A Journey Through The Old Testament - Elmer Towns

of action in that city, it was he who lost his life. “Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech,
which he had done to his father by killing his seventy sons. And all the evil of the men of
Shechem God returned on their own heads, and on them came the curse of Jotham the son of
Jerubbaal” (Jud. 9:56-57).
THIRTY
RUTH:
The Romance of Redemption
(Ruth 1:1-4:22)
About the time Gideon was hiding in the winepress to escape the dangers of a Midianite
invasion, a small village to the south was caught up in the midst of a severe famine. This famine
may have been the natural consequence of the successive invasions of the Midianites during the
harvest seasons, or simply the result of a prolonged drought. Some Bible commentators suggest
the combination of these two factors resulted in its severity. Like the other dozen famines
recorded in Scripture, this famine also appears to have been a physical manifestation of the
judgment of God.
The account of this famine is recorded in the opening verse of the Book of Ruth,
originally appended to the Book of Judges. Yet unlike the Book of Judges, Ruth is an account of
what was going right in Israel. It records people praying and seeing answers to their prayers
without the cycle of oppression so common in the Book of Judges. Yet it is obvious from several
contextual hints in the two books that these event occurred simultaneously.
Ruth begins with the expression, “Now it came to pass, in the days of.” A form of this
expression occurs five times in the Old Testament and always denotes impending trouble,
followed by internal disorders and outward oppressions. The crisis age referred to in this context
is simply described as “when the judges ruled” (Jud. 1:1). This was an era of apostasy and
anarchy (cf. 2:10-13; 21:25). Though some Jewish commentators tend to identify the Boaz of
this book with the otherwise unknown judge Ibzan of Bethlehem (12:8-10), the genealogy of the
last chapter linking Ruth and Boaz to David suggests an earlier context; i.e., during the rule of
Gideon. This would also account for the dramatic change in conditions during the decade in
which the first chapter of the book is set.
But the Book of Ruth is more than a history of a family in Bethlehem. It is a love story of
how a poor but virtuous widow finds her rest and fulfillment through a marriage to one of the
wealthiest and most honorable men of the city. But it is also more than a love story. It is an
account of faith in which a number of prayers are offered to God and without exception
answered to the benefit of the one praying. But it also more than an account of faith. It is the
story of how a Moabite girl, who was an alien from the commonwealth of Israel and by law
under the curse of Moab, found redemption in the village of Bethlehem and was accepted into
the society of the people of God. And in all this, it is a picture of every believer’s relationship to
God. It is the romance of redemption, a picture of what faith can and does accomplish in the life
of every believer.