Ruth…is a woman beloved by all who read her story. Some have found more in her than perhaps they might… But what a story!… Reading it, studying it, never fails to yield something new and enduring, robust and inspiring, sobering and compelling. –EDWARD F. CAMPBELL, JR.
The most important demographic information about Ruth is her ethnicity. She is from Moab, a country adjacent to Israel. Hold on to this nugget as we consider the details of the Old Testament book that bears her name: Ruth is 100% Moabite, 0% Jew.
The story begins in Israel in the thirteenth century B.C. in the small town of Bethlehem. A severe drought plagues the whole region, forcing Elimilech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons—a family 100% Jewish—to seek refuge in Moab. While there, both boys marry Moabite women. The oldest, Mahlon, takes Ruth as his wife. Orpah becomes the bride of Kilion, the youngest.
Shortly thereafter, the bottom falls out of Naomi's life. All three men die in Moab, leaving Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah widows. To add to her woes, Naomi is years past childbearing age and has no male heir to carry on the family name. It is, indeed, a tragedy for her beyond words.
Naomi decides to pick up the pieces of her life back in Bethlehem, where the famine has now passed. She departs Moab with Orpah and Ruth at her side, but a short distance down the road she lovingly encourages them to turn back. Orpah takes her advice, but Ruth remains determined to go with her to Israel. "Your people will be my people," she promises her mother-in-law, "and your God my God."
A few days later the two women receive a warm welcome from the townspeople of Bethlehem. Naomi, however, is in no mood for gaiety. She recounts her misfortune in Moab and asks that her name be changed from Naomi ("pleasant") to Mara ("bitter"). The first chapter ends with this summary verse: "So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning."
Needing food, Ruth receives permission from Naomi to go to some local fields and gather leftover grain from the harvest. She works from dawn to dusk with only a brief rest, so persistent in her duty that even the foreman of the harvesters takes notice. When the owner of the field inquires about her, the foreman compliments her diligence. That landowner, a Jew named Boaz, has compassion on Ruth and gives her preferential treatment. He allows her to pick grain with the servant girls, orders his men to look after her, even offers her refreshment from his water jugs and supper at his table. When asked by Ruth about his kindness toward her, Boaz makes it clear she has earned it. "I've been told," he explains, "all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the Lord repay you for what you have done."
At day's end, Naomi can hardly believe the amount of grain (22 liters plus) that Ruth brings back home. Then delight turns to amazement when she hears that Boaz is Ruth's benefactor. "That man," Naomi tells Ruth, "is our close relative, linked by blood to my deceased husband Elimilech!"
Naomi sees in this good fortune a golden opportunity. She knows under Jewish law that the next-of-kin is obligated to father a male offspring for a childless widow, thereby ensuring continuation of the family line. Although Naomi herself is too old to become pregnant, she sees in Boaz and Ruth the possibility of restoration. With this end in mind, she devises a plan. She instructs Ruth to wash and perfume herself then to boldly lie beside Boaz as he sleeps on the threshing floor. When he awakens, she is to remind him of his obligation to be Naomi's kinsman-redeemer.
Naomi's plan works to perfection. Boaz does agree to assume the kinsman-redeemer role, but only after a relative closer than he to Elimilech declines the offer to fulfill the obligation. He takes Ruth as his wife. She bears him a son and gives Naomi, at long last, a male heir. They name him Obed. Here is where Ruth's ethnicity becomes so important. Obed, this son of Boaz and Ruth, is of mixed blood—50% Jewish and 50% Moabite.
The book of Ruth ends with this verse: "Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David." Yes, that David! The shepherd who becomes king, the ruler of Israel's golden age, is none other than Ruth's great-grandson. This means, of course, that flowing through David's veins is some Moabite blood. Future nationalistic generations would choose to ignore this fact, but Jewish history reveals King David to be part Jew, part Gentile.
Now fast-forward one thousand years to the genealogy of Jesus recorded in the first chapter of Matthew's gospel. Among the list of Jesus' ancestors are "Boaz, the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king." Jesus, Matthew reminds us, is also part Moabite.
Isn't it gloriously ironic that the Great Redeemer was born in the same town in which Boaz played kinsman redeemer to Naomi? And isn't it just as fascinating that the Savior of the whole world is linked by race to every person? Jesus shed on the cross a mixture of Jewish and Gentile blood, thanks to a young Moabite woman and middle-aged Jewish man who chose to restore Naomi's family line.
