The Book of

1

The Book of
RUTH
2
What is the book of Ruth?

• Its a history
• Its a biography
• Its a love story
• Its prophecy
• Its a mystery.
• Its an instruction manual

3

The Book of
RUTH

• Historically

DoctrinallyPersonallyProphetically
4
The History

• Ruth 11 Now it came to pass in the days when
  the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the
  land
• Mat. 15 And Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab and
  Booz begat Obed of Ruth
• Ruth 422 and to Obed was born Jesse, and to
  Jesse, David.

5
The Judges of Israel(Starting about 1355 BC for
350 years)

• Judge Years Oppressor
  Reference
• Othniel 40 Mesopotamia
  37-11
• Ehud 80 Moab
  312-30
• Shamgar unknown Philistines
  331
• Deborah Barak 40 Canaan
  41-531
• Gideon 40 Midian
  61-828
• and more until Samuel, the last Judge.

6

• Judges 2125 In those days there was no king in
  Israel every man did that which was right in his
  own eyes.

7
The cast of characters

• The family moves to Moab
• Elimelech and his wife
• Naomi and their two sons
• Mahlon who married Ruth
• Chilion who married Orpah
• Naomi and Ruth return to Bethlehem
• Boaz
• An unnamed Kinsman Redeemer

8
The Location
9
Which woman was not inthe genealogy of Jesus?

• 1. Mary 6. Rachel
  
• 2. Tamar 7. Sarah
• 3. Bathsheba 8. Rahab
• 4. Leah 9. Eve
• 5. Ruth 10. Rebecca

10
The Story Begins

• Elimelech takes his wife Naomi and their two
  sons, Mahlon and Chilion, to Moab because there
  is a famine in Israel.
• His sons marry two Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah.
• Deu. 233 An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter
  into the congregation of the LORD
• Neh. 131 On that day they read in the book of
  Moses in the audience of the people and therein
  was found written, that the Ammonite and the
  Moabite should not come into the congregation of
  God for ever

11
The Sad Part of the Story

• After 10 years Elimelech and his two sons have
  died.
• Naomi decides to return to Bethlehem.Ruth goes
  with her but Orpah returns to her own people.
• Naomi and Ruth are poor. Elimelech had evidently
  sold their land when they left Bethlehem.

12
Ruth gathered the gleanings in the field of Boaz.
13
The Story Continues

• Naomi encourages Ruth to favor Boaz.
• Boaz falls in love with Ruth and decides to
  redeem Naomis land and marry Ruth.
• But a closer kinsman of Naomi has the first right
  of redemption.
• At the town gate Boaz offers the nearer kinsman
  the first right of redemption.

14
Redemption

• Lev 2523 The land shall not be sold for ever
  for the land is mine for ye are strangers and
  sojourners with me.
• Lev 2524 And in all the land of your possession
  ye shall grant a redemption for the land.
• Lev 2525 If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath
  sold away some of his possession, and if any of
  his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem
  that which his brother sold.

15
The Redeemer Must

• Be a close relative of the one whose land is
  being redeemed.
• Have the wherewithal to redeem. Be able to pay
  the price.
• Be willing to redeem.

16
The Story Ends Happily

• The nearer kinsman says he will redeem Naomi but
  when told he must also redeem Ruth he says he
  cannot.
• The kinsman takes off his shoe signifying to all
  that Boaz has the legal right of redemption.
• Boaz redeems Naomi, marries Ruth and they have a
  son named Obed who is the grandfather of David.
• and they live happily ever after.

17

The Book of
RUTH

• Historically

DoctrinallyPersonallyProphetically
18
Symbolically Prophetically

• Elimelech - my God is king
• Naomi - beautiful, loveable, my delight
• Their two sons
• Mahlon - sickly
• Chilion - pining, wasting away
• The whole house of Israel

19
Do we have the prerogativeto place meanings on
the names?

• Yes!
• In many places the Bible assigns meaning to names
  of people and places.
• The book of Ruth itself does this
• Ruth 120 She said to them, "Do not call me
  Naomi call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt
  very bitterly with me. I went out full, but the
  LORD has brought me back empty.

20
Is Elimelechs family Israel?

• Elimelech - my God is king.
• Exodus 67
• And I will take you to me for a people, and I
  will be to you a God and ye shall know that I am
  the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from
  under the burdens of the Egyptians.

21
Is Elimelechs family Israel?

• Naomi - beautiful, loveable, my delight.
• Numbers 148
• If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us
  into this land, and give it us a land which
  floweth with milk and honey.
• Deuteronomy 1015
• Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to
  love them, and he chose their seed after them,
  even you above all people, as it is this day.

22
Are Elimelechs sons Israel?

• Chilion - pining, wasting away.(the 10 Northern
  Tribes Israel)
• Hosea 14, 6, 9 I will cause to cease the
  kingdom of the house of Israel.
• I will no more have mercy upon the house of
  Israel but I will utterly take them away. for
  ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
  

23
Are Elimelechs sons Israel?

• Mahlon - sickly.(the 2 Southern Tribes Judah)
• Jeremiah 193
• Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah,
  and inhabitants of Jerusalem Thus saith the LORD
  of hosts, the God of Israel Behold, I will bring
  evil upon this place

24
Are Elimelechs sons Israel?

• Mahlon - sickly.(the 2 Southern Tribes Judah)
• Jeremiah 197I will make void the counsel of
  Judah and Jerusalem in this place and I will
  cause them to fall by the sword before their
  enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their
  lives and their carcases will I give to be meat
  for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts
  of the earth.

25
Are Elimelechs sons Israel?

• Mahlon - sickly.(the 2 Southern Tribes Judah)
• Jeremiah 1915Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the
  God of Israel Behold, I will bring upon this
  city and upon all her towns all the evil that I
  have pronounced against it, because they have
  hardened their necks, that they might not hear my
  words.

26
Are Elimelechs sons Israel?

• Mahlon - sickly.(the 2 Southern Tribes Judah)
• Jeremiah 246, 336
• For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and
  I will bring them again to this land and I will
  build them, and not pull them down and I will
  plant them, and not pluck them up.
• Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I
  will cure them, and will reveal unto them the
  abundance of peace and truth.

27
Why did they leave Bethlehem?

• Ruth 11 there was a famine in the land
• Amos 811 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord
  GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a
  famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of
  hearing the words of the LORD
• Judges 2125 In those days there was no king in
  Israel every man did that which was right in his
  own eyes.

28
Chilion married Orpah

• Orpah - stiff-necked or a gazelle.
• (stubborn, quick to react)
• 2Ch 719-20 But if ye turn away, and forsake my
  statutes and my commandments, which I have set
  before you, and shall go and serve other gods,
  and worship them
• Then will I cast out of my sight, and will make
  it to be a proverb and a byword among all
  nations.

29
Who is Orpah?

• Orpah is every person who turns away from the God
  of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
• Verse 115 tells us that Orpah went back to her
  people and her gods.

30
Ruth married Mahlon

• Ruth friend, friendship, satisfied.
• When Naomi decides to return to Israel we read
  some of the most beautiful words in all
  scripture
• Ruth 114 Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but
  Ruth clung to her.

31

• Ruth 116-17 For whither thou goest, I will go
  and where thou lodgest, I will lodge thy people
  shall be my people, and thy God my God Where
  thou diest, will I die, and there will I be
  buried the LORD do so to me, and more also, if
  ought but death part thee and me.

32

• Romans 1117-26
• If some of the branches have been broken off,
  and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been
  grafted in among the others and now share in the
  nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast
  over those branches. If you do, consider this
  You do not support the root, but the root
  supports youDo not be arrogant, but be afraid.
  For if God did not spare the natural branches,
  he will not spare you either. How much more
  readily will these, the natural branches, be
  grafted into their own olive tree!... And so all
  Israel will be saved, as it is written "The
  deliverer will come from Zion He will turn
  godlessness away from Jacob.

33
Have Christians embraced Israelas Ruth embraced
Naomi?

• Do we cling to the decedents of Abraham, Isaac
  and Jacob?
• Do we say to them, Your people will be my
  people, your God will be my God?
• Do we join with them on their return to the land
  of Israel?

34
The Words of Boaz to Ruth

• The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward
  be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under
  whose wings thou art come to trust.
• May you be blessed of the LORD, my daughter. You
  have shown your last kindness (to Naomi) to be
  better than the first
• Can this be said of us?

35
Who is Ruth?

• Lev. 1934 But the stranger that dwelleth with
  you shall be unto you as one born among you, and
  thou shalt love him as thyself for ye were
  strangers in the land of Egypt I am the LORD
  your God.
• At this point in our story Ruth is every person
  that turns to the God of Abraham, Isaac and
  Jacob.
• Later, when Ruth turns to Boaz and Boaz redeems
  both Naomi and Ruth we see in Ruth the Church,
  the congregation of believers.

36
What significance are the 10 years?

• After 10 years Naomi and Ruth return to
  Bethlehem.
• 10 in scripture, what does it signify?
• The 10 Commandments.
• The 10 plagues on Egypt.
• Deminsions of the Most Holy Place was 10x10x10
  cubits.
• 10 Elders sat at the gate as witness for Boaz.
• 10 generations from Adam to Noah.
• 10 days of Awe between Rosh Hashanah and Yum
  Kippur.
• Perfection of Divine Order!

37
The Return of Naomi (Israel)

• Ruth 119 So they both went until they came to
  Bethlehem. And when they had come to Bethlehem,
  all the city was stirred because of them, and the
  women said, "Is this Naomi?"
• The shock and surprise at seeing Israel (Naomi)
  back in the land from which she was removed
  almost 2000 years ago.

38
In Bethlehem at the Barley Harvest

• Ruth 122 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the
  Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which
  returned out of the country of Moab and they
  came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley
  harvest.
• Lev .199 And when ye reap the harvest of your
  land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of
  thy field, neither shalt thou gather the
  gleanings of thy harvest.

39

• Lev. 2310 Speak unto the children of Israel,
  and say unto them, When ye be come into the land
  which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest
  thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the
  firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest
• 1 Cor. 1520 But now Christ has been raised from
  the dead, the first fruits of those who are
  asleep.

40
Boaz

• Boaz strength.
• Ruth 21 And Naomi had a kinsman of her
  husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family
  of Elimelech and his name was Boaz.
• Being poor Ruth gathers the gleanings of the
  harvest in the fields of Boaz.
• In Boaz we shall see a type of Christ. He will be
  the redeemer of both Naomi and Ruth.

41
Ruth dwells with Naomi untilthe end of the
Harvests

• Ruth 223 So she kept fast by the maidens of
  Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and
  of wheat harvest and dwelt with her mother in
  law.
• Mat. 1330 Let both grow together until the
  harvest and in the time of harvest I will say to
  the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares,
  and bind them in bundles to burn them but gather
  the wheat into my barn.

42
Ruth and Boaz

• Boaz notices Ruth and favors her in her work.
• He says to Ruth, It hath fully been showed me,
  all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law
• Ruth returns to Naomi and tells her of Boazs
  kindness.
• Naomi tells Ruth of her kinship to Boaz and Naomi
  prepares her for her future meeting with Boaz.

43
Our Heritage from Israel

• Ruth 33 Wash thyself therefore, and anoint
  thee, and put thy raiment upon thee
• How did Israel (Naomi) prepare Gentiles (Ruth)
  for our relationship with Christ (Boaz)?
• Israel gave us knowledge of the One God,
  Monotheism.
• Israel gave us a moral law, the 10 Commandments.
• Israel gave us the Old New Covenants, the
  Scriptures.
• Israel gave us Gods plan of redemption.
• They gave us The Messiah!

44
The Final Mystery

• Boaz decides to redeem Naomi and marry Ruth.
• But there is an un-named Nearer Kinsman closer to
  Naomi than Boaz.
• At the town gate Boaz offers the first right of
  redemption to this Nearer Kinsman.

45
The Final Mystery

• The Nearer Kinsman says he will redeem Naomi.
• But when told he must also redeem Ruth he says he
  cannot because he must see to his own
  inheritance.
• He takes off his shoe signifying that he turns
  over his first right of redemption to Boaz.

46
Who is the Un-named Nearer Kinsman?

• Clues
• He is not given a name. His name is not written.
• He has the first right of redemption for Naomi.
• He is nearer to Naomi (Israel) than isBoaz
  (Christ).
• He is unable to redeem Ruth (The Gentiles).
• He passes his right of the redemption of Israel
  (Naomi) to Christ (Boaz).

47
The Un-named Nearer Kinsman

• The One whos name is not written.
• The One who passes His authority to Christ.
• The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
• Elohim, Adonai, Jehovah, YHWAH.
• God the Father, the Great I AM!

48
The Mystery is Solved!

• Matthew 2818 And Jesus came and spoke unto them,
  saying, All authority is given unto me in heaven
  and in earth.
• Acts 412 Neither is there salvation in any
  other for there is none other name under heaven
  given among men, whereby we must be saved.
• Romans 1013 For whosoever shall call upon the
  name of the Lord shall be saved.
• Christ has received the right of redemption for
  all, Jew and Gentile, from the Father.

49
Jesus the Redeemer

• Was He able to pay the price?
• Did He have the wherewithal to satisfy the
  redemption?
• Heb. 415 For we have not an high priest which
  cannot be touched with the feeling of our
  infirmities but was in all points tempted like
  as we are, yet without sin.

50
Jesus the Redeemer

• Was He willing to pay the price?
• John 1018 No man taketh it from me, but I lay
  it down of myself. I have power to lay it down,
  and I have power to take it again. This
  commandment have I received of my Father.

51
Jesus the Redeemer

• Was He a Kinsman of Jew and Gentile?
• Mary - a Jew.
• Bathsheba - an adulteress.
• Ruth - a Gentile.
• Rahab - a prostitute.
• Tamar a deceiver.
• Eve - the mother of all living.

52
And what of Mahlon Chilion?

• Zec. 129-10 And it shall come to pass in that
  day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations
  that come against Jerusalem.
• And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon
  the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace
  and of supplications and they shall look upon me
  whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for
  him, as one mourneth for his only son
• Rom. 1126 And so all Israel shall be saved as
  it is written, There shall come out of Zion the
  Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from
  Jacob

53
So, we see that

• The book is
• a history,
• a prophesy,
• a mystery,
• an instruction manual,
• and a love story!

54
A History

• Naomi, Ruth and Boaz were real people.
• The son of Boaz and Ruth was Obed the Grandfather
  of David.
• They are all mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus.

55
A Prophesy

• After leaving the land, Israel did return to
  their land just as Elimelechs family did.
• Through Boaz (Christ) the Gentiles (Ruth) will be
  brought to God.
• Through Boaz (Christ) the Jews will be reconciled
  to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

56
A Mystery

• We discovered the Nearer Kinsman was God the
  Father who passed his right of redemption to
  Jesus.
• That only through Christ, the Messiah, can the
  price of redemption for the entire world be paid
  in full.

57
An Instruction Manual

• Ruth embraced and clung to Naomi.
• As a Christian have I spoken well of the Jews?
• Have I supported Israel in their return to their
  land?

58
An Instruction Manual

• Ruth arrayed herself in fine linen.
• As a Christiana have I put off my dirty
  linen?Have I donned the white robes of
  righteousness?

59
An Instruction Manual

• Ruth laid at the feet of Boaz.
• As a Christian have I placed myself at the feet
  of my Redeemer?

60
A Love Story

• A love story between Ruth and Naomi, between the
  Gentile and the Jew.
• A love story between Ruth Boaz, the Gentile and
  her redeemer.
• And a love story between

61
God Us

• John 316
• For God so loved the world, that he gave his only
  begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
  should not perish, but have everlasting life.