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Home , Book of Ruth

Greetings, dear reader, in the Richly Redeeming Name of JESUS!

Here we look at JESUS IN THE BOOK OF :

RUTH, four chapters: a clan, famine-tried, Left home for ; the head, Elimelech, died; Then his two sons (Mahlon, Chilion) passed away - Their wives, from Moab (, Ruth), were urged to stay At home by the mother, , when leaving. Orpah did. "Your God will be mine!" said Ruth, cleaving. The pair, poor, settled in Bethlehem where Ruth gleamed From the fields of , near kinsman (rich, esteemed) To Elimilech, and Ruth found grace in his sight. "Cover me!" she cried, lying at his feet one night. They married; Naomi's was redeemed - Ruth had A son in Christ's line, , King 's Grandad!

Ruth possesses Poetic, Personal, plus Prophetic perspectives. A literary gem, it speaks to the deepest needs of the human heart, and portrays the consummation of this present age.

The story: Elimilech (Hebrew meaning of name : "God is King"), Naomi (meaning :"pleasant") and their two sons Mahlon & Chilion lived in Bethlehem (meaning: House of Bread). Famine came, and the family moved to the land of Moab. Times of spiritual famine in our lives tempt us also to move into Moab - the world cursed. Prayer, not movement from the Promised Land, is the answer (cf. 2 Chron. 7:13-14). Note that Jesus is our bread of Life, born in a manger (a feeding trough for the lowly) and in Bethlehem, the House of Bread. Elimelech dies; Naomi's sons marry Orpah and Ruth, women of Moab, and then the sons die after being in the land of Moab for about 10 years. On hearing that the famine in the promised land has ended, Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth set out to journey thence. (Revival in the church often draws back the backslider.) The stage is set for the entrance of Boaz (prefiguring Christ) to redeem Ruth and restore the heritage of Naomi.

Ruth prefigures the church; Naomi prefigures Israel. The stay of the family of Naomi in the promised land, their subsequent dispersion by famine, their sojourn in Gentile Moab, their sufferings and trials, all follow the exact pattern of God's prophecies concerning Israel among the nations. The return of Naomi at the good news of restored fertility in the promised land is a picture of the recent restoration of Israel. As Naomi returned but did not yet receive her lost inheritance until after the harvest, so Israel is back in the land, but is still dispossessed of most of her lost inheritance.

Ruth, a Gentile, estranged from God, is brought into blessing through Naomi's exile (cf Rms 11). She believes in Naomi's God, and after resting at Boaz's feet during the dark night of threshing, she becomes the bride of Boaz, the kinsman-redeemer, while Naomi's lost property is restored to her. This is a picture of the end of the age. Israel is back in the land, the Church is gleaning at the end of the harvest of this age, to be safely sheltered at the feet of her Boaz (Christ) during the dark night of this earth's threshing time, the tribulation. She will become the bride of Christ after the dark night is over, when Israel will finally possess the promised land in blessing.

On the death of a husband, in the event of no children, a relative was by law to marry the widow to perpetuate the brother's name (Deut 25:5-10). Jesus, our Great Kinsman-Redeemer, is like Boaz: related by birth, belonging to the family of those to be redeemed; able to pay the price (mighty and wealthy); willing to act as redeemer. Contrast with the able but unwilling redeemer mentioned in :13 & :1-6 (perhaps representing the Law, or Adam).

At the wedding of Boaz & Ruth, the witnesses prayed that Ruth would be famous in Bethlehem of Ephratah, and her house like the house of Pharez (Ruth 4:11-12). This prayer was abundantly answered: Jesus, descendant of both Pharez and Ruth, was born in Bethlehem of Ephratah (Matt 2:1-6, as prophesied in Micah 5:2). Note also from Ruth 4:18-22 that there were exactly 10 generations between Pharez (the illegitimate son of & his own daughter-in-law - Gen 38) and David: 1.Pharez, 2., 3., 4., 5.Nahson, 6., 7.Boaz, 8.Obed, 9., 10.David. Ancient rabbis interpreted Deut 23:2 to mean that no descendant of a bastard could sit upon the throne of Israel until the tenth generation. Hence when Israel under demanded a King, God could not choose Jesse (David would have been too young or not yet born). Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin, not Judah, was chosen in God's permissive, not perfect will (cf Gen 49:10 - Kings were to be from the tribe of Judah).

Consider the amazing choices of God in the Messianic line. In the womb of Tamar, containing bastard sons (twins), He passed by Zarah, and chose Pharez (Gen 38). He chose Isaac the younger over Ishmael the elder. He chose Jacob the younger over Esau the elder. He chose Joseph, the firstborn of Jacob's second wife, over Reuben, the firstborn of Jacob's first wife. He chose David, the youngest son of 7 brothers in his family, over Saul, the eldest in his. He chose Solomon, the second son of the sinful joining of David to Bathsheba. He chose Rahab, a prostitute. He chose Ruth, a Gentile. He chose Joseph, a carpenter. No wonder the apostle Paul, contemplating these things in Romans Chapter 9, was moved to say: "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy" (Rms 9:16).

Ruth was probably a black woman as the Moabites were descended from the Canaanites, sons of Ham (Gen 11:6). Rahab, a Gentile harlot, as well as Bathsheba, were also probably black women. Hence in the lineage of Jesus we have a complete mixture of race and background, for Jesus meets all and is available to all men without any distinction of class, creed, or colour, and He is willing and able to redeem all who would call upon His Name. This is the message of the . Let us take off our shoes, for we stand on holy ground, and give them to our Kinsman- Redeemer in recognition of His ownership of us (cf.Ruth 4:7-8). Like Ruth, let us also pray to Him, as in the words of a popular chorus based on Ruth 3:9: "Cover me...extend the borders of thy garment over me." Amen.

Supplementary Observations from Genesis 38:

Genesis 38 is an unusual chapter, lying right in the middle of the life of Joseph, just after he has been sold to Egypt by his brothers. It has no obvious relevance to the story of Joseph, and at first reading one might wonder, given its "sordid" details, why it is in scripture at all, but it is a very pertinent chapter.

Some years ago, during a time of prayer, studying Genesis 38, I felt the Lord say: "follow the scarlet line of grace". Read Genesis 38. God chose Pharez, not Zarah, to be of the seed from which Our Lord would come. Zarah should have been the first born, but he was (literally!) pushed aside by Pharez. A scarlet thread had been placed on the hand of Zarah to denote him as man's choice. But God chooses not as man would choose. We would not have chosen to have our Lord be descended from a bastard son in the first place. Why did God choose Pharez? The answer: His GRACE, which is ever extended towards us His children; God's Riches At Christ's Expense.

Note the scarlet thread - Genesis 38:28 is the very first appearance of the word scarlet in scripture. Zarah was, so to speak, "sacrificed" for Pharez. There are other key sacrifices involving scarlet that foreshadowed Calvary: scarlet thread (wool) was used in the sacrificial procedure involving the cleansing of the leper (Lev 14:4) and in the purifying red Heifer sacrifice (Numbers 19, the only sacrifice offered, like Our Lord, "outside the camp" - cf. Heb 13:11-13, Heb 9:13-14). Read also Heb 9:18-22. Note the significance of blood, hyssop and wood in these sacrifices. Hyssop was mixed with vinegar and offered to our Lord as He bled on a cross of wood, having previously been mocked in a robe of scarlet composed of many scarlet threads. The scarlet line of grace leads inexorably to the cross.

We are saved, not by our works, lest any man should boast, but by God's grace through the shed blood of Calvary. (Ephesians 2:4-9).

In the , a scarlet thread played a significant role in the saving of the life of the harlot Rahab. When the supernaturally took the city of Jericho, only Rahab and her household were spared. God, again contrary to the wisdom of man, and by His grace, choose her also to be one from whom Our Lord would come.

We come next to "The Code" - the contemporary discovery by leading Jewish mathematicians, of information, best deciphered by computer, found to date only in the original Hebrew text (the Textus Receptus) of the . (Cf. Equidistant Letter Sequences in the , by Doron Witztum, Eliyahu Rips (Mathematics Professor, Hebrew University, Jerusalem), and Yoav Rosenberg, Statistical Science, 1994, Vol 9, No.3, pp.429-438; also The Bible Code, May 1997, by Michael Drosnin). The name of Jesus (Hebrew: "Yeshua") is encoded in the Old Testament at several major Messianic prophecies. (Cf. YESHUA, The Name of Jesus Revealed in the Old Testament, 1996, and His Name Is Jesus, 1997, by Jewish Messianic Pastor Yacov Rambsel; The Signature of God by Grant R. Jeffrey, Frontier Research Publications, 1996).

The Hebrew words Yeshua Yakhol, meaning "Jesus is able (to save)", are encoded in Genesis 1, beginning from the very first yod in the very first word of scripture. Likewise in the very first sentence of Ruth (:1) we find Yeshua encoded, starting with the fourth yod and counting every 5th letter from right to left. There is a confirmation crossing: if you start with the ayin in that name of Yeshua, and count every 7X11 letters from right to left, Yeshua is agan spelt. Further, from the same ayin, counting every 15th letter from right to left spells Oshiah, a 5 character word in Hebrew which means "He will save". Also, in Ruth 1:8, counting every 12 letters, a 7 character string spells Melek Yeshua meaning "King Jesus."

Ruth 4:12 points out the connection between the Book of Ruth and Genesis 38. The Bible code highlights this. An echo of the 7x11 letter count for Yeshua in Ruth 1 is found in Genesis 38:14, where counting every 7x11th letter from left to right spells the Messiah. In the life of Joseph, Yeshua is coded in the Hebrew in Genesis 37:28, in the phrase "and they sold Joseph", counting from the first yod to the far right every 7X7th letter from right to left. In Genesis 38:11, starting with the second bet, counting every 7X7th letter from left to right spells Boaz. In the same verse, starting with the second to last resh, counting every 7x7 letters from left to right spells Ruth. Nine verses later, in Gen 38:20, starting with the last ayin, counting every 7x7 letters from left to right spells Obed, the son of Boaz and Ruth. Five verses later, in Gen 38:25, starting with the second to last yod, counting every 7x7 letters from left to right spells Jesse, the son of Obed. In the next verse, Gen 38:26, starting with the first dalet, counting every 7x7 letters form left to right spells David, the son of Jesse.

In summary, we find coded, in the very area of scripture which deals with the birth of Pharez, the names of the 4 generations from Boaz to King David, as quoted in the genealogy of Ruth 4:17-22 (which begins, please note, with the birth of Pharez). All the significant names are there: Yeshua, Boaz, Ruth, Obed, Jesse, David. That alone is amazing, but in case you missed it, please notice that all the names are coded in their correct order. Jesus (Yeshua) is both the First and the Last, both the root and the offspring of David, the son of David but also his Lord. Notice that Boaz and Ruth are encoded in close proximity (the very same verse). Notice also that all the names are coded at the same spacing. Notice also that this spacing (49) is based on a multiple of the number 7. We have previously studied the significance of this number and its multiples, particularly as it relates to the Greek of Matt 1 re the genealogy of Christ.

One final thought: the word "thread" is mentioned 7 times in scripture. The most beautiful occurrence of the word is found in Song of Solomon chapter 4. Here the bridegroom describes His bride in verses 1 to 7, and says in verse 3: "Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet". Scarlet is linked in scripture not only with sacrifice, but with beauty and finery (eg. II Sam 1:24, Daniel 5:29, Rev 18:12). However, in conjunction with our earlier observations, I think there is a link here with Hebrews 13:15: "By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving praise to His Name". May this be our prayer. Let us offer unto Jesus, Our Bridegroom, the fruit of our lips, our sacrifice of praise. Then our lips will truly be beautiful and "like a thread of scarlet", as we honour, like Ruth, Our Kinsman- Redeemer, Our Boaz, the Lord Jesus Christ. PC