Looking for Christ in the Book of Ruth

The Book of Ruth recounts the life of Naomi – a widow and grieving mother – and Ruth, her faithful daughter in law, as they navigate a period of loss, change, and God’s favor. While this is not the story that one would immediately expect to reveal much about the character of Christ, I have found that in it are actually some significant nuggets of wisdom that point to the grace, mercy, and favor of God.

For context, Naomi has actually been left with two widowed daughters-in-law after her two sons pass away. Their names or Orpah and Ruth. Naomi pleads with both daughters multiple times demanding that they leave her and establish new lives of their own (Ruth 1:8, 11, 12). She feels that her purpose has been spent and they are better off forgetting about her and going their own way (v. 12). Initially, both women refuse (v. 10). Then eventually, Orpah leaves and only Ruth is left (v. 14).

At this point, Ruth makes a binding covenant to Naomi, stating “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me” (Ruth 1:16-17). Wow, what a declaration. It didn’t matter how many times Naomi tried to push Ruth away out of genuine concern for her outcome in life, Ruth was determined to stay by Naomi’s side to the point of adopting her customs and converting religions to be unified with Naomi. Naomi vehemently urged Ruth to move on but she refused.

The parallel that the Lord revealed to me throughout this part of the text was that to our relationship with Him. How many times have we pushed God away, either through words – blatantly telling the Lord “I don’t want you” – or, more commonly, through our actions. Acting outside of the character and will of God. Knowingly sinning. Consciously defiling ourselves. In other words, saying to the Lord “I don’t need you” or “doing this thing that makes me feel good is more important than honoring you.” Probably hundreds if not thousands of times in our lives have we made this mistake. But God refused to leave us (Hebrews 13:15). He refused to stop chasing us. Even though we disobeyed and dishonored Him time and time again, He Himself came down to our level to save us from our sin and become one with us in eternal matrimony (Revelation 19:7). How blessed we are to have a savior who never let us run away from Him no matter how many times we’ve tried.

Backing up in the text, the next important thing to note is how bitterness turned Naomi against the Lord time and time again. She accused the Lord of afflicting her, bringing misfortune to her, and having His hand against her (Ruth 1:13, 21). She was bitter, lashing out at the Lord for what she perceived as intentionally causing her all of this harm. Spoiler alert – the text has a happy ending for Naomi but never does she actually apologize to the Lord. Never does she repent for how she behaved or the words that she spoke against him. In other words, at no point did she do anything that could have earned her God’s presence let alone His blessing. However, as we keep reading, we see how the Lord restored her.

Ruth finds favor with a wealthy older bachelor named Boaz and he begins to take care of her, taking her in as one of his own family members. He protects her, provides for her, and comforts her, eventually taking her has his wife (Ruth 2-4). In doing so, Ruth and Naomi go from relying on field scraps to feed themselves in a time of grief and lack to wealthy and taken care of. Ruth and Boaz eventually eventually had a son named Obed and everyone in town noticed the light come back into Naomi’s eyes, telling her “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer…He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age” (Ruth 4:13-15). They even went as far as saying that Naomi now had a son as she cared for him like he was her own (v. 16). And get this – the end of the book tells us that Obed, son of Ruth and Naomi, became the Father of Jesse, the father of David, who was an ancestor of our savior Jesus Christ (Ruth 4:18-22).

Naomi did not do anything to deserve this wonderful blessing, but because Ruth was faithful to her and determined to become as one with Naomi, Naomi experienced God favor through her. That should sound very familiar. In fact, it sounds exactly like Jesus Christ becoming our kinsman-redeemer, saving us from our ill fate, tethering Himself to us (becoming joint heirs with us – Romans 8:17), and allowing us to experience God’s grace and mercy through Him. Not by our own works. Not by our own credentials. But by His sheer love and kindness towards us (Romans 2:8-9).

Its truly amazing how much He loves us. His unconditional love knows no bounds. Thank you, God, for showing us such lovingkindness and revealing Yourself through Your word. The Book of Naomi is just one fantastic example of finding Christ in the scriptures. Next time, we will compare Daniel in the lion’s den to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.