Ruth 1.1-22 begins a teaching on lovingkindness, betrothal, non-Jewish believers, redemption, harvest and very messianic. It takes place at the time of Shavuot and the first tithe and bikurim (first fruits), which was the time of the giving of the Torah. The kinsman redeemer in this story is called the “Goel” in Hebrew and he must have three things in order to be the goel. First, he must be related by blood to the one redeemed. This is why Yeshua became man, he had to be a blood relative to us. Second, he must be willing to redeem. Third, he must be able to redeem.
This is a clear teaching about the role of Yeshua as Messiah in the second redemption, as does all the Scriptures (Psa 40.7; John 5.39-47; Luke 24.27). We will look at this book closely because it is full of teaching that will help us understand this redemption, and we will look at phrases and words that allude to different concepts. The goal is to have you understand this book in a deeper way and to have you understand the second redemption through Yeshua.
We will have several people and places in this story that will be a picture some eschatological concepts. Elimelech and Naomi will be a picture of Israel. Their two sons will be a picture of the lost children of Israel. Bethlehem (“house of bread”) will be a picture of the Kingdom of God. Boaz is “Lord of the Harvest” and the Goel and a picture of Yeshua. Ruth is a picture of the non-Jewish believers, and Orpah typifies the unbelieving non-Jews. The next of kin, who fails to obtain the inheritance, is a picture of Adam. As we go through this story we will refer to these characters and how they typify eschatological characters.
v 1…Now it came about in the days when the judges governed (there was no king in Israel), that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab (seed of the father) with his wife and his two sons (in the closing days of the Judges; these were dark days in the history of Israel and it was summed up in the last verse of Judges, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” There was a man in Bethlehem meaning “house of bread” symbolizing what the Kahal and and the Kingdom should be) who went to sojourn eastward in Moab meaning “seed of the father”. This alludes to Adam leading mankind away from God or to the east, and Israel going into the nations. He was clearly going in the wrong direction, right into the wilderness).
v 2…The name of the man was Elimelech (“my God is king”) and the name of his wife, Naomi (“pleasantness” and she will be a type of believing Israel), and the name of his two sons were Mahlon (“sick”) and Chilion (“consumption”), Ephrathites of Bethlehem of Judah. Now they entered the land of Moab and remained there (This alludes to the fact that if we move away from God it leads to sickness and consumption and death-1 Cor 11.30).
v 3…Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died and she was left with her two sons.
v 4…And they took for themselves Moabite women as wives (When they were older, they took for themselves Moabite women as wives -Ezra 9.12; Neh 13.23). The name of the one was named Orpah (“her neck” alluding to pride and self-will-Exo 32.9; Acts 7.51) and the name of the other was Ruth (“satisfied”). And they lived there (in Moab) for ten years (the number of divine government and judgment).
v 5…Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died (alluding to judgment imposed), and the woman was bereft of her two children and her husband.
v 6…Then she arose arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the land of Moab (to the land of Judah), for she had heard in the land of Moab that the Lord had visited his people in giving them food (The word “visited” is an allusion to the redemption in Gen 50.24; Exo 3.16, 13.10; Luke 19.44. A spiritual person will see the Lord in things, and a non-spiritual person will see things as an act of nature).
v 7…So she departed from the place where she was (Moab), and her two daughters-in-law with her and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah (like in 1948).
v 8…And Naomi said to 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.
v 9…May the Lord grant that you may find rest (menucha), each in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept (She told Ruth and Orpah to go back to their families. They wept because at the time they both did not want to leave her, but emotions are not to be trusted, especially when dealing with the spiritual).
v 10…And they said to her, “But we will surely return with you to your people (they wanted to continue on with her).”
v 11…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 (she insisted they go back. She was too old to have any more children so there were no husbands in the future for them).
v 12…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 tonight, and also bear sons,
v 13…would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is harder for than for you, for the hand of the Lord has come forth against me.”
v 14…And they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
v 15…Then she said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law (So Orpah decided to go back to Moab, to her people and to her gods. Orpah is a type of the unbelieving non-Jews who turn away from God’s ways, and she forfeits any prospect of an inheritance from Naomi and family. Naomi says that the hand of the Lord has gone forth against her and she typifies a believer who is grieved when they obey the flesh rather than the Spirit, and suffers the consequences. But she did not see that the Lord was working in her life and his hand would go out on her behalf very shortly).
v 16…But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you, for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people will be my people, and your God my God (Ruth knows that Naomi is the last link to her husband and she is determined to go with Naomi. Ruth is a type of the non-Jewish believer who comes to the Torah and the ways of God).
v 17…Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and more, if death parts you and me.” (This is one of the most beautiful statements of faith in the Scriptures. She was willing to forsake all the Moabite gods and embrace the Torah of the God of Israel as it applied to her. For ten years Naomi compromised in the land of Moab, but as soon as she decided to go back to Judah and put her life into the hands of the God of Israel, Ruth decides to go with her. We will never lead anyone to the Lord by compromising about Yeshua as Messiah and the Torah).”
v 18…When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.
v 19…So they both went until they came to Bethlehem (the two of them departed and went on their way to Bethlehem, and we know from Scripture that the Messiah and the Goel will come to Bethlehem in Yeshua in Mic 4.8; 5.1-2). And it came about when they had come to Bethlehem, that the city was stirred because of them, and the women said, “Is this Naomi (Bethlehem was a small village so everyone knew everyone else, and even the ones who left years earlier. She wasn’t going to sugar-coat her absence in front of everyone who knew her).
v 20…And she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi (“pleasantness”); call me Mara (“bitterness”), for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me (She knew that the things that happened to her was not by chance but were a part of God’s sovereign plan for her, but she could not see how it would all end. She was not “bitter” towards the Lord, and she knew that the answer to her problems was not to stay in Moab, but to come back to God, his land and his promises. This also shows the harm in a believer’s life that comes from disobedience).
v 21…I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord haas witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me (She went out full but came back in spiritual poverty. She went to Moab in subjection to her husband, but she suffered due to his disobedience)?”
v 22…So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the land of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest (in the spring and the time of the spring festivals which teach about the first coming of the Messiah).
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