The Book of Ruth is Messianic

Establish the need: To the untrained eye one can think a small book like Ruth that read like personal romance has nothing to do with the Messiah; but is this the case?

Purpose: We will consider three points of how the book of Ruth has Messianic trajectories.

• • It might have seemed that God had forgotten about His Messianic promises during the book of Ruth
  • The genealogy in Ruth 4 continues the Messianic hope
  • God works through unlikely situations

It might have seemed that God had forgotten about His Messianic promises during the book of Ruth

It was during the time of Judges: “Now it came about in the days when the judges governed,” (Ruth 1:1a)

1. Remember what the time of Judges was like: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6)
   1. Remember the Messiah would be a King and yet there was no time of Judges.
   2. People were also disobeying God’s Law.
2. The rest of Judges also testify to how people did things according to their own eyes.

Second half of Ruth 1:1 would also haunt the original audience of how dark the times of the Judges were: “And a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to reside in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons.” (Ruth 1:1b)

1. Today when we hear the town of Bethlehem we automatically think of Jesus’ birth. But when Ruth was written Jesus was not yet born.  What would they have thought about when they hear Bethlehem?
2. They would have thought about the references to Bethlehem in Judges 19:1-2 and the episode of the raped concubine: “Now it came about in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite staying in the remote part of the hill country of Ephraim, who took a concubine for himself from Bethlehem in Judah 2 The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife, Naomi; and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah. So they entered the land of Moab and remained there.”
   1. Notice the passage state Bethlehem twice.
   2. This horrific episode gives us a “headline” news of how lawless the era of the Judges were, and in those dark times it might seem that God is not doing anything to progress forward the hope of the Messiah.

When we evaluate further a potential candidate for the Messianic line (someone from the Tribe of Judah) we further see this happening that offer a potential set back: “Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left with her two sons. 4 And they took for themselves Moabite women as wives; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other, Ruth. And they lived there about ten years.” (Ruth 1:3-4)

1. Notice here Elimelech’s two sons married Moabites.
2. This brings echoes earlier in the book of Numbers Israel’s infidelity with daughters of Moab: “While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to commit infidelity with the daughters of Moab.” (Numbers 25:1)
3. Yet this pattern of the Messianic line being weakened with interrelations with people who were pagans wasn’t the first time this happened; think back to the days of Noah: “Now it came about, when mankind began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.” (Genesis 6:1)= Think about the consequences that brought!
4. It can be depressing to see yet once again to see the pattern of Satan’s attempt to foil the Messianic line.

The genealogy in Ruth 4 continues the Messianic hope

1. The ending of a narrative shows us the goal and control what the story is about.[1]
2. For example: The story of Cinderella is not just about wedding a prince (which is the resolution) but ultimate goal is they lived happily ever after.[2] Likewise the goal of the book of Ruth isn’t marriage but there’s a larger picture indicated by the Genealogy.[3]
3. Let us look more closer at the end of Ruth we see a Genealogy: “Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron, 19 Hezron fathered Ram, and Ram fathered Amminadab, 20 and Amminadab fathered Nahshon, and Nahshon fathered Salmon, 21 and Salmon fathered Boaz, and Boaz fathered Obed, 22 and Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.” (Ruth 4:18-22)
   1. There are ten names mentioned here.[4]
   2. These ten names covered a time of about 650 years from Perez to David.[5]

What Ruth is doing is advancing the plot of the overarching story in the Bible of bringing forth the Messiah.[6]

1. The last prophetic detail of the genealogy of the Messiah was in Genesis 49:8-10 that the Messiah would be from Judah.[7]
2. That means from Exodus through Judges we don’t see any more details of where the Messiah would come from genealogically until 2 Samuel 7:16 with David.[8]
3. Ruth here is functioning to fill in the gap from Perez (son of Judah) in Genesis to David in 2 Samuel 7:16.[9]
4. We later see the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Messiah having the Genealogy found in Ruth 4, when we see Jesus’ genealogy: “Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez fathered Hezron, and Hezron fathered Ram. 4 Ram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, and Nahshon fathered Salmon. 5 Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, and Obed fathered Jesse. 6 Jesse fathered David the king.” (Matthew 1:3-6)

God works through unlikely situations

Ruth was a Moabite women and Moabites typically worship another god name Chemosh.[10]

1. We already saw how Moabite women in the past cause Israel to stray from God.
2. But here see Ruth was not trying to take someone from Israel away from God; rather she professes to her mother in law: “But Ruth said, “Do not plead with me to leave you or to turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you sleep, I will sleep. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.” (Ruth 1:16)

There is no child for Elimelech’s line since he died childless.[11] But the rest of Ruth is the plot by God to bring about a qualified kinsmen redeemer.

God works through underserving people as we see from the genealogy

1. The mother of Perez has sex with her father-in-law
   1. Perez was one of the twin born from the incest of Judah and his daughter in law Tamar.
   2. According to Numbers 26:19-21 the sons of Perez became the dominating clan of the tribe of Judah.[12]
   3. It seems an explanation of why the author began with Perez instead of Judah is to remind us that Ruth isn’t the first foreigner that God used in the lineage of bringing about the Messiah.[13]
   4. Still one won’t forget the event in Genesis 38 of the mother Tamar committing incest.
2. The mother of Boaz was a prostitute. Look at Matthew 1:5 the mention of Rahab.

[1] Charles P. Baylis, “Messianism in Ruth” in The Moody Handbook of Messianic Prophecy (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, 2018), 344.

[2] Charles P. Baylis, “Messianism in Ruth” in The Moody Handbook of Messianic Prophecy (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, 2018), 344.

[3] Charles P. Baylis, “Messianism in Ruth” in The Moody Handbook of Messianic Prophecy (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, 2018), 345.

[4] Brad Brandt and Eric Kress, God in Everday Life: The Book of Ruth for Expositors and Biblical Counselors (The Woodlands, Texas: Kress Christian Publications, 2007), 152.

[5] Brad Brandt and Eric Kress, God in Everday Life: The Book of Ruth for Expositors and Biblical Counselors (The Woodlands, Texas: Kress Christian Publications, 2007), 162.

[6] Charles P. Baylis, “Messianism in Ruth” in The Moody Handbook of Messianic Prophecy (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, 2018), 345.

[7] Charles P. Baylis, “Messianism in Ruth” in The Moody Handbook of Messianic Prophecy (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, 2018), 346.

[8] Charles P. Baylis, “Messianism in Ruth” in The Moody Handbook of Messianic Prophecy (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, 2018), 346.

[9] Charles P. Baylis, “Messianism in Ruth” in The Moody Handbook of Messianic Prophecy (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, 2018), 346.

[10] Charles P. Baylis, “Messianism in Ruth” in The Moody Handbook of Messianic Prophecy (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, 2018), 353.

[11] Charles P. Baylis, “Messianism in Ruth” in The Moody Handbook of Messianic Prophecy (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, 2018), 353.

[12] Brad Brandt and Eric Kress, God in Everday Life: The Book of Ruth for Expositors and Biblical Counselors (The Woodlands, Texas: Kress Christian Publications, 2007), 152.

[13] Brad Brandt and Eric Kress, God in Everday Life: The Book of Ruth for Expositors and Biblical Counselors (The Woodlands, Texas: Kress Christian Publications, 2007), 152.

Advertisement