Finding the Gospel in the Old Testament Book of Ruth

If you scan through the genealogy of Jesus, you’ll find a long list of fathers, but also the names of a few women show up. In Matthew 1:5 we read, “Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth.”  The is the same Ruth whose story is told in the Old Testament. 

But, is the book of Ruth really about Ruth? 

Yes and no. It’s aptly titled, because the story follows a young Moabite woman named Ruth. But it’s really a story about Naomi. It’s also a story about Boaz. But Ruth is the glue which holds the entire narrative together. It is about Ruth. But even more it’s about the gospel. And seeds of this good news will intersect in the life of the main characters of this story.

How do we find the gospel in the Book of Ruth? 

How Do You Find the Gospel in the Old Testament? 

I suppose before understanding how to find the gospel in the OT, it’d be helpful for us to define the gospel. The simplest definition is one given by JI Packer: God saves sinners. If you’d like to put a bit more meat on your gospel presentation, I use two different frameworks with four points each. The first is God—Man—Christ—Response. The second is more of a story: Creation—Fall—Redemption—Glory. 

The first presentation centers upon God’s character and how humanity fails to meet God’s holy standard, as such the judgment of God is upon us. But the good news is that Jesus Christ fixes this by fulfilling what is required through his life, death and resurrection. Our only fitting response, then, is to respond to Him in repentance and faith. When this happens, we are united to Christ and his record becomes our record. 

The second presentation centers upon the overarching story of the Bible. God lovingly created us to love Him and enjoy Him forever. We were made for rest, rule, and relationship. But we made shipwreck of this, and so rather than having the blessings of obedience we are under the curse of disobedience. Rather than having peace (rest), purpose (ruling), and healthy relationship we often experience the opposite. Ultimately, we are alienated from God. But thankfully God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to bear our curse and to fulfill what God intended for humanity. As such we now experience the blessings of Jesus’ obedience in our place. He restores the rest, rule, and relationship we were created to enjoy. Someday everything will be ultimately restored and we will live in a new heaven and a new earth. 

We could write entire books focusing on these various themes of the gospel. But every gospel story follows this basic skeleton. No matter where you find yourself in the Old Testament (or the New Testament) you can find one of these various threads. Every place in Scripture is either telling you something about God, something about our rebellion, something about His rescue, or something about our future restoration. If you can spot this, then you can fill out the rest of the story. 

Where Is the Gospel in Ruth? 

In the opening pages of Ruth, we are introduced to much brokenness. There is a “famine in the land” (Ruth 1:1). Famine is not a word that belonged in the Garden of Eden; Adam and Eve had everything they needed. But that’s not the case for Elimelek, who has to leave the once fertile land of promise to eke out an existence in Moab. 

There is debate as to whether or not Elimelek is sinning by moving. Once can make a compelling argument that this is Elimelek taking matters into his own hands instead of trusting in God’s provision. That very well could be the case, but the main point isn’t to condemn this husband who is trying to provide for his family. The point is in the brokenness. Elimelek will die in Moab, along with his two sons. But not before they both marry and take wives for themselves. 

Naomi’s words in Ruth 1:20-21 paint the picture of her pain, 

“’Don’t call me Naomi,’ she told them. ‘Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.’”

Think of how the bitterness of Naomi would have impacted all of her relationships. Consider how the brokenness which came upon Ruth would have shaped all of her interactions. The author of Ruth wants us to feel the hopelessness of the situation. We are called to sit with this brokenness for a moment, for only then will we be able to taste the sweetness of redemption. 

Perhaps you can identify with Naomi. Or maybe Ruth, where the squalor around you defines your existence. We’ve likely all had our own moments of bitterness. Our own moments of being utterly vulnerable as the women are within this story. And we’ve carried these wounds into our relationship — responding with unnecessary defensiveness or more hostility than the moment called for. We can also respond from the other quarter — becoming a doormat, smothering our own identity in order to fit in or find what we’ve deemed as “love.” Bitterness and brokenness can take many shapes. 

What will grace look like for Ruth? For you? For Ruth her deliverance will seemingly come out of nowhere. Boaz enters the story unexpectedly. He’s not part of Naomi’s plan. She hasn’t factored in the possibility of a kinsman-redeemer. Naomi has resigned herself to this bitterness. She is beyond the point of crying out for rescue. But rescue still comes. And this is what Jesus does. 

Boaz points to Christ. He foreshadows the redemption we find in Christ. Rachel Green Miller makes a wonderful connection between Boaz and the work of Jesus in Mark 5: 

“As a redeemer, he’s a type of Christ. There’s an interesting parallel between Boaz’s interaction with Ruth and Jesus’s healing of the woman in Mark 5. In Ruth 2, Ruth is gleaning in Boaz’s fields. Boaz sees her and speaks kindly to her, ‘Listen carefully, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field; furthermore, do not go on from this one, but stay here with my maids’ (Ruth 2:8). In Mark 5, Jesus says to the woman with the hemorrhaging, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction’ (Mark 5:34). In both passages, the redeemer tenderly calls the unclean woman ‘daughter’ and offers her protection and standing.”

Is this not the gospel story? God created a fertile land, we wreck it, we end up broken, God graciously provides redemption and we respond by enjoying His rescue. And when Jesus begins to transform us, when redemption sets in, it also changes everything around us. It shapes our relationships. Notice in the story of Ruth how this happens. When God purposes to show his favor upon Ruth, it also shapes the people around her. 

Where Do We See the Good News of Jesus in Ruth 1:16-18?

The character of Boaz is a pretty clear type of Christ. But we also see Ruth as a bit of a Christ figure. Her words in Ruth 1:16-18 have been used time and again in marriage ceremonies. And that is certainly fitting, but we can also see here a picture of the gospel of Jesus. Her words are a picture of the way in which Christ rescues us. 

“But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.’ When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.”

It's not entirely strange for both daughters to say at first, “no, we’ll go with you.” That would have been a social obligation. Kind of like when people “fight” over who picks up the check. Naomi frees them from this obligation. She insists that they stay in Moab. Orpah takes her up on this offer — which is perfectly acceptable. But Ruth refuses. 

It is in this refusal that we see a picture of the rescue of Christ. Daniel Block shows us the significance of this refusal when he says, “With radical self-sacrifice she abandons every base of security that any person, let alone a poor widow, in that cultural context would have clung to: her native homeland, her own people, even her own gods.”

She sacrifices her own comfort in order to unite herself with a broken, vulnerable, and bitter woman. This reminds me of the Christ hymn of Philippians 2:6-11. Jesus “made himself nothing” in order to unite with us broken sinners. He has dedicated Himself to our redemption. Yes, Ruth points us to Christ with her actions here. 

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Source

Daniel Isaac Block, Judges, Ruth, vol. 6, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 641.

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Tinnakorn Jorruang