Bible Survey: Ruth
The theme of Ruth is redemption. With no son left to carry on Elimelech's name, his family's inheritance was left under obligation, a little like a watch sitting in a pawnshop, waiting for someone to pay the price and buy it back. Boaz did exactly that.
The story is set in the days of the judges, and tradition holds that Samuel wrote it, perhaps to show where King David came from, since the book closes with the family line from Boaz down to David.
It begins with a family that did not trust God. There was a famine, so they left Bethlehem for Moab, and there the husband and both sons died. Naomi came home bitter. But Ruth would not leave her: whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God (Ruth 1:16).
Ruth went out to glean, and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz (Ruth 2:3). That was no accident. When we are down in the valley we cannot see very far, yet God sees all of it, and He was leading her the whole time.
Boaz is a picture of the Lord Jesus, and Ruth of a lost sinner who needs a redeemer. The nearer kinsman said, I will redeem it (Ruth 4:4), until he counted the cost. He pictures the flesh, and every religion of good works, which is never willing to pay the price. Boaz would not rest until he have finished the thing this day (Ruth 3:18), and our Redeemer did not leave His work half done either. On the cross He said, It is finished.
Notice how Boaz greeted his reapers: The LORD be with you (Ruth 2:4). Our first impulse toward the people we meet ought to be to bless them, even if that is only handing someone a tract and asking what we can pray about for them.
Next in the series: 1 Samuel.
Taught by Pastor Baxter, from Brother Barker's notes, in Sunday School at Naples Independent Baptist Church, June 7, 2020. Watch the lesson.
