“I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.” (Hosea 12:10) As the Bereans did, check the following out for yourself. (Acts 17:11)
For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Rom 15:4)
This article will explore the story of Ruth. The Jews read this story each Pentecost but the prophetic meaning is lost on them. Ruth has huge meaning for the Christian Church. Like the story of Rebecca, the role of the gentile bride of the coming Messiah was always tucked away in the scriptures. Ruth was a reference Peter and Paul would have drawn their theology from.
Prophetic Roles or models or Types. Naomi is a type Israel during the Diaspora. Ruth is a Gentile bride of the Kinsman Redeemer. He is the central Character and is also called the Lord of the Harvest.
Ruth the Moabite joins the tribe of Judah, through an act of kindness, and she becomes the great-grandmother of David, the king of Israel.
Esther and Ruth are the only two books named after women. One is a lowly gentile joining Israel and the other an royal Israelite in a gentile land. There are four women in the linage of Jesus and the royal line of Matthew’s genealogy. Tamar, Rahab mother of Boaz, Ruth and Bathsheba, all of questionable moral status.
In rhetoric Ruth is very important — Boaz and Naomi – the older generation – Speak in the archaic Hebrew. Ruth speaks in a more modern version. The book is a masterpiece of Hebrew literature.
Ruth is positioned between Song of Songs and Lamentations in the Tanakh.
Since Song of Songs is a love song between God and His people, while Lamentations is a lament over the lack of love between His people and their God. The position of Ruth alludes to the connection that connects the lack of love to wholehearted love.
The name Ruth means “friend or pleasant companion.” Ruth is a Love story – The love of Ruth for Naomi and the love of Boaz for Ruth. God models His love and His Redemption of us in this drama. A major theme of the Book of Ruth is that of the kinsman-redeemer. Boaz, a relative of Ruth on her husband’s side, acted upon his duty as outlined in the Mosaic Law to redeem an impoverished relative from his or her circumstances. Lev 25 v79– 49 Boaz can be viewed as a type of Christ in a seven-fold aspect: Lord of the Harvest, The Near Kinsman, The Supplier of Wants, The Redeemer of the Inheritance, The Man Who Gives Rest, The Wealthy Kinsman, and The Bridegroom.
The marriage of Boaz and Ruth was of a type known as a levirate marriage .
Moreover, the Israelites understanding of redemption included both that of people and of land. In Israel land had to stay in the family. The family could mortgage the land to ward off poverty; and the law of required a kinsman to purchase it back into the family. Boaz becomes Ruth and Naomi’s “kinsman-redeemer.”
HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT
In the Hebrew Bible, Ruth is one of the Megilloth (Festival Scrolls) and is read during the feast of Pentecost. In accepting the God of Israel, Ruth foreshadows the gentiles becoming a part of spiritual harvest — the church. The story takes place during the time of judges during the Barley and Wheat harvest.
The book of Ruth is permeated with ancient Israelite customs that seem strange to us: the gleaning of grain by the poor (Ruth 2:2), inheritance laws (Ruth 4:9–10), the removal of sandals in business exchanges (Ruth 4:7). Another custom alluded to in the story is that of levirate marriage (Ruth 1:11–12).
THE LEVERITE MARRIAGE.
If a married man died without any children to carry on his name and inheritance, it was his unmarried brother’s responsibility to marry the widow so that: “The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel” (Deuteronomy 25:6). This is known as a levirate marriage from the Latin word for brother-in-law, levir
Since there is no heir to inherit Elimelech’s land, the Levirate Law is triggered by the redemption in this unusual situation.
Deuteronomy 25 From the idea of the human “go’el” as a redeemer of his kinsmen in their troubles, there are to be found many allusions to God as the Divine Go’el, redeeming His people from their woes (compare Ex. 6:6, 15:13; Ps. 72:2), and of the people themselves becoming the “redeemed” ones of YHVH (Ps. 107:2; Isa. 62:12).
The law of redemption is detailed primarily in Leviticus 25 and covers both the loss of property and the loss of freedom. Adam suffered both these losses when he sinned and from that time forward all of his progeny were held captive to sin by the one who had stolen their kingdom, awaiting the Great Kinsman Redeemer.
(a) Israel is redeemed as a nation out of Egypt (Ex. 6:6; cf. Isa. 63:4). (b) One animal should be redeemed by another (Ex. 13:13). A lost estate could be redeemed by a kinsman (Lev. 25:25). This practice becomes a type of Christ’s redemption.
The concept of redemption and the goel, the man who redeems, are of primary importance in Ruth. One of most important duties of the redeemer was to aid a member of his extended family who had been forced to sell his land due to severe poverty.
Le 25:25 If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold (mortgages or pawned) away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. 26 And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it; 27 let him reckon the years since he sold it and pay back the overpayment to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his property.
It is important to remember that Israelites could never sell the land itself because they did not own it—the LORD was the true owner and the Israelites were His tenants. Lev 25:23 The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
The clans of the various tribes of Israel had received the land from God as a permanent inheritance that was to be passed from fathers to sons. If driven by extreme financial necessity, an Israelite was permitted to temporarily sell his land’s usufruct (the right to use the land and profit from its produce) to someone else.
God instituted the redemption laws out of love for Israel. When through the loss of land or freedom an Israelite became alienated from God’s covenant promises, he could be fully restored through the work of a goel. This reflected the reality that the LORD Himself had acted as divine goel when He redeemed Israel from bondage in Egypt to be His own people (see Exodus 6:6–8). The redemption laws therefore are an Old Testament type of Christ, the goel of the whole world.
THE LAW OF GLEANING
The law of gleaning, the third of the three social laws that are prominently featured in the book of Ruth.
God is all about the widow and the orphan — De 24:17 Thou shall not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge: 17 “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment in pledge; v 18 But thou shall remember that thou were a bondman in Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee thence: therefore I command thee to do this thing.
19 “When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow; that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. The whole law of Torah was to teach Israel to develop the heart of God and His Glory is manifest in His mercy and His love. Over and over He stresses the law was to protect the widow and orphan and the stranger. In showing mercy is how we show off /manifest His Glory.
Ruth Chapter 1 – The famine in Moab
(Judges 21:25) In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Famine is a picture of God’s judgment upon disobedience. (Lev 26 v 17)
(Ruth 1:1) Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine .in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to live in the country (fields) of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons. There he dies and leaves Naomi a widow and his sons marry two Moabite women. (Deut 7v1-4 Lists the nations they were not to marry) After 10 years they are also dead leaving 3 widows.
Naomi hears God has visited His people – Always a positive event (Luke 1 v 68) by providing bread in Bethlehem. Ruth 1 v 7 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the country of Moab. The word “arose” implies new life –and the three widows start to return to Israel. It is the kindness of God that prompts people to “Return or Turn” a phrase associated with Repentance. Ruth 1:8 Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each to her mother’s house. Prophetically God made Israel’s land fertile so the woman – that people who wondered around for 1900 years could come return.
(Ruth 1:8 KJV) And Naomi said unto her two daughters in law, Go, return each to her mother’s house: the LORD deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me. Naomi states that both Ruth and Orpah have dealt kindly with “the dead” and with her.
The word for kindness is Chesed (or Hesed, Heb. חסד) is the Hebrew word for “loving kindness.” It is one of the primary commandments of the OT. Micah 6v8 What doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love (Chesed) mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Ruth 1 v 11 Naomi expresses a petition that the Lord grant them both to find rest in the house of their husband. She emphasizes she can have no more sons for them under the Levirate marriage rules. This was the emphasis and focus of the chiastic chart of chapter one. With no husband Elimelech’s name would die without an heir. This is the problem that the story resolves.
Orpah returned to her country and she is never heard from again while Ruth ignoring Naomi’s 3rd request to return. She clung professing she was giving up all to accept Naomi’s God and her people. A Christian must be willing to take up his cross and lose his life in order to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ruth 1:16 And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither you go, I will go; and where thou live, I will live: your people shall be my people, and your God my God: Ruth has decided to follow the God of the Jews, and in the process, she will love the Jews and remain close to them. The faithful Christian prays for the peace of Jerusalem and for the Jewish people to return to God the Father and to their Messiah, Jesus Christ.
The two travel back to Bethlehem – “House of Bread” and the residents welcome them. Naomi’s And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: the hand of the Lord has been against me. The hand of the Lord against me …is a phrase that implies plague and Mara means “Bitter.”
Their arrival is at the time of the Barley Harvest. This is around the Feast of the First Fruits (Jesus was Resurrected on this day) and the next 50 days will be counting of the Omer up to the Feast of Pentecost. This is a harvest season first of Barley and then of the Wheat harvest.
Ruth Chapter 2 Back in Bethlehem
Chapter 1 started with a famine in the fields of Moab with tragedy while chapter 2 opens back home in Bethlehem with a harvest and the introduction of the hero of this Romance. Ruth 2:1 And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.
Ruth volunteers to goes out to glean (given her younger age) to provide for her mother– in-law. Naomi would have explained the various customs of the land. Prophetic type here would be the gentile bride learns from a Jewish bible and Jewish disciples about the customs of a Jewish Messiah. (Boaz)
Ru 2:3 And she went, and came and took up the heads of grain in the field after the cutters; and by chance she went into that part of the field which was the property of Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. The Plan of God does not allow for “by Chance”
Boaz (Lord of the harvest) comes to inspect the Harvest and speaks to the unnamed overseer. It is always an unnamed servant that introduces the Gentile Bride to the Messiah. Like Eliezer selecting Rebecca in Gen 24. The Chief servant us unnamed. Typology is the Holy Spirit.
John 16 v 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
The Servant—the Holy Spirit—informs the Lord of the harvest — Jesus Christ that this marriageable young woman came out of the (Fields of Moab) — world in repentance with the delightful one (i.e., Naomi or Israel)
The Lord of the Harvest responds – by encouraging her to stay in His field and with His workers and His servants and she can have the water He provides.
Ruth 2:10 Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou should take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?
Ruth 2:11 Boaz answered and said to her, “It has been fully related to me all that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband, and how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth and went to a people that you did not know yesterday or the day before.
Ruth 2:12 The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.
We studied what the Wings were – The Kanaph or borders of the prayer shawl….see Healing Hem Notes.
She left all to seek a new relationship with the people of God and the God of Israel. Here is Boaz acknowledging here Chesed = Acts of Kindness or Mercy. Boaz mentions the deeds in this specific order: 1st, that she supported her mother-in-law; 2nd, That she left her idols and parents and converted to a nation she did not know.
The other Gentile Bride of the Old Testament is Rebecca – and she is also identified by her good works of kindness.
Genesis 24:17 –20 And she said, Take a drink, my lord: and quickly letting down her vessel onto her hand, she gave him a drink. 19 And having done so, she said, I will get water for your camels till they have had enough. Rebecca served Eliezer (a total stranger) — by watering his camels so this Gentile Bride Ruth is marked by her love and service.
Boaz responds with acts of kindness to her.
Ruth acknowledges her station as lower than Boaz servants and is invited to join Boaz for bread and a type of diluted wine (translated vinegar). The significance of the bread and wine symbolism must not be missed.
v 14. Ruth eats the meal with the workers of the harvest and she is satisfied at the hand of the Provider. Boaz commands his workers to allow her to glean among the standing sheaves and to drop barley for her on purpose. At the end she gleaned an ephah of barley or about 60lbs and what she had left over of the meal was enough to satisfy Naomi also. Contrast this with the famine in Moab.
Naomi asked about the rich harvest Ruth brought home and praised God for His rich blessing to them. Note in these interactions with Boaz and Ruth and Naomi and Ruth – the elder speaks first and then Ruth answers. The beauty of the prose is shown as the elders speech is in a very formal style while Ruth answers in a more common form of the language.
Naomi sees the potential in Boaz interest and commands Ruth to stay with his maidens. Ruth obeys and the scripture says she worked the barley harvest by day and lived with Naomi by night. The scripture is careful to maintain Ruth’s virtue because of the history and reputation of the Moabites.
Ruth Chapter 3 the Harvest
At the end of the Barley harvest Naomi knows that Boaz would be winnowing the barley in the threshing floor. A threshing floor is a specially flattened surface made either of rock or beaten earth where a farmer would thresh the grain harvest. The threshing floor was either owned by the entire village or by a single family. It was usually located outside the village in a place exposed to the wind. The concept of winnowing (separating wheat from the chaff) was done at night due to the heat and he needed breeze to blow the chaff away from the heavier wheat.
For the prophetic significance of the Threshing floor see study called “Zion Threshing floor of God.” Throughout the parables Yeshua made references to Harvests and the end time separation of wheat and chaff. John the Baptist announced Yeshua as coming Matthew 3 v12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Naomi suggests that Ruth wait until the end of the harvest and approach Boaz while he is sleeping at the Threshing floor. Ruth 3 v3 — Her preparations to approach Boaz the kinsman redeemer included 1) Washing and 2) anointing with oil and 3) clean raiment. This is the same process the priests went through when Moses consecrated them for Priestly service on the 8th day. Again do not miss the type Ruth plays as a model of the Gentile bride of Messiah.
When Boaz had feasted with the workers and eaten and drank – Recall that Yeshua said He would not drink again until He does so with his servants at that end time feast. Like the coming Bridegroom at the hour of midnight Ruth lays at Boaz feet and she asks Him to cover her with his Wings….or His authority. Note the contrast to Lot who also drank and then he entered an incestuous relationships with his daughter, whose offspring are the people of Moab (Ruth’s kin). Now Boaz chooses a different response and the way of honor and responsibility.
Boaz once commented on her placing her trust in the shelter of the God of Israel and under His wings — now she asks that Boaz also cover her with his wings. See notes Healing Hem.
She asks Boaz to marry her under the terms of the Levirate marriage and with that came the obligation on Boaz to raise up a son to be heir of Elimelech’s and to redeem the family land. Boaz is pleased and compliments her virtue.
Boaz notes there is another relative that is a nearer relative and has first right of refusal and swears that the matter will be resolved that day. He sends a message to her mother in law — Naomi by pouring six measures of barley into Ruth’s veil also called a wimple in Is 3v22 a large outer cloak – not an ordinary veil, and sending her home.
Naomi rightfully understands the 6 measures hint of Friday and the matter must be settled that day before the Sabbath.
We can look at a hidden meaning of yet a greater 6th day as preparation for the greater wedding of a gentile Bride and her kinsman redeemer when mans 6000 years are done. Ruth is told to sit and wait for the matter will be settled that day.
Ruth chapter 4 — A Wedding
Boaz hastens to the city gate. Tradition holds that the judges or elders of the city sat at the Gates. Proverbs 31 v 23 Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land. Lot also sat at the gate of Sodom Gen 19 v 1.
Note it is Boaz now negotiating for Ruth. He ask the neared kinsman in the presence of 10 elders (witnesses) to redeem Naomi’s land. The unknown kinsman agrees to redeem Naomi’s land which Elimelech had sold (mortgaged) before leaving for Moab. Boaz then advises him that not only must he buy the land back for a relative but must marry Ruth to raise up and heir for Naomi and Elimalech. Boaz makes the point by mentioning he is required to marry Ruth a Moabitess.
The Targum states — The redeemer replied: “In that case, I cannot redeem it; because I have a wife, I am not permitted to take another one in addition to her, lest the result be quarrel in my home, and I will be destroying my own possession. You redeem it, since you have no wife; for I am unable to do so.”
This is the way it used to be in Israel concerning buying back property and exchanging goods: In order to make every matter legal, a man would take off his sandal and give it to the other man.
This was the way a contract was publicly approved in Israel. Two schools of thought –one was that the shoe represented his only his authority to walk on that land – another school says the two shoes are unique to a person and the wear pattern identifies the counterparty to the sale.
So Boaz bought back (redeemed) the lands of Elimelech and his sons – Chilion and Mahlon for Naomi and Ruth in Ruth 1v1. With the redemption of dead Elimelech’s land, Boaz is to marry Ruth and raise up an heir to Elimelech. The elders witness the transaction.
Messiah will also one day say “I bought all that belonged to the people of the earth, the land which they had abandoned in their sin and which Adam had pledged in service to Satan”
The people said we are witnesses and then they say a strange blessing on the couple. May your house be like Rachel and Leah – the two wives of Jacob who raised up the 12 tribes. Then the reference to the house of Pharez –meaning “breach.” The plain meaning is Pharez — As honorable and numerous as his family was; whom, though be also was born of a stranger, God so blessed, that his family was one of the five families to which all the tribe of Judah belonged, and the progenitor of the inhabitants of this city.
The prophetic word imply that this marriage will heal the breach. As in the story of Samuels birth and in Rachel’s pregnancy, God grants Ruth conception Gen 30 v 22 The women said that Naomi bore a son and called his named Obed the grandfather of David. The scripture then traces the lineage back to Pharez and the 10 generational curse Deut 23 v 2 is broken with birth of David the 10th in line of the royal family of Judah. Government no longer came by the judges but by the Kings.
As Christians we have to ask ourselves what does this mean to us.
CHRIST AND HIS BRIDE — TYPOLOGIES IN RUTH
“I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.” (Hosea 12:10) As the Boreans did, check the following out for yourself. (Acts 17:11)
For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Rom 15:4)
Boaz as a Type of Christ
Ruth as a type of Church
Part 1
Ruth as a type of Church
Part 2
Naomi as a type of Israel
Orpha as a type of the Unsaved
The nearer Kinsman as a type of the Law
The Gospel according to Ruth
Ruth 1:1 Israel was in a lost condition.
Ruth 2:1 Only a Kinsman Redeemer, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law. The Kinsman Redeemer had great wealth, and in fact, had all in His hand.
Ruth 1:1 Israel exiled until the Bride ready.
Ruth 2:3 The Kinsman Redeemer is Lord of the harvest.
Ruth 2:15 The Kinsman Redeemer is the supplier of wants.
Ruth 3:11 The Kinsman Redeemer was willing to redeem the Church.
Ruth 4:10 The Kinsman Redeemer bought the Church for a price.
Ruth 1:16 The Church chose the God of Israel.
Ruth 2:6 The Church was brought to the Kinsman Redeemer by an unnamed Servant, the Holy Spirit.
Ruth 2:9 The Church received the Holy Spirit at the direction of the Kinsman Redeemer.
Ruth 2:10 The Church, formerly strangers having no hope, was brought near by the Kinsman Redeemer.
Ruth 2:12 The Church sought refuge in the Kinsman Redeemer.
Ruth 2:14 The Church received the Body and Blood of the Kinsman Redeemer.
Ruth 2:20 The Church received knowledge regarding the Kinsman Redeemer from Israel.
Ruth 3:4 The Church does what the Kinsman Redeemer says.
Ruth 3:9 The Church is the slave of the Kinsman Redeemer.
Ruth 2:18 After the Church is full, Israel will be received.
Ruth 2:19 Israel will learn of the Kinsman Redeemer from the Church.
Ruth 4:14 Israel has a Kinsman Redeemer.
Ruth 1:15 If we reject the God of Israel, He also will deny us.
SOME OBSERVATIONS
Boaz gave Ruth rest after she went to work-in His field. Ruth ended up dwelling in the land of Boaz and worshipping Him. When Boaz was at the threshing floor, He did nothing until Ruth asked. (Rev 3:20?) Many Bible scholars argue that the threshing floor represents the Tribulation Period. If so, notice that Ruth was at the feet of Boaz in the threshing floor.
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
You may not see all of the above as types, but perhaps you can see some. Possibly you can see more. But if you can see Christ at the center of this study, the objective has been achieved!
Source: http://servantofmessiah.org/hebraic-biblical-studies/ruth-type-gentile-bride/
