If you are following The Plan you should have completed the Book of Ruth.  (You should have completed it a few days a go, but alas, I am behind blogging once again).

What a difference!  We just completed reading through Joshua and Judges - and the Lord's anger burning against the Israelites over their disobedience and unfaithfulness...and then we read the Book of Ruth.

According to one resource the Book of Ruth "tells nothing either of cleanliness or of uncleanliness, neither of prohibition or permission. For what purpose then was it written? To teach how great is the reward of those who do deeds of kindness."

How refreshing.  No mass violence - like putting entire cities to the sword.  No personal violence - like driving tent pegs through Sisera's temple.  Just a story of people in this time of great turbulence acting with kindness and compassion towards one another.  Ruth stands in stark contrast to the books preceding it.

No wonder it is one of the most read and most loved books in the Bible.   Just a few comments:

There is the great statement of faith from Ruth (a Moabite women) to Naomi :  "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."

It is interesting that Ruth is a Moabite who essentially converts – “your God will be my God.”  It reminds me of the story in Act (Ch.10) about  Cornelius – who become the first non-Jew gentile to convert to Christ.  Not sure why, but it does.

In Bible commentaries, there is much made about the concept of the “Kinsman-redeemer” in the Book of Ruth, as well as the concept of Hesed, which means “loving kindness.”  Look them up – interesting reading.

And of course, we get the family lineage from Boaz to David.   And David is an ancestor of Jesus Christ, which makes Ruth (a Moabite!) a forebear of Jesus and one of only four women mentioned in the lineage of Jesus.

Boaz, father of Obed

Obed, father of Jesse

Jesse, father of David

David, ancestor of Mary

Mary, mother of Jesus

Blessings.

Keep Reading.

Pray.