Who was Ruth in the Bible?

This book is of great interest, giving, when Israel was nationally very low, a vivid picture of individual piety, as well as of courtesies in which in those days God-fearing men in various conditions in rustic life were not deficient. Ruth was a Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, one of the sons of Elimelech and Naomi, who because of a famine in Israel had gone to sojourn in Moab. On the death of Elimelech and his sons, Naomi the widow returned to Bethlehem, accompanied by Ruth, who clave to her, declaring that Naomi's God should be her God, and Naomi's people should be her people.

In the time of barley harvest Ruth went to glean in the field of Boaz, a near kinsman of Elimelech and a rich man. Boaz observed and was gracious to her. She continued thus during the barley and wheat harvests. On the barley being winnowed, Boaz, after eating and drinking, lay down in a barn; and Ruth, instructed by Naomi, went and lay down at his feet. On his awaking, she declared that he was a near kinsman. He owned to this, but said there was one nearer than himself. On the circumstances being made known to the latter, and on his declining to redeem the inheritance, Boaz redeemed all that had belonged to Elimelech and his two sons, and took Ruth to be his wife. She bare a son named Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David.

The story is so familiar that we do not need to repeat it in this brief introduction. Ruth the Moabitess is the chief character in the story. She who was cursed by the law becomes married to Boaz and as we learn from the ending, Ruth is the great-grandmother of David. Her name appears therefore in the first chapter of the New Testament in the list of ancestors of Him, who is David's son and David's Lord. She is the third Gentile woman in the genealogy of our Lord. The two Canaanitish women, Tamar and Rahab, precede her. The promises made to Abraham that the Gentiles were to receive blessing through his seed are confirmed through the history of these Gentile women among the ancestors of David and our Lord.

Ruth, a stranger seeking shelter by faith under the wings of the God of Israel, is received in grace, and the genealogy of David, king over Israel according to grace, is linked with her. It is the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Himself after the flesh.

The name Ruth may mean "satisfied" or "beauty," either of which seems very appropriate. This is a refreshing book, written during the time of the judges, like a bright, sparkling jewel set in a very dark background. Naomi, who with her husband and sons had left Israel. God's place for them, is eventually in Moab bereaved of her husband and both sons. She is a picture of the nation Israel out of their land, desolate and without hope.

Ruth however, her daughter‑in‑law, is a Gentile, a Moabitess, disqualified as such from entering the congregation of Israel for ten generations. Yet Ruth is a type of the Jews also, in the same degraded place as the Gentiles ‑ not God's people. But in her we see a new, precious, lowly faith awakened in the God of Israel, so that if in Naomi Israel's desolate, hopeless state is seen, in Ruth is seen the fresh faith of the godly remnant of Israel.

By her outspoken and uncompromising decision to accompany Naomi (Ruth 1:16-17), Ruth showed what was working deep down in her heart. She believed that Jehovah was God in Israel, and with her mouth she openly confessed that Naomi's God was her God, thus fulfilling the two conditions of the righteousness of faith, concerning which Paul speaks in Rom. 10:9-10.

On the other hand, God's sovereignty makes use of all things, and the coldness of Naomi becomes the test of the reality of faith in her daughters-in-law. Without exonerating her, the discouragement she offers brings to light the state of heart of the two. There is evident natural affection in both, in fact Orpah shows more than Ruth. The names of these two are suggestive. Orpah, "her neck," or "her back," suggests the turning away which marked her. She kissed Naomi, but returns to the land of Moab. Ruth does not, so far as we read, kiss Naomi, but she clave unto her. Ruth most probably means, "having a shepherd." Her faith here shows that she is one of the sheep, though a Gentile, who is to be brought into the fold.

The days of the judges, to which times the book of Ruth relates, were difficult days, marked by constant failure on the part of God's people. Elimelech and his wife Naomi, discontented with the condition of things in the land, went down to Moab. Discontent and weakness amongst the people of God results from lack of appreciation of God's purpose and of what is centred in Christ; and when these things cease to attract the heart there is always a movement towards the apparent advantage of man's world. The result of every such movement is disappointment, sorrow and death. In such circumstances Ruth shines. She was by birth a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel, but in her affection for Naomi she says, "Thy people shall be my people." There was nothing outwardly attractive in those people, but evidently her heart had been won in some way by Naomi and she "clave unto her." Again the opportunity to return is presented, but "she was steadfastly minded to go with her," and her committal is perhaps more remarkable and more far-reaching than any other. Her name means "friendship," and she is minded to be friendly with the people of God. She is prepared to cast in her whole life with God's people, and to be completely committed to the sphere where God's inheritance was to be found. The words she used are worthy of careful notice, "And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; 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," (Ruth 1:16-17).

Ruth, on the other hand, represents that remnant of the nation, which will hold fast to the promises of God, in a dim and cloudy way at first, without claiming aught as a right, but distinctly in faith laying hold upon God. This is seen in her answer to Naomi. It is not mere nature, but faith in the living God that speaks in her reply: "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: 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 aught but death part me and thee." This was in answer to Naomi's desire, that she should return to her people and her gods. It was thus real faith which made use of the covenant name Jehovah, which expressed itself in Ruth's reply — a faith which had stood the test of having no attraction for nature offered to it.

In a separate book from the history of their inveterate sin, in so persistently going after other gods, the Holy Spirit records the touching history of Ruth. It is another glimpse of domestic life. The story of Micah (as I judge) is that of the general condition of the people, and is given in the same book as the general history. But Elimelech and his family are marked off as distinct from the mass. Yet how feeble his faith! The land of promise had ceased to be such for him. Sin had brought judgment in the shape of famine, and he goes into the country of Moab for bread. But this affords another instance of the overruling wisdom and grace of God, who would have another Gentile (see Tamar and Rahab) brought into the ancestral line of the promised Messiah. The Lord Jesus, even in the Jewish line from Abraham, was connected with the Gentiles who will come in for their part in millennial blessing, when the King of Israel reigns supreme. The genealogy in Luke shows the Lord Jesus made in the likeness of man, but it was marvellous grace to the Gentiles that the Lord, even in His Jewish ancestry, should have a Gentile element. Ruth's personal faith, and desire to be numbered with the people whom God had called and blessed, is refreshing amid the general departure. "Thy people shall be my people, and thy God, my God." (See Ruth 1:16-17.) Orpah kissed Naomi, and left her; but Ruth clave unto her, and she has the distinguished honour of a place in the royal line of David, and of David's King. (Matt. 1.)

Thus the Moabitess was under the condemnation of the law of Jehovah. Nevertheless, though He could not righteously receive her according to His own law, He graciously accepted her according to His own mercy; and according to the riches of His coming glory by Christ Jesus He also gave her an honourable place in the royal archives of the Son of God Who as to the flesh came at the appointed time of the seed of her great-grandson, David (Rom. 1:2-4).