Ep. 68. Ruth 1-4 | Ruth
EPISODE 68
RUTH: RUTH 1-4
I remember in the 90s when you could buy Ruth-based wedding bands at James Avery Jewelers. In Hebrew, around the edge of the ring, it would say, in part, "Where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God." So popular was this particular line of Ruth that it became part of the wedding vows in a lot of Christian weddings at the end of the twentieth century. That's probably what the book of Ruth is best known for in my generation. But it really is quite a good book.
Ruth and her sister-in-law Orpah are Moabite women, offspring of the incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters from Genesis 19. Of course, Ruth would not have known anything about that since about 1000 years separate the two stories. Oh, and another interesting thing of no real import: Oprah, the very famous talk show host and businesswoman, was named after Orpah in this story, but people so often mispronounced her name she adopted the current spelling. So there's something to share with people the next time the conversation at dinner comes to a standstill.
Naomi loses her husband and both her sons in a time of famine. Could this be the time of famine we just witnessed in the story of Gideon? Could the reason that Naomi and her family were in Moab is because they were currently the ones ruling and oppressing Israel? Maybe, but I don't think I'd preach it. I'd just sip my iced tea and say, "I have thoughts on the matter." When Naomi returns to Bethlehem, Ruth accompanies her.
I won't recap the entire story here since I think we covered it sufficiently in the video, but let's look at a couple of things. In the genealogy of Jesus, we see that Rahab of Jericho fame married a man named Salmon once she became one of the people of God. They were the parents of a child named Boaz. The book of Ruth implies that Boaz is a significantly older man since he says, "You have not gone after young men, whether rich or poor." Ruth and Boaz are Obed's parents. Obed will father Jesse. Jesse will father eight sons, the youngest of which is David. Let's make some assumptions. Rahab joins the people of God at the beginning of the conquest of Canaan. David begins his reign as king when he is 30 years old in 2 Samuel. That gives us a big stretch of time to cover, but if we assume Rahab didn't marry immediately, and assume Boaz was a very old man when he fathered Obed, and if we presume Obed didn't have Jesse for a while, then David being Jesse's eighth son helps us to cover those many years. It may be hard for us to imagine in our current worldview, but in that the people of the Bible seemed to be fathering children into their twilight years, the time between Rahab and David is easily explained.
At any rate, Ruth is the great-grandmother of King David, and that is pretty cool. Also, "The house of one whose sandal has been pulled off" is a really specific insult.
ADDITIONAL READING: Matthew 1:5; Genesis 19:37; Deuteronomy 25:5-10; Joshua 6
