Tucked away in the folds of Israel’s early history is a love story simply entitled “Ruth”. It’s a beautiful cameo but packed with hidden meaning and, like much of the Old Testament narrative, filled with imagery about Jesus.
The story begins with a famine in Israel. After the conquest under Joshua’s leadership, the land was apportioned among the Israelites, according to tribes, clans and families. Each family received a portion of land that remained an inheritance for that family.
However, for a little family in Judah, disaster struck. The famine destroyed their livelihood. They had no option but to relocate to a foreign country for a season leaving their inheritance to lie fallow until they returned.
“In the days when the judges ruled, 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. 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 from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.”
Ruth 1:1-2 NIV
Elimelek took his family to Moab to wait out the famine. During that time, Elimelek died and later, his sons married Moabite women and and also eventually died in Moab, leaving three widows to eke out an existence as best they could.
For ten years they struggled together. Finally, they got a break.
“When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.”
Ruth 1:6 NIV
The three widows left for Israel but, on the way, Naomi tried to persuade her daughters-in-law to return to their homeland. She had no more sons for them to marry and to produce offspring to inherit the land. Orpah finally decided to go back but Ruth stubbornly refused to return home. In a fiery response, she declared…
“Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”
Ruth 1:14-17 NIV
It seems that the two women had formed a bond so strong in their widowhood and suffering that Ruth’s future lay, not in Moab but with Naomi in a new homeland. She made a commitment to Naomi, to Naomi’s people, and to Naomi’s God that would not only change her life forever but would also bring her bloodline into the bloodline of David and, eventually, the human lineage of the Messiah.
To be continued…