RUTH
Author and date:
Ancient Jewish tradition indicates Samuel as the author, but there is no proof either for or against this, and there is no certainty about the time of writing.
Themes:
One theme is the kindness and love between individuals and the resulting rewards. Another theme is how a foreign woman joined the people of Israel by faith in the one true God and became an important person in their history, an ancestress of King David and the Lord Jesus Christ. Another theme is the office of kinsman-redeemer. The kinsman-redeemer is a type or picture of Christ. See the note at Ruth 2:20. This redeemer had to be a blood relative. Christ our Redeemer became man (Heb 2:9-18), and so our relative. The kinsman-redeemer had to have enough means to purchase a person’s lost possession (Ruth 4:2-10). Christ alone was able to pay the price of redemption for us (Ps 49:7-9; 1 Pet 1:18-19). The kinsman-redeemer had to be willing to pay the price of redemption (Ruth 4:4, 6, 9). Christ was willing to pay the price for us (Matt 20:28; John 10:11, 17, 18). The kinsman-redeemer had to be willing to marry the wife of the dead relative. In a spiritual sense Christ fulfills this also. See Rom 7:1-4.
Contents:
A Jewish family tragedy 1:1-5
Ruth chooses Naomi and Naomi’s God 1:6-18
Naomi and Ruth arrive in Bethlehem 1:19-22
Ruth in the fields of Boaz 2:1-23
Naomi makes plans for Ruth 3:1-6
Boaz, the kinsman-redeemer 3:7-18
Boaz buys back the lost possession
and marries Ruth 4:1-13
Ruth becomes the ancestress of King David 4:13-21