Before we start, I'll just, I guess, acknowledge credit where it's due. I found this commentary really helpful in my studies preparing on Ruth. Daniel Block is a great Old Testament scholar from the US. I actually sat through some of his lectures on Ezekiel a couple of years ago. Really great. It's a very technical kind of scholarly commentary, so I'm not saying go out and buy it and read it, but I just want to just acknowledge that a lot of the background stuff we'll be doing today is from him. Today, what we're going to do is really kind of introductory stuff to the book. We're actually going to read right through the whole book, just to kind of get an overall picture of the story, and then we'll look at some of the background and see how the Book of Ruth fits into the biblical story and into the message of the Scriptures as a whole. I'm actually going to start reading from the last verse of Judges. In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Ruth chapter 1. In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi. And the names of his two sons were Marlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives. The name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about 10 years, and both Marlon and Killion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, go, return, each of you, to her mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, no, we will return with you to your people. But Naomi said, turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters. Go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.' Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. And she said, see, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. But Ruth said, do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where 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, I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you.' And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, is this Naomi? She said to them, do not call me Naomi, call me Mara. For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me? So Naomi returned and Ruth, the Moabite, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab, and they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. Now Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favour. And she said to her, go my daughter. So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, the Lord be with you. And they answered, the Lord bless you. And Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, whose young woman is this? And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, she is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. She said, please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers. So she came and she has continued from early morning until now except for a short rest. Then Boaz said to Ruth, now listen, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn. Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, why have I found favour in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner? But Boaz answered her, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me. And how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. Then she said, I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants. And at mealtime, Boaz said to her, come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine. So she sat beside the reapers and he passed to her roasted grain and she ate until she was satisfied and when she had some left over. When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men saying, let her glean even among the sheaves and do not reproach her. and also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean and do not rebuke her. So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned and it was about an ifar of barley. And she took it up and went into the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied. And her mother-in-law said to her, where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you. So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, the man's name with whom I work today is Boaz. And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead. Naomi also said to her, the man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers. And Ruth the Moabite said, besides, he said to me, you shall keep close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest. And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, it is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, lest in another field you be assaulted. So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests, and she lived with her mother-in-law. Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, my daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? Is not Boaz our relative with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Wash, therefore, and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak, and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies, then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do. And she replied, all that you say, I will do. So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. At midnight, the man was startled and turned over and behold, a woman lay at his feet. He said, who are you? And she answered, I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer. And he said, may you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. And now my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask. For all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. Remain tonight and in the morning. If he will redeem you, good, let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then as the Lord lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning.' So she laid his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognise another. And he said, Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor. And he said, bring the garment you are wearing and hold it out. So she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. Then she went into the city. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, how did you fare, my daughter? Then she told her all that the man had done for her, saying, these six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, you must not go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law. She replied, wait my daughter until you learn how the matter turns out for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today. Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken came by. So Boaz said, turn aside friend, sit down here. And he turned aside and sat down. And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, sit down here. So they sat down. Then he said to the redeemer, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative, Elimelech. So I thought I would tell you of it today and say, buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me that I may know. For there is no one besides you to redeem it and I come after you. And he said, I will redeem it. Then Boaz said, the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth, the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance. Then the Redeemer said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it. Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging to confirm a transaction. The one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other. And this was the manner of attesting in Israel. So when the redeemer said to Boaz, buy it for yourself, he drew off his sandal. Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Cilion and to Marlon. Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Marlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day. Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem. And may your house be like the house of Perez whom Tamar bore to Judah because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman. So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. And he went into her and the Lord gave her conception and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel. He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him. Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name saying, a son has been born to Naomi. They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. Now these are the generations of Perez. Perez fathered Hezron. Hezron fathered Ram. Ram fathered Aminadab. Aminadab fathered Nashon. Nashon fathered Salmon. Salmon fathered Boaz. Boaz fathered Obed. Obed fathered Jesse. And Jesse fathered David. We can probably all go home now. What a great story. So some background and some introductory things to this book. Firstly, where it sits in the biblical story. We're told, verse 1, that it's in the days when the judges ruled. But that's not narrowing it down too much because I think it was about four centuries between Joshua and King Saul, the time of the judges. It'd be a bit like telling a story about someone in Australia saying, well, it's some in the time when the Europeans were in Australia. That kind of doesn't narrow it down a lot. A lot of attempts have been made to try and fit the Book of Ruth into the biblical chronology. Potential dates are anywhere from 1380 B.C. to 1100 B.C. Some of the discrepancies of the dates that scholars have set are caused by uncertainties around the timeline of Egypt. There's all kinds of gaps in the archaeological record. Ironically, The mainstream assumption that the Exodus took place somewhere in the 13th century, so in the 1200s BC, is actually a false assumption about the timing of biblical events. And now the popular assumption is used to discredit the dates and times that the Bible gives. So it's kind of ironic that archaeologists looked at the scriptures and said, based on what the Bible says and the names of places in the Bible, Exodus must have happened during the time of Ramses of Egypt. And so they then set the date based on when they knew Ramses had lived, but they didn't actually understand the nuances of the text. So the Exodus took place in the 15th century BC. But what we can say for sure, based on a literal reading of the short genealogy at the end of Ruth, is that Ruth was the great-grandmother of David. And Boaz was the son of Salmon who, according to Matthew 1 verse 5, married Rahab the prostitute who had hidden the spies just before Israel entered the land, Joshua 2, and who, because of her faith, had been brought into Israel. But even then, we can't pin down the dates, because we're not told at what age these people in this genealogy had their children, and also because Hebrew genealogies a little bit more fluid than the way we do it today. They don't necessarily include every single person in the family line as we do. Often they'll highlight the significant people or the people they want to mention in order to make a particular point. We actually see that in Matthew's and Luke's genealogy of Jesus. They don't quite correspond because they're highlighting particular people. I think the most probable time that this story fits into the book of Judges is at the time of Eglon and Ehud, which is in Judges chapter 3. Eglon was the king of Moab, which is located southeast of Israel. You see it there on that map. He invaded Israel and he took control of them for 18 years and he had his base in Jericho, then known as the City of Palms. Then we're told that after the 18 years, the Lord raised up Ehud to deliver Israel from Mihab. And it's a wonderful story. I'll read it out. Luke Judges chapter 3. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud. the son of Gerar the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon, the king of Moab. And Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his clothes. And he presented the tribute to Eglon, king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute. But he himself turned back at the idols near Gilgal and said, I have a secret message for you, O King. And he commanded silence, and all his attendants went out from his presence. And Ehud came to him as he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber. And Ehud said, I have a message from God for you. And he arose from his seat. And Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade. For he did not pull the sword out of his belly, and the dung came out. Then Ehud went out into the porch and closed the doors of the roof chamber behind him and locked them. When he had gone, the servants came, and when they saw that the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, surely he's relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber. There was a bit of a smell. And they waited till they were embarrassed. But when he still did not open the doors of the roof chamber, they took the key and opened them, and there lay their Lord, dead on the floor. Ehud then went on to lead Israel in a resounding victory over the armies of Moab and that led them to 80 years of rest and peace for Israel. So let's consider the scene that's been set here. The Israelites would have clearly understood that the famine of Ruth 1 verse 1 wasn't merely a product of natural climate or politics, but the doing of the Lord. Alongside the covenant curse of being conquered by the enemies, the Lord had also told them that disobedience and idolatry would bring, among other things, unfruitfulness of the land, that it would lead to famine. So it's reasonable to think that the oppression by Moab also coincided with this drought and famine. So we have Eglon, the Moabite, ruling over this people who are suffering under famine while he sits morbidly obese in his palace. And that adds to the ignominy of Israel's judgment. Not only are they ruled over by a foreigner, but this foreigner is a debaucherous glutton. So the wicked are prospering, God's people are languishing. But then we see the justice of God on this wicked man. Eglon's lavish but short-lived glory was matched in height by the lowliness of the disgrace in which he died, wallowing in his own feces while his servants stood outside embarrassed by the stench. Now eventually the people of Israel are going to demand a king, but not just any king. They want a king who is like the kings of the nations. And here we have a portrait of one such king, which highlights the foolishness of Israel in thinking that they're better off with a government modeled on the world systems rather than on God's law. Israel, do you really want a king like Eglon? A selfish glutton who has no regard for those over whom he rules, who then dies an embarrassing and disgraceful death. Now, there's another implied narrative behind what appears to be this matter-of-fact report, an account in verses 1 to 4. The reader is supposed to ask the question, I believe, Why would Elimelech choose to go to Moab? Now the surface answer is that he'd heard that there was more food in Moab and he was concerned about the well-being of his family, but it wasn't as simple as that. This is only the second generation, according to the genealogy, of after those who had conquered the land under Joshua. And the Lord had made it clear this land was to be their inheritance. that it was a land that depended upon him for its reign and for its provision. So they were called to be bold and courageous to take the land with the promise that he would give them and the future generations rest in the land. So getting up, leaving his property behind, taking his whole family out of the land was a demonstration that Elimelech was Part of that generation, Judges 2 verse 10 says, who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. So rather than returning to the Lord in repentance and trusting him to remain faithful to his promises, even in the midst of this time of God's wrath, Elimelech considered it would be better to throw his lot in with the Moabites. So while his name meant literally God, El, is king, Melech. He instead went to live in a land ruled by the Moabite God, Chemosh. In the biblical world, it was believed by the nations that one nation's victory over another wasn't just a human victory. It was a victory of that nation's gods over the gods of the conquered people. So the Moabites would have been celebrating the alleged humiliation of Yahweh under the hand of Chemosh. And of course the Lord shows this whole paradigm to be false. He states very clearly that when foreign nations defeat Israel, they're only able to do because he's given Israel into their hand in judgment. He's ruler over every nation, over every so-called god, and they all do his bidding. They only do what his hand has predestined to take place. So we could see in Elimelech's actions defiance against the Lord and his covenant promises. It could be included along with the stories in the concluding chapters of Judges of the Israelites simply doing what was right in their own eyes. In that sense, while the book has from the earliest times been called Megalith Ruth or the Scroll of Ruth, it could just as much be called Megalith Naomi, the Scroll of Naomi. because it tells the story of how this woman, in exile in a foreign land, amongst foreign gods, is brought back and restored to the covenant community of Yahweh. In fact, as we'll see, as we saw, the conclusion to the story has the women celebrating with Naomi, not with Ruth, that the Lord has not left you, Naomi, this day without a redeemer. Block in his commentary points out that the book begins with Naomi being emptied and concludes with her being filled. Now let's look a bit more broadly at then how this book is a vital part of the Old Testament and how it has connections with other books and with the historical life of Israel. Ruth is found in different places in different ancient Old Testament collections, depending on how the compilers of those collections identified the connections between Ruth and other parts of the scriptures. So in one collection, we see that Ruth is in this collection of the five megalot, or scrolls, that in later Jewish tradition were read at the five annual festivals. The Song of Songs is read at Passover. Ruth is read at Pentecost. Lamentations at Tisha B'Av, which is a day of fasting to remember the destruction of the first temple. Ecclesiastes is read at the Feast of Tabernacles. Esther is read at the Feast of Purim. So the significance of Ruth for Pentecost is that Pentecost is a celebration of the wheat harvest, and so would have been celebrated in that time frame that the story of Ruth covers, the barley harvest, which was then followed immediately by the wheat harvest. Pentecost also commemorates the forming of Yahweh's covenant with Israel at Sinai through the giving of the law. And as we'll see, Ruth gives us an example of the law of the Lord being obeyed by his people and the life and the freedom that that obedience produces. Now in another Old Testament collection, Ruth is placed first in the section called the hagiographs, the section of the Hebrew Bible known as the writings. So Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and so on. This group of books was also referred to generally as the Psalms. And it's the largest, because Psalms is the largest book in that collection. So in Luke 24, Jesus says, everything written about me in the law, the prophets, and the Psalms, referring to that collection of writings. Now Ruth is placed before Psalms. Notably then, that puts it immediately before Psalm 1 and Psalm 2, which depicts the ideal man who lives and meditates on God's law, Psalm 1, and then the ideal king who has been installed by the Lord in Zion, Psalm 2. And in the book of Ruth, we're presented with Boaz. an example of the ideal man who knows and loves the law and who then becomes a father to the king of which Psalm 2 speaks, David. Another collection puts Ruth after Proverbs and before Ecclesiastes. Now some suggest that it's deliberately sandwiched between two of Solomon's writings to highlight the Davidic line. But more likely it was placed there because that would mean it would immediately follow Proverbs 31 and its depiction of a noble wife. In Boaz's description of Ruth in 3 verse 11, all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. That Hebrew phrase, worthy woman, is only found in one other place in the Old Testament. Proverbs 31.10, an excellent wife who can find. She is far more precious than jewels. So the Book of Ruth, in a sense, combines Psalm 1 and Proverbs 31, showing us living examples of men and women who are enabled to live in line with the covenant. The three characters, Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz, they exemplify a righteous observance of mosaic laws about loving your neighbor. Laws like leaving grain for the gleaners in Leviticus 19. Leveret marriage, which was the law that said you need to marry the childless widow of your brother. laws about redemption of land and property for a poor relative who has to sell land or to sell themselves into indentured labor. But we also see what appears at first to be a breaking of the law, marriage to a non-Israelite, which appears to be against not so much marrying pagans or someone of a different nationality, but it is about not marrying pagans. It's not about marrying a foreigner as much as a pagan. Laws that said do not include a Moabite in Israel. So not only is he married a foreigner, but he's married a Moabite. And there was a command that Moabites are not to be included in the assembly. That Israelites are not to seek the prosperity or well-being of the Moabites. Because it was Balak, the Moabite king, who sent Balaam to curse them. Yet, so this law that prohibits marrying foreigners because of their pagan religions, not because of their genetic makeup, and the law that says don't look after the well-being of Moabites, that law also says, Deuteronomy 10, he, the Lord, executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the Sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the Sojourner therefore, for you were Sojourners in the land of Egypt. Now this isn't playing off two commands in the law as if they're contradictory. What we learn from Jesus When he was accused of breaking the Sabbath laws and the clean and unclean food laws, is that the higher spirit of the law, love for God and neighbor, actually isn't contradiction to those laws, it shows us how to truly fulfill the letter of the law. When he asked, I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or destroy it? What he's teaching is that doing good to your neighbor is actually the true fulfillment of the Sabbath, even if it requires you to break a rule or tradition about what constitutes work on the Sabbath. And love is of an even higher standard when we're called to exercise it towards not merely a neighbor, but towards someone who, according to a strict reading of the letter of the law, we should exclude. Someone we might be tempted to label as an enemy because their inclusion might potentially cause harm to us. This level of love supremely shown in the love of God in sending his son to the cross, shows us that mercy triumphs over judgment, James 2.13. So what we might label as the harsher commands of the law, people to exclude, people to not seek their welfare and so on, they highlight all the more our need for mercy. and they magnify the grace that comes through love and reconciliation. And that's a principle set in place when God tells Adam that if he eats from the forbidden tree, he will die that day. Yet after eating, he's left standing, albeit fearful and ashamed and estranged from God, but he doesn't physically die until he's 930 years old. And then it's reinforced when God declares that he will wipe all of humanity off the face of the earth because of their exceedingly great wickedness and then by grace he saves eight people who are just as wicked as anyone else and through them preserves the human race. Mercy triumphing over judgment. The inclusion of the unworthy through mercy is that resounding theme throughout the scriptures. It's got nothing to do with our modern ideas of tolerance. You just do your thing and I'll put up with it. But it's about the transformation that comes through grace. So we see Jesus fulfilling the law, not in the way that the Pharisees sought to keep it, The way they did it was make sure those who are excluded by the law are definitely kept outside. But by coming to those whom the law technically excluded because of their sin and their uncleanness, forgiving their sin, healing them of their uncleanness, so now they are qualified to be included, not because of their self-righteousness, but because of grace. So we'll see that the grace of God to Ruth in enabling her to call him my God came first. And then her inclusion becomes a seal or an external display of that grace to God's glory. We're still on the theme of where Ruth is being placed in different collections of the Old Testament. In our modern Bibles, based on the structure of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, we have Ruth between Judges and Samuel, a link between the chaotic time of the Judges and then the unfolding order of the time of Samuel and Kings. So the placement there is meant to show that hope was not lost during the time when Israel had no king and the people did what was right in their own eyes. As we've seen, Naomi's husband is called Elimelech, God is King, at a time when Israel repeatedly were failing to recognize Yahweh as their king, and that culminated in their demand for a human king in 1 Samuel. Now there are some other significant links within the Old Testament that it's worth noting and we won't get through all of this today, we'll continue next week. But one key link is with Micah, the book of Micah, specifically Micah chapter 5. The first few verses, which says, now muster your troops, O daughter of troops. Siege is laid against us. With a rod, they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek. But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel. whose coming forth is from old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth. Then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure. For now he shall be great to the ends of the earth and he shall be their peace. And we know this is one of the great messianic prophecies often read at Christmas time. It's quoted in Matthew chapter two about Bethlehem of Ephrathah. And notice how Elimelech and Naomi and their sons are identified as Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judea, in Judah. Now Micah lived and prophesied at least 100 years after the Book of Ruth was written, at least in the present form we have it today. So he was around 750 to 700 BC when the monarchy of the northern kingdom had declined into idolatry and the kingdom of Judah wasn't far behind and both were facing the sure prospect of exile. So Micah's language here is deliberate. He's actually reflecting on the story of Ruth. The fact that the Davidic line for all of its glorious beginnings had failed, yet again kept pointing forward to this yet to come David, whose reign would bring a true and permanent rest and peace. Ruth's inclusion in the writings, the collection of the writings, also points us to another book in the writings, the book of Job. Naomi is, in a way, a kind of female Job. She loses everything, including property and family, but being a righteous person, she is finally vindicated with blessing in Ruth. We saw that the women tell Naomi that Ruth is to her more than seven sons. That's probably a direct allusion to Job, who also had and then lost seven sons. And then when Job is restored, he's not only given seven sons, but also three daughters. And the daughters are named when the brothers aren't. Women aren't normally named in biblical genealogies unless they feature in a part of the narrative. Job's daughters were described as more beautiful than any other women, probably a reference not so much to their physical qualities but also to their character. and Job's daughters receive an inheritance along with their brothers. Again, unusual. It's the sons who receive the inheritance, not the daughters. So Ruth is portrayed almost as if she were a fourth daughter of Job. I think we'll stop there and next week we'll just look at those last sections before we actually start digging into the book. So let's pray. Father, we thank you for this. that in your goodness and kindness and wisdom you have included in your word, the scriptures. And we pray that in the coming weeks as we study this book and we see your grace at work in the life of Ruth and Naomi and Boaz and Israel, that you will remind us anew of your grace at work in our lives too. In Jesus' name, amen.