Helps for Teaching Scripture: Ruth

What do we know about Ruth? List ten things you know about Ruth’s story. 

Setting: About 1100 or 1150 BC. 

Read chapter 1.  

•  Ruth is a Moabitess—not a good heritage.  

•  Why did Naomi and husband go there? What was their situation (they had land in Israel)?

• How is this tied to prophecy and Jesus? 

  • Genesis 49:8

  • Micah 5:2

  • I Chronicles 4:4

•  Why were they so poor? Why is Naomi bitter? No man. If Israel had been following the law, this would have been different, but individual and social bad choices hurt them.

• We shouldn’t judge Orpah. She did the reasonable thing to do; Ruth did the faith thing. 

Chapter 2

• Why did Naomi tell Ruth to do that? (lie at Boaz’ feet when sleeping?) Hosea 9:1.  Ruth 3:9. She was asking for him to redeem them. She is humble, not seductive, but it does imply she is willing to marry. Love was not the main thing to marriage in this case. 

• What was Boaz’s role? (not levirate marriage, at least not mainly, Deut. 25:5-10)

• The kinsman-redeemer was a male relative who, according to various passages in the Mosaic Law, had the privilege or responsibility to act on behalf of a relative who was in trouble, danger, or need. The title kinsman-redeemer designated one who delivers or rescues (Genesis 48:16; Exodus 6:6), or who redeems property or person (Leviticus 25:47-55 and Leviticus 27:9-25).

In the book of Ruth, Ruth (who was a Moabite by birth, rather than an Israelite) and her mother-in-law Naomi returned to Bethlehem (the original home of Naomi, her husband, and their two sons, one of whom had been Ruth's husband) from Moab where they had been living. Naomi’s husband and both of her sons had died, leaving the women penniless and without a male protector.

Upon arriving in Bethlehem, Naomi sent Ruth to glean in the fields of Boaz, a wealthy relative of Naomi. Naomi instructed Ruth on how to go about making an appeal to Boaz as their kinsman-redeemer to marry Ruth and raise a family with her (Ruth 3:1-11), in order to assure that the local property that had been owned by Naomi's husband and sons would remain in the family.

In the passage being asked about, Boaz (in response to Ruth's appeal to him) expressed his willingness to take on the role of the kinsman-redeemer. However, there was another local man who was more closely related to Naomi than Boaz was, and Boaz had to seek that man's agreement to give up his own rights as the kinsman-redeemer.

Boaz spoke with the man in question in the presence of witnesses (Ruth 4:1-8), inquiring as to his interest in acquiring the piece of local land that had belonged to Ruth's husband, which would involve marrying Ruth as well in order to assure that the property would remain in Naomi's family. 

However, the man said that he could not take on this role, since it would affect the rights to the inheritance that he planned to pass on to his own two sons. He therefore gave up his rights as the kinsman-redeemer for Naomi and Ruth in the presence of the witnesses, and transferred those rights to Boaz.

Boaz subsequently married Ruth, and they had a son (Obed), who later became the grandfather of King David. As such, they were part of David's family line through which Jesus was later born as the Messiah, as God had promised David, and as had also subsequently been predicted through the prophets of the Old Testament. 

In performing the role of the kinsman-redeemer, Boaz was a forerunner of the role that would later be accomplished by Christ in the New Testament (as noted in the epistle to the Hebrews), since Christ redeemed us from the consequences of sin in a manner that only He -- as both true God and true man, whose humanity makes him our brother (Hebrews 2:11), and whose deity makes him the kinsman-redeemer of all who place their faith in him -- could accomplish.

• Lessons of Ruth:

Even in the darkness of Judges time, there is light, there are people living, there is goodness, God is working. We don’t see it because we have limitations to our experience. God is working all over the world. We should know that because we have missions reports.

“It happened” (or similar translations) is a picture of Providence. We see evil, but there is constant good going on. “Divine providence is the governance of God by which He, with wisdom and love, cares for and directs all things in the universe. The doctrine of divine providence asserts that God is in complete control of all things. He is sovereign over the universe as a whole (Psalm 103:19), the physical world (Matthew 5:45), the affairs of nations (Psalm 66:7), human destiny (Galatians 1:15), human successes and failures (Luke 1:52), and the protection of His people (Psalm 4:8). This doctrine stands in direct opposition to the idea that the universe is governed by chance or fate.” Got questions.org

Ruth, a Moabitess, is like Rahab the harlot; trust brought her into the covenant of Israel and the line of Christ. As such she is type of the bride of Christ.

There is not a sweet moral lesson here that good girls get the rich husband. Not a romantic comedy.

Naomi’s bitterness is turned to joy. She goes from one frame of reference to another. Why?

The Old Testament has many pictures of Jesus!

In the Hebrew Bible, Ruth is after Proverbs: she is a picture of a virtuous woman, and Boaz a wise man.

Jesus redeems us by buying us back and restoring us to the original state we are supposed to be in.