JESUS CHRIST IN THE BOOK OF RUTH
JESUS CHRIST IN THE BOOK OF RUTH
Tuesday Morning Bible Study 4/1/2025; 3/17/2008
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
This is one of two books that hold the name of a woman as its title (also Esther). These books were named for good women who were married, and whose marriages affected the human race/Kingdom of God.
This book of GRACE takes its name from its principal character, the young Moabite widow who made Israel’s people her people, and Israel’s God her God, and who became the ancestress of the Messiah (Mt. 1:5). This lovely story of a lovely woman, following, like calm after a storm, the turbulent scenes of Judges, is a delightful and charming picture of domestic life in a time of anarchy and trouble.
A thousand years earlier, Abraham had been called of God to birth a nation for the purpose of one day bringing a Savior to mankind. In the book of Ruth, we have the founding of the family within that nation through which the Savior would come. Ruth was the great-grandmother of David the King, and a great-great-great- grandmother of Jesus Christ.
Purpose:
1. A picture of Grace during the period of the Judges.
2. To establish the genealogy of David and Jesus.
3. A picture of redemption.
4. To typify the redemption of God to all the nations.
5. To typify the end-time restoration and the present visitation within the people who press in, claim, and possess their inheritance.
6. A personal relationship with our Heavenly Boaz, Jesus Christ.
7. To show there is always a Godly remnant in any age.
8. To reveal the Sovereignty of God’s divine providence. (Rom. 8:28)
There are four major characters in the book of Ruth:
1. Boaz – “strength;” he is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.
2. Orpah – “turning the back;” she is a type of the Spirit-filled Christian who because of fear and unbelief completely miss their day of visitation, and who returns to their family and their gods/world system.
3. Naomi – “pleasant” who became “bitter.”
4. Ruth - She is a type of the Spirit-filled Christian who is fully restored in the day of her visitation, and who enters a living union with Boaz in fullness to reproduce His nature and ministry in the earth...”
In Chapter one, the background of this story is laid. Elimelech, Naomi, along with their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, left Bethlehem-Judah because of a famine and went to Moab (the idolatrous descendants of Lot). The two sons married two Moabite girls, Orpha, and Ruth. After ten years, the father and both sons had died, and Naomi decided to return to Bethlehem. Orpha stayed behind but Ruth went with her.
In chapter two, we are introduced to Boaz, the son of Rahab of Jericho. (Matt. 1:5). He, being a kinsman of Naomi and Ruth, took notice of Ruth gleaning in his field and treated her kindly.
In chapters three and four we see Boaz fulfilling the role of the Kinsman-Redeemer (“Gaal”) by buying Elimelech’s and his sons’ inheritance, and by marrying Ruth. This shows that God used Gentile blood to form the chosen family within the chosen nation which would bring forth the Messiah for all nations. The Holy nation is after the Spirit and not the flesh.
Ruth also provides us with a beautiful picture of the church. In times past a Gentile, a stranger and foreigner to the covenants of promise, who is brought into the commonwealth of Israel by the grace of the Kinsman-redeemer. It reveals that Jesus Christ purchased both the Old Testament saints, and the New Testament saints.
Ephesians 2: 11-13: Remember that in times past you were Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world; But now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off are made near by the Blood of Christ.
Outlines:
REST – The Abundant life is forsaken, discovered again, is obtained, restored, and then reproduced.
Jesus Christ is seen in the Book of Ruth As:
1. The Bread of Visitation. (1:6; Jn. 6:48)
2. The Rest of Jehovah. (1:9; Eph. 2:14)
3. The Mighty Man of Wealth (2:1; Isa. 9:6; Phil. 4:19)
4. The One who came from Bethlehem. (2:4; Mic. 5:2; Matt. 2: 5-6)
5. The Lord of the Harvest (2: 4-17; Jas. 5:7)
6. The Full Reward. (2:12; Rev. 22:12)
7. The Kinsman-Redeemer (2:20; Gal. 3:13)
8. The One who divides the Harvest. (3:2; Heb. 4:12; Jn. 1:1)
9. The Faithful Performer of the Promise. (2:13; Phil. 1:6)
10. The One who ascended and sat down in the place of judgment. (4:1; Heb. 10: 12-13)
11. The One whose name is famous. (4:14; Eph. 1:20-23; Phil. 2: 1-11)
12. The Restorer of Life. (4:15; Jn. 11:25)
13. The Nourisher and Sustainer of Life. (4:15; Psa. 23; Heb. 1:3)
Ruth 1:1, It came to pass in the days when the Judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land.
It may have been during the Judgeship of Gideon that this “famine” took place. In the O.T., God sent four judgments upon idolatry: war, famine, pestilence, and death.
Ruth 1b: And a certain man of Bethlehem-Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, and his wife, and his two sons.
Bethlehem means “house of Bread, place of food, house of sustenance, house of living”: and Judah means “praise Jehovah, celebration sustenance, house of living. praise Jehovah, celebration of Jehovah.
In the Book of Ruth, we see the balance of Word and Spirit (Jn. 6:63).
It is set during a time of lawlessness and the restoration of divine order. Elimelech and his family left the Bread and the Praise (the balance of the Word and the Spirit). When one becomes a stranger to these basics, he goes to live “for a while” (Like Jonah or the Prodigal) in the land of ease and laziness (Amos 6:1). There is no real growth or change of development, and where the testimony does not change, and where the inhabitants refuse to be emptied from vessel to vessel.
When you walk away from the land of promise and blessing to a place that is outside of that life, sickness and death will began to work in that which you have produced. Our blessings are in the will and purpose of God.
Moab’s idolatrous religion practiced human (child) sacrifice. A nation or people who abandon the will of God will sacrifice their children (or sheep). “You shall beget sons and daughters, but you shall not enjoy them…” (Deut. 28:41)
1:5-6: And Mahlon and Chilion also died both of them; and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord has visited his people in giving them bread.
This is restoration. We must arise from “our” place and move into “His Place. This visitation was one of Bread (Bible revival) even the Bread of Life. This reveals the restoration of the Body of Christ, who are one Bread and have a hunger for the Word of God.
Outside the will of God there could be no real blessing and prosperity; the pressure of her circumstances and the report of the LORD’s visit to His people caused her to arise. Her greatest asset was that she could still hear! Note where she had heard: even Moab is hearing of this visitation!
May we hear again the cry of hunger for the Bread of God.
During the charismatic renewal, there was a hunger for the Word of God and for the teaching of the Word. The LORD raised up the Office of Teacher and great teachers came forth.
It is interesting to me that the vessel chosen to receive this outpouring of Harvest was Ruth, a young woman from Moab.
1: 7-8: Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah. And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-laws, “Go, return each to her mother’s house: the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead, and with me.”
Thus begins the testing of initial faith (1: 8-15). It will prove to be too much for Orpah. We will either seek our Boaz or return to the old order. There is no other choice. We are either part of the Bondwoman or the Free-woman (Gal. 4:28).
Naomi told them four times to return to Moab. She argues from reason. Naomi’s confession is filled with doubt and unbelief. She is wallowing in the mire of her own self-pity. In depression ad despair, she feels everyone is against her, even God, and magnifies her problems as greater than God’s love and grace (1 Cor. 10:13) She is yet to know the LORD is moving her into great blessing, prosperity, and an eternal legacy. If we yield to the LORD in the times of adversity, we will see the LORD turn it into a great blessing.
Orpah turned and went back. She lacked the courage to make such a commitment of cost as was described by Naomi. She missed God completely. She was overcome by the discouraging words of Naomi. We must all face down the naysayer’s or we will never come into our inheritance. We shall not hear of her again. She will die as she did live …in Moab.
She returned to her people and her gods. Chemosh was the god of the land of Moab. He was worshipped by the sacrifice of children as burnt offerings. This god is operating in America today as we see our children being brutally abused. The gender mutilation of children must be as greater or worse sin than the sacrifice of children.
Ruth said, 1:16 -17: Entreat me not to leave you, or to return from following after you: for wither you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge: your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, will I die, and there will I be buried, the LORD do so to me, and mor also, if ought but death part you and me.
Here, Ruth is converted, for she repents from Moab and makes confession unto salvation. She experiences repentance from dead works and faith toward God according to Heb. 6: 1-2. She was converted, regenerated, born again, justified, and initially saved. (Jn. 3: 1-8)
The old Ruth dies. Ruth uses the name of Jehovah, the covenant God. The solemn oath was most serious, for she loved not her life unto death (Rev. 12:11).
Ruth was steadfastly minded. This was the test she had to pass with Naomi to be able to follow her to the City. Her heart was fixed. We must all have a steadfast mind, or we will be tossed by every wind of doctrine.
The second chapter of Ruth is filled with a detailed description of the excellent character of Boaz, a type of Jesus as our Kinsman-Redeemer.
2:1: Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz.
The Law of Moses provided for the poor. Ruth is submissive, (2:2) she said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace.” ears of corn (hearing a mature message)---when the full corn in the ear is brought forth, the harvest is come. (Mk. 4:28).
Ruth gleaned after the reapers. Gleaners and reapers are laborers in the Harvest. Let us all glean after the reapers.
In 2:5, Boaz’s overseer was his “servant”. He typifies the Holy Spirit who is energizing and activating the reapers who have been set in the watchtower of the vineyard to oversee the harvest. Their responsibility is to bring the harvest to maturity.
The words servant and submission speak of intimacy of relationship. The word “servant” is from the Hebrew “Ebed” and was used to prophetically speak of Jesus. …for, behold I will bring forth my servant, the Branch” (Zechariah 3:8). The word servant not only means slave and subject, but it also means worshiper.
The LORD took Ruth out of Moab in order to bring her in to His
redemptive purposes. Boaz appears as the kinsman-redeemer who redeemed his Gentile bride. Ruth is a type of the Church, the Bride of Christ redeemed by our Kinsman Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
2:12, The Lord recompense your work, and a full reward be given you of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to trust.
Boaz was her full reward. He was the gift of Jehovah. “Under whose wings” reveals the thought of a tiny bird snuggling under the wings of its mother, but it also points to the wings of the cherubim on the Ark of the covenant.
This is Boaz’s prayer for Ruth. Jesus loves His wife. We are the inheritance of the Lord, and He is our Inheritance. Boaz (Jesus) is progressively showing the program of God to Ruth. Jesus sees us fully perfected and glorified in the Holiest of all!
2:13: Then she said, “Let me find favor in thy sight Lord.”
The Holy Ghost had changed the cry of Ruth’s heart. Her focus is changing from the field to the owner of the field. He is getting ready to bring her to the table and show her some of His secrets.
2:14: Boaz said to her, at mealtime come though hither, and eat of the bread, and dip your morsel in the vinegar.” And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left.
This verse is rich and vast. The word “Mealtime” reveals several Kingdom truths: The Feast of Tabernacles, the Blood covenant, The Meal or Meat Offer, the Five-Fold Ministry, the Lord’s Supper (Communion). We eat His flesh (Word) and drink His Blood (Spirit) by partaking of His Body, or His people. Jesus Christ is come in the flesh (Immanuel).
Naomi now tells Ruth that Boaz was a Kinsman.
2:20: Naomi said to her daughter in law, “Blessed be he of the LORD, who has not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. The man is near of kin unto us, one of our kinsmen.”
Kinsman “Gaal” (Strong’s (H1350) – Jesus is near kin to us. He is of the Seed of Abraham. Gaal means to redeem according to the oriental law of kinship.
There were three obligations upon the Gaal.
1. He was to redeem his brother and the property.
2. He was to be the avenger of any fatal violence against his brother.
3. he was to raise up a successor to his brother, if his brother had died and had not left a son to be heir.
The obvious purpose behind all this was the saving of Israelite families from extinction.
Jesus Christ is our Gaal! He has redeemed humanity from the poverty of the curse of the law. (Gal. 3:13). We are no longer slaves. He is our Avenger and Defender. He was appointed Heir of all things. He has obtained a more excellent ministry and has perpetuated the nature and character of God in the earth. He has perpetuated God’s name.
God brought Ruth out of a country to a city, from there to a field, then to a corner of a field, from the corner of the field to the center of the field, from the center of the field to a threshing floor, and from a threshing floor to a city gate. And finally, He took her from a city gate to a marriage bed and from a marriage bed to the lineage of Jesus Christ.
In Chapter 3, Naomi instructs Ruth on making her request to Boaz to “seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee.” It means a home, a husband with the prospect of children, personal fulfillment, and financial security. Naomi tells Ruth how to prepare herself to have this engagement with Boaz at the threshing floor. Every time we find “threshing floor” in the Scriptures, we find God’s people coming into a deeper intimacy with Him. What happens at the threshing floor? Separation takes place and the husk, the counterfeit, the fluff, and that which is not the heart of the matter is separated.
The Lord is saying, “Meet me tonight at the threshing floor.” He wants our Faith at His feet at the threshing floor.
Every time we find the threshing floor in the bible, we find an encounter between God and His people…Gideon tested God at the threshing floor. David stopped the plague at a threshing floor. Uzzah died at the threshing floor of Nachon.” Ruth was redeemed at the threshing floor.
3:12: And now it is true that I am your near kinsman: yet there is a kinsman nearer than I. Tarry this night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he will perform unto you the part of a kinsman well; let him do the kinsman’s part; but if he will not, then will I do it. As the Lord lives
Ruth 3: 14-15: She lay at his feet until the morning; and she rose up before one could know another. And he said, “Let it not be known that a woman came into the floor’. Also, he said,’ Bring the veil that you have upon thee, and hold it.” And when she held it, he measured six measures of barley, and laid it on her: and she went into the city.
When we come to Him, He doubles what He gives? We are in the end-time and we receive the double anointing. When she worked, all she could get for her efforts was half of what he freely gave her. But now she has come to him, and all she has to do is lay at his feet.
3:18: Then said she, (Naomi), Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will fall: for the man will not be in rest until he has finished the thing this day.”)
Everything is in the hand of Jesus. He will complete our redemption.
4: 1-22:
Boaz went up to the gate. The Gate was the center of the life of the city. He took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, sit you down here. Ten men are required for a synagogue service. Boaz stopped the near Kinsman as he passed by the gate and told him his business. “Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, sells a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech’s. If you will redeem it, redeem it: but if you will not redeem it, then tell me and I may know: for there is not to redeem it besides you; and I am after you. And he said, “I will redeem it.” (This is the Law)
Then Boaz said, “What day you buy the field of the hand of Naomi, you must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.”
Here is revealed the purpose of the book of Ruth: to raise up the Name of the dead. “What Day?” The Day of the Lord. The law is challenged to redeem both the Jew and the Greek.
“And the kinsman said, ‘I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance: redeem you my right to yourself: for I cannot redeem it.”
The Law speaks. It cannot. The purpose of God is to call forth from among the nations His Holy Nation, and the law is restricted to one nation.
4:7: Now this was the manner in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbor: and this was a testimony in Israel.”
His shoe, a symbol of the property rights. One’s God-given legal right to walk on the land of promises any time, anyway, or any how he wants-his privilege). It symbolized all claims upon the land or property. (Josh. 1:3; Psa. 60:8; Deut. 1:36; 11:24). The loosing of the sandal was the sign that the transaction was completed. Ruth 4 shows how it was done when a man simply passed his rights on to another.
The law was our schoolmaster until Christ (Gal. 3:24). It transferred all its own claims to Him. Jesus is heir of all things; Jesus received the shoe and obtained the promise of a more excellent ministry, according to Heb. 8:1-6. He can walk on all things. We are His Seed and are joint heirs of that ministry. Naomi sold “an allotment of land that was given according to the spoken word and Boaz bought it.
There has come a change from the Old Covenant to the New. Death has been given over to Life. The Law was (and has been) tried under the most favorable circumstances and was proved helpless.
This is what the Law says to Grace. The responsibility is passed to Boaz. So he drew off (plucked off) his shoe and gave it to him.
Boaz establishes his full right to the family possession. Jesus redeemed the Greek (all nations). “Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: you are witnesses this day
Bobby Conner: “The Lord is bringing us out of the corner of the field to the center of the field. At the center of the field, we will find purpose. We will find an engagement with Boaz, but the ultimate result is something else. In Ruth 4:13, we learn that Boaz married Ruth, went into Ruth impregnated her, and she had a baby.
The women of Ruth 4:14 prophesied. They said, “…that his name may be famous.” Obed’s name is famous.
4:17: “…and they called his name Obed; he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.”
Bobby Conner: “Obed means “one with the servant’s heart.” Obed was the good fruit produced out of the union of Boaz and Ruth, symbolizing Jesus and the Church. That good fruit was a servant. God wants to come and change the whole philosophy of the Church. He wants us to start birthing people who have a servant’s heart. Jesus said he did not come to be served, but He came to minister. He came to give His life as a ransom. Many times, we have said, “Oh! Come on and get saved and become a Kingdom superstar.” No---the real way is to become a servant."
“And His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:12 NAS)
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church, 10115 West Hidden Lakes Ln.
I entered into the labors of Kelly Varner, Principles of Present Truth Scripture K.J.V. (“Ruth” Bible Study 8/17/2008-Sissom). The Story of Ruth, the Romance of Redemption by: Bobby Conner.