Rut 1:1-2 | KingComments | STEP | The book of Ruth is placed between the book of Judges and the books of 1 Samuel and of 2 Samuel. What is described in 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, follows on the book of Ruth. We may see this in the last word of this book. The last word is the name “David”. He’s the person that the books of Samuel deal with. The book of Ruth is the introduction to these books. It was probably written during the life of David or just after. The book of Ruth gives us the history and ancestry of the king who is a man after God’s heart. Therefore, this king appears in 1 Samuel without genealogy, as it were suddenly ( ). That is different from the first king, Saul. When Saul appears, a genealogy is given ( ). The book of Ruth makes it clear from which family David descents. However, the light is not only on a blessed ancestry that belongs to the tribe of Judah. It is also on someone who as a Moabitess had no share in God’s people and for whom also there was no chance ever to belong to that people. The book may be historically followed by the books of Samuel, but it does not historically follow the book of Judges. According to the first verse of Ruth 1 the book takes place in the time of the book of Judges ( ). Boaz, one of the main characters of this book, is the son of Rahab ( ), whom we know from Joshua 2 ( ). The story of Ruth must therefore be historically placed at the beginning of the period of Judges. The time of Gideon has been thought of, because in that time there is a famine ( ), and this is also mentioned in the first verses of the book of Ruth. The era when the judges lead God’s people is characterized by struggle and decay. We find nothing of that in the book of Ruth. It is the history of the family of an Elimelech, an ordinary, inconspicuous family, as there are so many; a family that lives in simplicity in Bethlehem in Judah. The course of events is generally not determined by such people, unlike rulers and kings – although God, of course, is above everything and ultimately determines history. Regarding this family, we hear nothing about idolatry or other national sins that are so often mentioned in the book of Judges. Although Elimelech’s family is one of many, God puts the spotlight especially on this family because He has a plan for them. He wants to bring His grace to the fore in a special way in this family. When we read the book of Ruth against the background of the time, it is a relief to learn of a family in which God’s grace works in a special way. It is also a refreshment to hear that there was a man like Boaz in those days. The book of Ruth has a beautiful prophetic meaning. This is related to the purpose of the book and that is to introduce David. Then, of course, we must think of the true David, the Lord Jesus. Boaz, the main character of this book, together with Ruth and Naomi, is also a picture of the Lord Jesus. But who is Ruth a picture of? Not of the church, because the way with which Ruth is connected to Boaz is not the way with which the church is connected to Christ. In Ruth we have a picture of the remnant of Israel. When the church is caught up, a remnant will be formed by God in Israel. This will happen through heavy trials, through a great tribulation. This remnant will be attracted by the love of the Lord Jesus. The same we see in the book Song of Songs. However, the remnant as presented in Ruth, the Moabitess, is not connected to the true Boaz through tribulation and trial. Nor is the atonement for guilt – an aspect with which other parts of God’s Word deal – in the foreground. The book of Ruth shows how God forms a seed that can regain possession of His land, from which the people have left. This book is about restoring forfeited and lost blessings. It shows that this restoration does not take place through oppression or through atonement, but as a result of the love between two hearts that are attracted to each other. The question that arises is this: How is it possible that a woman from the nations, and especially from Moab, can be a picture of the remnant of Israel? If we fully realize what the condition of the remnant is, it becomes clear that there can be no picture more excellent of the remnant than Ruth, precisely because she is a Moabitess. The fact that she is a Moabitess is the clearest expression of the fact that the people have completely lost any right to the restoration of their land and possession of the inheritance. Israel has lost everything because it has failed in everything. There cannot be, and will never again will be, fruit of the fig tree – the fig tree is also a picture of Israel after the flesh ( ). If there is a restoration, it is because of the counsels, the promises and the grace of God. From the point of view of responsibility, there can be no right of restoration. Israel has become like a stranger, a people of whom God has said it is “Lo-Ammi” ( ), which means “not My people”. He considers the people as belonging to the nations because of their sins of idolatry and the rejection of the Lord Jesus. If the people, that is, a remnant, come as strangers, in the awareness that they have lost everything through their own fault, they will be accepted as the object of God’s grace. Ruth returns with Naomi from Moab. Naomi is a widow of a Jewish man and may step into the rights of her deceased husband. Ruth does not have such rights. She needs a redeemer to get her rights. It is remarkable that it also says of Ruth that she, with Naomi, returns ( ), even though she literally never left Judah. We therefore see two aspects of Israel in the two women. In Naomi we see the former Israel that as a wife, has been in connection with God. Thus, God says to Jeremiah: “Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, “I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth, the love of your betrothals”” ( ; cf. ). In Ruth we see Israel as the wife of God in the future . Elimelech means ‘my God is King’, a name that indicates Who God is for His people. Naomi means ‘My joy’, a name that indicates what the people are for God. Elimelech and Naomi together represent the original relationship between God and His people. Elimelech dies because the people reject God. This depicts the separation that has come between God and His people. God cannot take His people to Himself. The divorce was completed, the divorce letter was given ( ). With the old Israel, the fig tree, things never get right again ( ). But God accepts a new Israel. The returned Naomi represents the new Israel. In the daughter-in-law Ruth we see the bride of the future with whom the Lord Jesus joins Himself. In order to clear the way for that bond, the bride must be redeemed, i.e. detached from her past. Boaz performs this. In Isaiah 50 there is also spoken of a certificate of divorce ( ), but then as not given, because there it is about a remnant. God has rejected Israel, but has always kept a “remnant according to [God’s] gracious choice” ( ). This remnant belongs originally to the wicked nation, but has been redeemed of it by the true Boaz. Thus, in the chapters that follow Isaiah 50, the Lord Jesus is called the “husband” and the “Redeemer” of Israel ( ). What prophetically applies to Israel has a practical application for us. This application concerns not so much to us as a church, but more as individual believers. This book answers the question of whether a restoration is possible if we have lost everything and have no more rights. As was said, it is not about atonement and forgiveness, but about restoring the enjoyment of what has been lost for those who really do penance and desire to have fellowship with God. The possibility of restoration is there, through grace and the Savior, the Redeemer. However, this is not about a man, a sinner, who finds rest for his conscience ( ). It is about a believer who finds peace for his soul in the confidence that God is with him ( ). We only find peace for our souls if we turn away from everything that separates us from the Lord Jesus, and entrust ourselves to Him. A famine ( ) in the land of which God has said that His people would not lack anything there ( ), must have a certain cause. That cause is that the people have become unfaithful to God. Because of this unfaithfulness God sends a famine. His goal is that His people turn back, repent, and serve Him faithfully again. He would like His people to be happy and that can only be in relationship with Him. The faithful, they are those who remain faithful to Him in the midst of general unfaithfulness, share in the famine. The famine serves as a trial for them to continue to trust in Him, even if the blessing associated with faithfulness is withheld. “The days when the judges governed” Israel, are days when stability in society is far from being achieved. There is no king in Israel and “every man did what was right in his own eyes” ( ). In such an uncertain time of crisis, it is not easy to know what to do. Without asking the LORD for permission, “a man of Bethlehem in Judah” on his own initiative flees his residence, with his wife and both his sons. The goal of his journey is the land of Moab. We do not have to look down on him because he took this arbitrary decision. Abraham and Isaac also tapped wells in another land when hunger came into the land God promised them. Abraham goes to Egypt ( ) and Isaac to the land of the Philistines ( ). Elimelech may not have remembered these histories, and he left as they did. Have we always been warned by examples of believers who have deviated? Elimelech doesn’t intend to stay there all the time, because he wants to sojourn there i.e. to stay there as a stranger. He doesn’t go that far either, only about forty or fifty kilometers. After all, he is not going all the way to Egypt either, but stays close to the land. ‘I can just go back’, he must have thought. But things run differently. The place of which he thinks the grass there is greener, becomes a cemetery. In , the author mentions the names of the members of the family who are moving away. This determines us by the meaning of those names. The name of the LORD, which appears more than ten times in this little book, does not appear in . The LORD is the great Absent One at this departure. The first name is Elimelech. He is responsible for this move. Elimelech does not honor his name. In his name the name of God does occur because his name means ‘my God is King’. He confesses God as King with the meaning of his name, but does not acknowledge Him as King in the practice of his life. Then the name of his wife is called: Naomi. This name means ‘my lovely one’. She must have been a beautiful woman. Everything she will experience will dramatically change that. She later lets herself be called “Mara” because of the bitterness she experienced on her way of life ( ). Mara means ‘bitterness’. The names of his sons are also mentioned and have a meaning. Mahlon means ‘sick’ and Chilion means ‘languishing away’. Is there anything to be learned from this about Elimelech’s spiritual state when the boys are born? Giving a name shows something of the parents’ faith. It seems that Elimelech sees God as Someone Who only gives trouble and sorrow. Seen in that light, it is understandable that he runs away when hunger starts to gnaw. It does not seem that he is part of a large group that, like him, is driven by hunger, and leaves Bethlehem in search of food. There is an indication that he is not yet hungry when he leaves. Naomi says later, when she returns, that she has left “full” ( ). In any case, the run to Moab is not motivated by faith, but by calculation. If all had reasoned like this, there would have been no one left in Bethlehem. Throughout this history, it is clear how much this family has forfeited everything through selfish actions, so that any blessing it still receives, clearly comes as a proof of God’s grace. Just as Elimelech no longer acknowledges the meaning of his name in practice, he no longer acknowledges the meaning of the names Bethlehem and Judah. Bethlehem means ‘bread house’. Judah means ‘praise’. Instead of asking the LORD why He does not give bread, Elimelech goes with his family to Moab. As if he could in this way escape the discipline of God. Because he does not ask the LORD why there is famine, he does not ask the LORD where he can best go. His departure also means that his praise disappears. Moab is the land of his own choice. In this choice he was only guided by the question of where there is bread. He moves to the land of Moab because he thinks he finds there what he misses in Bethlehem. He exchanges the LORD’s discipline for Moab’s bread. Moab is known for its pride and laziness ( ; ). Moab is an enemy of God’s people who has tried to bring a curse upon God’s people ( ). Elimelech seeks refuge with such an enemy. By this he brings shame upon God’s Name. He who does not stand to his confession, disgraces God’s Name. But how do we react to trials, illnesses, difficulties and the like? Do we want to escape from them or do we wonder what lesson the Lord wants us to learn with them? In case of illness, do we resort to a medicine or a doctor rather than to God? We may certainly use a medicine or a doctor, but what is our first action? And when we are financially tight? Do we think first of the Lord or are we looking for ways to solve this problem ourselves? When we come into trials, our first action should be an examination of our own heart. Then we are in God’s light and see what solution He gives. If His blessing is withheld, do we want to get it through our own efforts or do we go to the Lord to ask Him if there is anything that is holding back His blessing? We tend to avoid the difficulties and look for the shortest route to happiness. From a spiritual point of view, we can see in Bethlehem a picture of a local church where the Lord Jesus as the bread of life is central. It can happen sometimes that in a local church the spiritual life is languishing away. Every member of the church is responsible for this because all members together form the church. The blame should not be put too quickly on someone else. Leaving is the easy way out. And if you leave anyway, where do you end up? Not in Egypt, a picture of the world. No, you don’t give up your faith. You end up in Moab. That is not the world, but an area between the world and the church. Moab spiritually represents an area where you can be a Christian in a relaxed way – Moab is a picture of laziness! – without worrying about your responsibilities in the church. Sometimes it is about Jesus, but His authority is optional. He is a good example, but He should not come any closer and be presented as Someone who has all authority over your life. More and more often you only hear about ‘God’. God’ sounds nice and general. Everyone is free to fill in who or what you mean by God. Whoever really knows God as Father loves the Lord Jesus ( ) and honors Him. It is actually impossible to honor God if the Son is not honored: “He that does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him” ( ). In ‘Moab’, it is not the Son Who is the central focus of faith life, but whether you get a good feeling from something. You don’t get that in ‘Bethlehem’ but you get it in ‘Moab’.

‏ Ruth 1:1-2

Introduction

The book of Ruth is placed between the book of Judges and the books of 1 Samuel and of 2 Samuel. What is described in 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, follows on the book of Ruth. We may see this in the last word of this book. The last word is the name “David”. He’s the person that the books of Samuel deal with. The book of Ruth is the introduction to these books. It was probably written during the life of David or just after. The book of Ruth gives us the history and ancestry of the king who is a man after God’s heart. Therefore, this king appears in 1 Samuel without genealogy, as it were suddenly (1Sam 16:11-13). That is different from the first king, Saul. When Saul appears, a genealogy is given (1Sam 9:1-2).

The book of Ruth makes it clear from which family David descents. However, the light is not only on a blessed ancestry that belongs to the tribe of Judah. It is also on someone who as a Moabitess had no share in God’s people and for whom also there was no chance ever to belong to that people.

The book may be historically followed by the books of Samuel, but it does not historically follow the book of Judges. According to the first verse of Ruth 1 the book takes place in the time of the book of Judges (Rth 1:1). Boaz, one of the main characters of this book, is the son of Rahab (Mt 1:5a), whom we know from Joshua 2 (Jos 2:1). The story of Ruth must therefore be historically placed at the beginning of the period of Judges. The time of Gideon has been thought of, because in that time there is a famine (Jdg 6:6 ; 11), and this is also mentioned in the first verses of the book of Ruth.

The era when the judges lead God’s people is characterized by struggle and decay. We find nothing of that in the book of Ruth. It is the history of the family of an Elimelech, an ordinary, inconspicuous family, as there are so many; a family that lives in simplicity in Bethlehem in Judah.

The course of events is generally not determined by such people, unlike rulers and kings – although God, of course, is above everything and ultimately determines history. Regarding this family, we hear nothing about idolatry or other national sins that are so often mentioned in the book of Judges.

Although Elimelech’s family is one of many, God puts the spotlight especially on this family because He has a plan for them. He wants to bring His grace to the fore in a special way in this family. When we read the book of Ruth against the background of the time, it is a relief to learn of a family in which God’s grace works in a special way. It is also a refreshment to hear that there was a man like Boaz in those days.

The book of Ruth has a beautiful prophetic meaning. This is related to the purpose of the book and that is to introduce David. Then, of course, we must think of the true David, the Lord Jesus. Boaz, the main character of this book, together with Ruth and Naomi, is also a picture of the Lord Jesus. But who is Ruth a picture of? Not of the church, because the way with which Ruth is connected to Boaz is not the way with which the church is connected to Christ. In Ruth we have a picture of the remnant of Israel.

When the church is caught up, a remnant will be formed by God in Israel. This will happen through heavy trials, through a great tribulation. This remnant will be attracted by the love of the Lord Jesus. The same we see in the book Song of Songs.

However, the remnant as presented in Ruth, the Moabitess, is not connected to the true Boaz through tribulation and trial. Nor is the atonement for guilt – an aspect with which other parts of God’s Word deal – in the foreground. The book of Ruth shows how God forms a seed that can regain possession of His land, from which the people have left. This book is about restoring forfeited and lost blessings. It shows that this restoration does not take place through oppression or through atonement, but as a result of the love between two hearts that are attracted to each other.

The question that arises is this: How is it possible that a woman from the nations, and especially from Moab, can be a picture of the remnant of Israel? If we fully realize what the condition of the remnant is, it becomes clear that there can be no picture more excellent of the remnant than Ruth, precisely because she is a Moabitess. The fact that she is a Moabitess is the clearest expression of the fact that the people have completely lost any right to the restoration of their land and possession of the inheritance. Israel has lost everything because it has failed in everything. There cannot be, and will never again will be, fruit of the fig tree – the fig tree is also a picture of Israel after the flesh (Mk 11:13-14).

If there is a restoration, it is because of the counsels, the promises and the grace of God. From the point of view of responsibility, there can be no right of restoration. Israel has become like a stranger, a people of whom God has said it is “Lo-Ammi” (Hos 1:9), which means “not My people”. He considers the people as belonging to the nations because of their sins of idolatry and the rejection of the Lord Jesus. If the people, that is, a remnant, come as strangers, in the awareness that they have lost everything through their own fault, they will be accepted as the object of God’s grace.

Ruth returns with Naomi from Moab. Naomi is a widow of a Jewish man and may step into the rights of her deceased husband. Ruth does not have such rights. She needs a redeemer to get her rights. It is remarkable that it also says of Ruth that she, with Naomi, returns (Rth 1:22), even though she literally never left Judah.

We therefore see two aspects of Israel in the two women. In Naomi we see the former Israel that as a wife, has been in connection with God. Thus, God says to Jeremiah: “Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, “I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth, the love of your betrothals”” (Jer 2:2a; cf. Eze 16:8). In Ruth we see Israel as the wife of God in the future.

Elimelech means ‘my God is King’, a name that indicates Who God is for His people. Naomi means ‘My joy’, a name that indicates what the people are for God. Elimelech and Naomi together represent the original relationship between God and His people.

Elimelech dies because the people reject God. This depicts the separation that has come between God and His people. God cannot take His people to Himself. The divorce was completed, the divorce letter was given (Jer 3:8). With the old Israel, the fig tree, things never get right again (Mt 21:19). But God accepts a new Israel. The returned Naomi represents the new Israel. In the daughter-in-law Ruth we see the bride of the future with whom the Lord Jesus joins Himself.

In order to clear the way for that bond, the bride must be redeemed, i.e. detached from her past. Boaz performs this. In Isaiah 50 there is also spoken of a certificate of divorce (Isa 50:1), but then as not given, because there it is about a remnant. God has rejected Israel, but has always kept a “remnant according to [God’s] gracious choice” (Rom 11:5). This remnant belongs originally to the wicked nation, but has been redeemed of it by the true Boaz. Thus, in the chapters that follow Isaiah 50, the Lord Jesus is called the “husband” and the “Redeemer” of Israel (Isa 54:5).

What prophetically applies to Israel has a practical application for us. This application concerns not so much to us as a church, but more as individual believers. This book answers the question of whether a restoration is possible if we have lost everything and have no more rights. As was said, it is not about atonement and forgiveness, but about restoring the enjoyment of what has been lost for those who really do penance and desire to have fellowship with God. The possibility of restoration is there, through grace and the Savior, the Redeemer.

However, this is not about a man, a sinner, who finds rest for his conscience (Mt 11:28). It is about a believer who finds peace for his soul in the confidence that God is with him (Mt 11:29). We only find peace for our souls if we turn away from everything that separates us from the Lord Jesus, and entrust ourselves to Him.

Famine in Bethlehem

A famine (Rth 1:1) in the land of which God has said that His people would not lack anything there (Deu 8:9a), must have a certain cause. That cause is that the people have become unfaithful to God. Because of this unfaithfulness God sends a famine. His goal is that His people turn back, repent, and serve Him faithfully again. He would like His people to be happy and that can only be in relationship with Him. The faithful, they are those who remain faithful to Him in the midst of general unfaithfulness, share in the famine. The famine serves as a trial for them to continue to trust in Him, even if the blessing associated with faithfulness is withheld.

“The days when the judges governed” Israel, are days when stability in society is far from being achieved. There is no king in Israel and “every man did what was right in his own eyes” (Jdg 17:6 ; Jdg 18:1 ; Jdg 19:1 ; Jdg 21:25). In such an uncertain time of crisis, it is not easy to know what to do. Without asking the LORD for permission, “a man of Bethlehem in Judah” on his own initiative flees his residence, with his wife and both his sons. The goal of his journey is the land of Moab.

We do not have to look down on him because he took this arbitrary decision. Abraham and Isaac also tapped wells in another land when hunger came into the land God promised them. Abraham goes to Egypt (Gen 12:10) and Isaac to the land of the Philistines (Gen 26:1). Elimelech may not have remembered these histories, and he left as they did. Have we always been warned by examples of believers who have deviated?

Elimelech doesn’t intend to stay there all the time, because he wants to sojourn there i.e. to stay there as a stranger. He doesn’t go that far either, only about forty or fifty kilometers. After all, he is not going all the way to Egypt either, but stays close to the land. ‘I can just go back’, he must have thought. But things run differently. The place of which he thinks the grass there is greener, becomes a cemetery.

In Rth 1:2, the author mentions the names of the members of the family who are moving away. This determines us by the meaning of those names. The name of the LORD, which appears more than ten times in this little book, does not appear in Rth 1:1-5. The LORD is the great Absent One at this departure. The first name is Elimelech. He is responsible for this move. Elimelech does not honor his name. In his name the name of God does occur because his name means ‘my God is King’. He confesses God as King with the meaning of his name, but does not acknowledge Him as King in the practice of his life.

Then the name of his wife is called: Naomi. This name means ‘my lovely one’. She must have been a beautiful woman. Everything she will experience will dramatically change that. She later lets herself be called “Mara” because of the bitterness she experienced on her way of life (Rth 1:20). Mara means ‘bitterness’.

The names of his sons are also mentioned and have a meaning. Mahlon means ‘sick’ and Chilion means ‘languishing away’. Is there anything to be learned from this about Elimelech’s spiritual state when the boys are born? Giving a name shows something of the parents’ faith. It seems that Elimelech sees God as Someone Who only gives trouble and sorrow. Seen in that light, it is understandable that he runs away when hunger starts to gnaw.

It does not seem that he is part of a large group that, like him, is driven by hunger, and leaves Bethlehem in search of food. There is an indication that he is not yet hungry when he leaves. Naomi says later, when she returns, that she has left “full” (Rth 1:21). In any case, the run to Moab is not motivated by faith, but by calculation. If all had reasoned like this, there would have been no one left in Bethlehem. Throughout this history, it is clear how much this family has forfeited everything through selfish actions, so that any blessing it still receives, clearly comes as a proof of God’s grace.

Just as Elimelech no longer acknowledges the meaning of his name in practice, he no longer acknowledges the meaning of the names Bethlehem and Judah. Bethlehem means ‘bread house’. Judah means ‘praise’. Instead of asking the LORD why He does not give bread, Elimelech goes with his family to Moab. As if he could in this way escape the discipline of God. Because he does not ask the LORD why there is famine, he does not ask the LORD where he can best go. His departure also means that his praise disappears.

Moab is the land of his own choice. In this choice he was only guided by the question of where there is bread. He moves to the land of Moab because he thinks he finds there what he misses in Bethlehem. He exchanges the LORD’s discipline for Moab’s bread.

Moab is known for its pride and laziness (Isa 16:6; Jer 48:11). Moab is an enemy of God’s people who has tried to bring a curse upon God’s people (Num 22:1-7). Elimelech seeks refuge with such an enemy. By this he brings shame upon God’s Name. He who does not stand to his confession, disgraces God’s Name.

But how do we react to trials, illnesses, difficulties and the like? Do we want to escape from them or do we wonder what lesson the Lord wants us to learn with them? In case of illness, do we resort to a medicine or a doctor rather than to God? We may certainly use a medicine or a doctor, but what is our first action? And when we are financially tight? Do we think first of the Lord or are we looking for ways to solve this problem ourselves?

When we come into trials, our first action should be an examination of our own heart. Then we are in God’s light and see what solution He gives. If His blessing is withheld, do we want to get it through our own efforts or do we go to the Lord to ask Him if there is anything that is holding back His blessing? We tend to avoid the difficulties and look for the shortest route to happiness.

From a spiritual point of view, we can see in Bethlehem a picture of a local church where the Lord Jesus as the bread of life is central. It can happen sometimes that in a local church the spiritual life is languishing away. Every member of the church is responsible for this because all members together form the church. The blame should not be put too quickly on someone else. Leaving is the easy way out. And if you leave anyway, where do you end up? Not in Egypt, a picture of the world. No, you don’t give up your faith. You end up in Moab. That is not the world, but an area between the world and the church.

Moab spiritually represents an area where you can be a Christian in a relaxed way – Moab is a picture of laziness! – without worrying about your responsibilities in the church. Sometimes it is about Jesus, but His authority is optional. He is a good example, but He should not come any closer and be presented as Someone who has all authority over your life. More and more often you only hear about ‘God’. God’ sounds nice and general. Everyone is free to fill in who or what you mean by God.

Whoever really knows God as Father loves the Lord Jesus (Jn 8:42a) and honors Him. It is actually impossible to honor God if the Son is not honored: “He that does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him” (Jn 5:23b). In ‘Moab’, it is not the Son Who is the central focus of faith life, but whether you get a good feeling from something. You don’t get that in ‘Bethlehem’ but you get it in ‘Moab’.