Lesson One

OVERVIEW

The Story of Ruth

Map of Israel Under the Judges

"In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit."

Judges 17:6; 21:25

The story of Ruth shines like a diamond in the dark years before Israel took Saul as its king. On one level, it is a tale of selfless love in a family, but at bottom it tells what God was doing when most of His people were doing whatever they pleased.

The judges

After Moses died, Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land. They were supposed to kill or enslave all the Canaanites, lest those people seduce Israel into their depraved, pagan ways (see Deuteronomy 7:1-6). But the conquest was incomplete when Joshua died, and the Israelites found it more agreeable to settle down among the Canaanites, trade and intermarry with them, and borrow their morals and religious beliefs.

God had promised Israel victory over the Canaanites if His people remained faithful to Him, but defeat and enslavement if they shared their loyalties with other gods. The book of Judges shows a repeating cycle of apostasy, oppression by foreign peoples, appeals for help, and deliverance by the ever-faithful Lord. What the Israelites saw at the time, however, was an endless series of skirmishes and raids interspersed with months or years of tense peace. The "judges" who arose were men (and one woman) endowed by God with special skills to lead the tribes. They were chiefly empowered to lead in warfare, but God also gifted them with wisdom, discernment, and moral virtue.

When a judge defeated an enemy, there was often peace in his region for a generation. He was respected as one who could decide disputes between people, and he might influence some Israelites to conform their religion and ethics more to God's Law. However, no judge ever governed more than a few of the twelve tribes of Israel. Israel was just a loose league of tribes; the mountains and Canaanite cities that separated them prevented unified action. Hence, while there was peace and godliness briefly in one tribe, parts of another tribe were practicing child sacrifice and ritual prostitution with their pagan neighbors, and another several tribes were at war with foreigners.

Judah, where the book of Ruth is set, seldom appears in the book of Judges. No judge over Judah is named, and no battle for liberation is described. Judges 15:9-13 tells us that in the time of Samson the Philistines dominated Judah and the tribe accepted its foreign rulers. The Judahites "mustered a force, not to support Samson, but to capture him for the Philistines." The Philistines worshiped the gods Dagon ("Grain," a god of the crops) and Baal-Zebul ("Baal the Prince," a god of rain and thunder). However, Bethlehem in the book of Ruth shows no signs of war or Philistine influence; the village is like an island in a sea of violence and immorality.

We can date Ruth's life only approximately. Her great-grandson David became king of Judah in 1011 BC at the age of thirty, so Ruth and Boaz probably married around 1100–1075 BC.

The monarchy

Because Ruth 4:22 names David, we know that the book was written sometime after he became king of Israel. In his lifetime and that of his son Solomon Israel finally defeated the Canaanites and attained the peace and prosperity Moses had promised. After Solomon, most of Israel rejected the royal house of David, but Judah continued to adore him and crown his descendants. When peace and prosperity crumbled, Judah looked back to David's time as a golden age. The book of Ruth was written by someone who revered David, but it could have been anyone who lived after 1000 BC. Because of the book's literary style, most scholars suggest dates between 1000 and 600 BC, while Judah was still ruled by kings from David's line. However, the story itself is probably a tradition passed down in Ruth's and David's family, since the tale so vividly reflects the customs of its setting.

Ruth the Moabitess

The author continually reminds us that Ruth was not an Israelite (see 2:2,6,10,21; 4:5,10). Israel regarded Moab as an inferior people, descended from an incestuous union (see Genesis 19:30-38). The Law stated that "no Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation" (Deuteronomy 23:3) because Ammon and Moab had been hostile toward Israel since the days of Moses. Moab oppressed some of the Israelite tribes for eighteen years toward the beginning of the judges' era (see Judges 3:12-30). When threatened by King Saul, David sent his parents (Ruth's grandson and his wife) to the king of Moab for protection (see 1 Samuel 22:3-4), but when David became king of Israel, he fought and subdued Moab (see 2 Samuel 8:2). For the next several centuries, Moab alternately won and lost its independence from Israel; the two nations were never at peace until Assyria conquered them both (see 2 Kings 1:1; 3:4-27; 13:20; 14:25; Isaiah 15:1-9).

This historical enmity and the express command of Scripture make it astonishing that God chose a Moabitess to be the ancestor of both David and Jesus, that the author of the book of Ruth stressed this fact, and that the Jews revered David's ancestress enough to acknowledge the story as Scripture. In light of Deuteronomy 23:3, why was David allowed to be not only a member of the congregation of Israel but even king? Certainly the Israelites of Ruth's day were casual toward God's Law, but why did God select this family above all others? As you study the book of Ruth, keep these questions in mind.

1. The book of Ruth is a story, crafted with artless genius. It demands to be studied not by dissecting it into bits but by appreciating it as a whole. So, begin by reading it through (it has only four chapters), jotting down any important repeated words and phrases you notice, key ideas and themes, and any questions you have about customs, words, and so on. Don't let taking notes distract you from enjoying the story; take notes after your first reading if necessary.

important repeated words and phrases____ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ key ideas and themes____________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ questions________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________

2. Now skim the story again and write a title for each episode that tells what it is...