About This Product
From the Introduction- Like the Book of Esther, the Book of Ruth is one of the smaller historical Books of the Bible. The two Books are remarkable by being the only ones in the inspired scriptures bearing the names of women. Ruth was a Moabitess and Esther a Jewess; but both exhibited piety and faithfulness to God in an unexpected manner and in unexampled circumstances.
The single reference to Ruth in the New Testament shows the great importance of her brief biography recorded in the Old Testament, for this reference occurs in the genealogy of our Lord given by Matthew (1:5). In the fuller genealogies of 1 Chronicles Ruth's name is not found. It recurs twelve times in her own Book, but nowhere else either in the O.T. or the N.T., save in its solitary mention (Matt. 1:5) along with divinely honored names such as Abraham, David, Solomon, Josiah, and Zerubbabel. God's grace has, therefore, given the Moabite stranger a distinctive place in the line leading up to David the king and onwards to Jesus the Messiah, the King of kings. This fact alone should awaken in us a special interest in the study of the Book of Ruth.
Its Relation to the Book of Judges
The Book of Judges is a history of the children of Israel in the land of Canaan after the death of Joshua, showing their shameful declension from the law of Jehovah. Repeatedly "they had rebelled against the words of God, and had despised the counsel of the Most High" (Psa. 107:11). In chastisement, God allowed their enemies to oppress them, but when they cried to Him in their distress He raised up judges who delivered them from their servitude. Nevertheless, after each deliverance, the people quickly forgot their Deliverer, and relapsed into idolatry, copying the evil worship and wicked ways of the heathen nations around them and among them. It is made evident by this history that the twelve tribes utterly failed to maintain a national testimony to the One living and true God in the face of the gross darkness of idol worship prevailing in Canaan and the surrounding lands (see this solemn indictment in Judg. 2:4-23).
The historical connection of the Book of Ruth with the Book of Judges is marked in its opening sentence, "And it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled" (Ruth 1:1). The earlier Book relates the history of the departure of the twelve tribes from Jehovah and the laws of Sinai as soon as they were settled in the land of promise. The later Book relates the history of a single family leaving the land of promise to take refuge in the idolatrous country of Moab. And because the general theme of the nation's sin and God's punishment of it by famine is carried on from Judges to the Book of Ruth, the latter has been called its appendix.
But while Judges presents the dark picture of Israel's apostasy, Ruth and her story present bright gleams of God's gracious mercy coming for His people. In the very midst of the national disorder God was moving secretly, providentially, for the accomplishment of His promise of that Seed of Abraham Who should bring blessing to all the nations of the earth. Accordingly, while the Book of Ruth opens with the flight of Elimelech from Immanuel's land, it closes with the name of David, the "man after God's own heart.”
Undoubtedly, this little piece of personal history well deserves the separate and distinct place given it in the canon of Holy Scripture. On this point another has written as follows1: "But while there can, to my mind, be no reasonable question that the Book of Ruth fittingly follows the Judges, it is equally plain, I think... that it appropriately forms a Book to itself, and this as the natural and, one may say, necessary prelude to the Book (of Samuel) that follows....
“Besides, the story, itself is of very great importance as preparing the way, not for David only, but for his greater Son. This, however, does not at all link itself with Judges, admirable as it is just where God has given it to us. It is neither a part of Samuel on the one hand, nor of Judges on the other, though morally it is far more of a preface to the former than a supplement to the latter. In short, it is just what God has made it, a most suitable transition scene between the two, but in fact a Book to itself.”
In the Book of Judges, the history of the judges and their rule ends with the death of Samson (chap. 16.), and is resumed in 1 Samuel with the accounts of Eli and of Samuel, the last of the judges (1 Sam. 7:15). In the closing chapters (17-21.) of the Book of Judges, no judge is mentioned. They record two awful instances of the idolatry and the immorality which characterized the Israelites after the death of Joshua, viz.—
(1) The idolatry of Micah (17, 18.);
(2) The gross immorality in Gibeah (19.-21.).
We shall find evidence that these shameful incidents took place before what is recorded in the earlier part of the Book. It seems clear, therefore, that the history of Othniel and his successors was interrupted at this point (chap. 16:31) to introduce two flagrant but typical examples of the degraded religious and moral state of the redeemed nation immediately after the tribes had been established in the land of promise.
What could be done with such an evil and perverse generation? Righteousness demanded their entire destruction, but God remembered His own mercy and His promise to Abraham. And the Book of Ruth follows immediately with its bright and remarkable reassurance of the promised Seed. Darkness and desolation had prevailed when "there was no king in Israel" (17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25), but "the son born to Naomi" (Ruth 4:17) was the progenitor of Jehovah's King, Whom at the appointed time He would anoint "upon Zion, the hill of" His "holiness" (Psa. 2:6). Thus, in Judg. 17-21, we see Israel's sin in lurid detail abounding, but in Ruth, the grace, mercy, and faithfulness of God super-abounding. To men of faith, His promise was confirmed by the striking episode of piety in Bethlehem. There in due time the Christ Himself should be born.
Table of Contents
1. Introductory Note
2. Outline of the Book in Seven Parts
3. A. — Bethlehem Forsaken for Moab (Chapter 1:1-5)
4. B. — Back to Bethlehem (Chapter 1:6-22)
5. C. — Ruth the Stranger in the Fields of Boaz (Chapter 2:1-23)
6. D. — Ruth the Suppliant at the Feet of Boaz (Chapter 3:1-18)
7. E. — Boaz Becomes the Kinsman-Redeemer (Chapter 4:1-12)
8. F. — Joy for Naomi and Fame for Boaz (Chapter 4:13-22)
9. G. — A Typical Outline of Israel's Final Restoration
10. H. — Ruth As a Vessel of Divine Mercy