Reviewing Ruth, matriarch of Shavuot
Happy Sabbath! After so much fanfare, I must be honest I am struggling on how to do this in these short blog articles to be emailed and read in a few minutes. Perhaps the best method is just to begin presenting the basic, yet amazing, facts that pull this story together.
The theme of Ruth is a story of covenant love and redemption, and how covenant love can be as painful as it is rewarding. In the case of redemption, is a legal process that helps us understand how we are also redeemed, purchased by contractual property laws going back to the time of Moses and Deuteronomy 23 and 25. In this story of Ruth, Boaz is the redeemer of the original contract belonging to Elimelech, the last legal heir to the land deceased. Without redemption by a male brother or family member, Naomi, his wife, had no legal access to the land. Through Ruth, who was married to a son of Elimelech, Boaz could redeem the property back to Naomi and Elimelech’s descendants.
In that understanding of redemption, is why the word is used to describe our salvation. Adam was the first heir to the entire earth, and forfeited his ownership to lucifer when he compromised his legal rights to it through failure to comply with one very important law, an infraction so horrible and condemning to death of all of Adam’s descendants, and leaving no entitled heir to the earth after being exiled from God. Thousands of years later, we were redeemed by the Lamb without blemish, purchased by His perfection, our legal rights to the earth restored, albeit a much longer process than the redemption of Naomi’s heirs. The story of Ruth and the redemption and restoration of Israel through a legal process by Boaz, is a microcosm of our own redemptive story.
Let’s begin this review of some interesting facts in this story of Ruth, beginning with some name etymology that completes the bigger picture.
Beginning with Elimelech, “God is my king” is the literal translation of the name
Naomi = I am pleasant
Naomi’s sons, Mahlon and Chilion, = “weak and sickly”
Orpah = breaking of the neck
Ruth = scholars disagree, but I am using the Hebrew noun “re’ut” as being the most likely origin for the name Ruth, which is “vision”, specifically a prophetic vision.
Boaz = Strength
Obed = Servant
Jesse = Yah lives, or Yah exists
David = beloved one
God speaks in incalculable ways, but through names is one of the many ways. If you saw video Study #9, you understand this is one of God’s methods of speaking with incalculable wisdom and intelligence. We can already extrapolate something amazing from the key characters of the book of Ruth. Remember that Naomi is a type of Israel and Ruth a type of the church, as previously mentioned. Knowing all of this, see if you can agree with me on this etymological story revealed in the names:
God is my King and I am pleasant (Israel), but my children are weak and sickly (children of Israel going after idolatry) and I will break their neck. But I have prophesied strength (church/Ruth and Boaz) and will redeem my servant (Israel), and Yah will live among His beloved ones.
It was through Ruth, that the time of the Judges of Israel would end, and a king would rise in David. It was also through Ruth that a new king after David would be born, and of whose reign there would be no end! (Luke 1:33)
Soon I will share how the story of Ruth was prophesied in Genesis chapter 38, in code that could only now be deciphered with computer technology. The bible is loaded with information only now being discovered in this information age.
For today, I will leave it here. In the next brief article, I will share some facts about Ruth to dispel some lies that have been promoted by certain circles of pastors that do not understand that the lineage to Yehshua was 100% untainted Israelite genealogy, even though coming out of Moab. We have to know our history to keep the facts straight and not fall for false doctrines!
By the way, thank you for all the great emails and comments about the blog articles and videos. It is very motivating to get this kind of feedback. I hope I can continue not to let you down and keep this going for as long as God will have me to do it! I have such an overwhelming amount of information I want to share, and concerned that I may never get around to it all in these small bites. It is all very important to know if we want to Know God.
(Below) Psalms 22:16 (written over 1000yrs prior to the event by the great grandson of Ruth)
For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.