Book of Ruth -Chapter 1

God’s grace was always there for all humanity!

Often times we think God somehow changed His mind at the coming of Yeshuva. We often hear Pastor’s teaching that the Law was given to the Jews to follow, but Yeshuva came and gave grace to Christians. They will teach that we are no longer under the law, we are under the grace. As if grace was never part of the Old Testament. The New Testament is the New Covenant and is the covenant of Grace and Yeshuva has denied the Jewish people and has replaced them with Gentiles. But, if you do an honest search in the scriptures, you will not find any teaching to support their claim at all. The fact is that God always dealt with humanity with grace. The story found in the Book of Ruth is a perfect example of that fact. The story of Ruth demonstrates that the grace of the LORD is extended to the Gentiles all the time and was always God’s plan right from the get-go. Remember, this was embedded in the very covenant that God gave to Abraham.

Genesis 18:18 After all, Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations on the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using his name.

But there is a choice one has to make. Ruth made a conscious decision to follow the God of Israel. She left her parent’s home, her relatives, her friends, her countrymen and her pagan gods and decided to follow the true God, the God of Israel.  In spite of Naomi’s persuasion, Orpha’s choice did not entice Ruth a bit to turn away from God and go back to where she belonged. Ruth had a lot to lose. She could have gotten married to a person of her own culture, nationality and religion.  Her future would have been much brighter. But she let go of everything to follow Naomi and her God. Like Abraham, she left for a place unknown to her, by faith. This is reminiscent of what Yeshuva said in the Book of Luke:

Luke 14:25-27 Now large crowds were accompanying Jesus, and turning to them he said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

God honoured her decision in a big way, isn’t it? This gentile woman goes on to become the grandmother of the greatest king of Israel, David. Not only that, this gentile woman goes on to have a place in the genealogy of Yeshua, the very Messiah Himself.

So, next time when you think God’s grace was something new that happened only after the advent of Yeshuva, remember the story of Ruth.  And do not forget the promise God gave to Abraham. God always pursued his creation no matter whether you were a Jew or a Gentile.  Better yet, and you must hold this dear to your heart, when you and I step out in faith, and do the unthinkable and will the impossible, God will honour you and your generation to come.

Understanding the Book Ruth is Key to understanding the New Testament!

Yes, that is correct! Understanding the Book Ruth is key to understanding the New Testament. Why did I say that? Because we see how a gentile woman was adapted or grafted to God’s chosen people. This is a fact that the modern church completely ignores or does not want to accept the fact that there is a process in which a gentile believer is grafted to the body of Christ. Oftentimes the modern church tends to consider only the New Testament as the only valid scripture while completely ignoring the Old Testament. Well, I have bad news for you. When Yeshuva or the disciples or the Apostles refer to the word scripture, what are they referring to? When Paul said, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is valuable for teaching the truth, convicting of sin, correcting faults and training in right living;” (2 Timothy 3:16), he was not referring to the New Testament! Because there is no New Testament written during their time. Apostle Paul is solely and completely referring to the Old Testament. Well, this is a discussion for another time. 

Let us go back to the topic of our discussion for the sake of this lesson. It would be a great advantage if we understand the principles followed in the Book Of Ruth before we venture to study the New Testament. Because it contains so many foundational principles about how a gentile is grafted into the commonwealth of Israel. Now, talking about the ‘foundation’, we cannot stress enough how understanding the first five books of the Bible is essential in understanding the Bible, let alone understanding the Book of Ruth. For example in order to understand the dialogue between Naomi and her daughters-in-law you need to understand the concept of Levirate marriage. Another important topic is the concept of Kinsmen redeemers so on and so forth.