the heart of the widow paints her future with dark shadows. With her husband dead, Naomi had hoped her sons would care for her in her old age. Suddenly, death blew his trumpet again, and her sons were gone. Naomi became weary because her two sons died leaving her with two childless widows. Naomi’s sorrow didn’t happen in a single moment but in succession: her husband died, her two sons married women from Moab and could not conceive, and then those same sons died. The inability of Ruth and Orpah to conceive after the death of Elimelech might have been a hidden sorrow and concern to the grieving widow. Naomi perhaps feared that if her sons had no children of their own, the life span of their family was jeopardized, and their family name would be erased in Bethlehem. The cause of barrenness in the lives of Ruth and Orpah is unknown; however, it might be seen as a form of punishment to Mahlon and Kilion for disobeying God as evidenced by the fact that after Boaz took Ruth as a wife, God enabled her to conceive.
From the story, we understand that God allows the course of events to unfold in his mysterious plan. The idea that the Israelites shouldn’t give their sons or daughters in marriage to foreigners may imply that God hates other nations. However, the truth is that those foreign nations worshipped idols, and God didn’t want his people to be corrupted by such practices. We see that God doesn’t discriminate. He is the God of the whole universe, which is why the story of Ruth is very significant to theologians and Christians as it describes the genealogical record of King David and the lineage through which Jesus Christ came into the world. God didn’t look upon the sin of the nation, but he acted in his grace to use a woman from an unbelieving nation to be an ancestress to King David. God showed his love and concern for the whole world in this way.
In the story, God’s providence is felt. God uses Ruth to provide for the aging widow, Naomi. When the nation of Israel suffered famine, God provided them with good crops. When Naomi needed a family redeemer, God presented Boaz, who could care for them. All these show that God is kind to his own people.
Furthermore, the story displays the occupation of the Israelites, which was farming. Naomi and Ruth returned to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. Boaz seemed to have enough farms because he employed workers to work in his field. At this period, everyone was always busy, and Boaz was so tired he went to sleep on the threshing floor, where Ruth met him. It was there, and in the tent of Naomi, that we know the role of a kinsman when his brother or relative dies. This idea is communicated in the book of Deut. 25:5-10. It was the law of the land. When the first son of Judah died, Judah told the second son, Onan, to go and sleep with his brother’s wife, Tamer, to produce an heir for his brother (Gen. 38). Ruth’s story reveals that the Israelites were under the law.
However, this law of a brother to marry his late brother’s wife is no longer applicable because the same law of Moses says, “You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife: it is your brother’s nakedness” (Lev. 18:16). At this point, readers are left with no direction as they encounter the contradiction in the law of Moses.
In Gen. 38, we see that God subscribed to the law of family redeemer, because when Onan spilled his semen on the ground whenever he had intercourse with Tamer, his late brother’s wife, God considered it evil because Onan did not want to produce an heir for his late brother. Ona’s failure caused his death. God took his life, and Judah became afraid to subject himself to the law and asked Tamar to return to her parents’ home and remain a widow until his son Shelah was old enough to marry her.
It will help us understand this issue of family redeemer, whether it is scripturally advisable or not at this time of the Christian era, is that right from the beginning God created man and woman as one husband and one wife. Though many people married many wives, like King Solomon, King David, and even Jacob, in the olden days, it was only acceptable until Christ came. The breeze of Christianity waved polygamy away and encouraged one man, one wife (Matt. 19:1-9). From the explanation of Christ, we understand that there is no account that a man should divorce his wife and marry another one, be it the wife of your late brother or what. In this case, God is now the Redeemer of widows.
The Synopsis of the Book of Ruth
The story is set in the time of Judges, a time characterized in the book of Judges as a period of religious and moral degeneration. In Bethlehem, a severe famine struck the land, forcing Elimelech to move from his hometown to live in the country of Moab with his family. Elimelech’s family consisted of Naomi and two sons, Mahlon and Kilion. It is noted that Elimelech’s family sojourned in the land of Moab for food. Moab is an ancestral nation populated by the eldest son of Lot (Gen. 19:37).
Elimelech and his family settled in Moab for some time until he died. After his death, his sons, Mahlon and Kilion, married Moabite women. Kilion married Ruth, while Mahlon married Orpah (Ruth 1:4, 4:10). After ten years of their marriages, both Mahlon and Kilion died, leaving their wives widowed. This tragedy became unbearable to Naomi and she asked her two daughters to go back to their homes and remarry.
As she had heard that the Lord had blessed her people in Judah by giving them crop again, Naomi set out to go back home. Her two daughters-in-law also set out to go with her. To Naomi, it was of no use for Ruth and Orpah to go along with her, since her two sons had died, leaving them with no children. Naomi considered children as what could make a woman want to stay, even when her husband is no more. That is why, after she has urged Ruth and Orpah to go and they replied no, she said, can I still give birth to other sons who could grow up to be your husbands? (Ruth 1:11).
The nagging of Naomi to her daughters-in-law made Orpah withdraw from going to Bethlehem to stay with her. Orpah might have reasoned with her mother-in-law that no one would marry her if she followed Naomi to her hometown, since she had no other sons that may take her as a wife. She became afraid of remaining widowed and so nullified her marriage vow, as death has parted her from her husband.
Ruth remained faithful and loyal to her mother-in-law. Her loyalty to Naomi reveals her inner being as someone who is ever determined to live in a foreign land, a land with a different religion from her own country. She vowed the God of Naomi would be her God, which meant she was willing to take her life the way it was.
Ruth did not waver; she took a strong stand to champion the course of affliction, and God showed her his unfailing love. In the course of time, as Naomi and Ruth returned to Bethlehem in late spring, at the beginning of the barley harvest, God comforted them by making Boaz marry Ruth. The couple was blessed with a son named Obed. This Obed became the father of Jesse, and the grandfather of David (Ruth 4:17).
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