The Book of Ruth by: Ronald L. Dart Hello, folks. Welcome back to the Weekend Bible Study. I’ve had several suggestions for where to go next after having finished Ecclesiastics last week. Suggestions include Ruth, Esther, Joshua, Deuteronomy. My present plans call for doing the Book of Ruth, followed by Deuteronomy, then Joshua—Esther could come later. Deuteronomy is an awfully important book and I have never done the whole book verse by verse. Now, all this is subject to change, of course, as the spirit leads but I thought I’d just share with you where I thought we would be going right now. For now, we have a lot of ground to cover—we’re going to try to do the whole Book of Ruth today. So grab a cup of tea and a muffin, open your notebook and your Bible to the Book of Ruth and let’s read it. One of the first questions the scholars tend to ask is, “Who wrote this book and when was it written?” The Talmud refers to Samuel as the author of Ruth, but scholars, generally speaking, say: No, Samuel died before David became king and the way in which the author writes the genealogy in Ruth, chapter four—right at the end of the Book of Ruth—supposes that this whole lineage is well known to the people who are reading it. It talks about this child that is born and Naomi takes him, lays him in her lap, and cares for him. And the woman living there said, “Naomi has a son”, and they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. This, then, is the family line of Perez. Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nashon, Nashon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz—who is the male lead in this play— and Boaz the father of Obed, who is the father of Jesse, and Jesse is the father of David. Now, what is this book about? Well it’s about David, as a matter of fact, about what leads up to him. I found one curious thing that, kind of, indicates the general era in which this book was written. It is something of an oath and it’s of a unique style. The expression is this: “The LORD do so to me and more also…” if I don’t follow through on what it is that I’m saying or promising or what have you. The expression is found only in Ruth, 2 Samuel, and 1 Kings—that narrow band of time right there. It’s nowhere else in the Bible, which tends to date the writing of this book broadly. That said, we’re talking about the date of writing, not necessarily the date of the events. Ruth 1, verse one: Ruth 1 NIV 1 In the days when the judges ruled, […] Now, you might say, “Once upon a time, a long time ago…”. Ruth 1 NIV 1 […] there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites […] Don’t confuse that with Ephraimites, that’s different. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went to Moab and lived there. Why? Because there was something to eat there. There was grain when there wasn’t any up in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The expression here in Micah chapter five, verse one: Micah 5 KJ2000 1 Now gather yourself in troops, O daughter of troops: he has laid siege against us: they shall strike the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. We’re looking ahead in prophecy. Micah 5 KJ2000 2 But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, [you know, these were Ephrathites] though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Isn’t that fascinating? Bethlehem Ephrathah was going to be the birthplace of the Messiah. And, moreover, he says not merely that is just the Messiah, it’s one whose “goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” which doesn’t sound like David, does it? Ruth 1 NIV 3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah [which I commonly confuse with Oprah] and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died [probably some disease epidemic], and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. 6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them [in other words, the famine in Israel was over], she and her daughters­in­law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters­in­law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah 8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters­in­law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the LORD show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.” Naomi’s response is interesting because it reflects the customs and the values of an era. Ruth 1 NIV 11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD’s hand has turned against me!” Now, you kind of have to realize that, in that day and age, women could not just go out and get themselves jobs as a stenographer somewhere, or a cashier in a restaurant, or anything of the sort. If they’re going to survive, they need a man to take care of them—to earn a living—and then, of course, you’re going to bear children for him and so forth. But: Ruth 1 NIV 14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother­in­law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. 15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister­in­law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” And Ruth’s response in the King James Version has entered into our language—it’s a beautiful passage. Ruth one, verse sixteen. Ruth said: Ruth 1 AKJV 16 And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave you, or to return from following after you: for where you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge: your people shall be my people, and your God my God: 17 Where you die, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part you and me. You know, it’s not uncommon to hear that read at weddings but it’s not between a woman and her man but between a mother and her daughter­in­law. Ruth 1 NIV 19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” Her name—Naomi—by the way, meant “pleasant”. Ruth 1 NIV 20 “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara [bitter], because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” It’s hard to blame her for being depressed—she lost her husband, then her two sons died. Ruth 1 NIV 22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter­in­law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning. So, what time of year was this, do you know? It’s Passover, of course. It was in Passover that the first ripe barley began to be harvested and no one could eat of it—no one could take any part of that crop for any reason—until the firstfruits of it had been presented before the Lord as a wave offering before God —taken in, held up before him, and waved back and forth, giving it to God. So that’s where we are starting in Israel. Take a quick break and we’ll come right back with chapter two. Ruth 2 NIV 1 Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.