Wednesday, 10 August, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.
13 So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son. 14 Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! 15 He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” 16 Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. 17 And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
18 Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron, 19 Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab, 20 Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, 21 Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, 22 Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.
The book of Ruth is a wonderful little story of a woman who was a faithful friend to her mother-in-law, and leaves her own people to come join with the people of Israel. There is an interesting, although somewhat shocking romance, as Ruth approaches Boaz in the middle of the night and requests that he marry her. Boaz agrees to this, even though she is a foreigner, and outside the community of Israel.
3 “No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the LORD forever, 4 because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.”
Boaz befriending and marrying this Moabite woman was somewhat of a scandal.
What do we learn from this?
The great grace of God in saving people is clearly displayed in the book of Ruth. Here is a woman far outside of God’s people. But, like Rahab, the harlot from Jericho before her (Rahab was Boaz’s mother, and therefore she became Ruth’s mother-in-law), Ruth is surprisingly included in God’s people. In this God prefigures the coming inclusion of the Gentiles in the people of God.
We should not be surprised at the people God saves. Nor should we withhold the Gospel from people because we don’t expect God would choose them. Remember Ruth.
Where is Christ in this passage?
The book of Ruth ends with a short genealogy, listing the generations from Perez, son of Judah, to David, the great-grandson of Ruth and Boaz. It is in this genealogy that we come to find out why this book is preserved for us in scripture, for we find that God used this unlikely foreign woman to bring King David into the world. And because she was David’s great-grandmother, we know that she is also an ancestor of The Son of David: Jesus Christ.
