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The
book of Ruth is the tale of a Moabitess widow, leaving everything she knows,
and traveling with her mother-in-law Naomi to an unknown land. While gathering
food for her and Naomi, she happens upon the field of a man named Boaz. Through
the prompting of Naomi, Ruth offers herself as bride for Boaz, so that he might
be her “kinsman redeemer*.” After convincing Ruth’s nearest relative to
renounce his duty to her, Boaz marries Ruth, and they become the great-great
grandparents of King David, from whose bloodline Jesus came. The question is,
why would God allow a gentile woman to become part of the lineage of Jesus?
Throughout Biblical
history, we often see the Lord commanding Israel to set themselves apart from
the pagan nations surrounding them. From the moment when God first prophesied
of the coming Messiah (Genesis 3:15), we see generations of genealogies, and
the anticipation of the “seed” that would crush Satan’s head. This Redeemer is
the only hope for humankind; if Satan can exterminate the seed, he will win.
This is why God was adamant about keeping the Israelites set apart from the world.
Often, when Israelites would intermarry with people who were not Jewish, the
false gods from other spheres of the world would be accepted by the Israelites
as well. Many times in the Bible, we see God order the complete decimation of
pagan people groups (Joshua 6:24-25,
8:24-29, as well as many other times) Why then, after fervently protecting
the Israelite’s purity, would God allow Ruth, a Moabitess, to not only marry an
Israelite, but to become part of the lineage of Jesus?
The
very beginning of the book of Ruth holds what I believe is the key to
understanding why Ruth was allowed to be in Christ’s bloodline. Ruth 1:16-17
says,
“…For
wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge;
Your
people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will
die,
And there will I be buried. The Lord do
so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me.”
In this verse, Ruth is not simply
insinuating that she is willing to serve Naomi’s God, she is claiming that He
will be her God as well. This is
significant. To be willing to leave everything you have ever known, to go to an
unknown land, to an uncertain destiny, and to love, serve and obey a God that
your mother-in-law just claimed has been unkind to her (1:13) is the type of devotion that ravishes God’s heart.
I
believe that when God sees a heart so willing to disavow its former life, goals,
and dreams to pursue His heart, it mesmerizes Him. He not only accepted her
into His family, He grafted her into the very bloodline of His only Son. Only
He could have orchestrated the resplendent love story of Ruth and Boaz. For
Ruth to, by “chance” find Boaz’s field, for Boaz to desire to be her kinsman
redeemer, and for her to have the obedience to her Mother in Law to go to the
threshing floor is proof to me of a God who is moved by our obedience.
So
where does this leave us? As gentiles, we are always grateful that Jesus died
to save all humankind (John 3:16),
but have we ever considered that God placed a gentile woman in the ancestry of
Christ? The truth we ought to take from the story of Ruth is this: God’s love
for us is not based on anything we are. Christ died for us while we were dead
in our sin. He was the ultimate kinsman redeemer. His heart is moved when we
surrender all in obedience to Him. When we abdicate the throne of our heart,
and relinquish the tight hold we have on our dreams, our plans, and our future,
then He grafts us into a family with a far superior future, reigning with Him
for eternity!
“There is
neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
-Galatians
3:28
*If a woman’s husband died without her
having a son to carry on the father’s name, the dead husband’s next-of-kin
(usually a brother) would be the kinsman redeemer. The duties of a kinsman
redeemer are to marry the widow, and when she bore a son, the child was to
carry on the name of the deceased, as well as receive an inheritance. This
practice is described in detail in Deuteronomy 25:5-10. As is witnessed in the
book of Ruth, one could reject the widow’s request.
