By Tim Gustafson
Ruth makes a timely appearance in the canon of Scripture. The book begins, “In the days when the judges ruled...” (Ruth 1:1). The book of Judges, which describes those days, immediately precedes Ruth. Its conclusion is ugly, and gruesome. In a classic case of violence leading to more violence, lawless Israel nearly obliterated its own tribe of Benjamin for an unspeakable act of violence against a Levite’s concubine (Judges 19–20). The question as to why a man from the priestly tribe of Levi even had a concubine is never addressed. These were, after all, dark times.
To keep the tribe from disappearing completely, Israel then slaughtered another of its own towns to steal wives for the now-depleted Benjamites (Judges 21:10–14). Still, there weren’t enough stolen brides to go around. Benjamin’s small remnant kidnapped even more girls for more forced marriages (v. 23). The book ends with a terse summation of the human condition: “Everyone did as they saw fit” (v. 25).
In contrast, Ruth shows Yahweh stepping into this sordid history to care for the embittered refugee widow Naomi. We find the town of Bethlehem behaving lawfully and civilly to provide a wife for Boaz. Though a foreigner, Ruth is accepted into the nation of Israel. She will become an ancestor of David, from whom Messiah will descend.
In chapter one of Ruth, and throughout the entire book, the writer creates a mirror image known as a chiasm. The story begins with Naomi’s family departing Bethlehem for Moab because of a famine (vv. 1–5). The Israelites despised Moabbecause the nation had descended from Lot’s drunken incestuous encounter with his daughter (Genesis 19:30–38). In the Hebrew language, the word Moab literally means “from father.” Yet Moab is where Naomi’s family fled, and this is where her two sons had taken wives. If not outright scandalous, this likely did not gain a stamp of approval from the upstanding citizens of Israel.
Chapter one ends with Naomi returning to Bethlehem without her family “as the barley harvest was beginning” (v. 22). This contrasts with the famine, but it is the detail about returning without her family that comprises the most crucial contrast to the story—especially considering Israel’s history and culture. Childlessness was considered a curse.
Although daughters could be heirs under the Hebraic law, widowed daughters-in-law, like Ruth and Orpah, would not be considered. The land belonging to Naomi’s deceased husband will leave the family after her death. Naomi now has no sons, no legacy, and no hope. She is understandably bitter. “The Lord’s hand has turned against me!” she says (v. 13).
Despite Naomi’s desperate situation, Ruth shows resolute loyalty to her, and, in turn, to Yahweh and his people (v. 16). She, a foreign woman, invokes on herself a divine curse if she fails to stay with Naomi (v. 17). It is a curse Yahweh does not seem inclined to honor. Because of Ruth’s dogged faithfulness, Naomi will not be left desolate. Little does Naomi know that Ruth, the foreign Moabitess, will be how Yahweh brings hope to a hopeless woman, to a wayward nation, and to a lost world.
The complete story forms a chiasm as well. The opening verses bring nothing but death for the males in Naomi’s immediate family, and she returns childless. In the final chapter of Ruth, the women of Bethlehem greet the birth of Ruth’s child by Boaz with these words: “Naomi has a son” (4:16). The next verses list ten generations (vv. 18–22), from Perez to David, the king from whom Messiah will descend. God would say of David, “I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (1 Samuel 7:14). There is no better legacy.
Significantly, Perez is mentioned earlier in chapter four. When Boaz arranges to marry Ruth, the “elders and all the people at the gate” (v. 11) pronounce an unusual blessing: “May your family [including Boaz, Ruth, and Naomi] be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah” (v. 12). Perez and Tamar feature prominently in yet another sordid story in the Bible (see Genesis 38). Jacob’s son Judah had refused to fulfill his lawful obligation to give the widowed Tamar an heir. So Tamar took matters into her own hands by pretending to be a prostitute. Judah fell for it, and the result was twin boys, the first of whom was Perez.
The story of Ruth is prominently featured in the opening verses of the New Testament. In Matthew’s “genealogy of Jesus the Messiah,” we read the name of Perez and his mother Tamar (v. 3), Rahab, the prostitute, who just happens to be the mother of Ruth’s husband Boaz (v. 5)—and Ruth (v. 5). Could there be a more surprising picture of redemption? Of Yahweh’s sovereignty. Of his provision for all of us.
—Tim Gustafson
Source: https://www.andrews.edu/library/car/cardigital/Periodicals/AUSS/1985-1/1985-1-02.pdf
