Introduction

STUDY 1: INTRODUCTION

This study looks at the setting in which the story of Ruth occurred.

A. MOAB

The story begins with an Israelite family from Bethlehem (= Ephrath) moving to Moab because there was a famine in Israel.

About Moab, the Bible reports:

[1] The Moabites were the descendants Moab, the son born from the deliberate incest between Lot’s oldest daughter and her drunk father, Lot, after their escape from Sodom and Gomorrah – Genesis 19:30 – 37.

[2] The king of Moab had refused Israel permission to travel through Moab on their way to the promised land – referenced in Judges 11:14 – 18.

[3] On their way to the promised land, Israel defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, and settled in his land. This land was territory in Moab that Sihon had taken when he defeated a former king of Moab – Numbers 21:23 – 31. This meant that Israelites were then occupying part of Moab.

[4] Moab, seeing all the Israelites in the land, was terrified; Balak, the king of Moab, wanted Balaam to curse Israel, but he blessed them instead – Numbers 22:1 – 24:25.

[5] Moab seduced Israel, both into sexual immorality and idolatry – Numbers 25.

[6] Moabites, and any descendant of the Moabites, were forbidden to enter the assembly of the LORD – Deuteronomy 23:2 – 6.

[7] When the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, he gave them into the power of Eglon, king of Moab; they were subject to him for eighteen years. When the Israelites cried out to the LORD, he raised up Ehud to deliver them; Moab became subject to Israel; there was peace for eighty years – Judges 3:12 – 30.

[8] Amos 2:1 – 3 contains a later prophecy against Moab.

[Note: Isaiah 15 & 16 also contain a prophecy against Moab. But tucked away in 16:4b & 5 is a beautiful picture of Jesus Christ, descendant of Ruth and Boaz, and Saviour/King even of Moab.]

B. THE HISTORICAL SETTING

This story is set in the time of the judges – Ruth 1:1. This era was a long and dark period in the history of Israel, recorded in the book of Judges.
Joshua had led the Israelites in their victorious initial occupation of the land of Canaan, which God had promised to Abraham and his descendants over 400 years earlier. There was, however, still a large amount of territory not yet occupied by the Israelites. After Joshua’s death the Israelites (1) disobeyed God by failing to drive out the inhabitants of the land, and (2) repeatedly stopped worshipping the living God and obeying his laws, incurring God’s judgements, usually in the form of attack and oppression by one or other of the surrounding countries. Before his death, Joshua had warned them against idolatry; their response to his warning exposed an ignorance of their own weakness and double-mindedness.

What do you learn from these verses?
Genesis 15:12 – 16

Joshua 23:14 – 16

Joshua 24:8 – 13

Joshua 24:14 – 18

Joshua 24:19 – 27

Judges 2:1 – 4

Judges 2:6 – 13

Judges 2:14, 15

Judges 2:16 – 19

Judges 2:20 – 23

The rest of the book of Judges repeats over and over the sad story of Israel’s lack of faith: ‘the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD ... the anger of the LORD burned against them ... they cried out to the LORD ... he raised up a deliverer ... again they did evil in the eyes of the LORD ... God gave them over ...’

This is the historical setting of the book of Ruth.

C. THE FAMINE

The book of Ruth does not tell us exactly when Elimelech and Naomi moved to Moab. Two suggestions are:

[1] That it was during the eighty years of peace between Israel and Moab Judges 3:12 – 30;.

[2] That it was during the seven years during which the Midianites overran the Israelites, destroying their crops and their livestock – Judges 6:1 – 6.

D. RELIGIOUS/CULTURAL SETTING

As indicated in Section B above, the period of the Judges was a period of religious failure on the part of Israel – failure to worship God, failure to obey his commands against idolatry, and failure to obey his commands against marriage with the people of the land.

It is difficult to put ourselves into the situation described in Ruth, but here are a few questions aimed at helping you to understand how they may have thought and felt in the situation in which they lived:

D.1 About their knowledge of God:
Elimelech and Naomi did not have the written word of God in their hands as we do. The Ten Commandments were stored in the Ark of the Covenant, which was, at least for some of the time, at Mizpah (Judges 20:27). The five books of Moses, and most likely Joshua, were also in written form; but none of that was accessible to the ordinary person. For an Israelite to hear the word of God they had to meet together as a nation, and be addressed by their leader. Almost the entire book of Deuteronomy is a report of such a nation-wide meeting. See Deuteronomy 1:1ff; 5:1ff; 27:1ff, 9ff; 31:1ff; 31:30ff). This book of Deuteronomy was to be read to the whole nation every seven years (Deuteronomy 31:10 – 13). Whether or not this actually happened the Bible does not tell us.

They had heard, perhaps, the stories of God’s amazing, miraculous deeds in their history, to previous generations. But Judges 2:10 tells us, ‘After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.’

This means a foundational failure had occurred: the generation who had witnessed God’s mighty deeds through Joshua had failed to obey the command that each generation pass on the knowledge of God to the next.

What do these verses say about this responsibility?
Exodus 12:24 – 27

Deuteronomy 11:18, 19

Deuteronomy 32:45 – 47

Questions:
How important is the Bible to you?

How would your faith cope without access to the Bible?

How much would you remember of what you heard only once every seven years?

Without the Bible, how would you be to discern between truth and error, right and wrong?

What are you doing about passing on God’s truth to your children – to the next generation?

D.2 About teachers and preachers:
God had set aside the whole tribe of Levi (the Levites) to serve in the Tabernacle. The priests of Israel, descendants of Aaron, were from the tribe of Levi. The priests were to preside at the Tabernacle as mediators between the people and God, offering sacrifices and prayers on behalf of the people. This included participation in daily, weekly, monthly and annual sacrifices and feasts. The book of Leviticus gives extensive details about that.

However, in the period of the judges, the only mention of priests is in Judges 17 and 18, where we read of an idol worshipper called Micah, who hired a young Levite as his ‘priest’, and how that ‘priest’, along with all of Micah’s idol-worshipping paraphernalia, was taken by a group of men from the Israelite tribe of Dan to be their priest.

This story reveals the deep spiritual ignorance that prevailed in the country – that this young Levite saw nothing wrong in engaging in idolatrous practices, and that the tribe of Dan saw nothing wrong (1) in a Levite promoting worship of other gods, (2) in engaging descendants of Moses as their priests (Judges 18:30), and (3) in themselves engaging in that forbidden and idolatrous worship, in competition with the God-ordained worship (Judges 18:31).

And there is only one mention of any ‘feast of the LORD’ – an ‘annual’ feast at Shiloh (21:19 - 23), and it is only mentioned to report the recommendation and pursuit of a rather questionable action.

There is only one mention of a prophet in the period of the Judges – 6:7 – 10, who reminded them who God was and what he had done for them in the past, and pointed out their refusal to listen to God.

It is quite clear that there was not only a significant ignorance of God and his word, but also an almost complete absence of people who cared enough about God to teach and preach his word, including his commands about worship and about life.

Questions:
(1) How would your faith and commitment survive in a context where there was no one there to encourage you to remain faithful to God?

(2) If your pastors were engaging in and promoting forbidden religious practices, how would this impact your own commitment and ability to continue to avoid those practices?

(3) How important is it to remind each other, including our pastors and teachers, of the truth about God and his commands?

About the contrasts:
When we think about Ruth and Naomi’s situation, and contrast it with our situation, there is a great difference – particularly in terms of access to God’s word, access to corporate worship, and access to faithful servants of God to teach and guide us. But there are contrasts that are even more significant.

Questions:
(1) What difference does knowing God by knowing Jesus Christ make?

(2) What difference does the cross of Jesus Christ make?

(3) What difference does the Spirit of Christ living within you as a believer make?

(4) What difference does having the complete Bible make?

D.3The Levirate marriage law
In the story of Ruth, a key aspect of the contemporary culture involved was what is called ‘Levirate marriage’. This was the custom of a brother/male relative of a widow’s deceased husband marrying the widow and so raising up children for the deceased. This was an accepted and expected practice in many ancient cultures, and is still practised in some contemporary cultures. The book of Ruth refers to the male relative who married the widow a ‘kinsman-redeemer’.

[Note: ‘Levirate’ marriage has nothing to do with the Jewish tribe of Levi, the Levites, or the book of Leviticus. The word is from the Latin levir, meaning ‘husband’s brother’.]

In the Bible we find:

[1] The custom was known to the descendants of both Abraham and the Canaanites, as we see in the story of Judah and Tamar – Genesis 38.

[2] It became part of the law of God – Deuteronomy 25:5 – 10, ensuring the name of the deceased Israelite would continue – Ruth 4:10. This law was referenced by the Sadducees in Jesus’ day – Matthew 22:23 – 27.

[3] Naomi was obviously familiar with this practice –

Ruth 1:11 – 13 – Naomi pointed out to her daughters-in-law that even if she married and had more sons, the daughters-in-law would have to wait too long for those sons to be old enough to marry them.

Ruth 3:1 – 4 – Naomi instructed Ruth how to proceed in keeping with the custom. [Note: some commentators believe that in this instance Ruth had to take the initiative because Boaz, the kinsman-redeemer, was a generation older than her, and by that age difference not allowed to initiate the process. However, Deuteronomy 25:7- 9 infers that the woman, or someone other than the kinsman, could initiate it.]

[4] As well as ensuring the continuance of the name and inheritance of the deceased, Levirate marriage also rescued the widow, especially the childless widow, from poverty and social distress, providing her with protection and security.

In looking at the characters in the book of Ruth, let us be both wise and gracious, not viewing them from our perspective/understanding as believers who know Jesus Christ and his cross, and who have the complete word of God, the Bible, in our hands and our pockets, but seeing them in the context of their historical and religious setting – in a culture where even the ‘religious’ had to a large extent distanced themselves from the living God.

That Naomi had any faith at all was a miracle; and that she had faith that attracted Ruth to her God, was an even greater miracle.