Ruth 1 - A Foundation for All

Back in 2011 while reading the Book of Numbers, I learned that because of an exemption in the law, Levites did not have to marry within their tribe.  This bit of seemingly uneventful information actually proves to be quite profound when applied to the lineage of Jesus Christ.  For, according to the flesh, Jesus was born into a line of both priests and kings (Mary being of David's kingly line and Elizabeth her cousin being of Aaron's priestly line).  Jesus is both Priest and King to all mankind and this genealogical connection illustrates just that.  But as if that connection weren't enough, we have in the Book of Ruth another amazing (and almost certainly divinely orchestrated) consanguinity.  Elimelech and his wife Noemi leave their home in Judah because of a famine and move to Moab, where their sons each marry a gentile woman, Ruth being one of these women.  Ruth eventually goes back to Judah with Noemi and marries Boaz (after the death of her first husband).  This gentile-Israelite union will produce Obed, Jesse, and eventually the great king David.  Therefore, Jesus Christ, of both priestly and kingly lines, is priest and king to all men, the gentile and the Jew, for through David's great-grandmother Ruth, He is descended from both gentile and Jew!  These connections are amazing on so many levels.  Every shift, every move, seems to be laying a foundation, or preparing a way.  We know that Jesus Christ is a savior to every man of every nation, but in addition to Christ's words and actions telling us this, His very Person illustrates His mission, His universality!  The Book of Ruth may be small, but it holds a vaulted place in Scripture for this very reason.

There is also the matter of Ruth's faith and loyalty.  Though a gentile, and very much a pagan, she found the true faith through her marriage to Noemi's son.  Once he dies, she doesn't just go back to her old ways in Moab; she clings to Noemi and travels with her into Judah because she has found the truth and wants to remain in it.  Ruth at the outset is established as an admirable figure indeed.  In fact her decision to go with Noemi to Judah is almost like a precursor to Mary's agreeing to be the Mother of Christ, for had Ruth not gone, there'd be no David, and no kingly line for Jesus to be born into.