Day 329: Ruth 1-4 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Welcome to the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebaldapartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (upbeat music) - Family, welcome to day 329 today. We are diving into the entire book of Ruth. That's right. We're gonna look at all four chapters of the book of Ruth. And my hope is that you've already read Ruth chapters one, two, three and four. We're talking about a pretty small book of the Bible. So we're gonna get it knocked out in just one day on our Boberine plan. Ruth is packed. And so we're gonna dive right in. Okay, if you haven't done the reading, I'm gonna invite you to stop the video, pause the audio and go get the reading done, okay? It should not take a long time. And my Bible, I mean, we're talking three, four pages max. But what a pivotal, incredible book. And I don't want to steal my thunder for where I'm going today, but Ruth is gonna find her name in the genealogy of Jesus. And so we're gonna keep that as the main focus

that this book is in here because of the meta narrative of scripture. Scripture is mainly concerned about how Yahweh is going to save humans, humans from sin, from our own foolishness, from ourselves, from Satan, how he's going to save, redeem and rescue us. And so redemption is at the heart of this book. And it's easy to get distracted with a bunch of other things that are going on in this book. And we'll kind of talk about those, but we're gonna keep our North Star at, this book is about redemption, okay? Let's dive into some context, okay? The book of Judges, okay? If I'm literally opened up to the end of Judges in the beginning of Ruth and the end of the book of Judges says this, in those days Israel had no king. Everyone did as they saw fit. So the book of Judges is setting us up to need a king, okay? That's the context that Ruth fits in. A lot of people think that the story of Ruth is probably happening somewhere around Judges chapter three. And so when Ruth picks up, it says this, in the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, okay? So there's a famine in the land and this family is gonna go off to the region of Moab. Now, one of the professors that I had in Bible college,

his name is Dan Lewis, he kind of showed us how at the beginning of the book, all the names kind of have a meaning. So Bethlehem is house of bread. That's what the word means, bet is house. Lahem, okay, house of bread. So like Bethel is house of God, right? So Bethlehem, house of bread. A limalek is my God is king. Naomi's name means delight. Malon means sickness and sterility. Killian means consumption. Orpha means back of the net. Ruth's name means friend. Mara, which is what Naomi's gonna change her name to, means bitter. And Boaz means in him is strength. So if you paraphrase the beginning of Ruth and substitute the names for the actual meanings, here's what you get. And this was taught to me by a professor named Dan Lewis, okay? It says this, there was no bread in the house of bread. The man whose king was God took his wife delight and their son's sickness and consumption to Moep. The father and both sons died there leaving three widows, delight back of the neck and friend. When delight heard there was now bread in the house of bread, she was determined to return. Her widow daughters-in-law asked to return with her,

but delight urged them to stay within their own nation. Back of the neck turned back to Moep, but friend swore a solemn oath in Yahweh's name to accompany delight back to the house of bread. Together the two of them arrived at the beginning of the barley harvest. Delight was so devastated by her loss in Moep, she changed her name to bitter. And honestly, that's the context for all the events that are gonna unfold. This family in the middle of a famine goes from Bethlehem to Moep, and then calamity falls upon this family. And this family goes from a husband with two sons whose sons are married to three widows. "Your people will be my people. Your God's gonna be my God." So even while I'm in the middle of context clues, I just wanna say, like God has always had a multi-ethnic vision, like for his people. And you could see it in the stories of Rahab and Joshua. You could see it in the story of Ruth here, where people who are not Israelites are gonna get grafted in to God's covenant. And we'll end this, the teaching today, kind of on just the gospel of grace. Okay, so that's the context, okay? And to kind of wrap up context, really succinctly, what we have at the end of Judges is a need for king. A need for king. Everyone does what is right in their own eyes.

Israel desperately needs a king. What we now have in Ruth is the Lord of Lords, Yahweh, moving chess pieces around on the cosmic board of the universe to get a king. And so how is Ruth going to end? Okay, Ruth is gonna end with a total setup for king. Okay, says this. This then is the family line of Perez. Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram. Ram the father of Amenadab, Amenadab the father of Nashon. Nashon the father of Sam and Sam and the father of Boaz. Okay, Boaz the father of Obed. Obed the father of Jesse and Jesse the father of David. Okay, so the story that we're looking at right now is the story of David's great grandparents. Okay, so this, think about this. By the time we get to Saul who is Israel's choice for a king, not Yahweh's choice for a king, by the time we get to Israel choosing for themselves this wicked king, God had already selected the great grandfather of who He wanted to be king. And so sometimes it's like we want God to do things and we're so impatient that we realize that, or we fail to realize that the God of the universe has already made all of the preparations to give you the thing that you've actually wanted and that you actually need. But in our impatience, we want to rush ahead of the Lord and do things our own way. And so the people end up with Saul who's a wicked king,

but God had been working for generations to get David onto the scene. And so had they just been patient, David would have been their first king instead of having ever experienced anything that has to do with Saul. So that is the plot that judges ends with a need for a king. And by the time we get to the end of Ruth, all preparations have been made for there to be a king. And I want you to know this, okay, that while Ruth and Naomi are in the middle of tragedy, okay, both of their husbands have died, Naomi's sons have died and her husband has died while they're in the middle of death and tragedy and they need a miracle, God is not just going to provide them a miracle, but God is going to use their lives to provide a miracle for Israel who needs a king because so often we are thinking that it's going to be a win loss. God either has to bless Israel or he has to bless Ruth and Naomi. But the overarching theme of the book of Ruth is that God never has to choose whether or not he's going to bless Ruth and Naomi or all of Israel. He is going to bless both Ruth and Naomi with a kinsman Redeemer named Boaz, but also bless Israel with the king they need named David and bless all of humanity with the kinsman Redeemer named Jesus because for God, he's not playing, he's not making you or I play musical chairs for blessings. It's not like, well, there's only two blessings and there's three of us.

No, God can bless Ruth. He can bless Naomi. He can bless Israel. He can bless all of humanity through one story and one family. Okay, so that's all the context we need. Let's dive into some nerdy nuggets because I got a lot of family. The wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere books are sold literally today. I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a book's a million or Amazon or anywhere. Books are sold and grab a copy if you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective. If you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that really. can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is gonna be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. Number one, there's 85 verses in the entire book of Ruth, 23 of those verses directly mention a redeemer. Okay, the word redeemer. So that word redeemer, that's a buzzword for the entire book of Ruth.

Now, when we talk about redemption in the Christian space, for us many times that's like a concept, it's an idea. But in the Bible, redemption is not a concept. It's actually three stories. There's Abraham going into enemies territory to redeem Lot. Then there is Hosea redeeming his prostitute wife named Gomer, okay, paying a price for that which is already his, okay. So the two images that we have for redemption in the Old Testament are Abraham risking his personal safety to go to war with an enemy to physically redeem that which is his family. Second, a husband who's already paid the price to be married, but then pays again for that which he already owns to rescue what is his from the slavery of sin, okay, and bondage. And then we have this story of a kinsman redeemer who Boaz is going to rescue Ruth and Naomi from the brink of poverty, but also infertility that their lineage would not continue. So when we think about redemption in the Christian space that's typically an idea or a concept, but in the Jewish worldview, it's not a concept, it's a set of stories, okay. And so this story is all about redemption. And redemption happens by being brought into family, okay. It's not an individual story, it's a family story. If Ruth and Naomi don't get family, they won't get redemption, okay.

In this culture, widowed women were relegated to a life of poverty, okay. And not only is Ruth widowed, but she's also an immigrant, okay. And so life is going to be very, very hard without a man to actually redeem them, to provide family for them, okay. So, and we'll get to the, at the end, we'll get into like what does providing family actually mean. Now, let's get to the uncovering feet part because what's gonna happen is that Naomi and Ruth are going to devise this plan. Hey, we gotta get Boaz to be the kinsman redeemer. So go down to the threshing floor and, you know, lay at his feet and cover his feet. So, you may not know this, and I'm sorry at this burst your bubble, but feet is a euphemism for genitalia in the Bible, okay. Now, I know people are gonna push back and say, so you saying Jesus was washing the disciples' private parts? No, okay. Every single time feet is mentioned does not mean that there's private parts, okay, involved. So you have to take context into consideration. So when the woman, you know, cried over Jesus' feet and none of them were the oil and the watch with her hair, what was she doing? Was that sexual? No, okay, context. Context is key, okay. Let me give you two examples.

Isaiah chapter seven verse 20, okay. Isaiah chapter seven verse 20, I'm gonna pull it up in logos and we're gonna read that one verse in the NIV, but then we're gonna read it in the NRSV, which is a more accurate translation of the Bible. It says this in chapter seven verse 20. This also should prove to you why you should be reading multiple chapter, like multiple translations of the Bible. Okay, Isaiah chapter seven verse 20 says this, in that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates River, the king of Assyria to shave your head and private parts and cut off your beard also, okay. So the shaving of the head and private parts and beard, okay. So all the hair is gonna be removed, which is a sign of shame, all right. So what's the king of Assyria gonna do? Shave their heads, their private parts and cut off their beard also. Now what the NIV is gonna do with Isaiah chapter seven verse 20 is it's not, it's gonna translate. It's gonna interpret because we're gonna actually get a more accurate translation that didn't interpret. NRSV is going to actually translate accurately from the Hebrew which would probably confuse many of us. It says this, 7 verse 20, "On that day the Lord will shave with a razor hard beyond the river with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet, and will take off the beard as well."

So what NRSV is saying is it's using a common euphemism for male genitalia, feet, okay? Every culture has a euphemism, okay? You know, when someone says I need to go to the bathroom, it's a euphemism. We're not saying I need to go urinate or defecate nodes, I need to go to the bathroom. So feet is a euphemism for sexual reproductive organs. I'll give you one more example, okay? This is 1st sandwich chapter 24 verse 3. It says this is Saul is going to go into a cave to relieve himself, AKA, you know, urinate, defecate, whatever it is, probably the second. But anyway, it says he came to the sheep fold beside the road where there was a cave and Saul went in to relieve himself. All right. Now, again, what the Bible is doing is it's taking the original words and it's not just translating them because it translated them, then it would actually be went into uncover his feet, but it doesn't say that because most of us would be confused if it did. So it interprets. It doesn't just translate, but interprets, okay? So I need everyone to know this. Your Bible translations are also biblical interpretations, okay? It's why you should be reading with multiple translations because each of these translations they're trying to their hardest. They don't want to confuse. So sometimes they are sacrificing the accuracy so that you could actually know what's going on, okay? So it makes sense that in Isaiah chapter 7 verse 20 and the NIV, it says private parts because what the heck does shaving feet mean? You'd have to know from cultural and historical context that feet is a euphemism for genitalia to know that they're going to shave their pubic hair, okay? You'd have to, and how would you know that unless you, I don't know, listen to this podcast or have gone a seminary or read Bible dictionaries all day, like how would you know that?

So don't be mad at the Bible translators because they're doing, they're trying to interpret for you, okay? All that to say, that doesn't mean that every single time the word foot is used that, you know, it's a, you know, it's a sexual innuendo. But when we have uncovering a feet and the fact that Boaz wakes up and like, whoa, girl, what you doing? What you doing down there, okay? And then has her leave before anybody can figure out what's going on because he wants to spare her integrity, okay? And so, you know, she's probably not given him a pedicure, okay? Something, something sexual in nature is probably happening, probably happening. We can't say for certainty, okay? But it's at least possible, which then gets us to the next question. We should not be using or the next issue, I guess. We should not be using biblical characters as moral object lessons. So if you need Ruth to be a virgin until she's married or not engage in fornication in order for you to not engage in fornication, then that's pretty immature. It's like, it's like my son literally yesterday, we were at a restaurant. And his friend who's also for was like swinging on a table. And he said, dead out, is she allowed to do that? And I said, if her dad says she can, I said, but your dad said, you can't. It doesn't matter what she's doing, I'm not her parent. So, you know, in his four year old brain, he's just like, no, we should all be able to do the same thing. And it's a mark of immaturity to say, well, if Ruth was uncovering feet, I want to be out here uncovering feet, like that's just immature. If you need the characters in the Bible to live up to some moral standard so that you would live up to a moral standard, I would actually say, A, that's immature, but B, you don't get the point of the Bible, because the point of the book of Ruth is not to teach you how to get married, it's not to teach you how to get your boas, it's not to teach

you how to date, by the way, there was no dating in this cultural context. So I don't know what you would even apply to your dating life from this book. It's to show you that God had a plan for the redemption of the world and that Jesus is our kinsman, Redeemer. He's a kinsman because he came to earth, but he's a redeemer because he went to the cross. So Boaz is a type and shadow of Jesus. He's a kinsman redeemer. So last kind of nerdy nugget for you. Leverate marriage is something that's outlined in Deuteronomy chapter 25, verses five through six. It says that if a husband or a son has died, that the brother or the closest male relative should take the widow and have children for the deceased brother, okay? So you can see this in Ruth chapter four, verse 17, okay? Ruth and Boaz are gonna have a child, but that child is not gonna be seen as Ruth and Boaz's child because they're having children for Naomi who's a widow. So it says this, chapter four, verse 17. We'll start reading of verse 16 just so we have context. Then Naomi took the child and her arms and cared for him. The women living there said Naomi has a son. Well, really this is like Naomi's grandson, but like who knows like how much blood is even connected, but the point was not for Ruth and Boaz to have children. It was to have children for Naomi. That's what Leverate marriage is all about, okay? And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

So the whole point of this story is to actually talk about how the grandfather of David was born. That's the point, not to teach you how to date, not to teach you how to get your Boaz. Like that's not what this book of the Bible is about. And so often in our selfishness, we twist the scriptures to want them to be about something that they're just not about, okay? Couple more nerdy nuggets for you. The social welfare system in this day and age, which could be found in Leviticus 19, Leviticus 23, and Deuteronomy 24 says that the edges of field should not be harvested, but they should be left there for the poor. And that when the harvesters go one time to get fruit that they shouldn't pass the second time, whatever drops to the ground that you weren't able to get, let poor people come, okay? So that is what Ruth and Naomi are out in Boaz's field doing. And he just coincidentally, they coincidentally start gleaming in a field of someone who could be a kinsman or a demer, which then gets me to my next nerdy nugget, which is there's no such thing as coincidence. One of the things that the Book of Ruth teaches us is that there's no such thing as coincidence. And last but not least, the Book of Ruth is here to really show us that God's always had a multi-ethnic vision. He's always had a multi-ethnic goal for his people, okay? Even though he has to use one group of people

called the people of Israel, he's always had a multi-ethnic vision, which obviously we're going to get to in the New Testament. All right, so emphasis on the poor, caring for the poor, the orphan, the widow, there's also an emphasis on loyalty. Ruth is loyal to Naomi. There's an emphasis on the fact that David is gonna have molybic blood flowing through his veins. And why is this such a heavy emphasis on grace? Well, remember in Numbers chapter 22 to 25, there's this whole incident where Balaam and Balaek are trying to curse Israel, right? That's a mowabite, that's a mowabite scheme. And then what happens, God or the Holy Spirit turns Balaam's curses into blessings. So plan B was to use mowabite and maybe unite women to seduce the men of Israel into worshiping the ball of pure. The incident would then lead to a curse on mowab, which we read in Deuteronomy chapter 23, verses three to six, a curse that is meant that no descendant of mowab up to 10 generations could be part of the assembly of Israel. This basically meant that any descendant of a mowabite could not take part in the civil and religious ceremonies of Israel, so they could not take therefore any position of leadership.

This then is a problem as David is a great grandson of Ruth, a mowabite, so well within the 10 generation ban. And so that's why the story is a story of grace. The story has way more to do with God allowing David who's got mowabite blood in his veins to be king, to be leader than it does about you getting your boas for Christmas, okay? So again, we have to read scripture in context. All right, my time is truth. For the day is that Jesus is our kinsmen redeemer. That's the story that Jesus, He's a kinsman and that he was, you know, unlike the Holy Spirit and unlike God the Father, he took off flesh and blood. He became one of us. He's our kin, but then he's a redeemer because he went to the cross and died for our sins. Boaz is a type and shadow of Jesus Christ. And because of the redemption that we have received, we can be called sons, we could be called daughters, and we could be brought into God's family, the same way that Ruth and Naomi are saved, not just from loneliness, but from poverty and isolation that comes from being disconnected from family. And we have been drafted into God's family. And so the story of redemption that we see here in the book of Ruth is actually reflective of the story of redemption that we get to live out as believers. And that's what the book of Ruth is all about. Tomorrow, we've got the book of lamentations.

We've got date 330 here on the podcast. If you're on the street, I'm proud of you. Even if you're not, I love you. And we'll see if I am going to be the one who's teaching tomorrow. You may have a surprise up our sleeves. Anyway, I'll see you right here tomorrow for Lamentations chapters one and two. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment, share with a friend, and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to thebibledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.