"The Book of Ruth"

by James Jacob Prasch

The book of Ruth tells the story of a rich powerful Jewish man who takes a Gentile Bride and exalts her, the way that Jesus, on the day of Pentecost, raised up the Gentile church, as the Bride of Christ.

  1. Introduction
  2. Ruth's Loyalty
  3. Ruth Gleans in the Fields of Boaz
  4. Boaz Will Redeem Ruth
  5. The Marriage of Ruth
  6. The Line of David Began Here
  7. Why Us?
  8. Something Special
  9. Orpah
  10. Ruth
  11. Levirate Marriage
  12. Imortance of Genealogy
  13. Gleaning
  14. I Will Bless Them That Bless Thee
  15. Sacrificing Babies to Demons
  16. Learning from Israel's Mistakes
  17. Second-Class Christians
  18. A Woman of Excellence
  19. The Key to Their Redemption
  20. Take the Grain to My People
  21. Redeemer and Restorer
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Introduction

The book of Ruth is read in the Jewish Synagogue at the feast of Pentecost, which is the first day, as it were, of the Gentile church. The book of Ruth tells the story of a rich, powerful Jewish man who takes a Gentile bride and exalts her, the way that Jesus, on the day of Pentecost, raised up the Gentile church, as the Bride of Christ.

Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem…

…meaning “the house of bread”…

…in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech…

…which means “my God is King”…

and the name of his wife Naomi; and the names of his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah. And they entered the land of Moab and remained there. Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died; and she was left with her two sons. They took for themselves Moabite women as wives.

(The Moabites were particularly despised by the Jews because of the maltreatment of them during the Exodus period.)

…the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. And they lived there about ten years. Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died; and the woman was bereft of her two children and her husband.

Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the land of Moab, for she had heard in the land of Moab that the Lord had visited His people in giving them food. So she departed from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, "Go, return each of you to her mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. May the Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband." Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, "No, but we will surely return with you to your people." But Naomi said, "Return, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? "Return, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, if I should even have a husband to-night and also bear sons, would you there-fore wait until they were grown? Would you refrain from marrying? No, my daughters; for it is harder for me than for you, for the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me."

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Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.