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Jesus in the Book of Genesis

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Jesus in the Book of Genesis Greetings, dear reader, in the Richly Redeeming Name of JESUS! Here we look at JESUS IN THE BOOK OF RUTH: RUTH, four chapters: a Bethlehem clan, famine-tried, Left home for Moab; the head, Elimelech, died; Then his two sons (Mahlon, Chilion) passed away - Their wives, from Moab (Orpah, Ruth), were urged to stay At home by the mother, Naomi, 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 Boaz, 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 lot was redeemed - Ruth had A son in Christ's line, Obed, King David'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 Ruth 3:13 & Ruth 4:1-6 (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 Judah & his own daughter-in-law Tamar - Gen 38) and David: 1.Pharez, 2.Hezron, 3.Ram, 4.Amminadab, 5.Nahson, 6.Salmon, 7.Boaz, 8.Obed, 9.Jesse, 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 Samuel 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 book of Ruth. 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 book of Joshua, a scarlet thread played a significant role in the saving of the life of the harlot Rahab. When the Israelites 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 Bible 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 Old Testament. (Cf. Equidistant Letter Sequences in the book of Genesis, 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).
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