Even if you are not Jewish you can answer God's call and be devoted to Israel and her people -- just like Ruth. This study of the Book of Ruth details the prophetic significance of the book and how it relates to Believers today.

Naomi, wife of Elimelech, left the Promised Land to live for awhile in the country of Moab. There, in exile, Naomi suffered the loss of most of her family – her husband and both her sons. As such, Naomi may represent grieving, bitter Israel – the many Jews who suffered persecution and hardship in the lands of their exile. Indeed, for many Jews of Eastern Europe, their entire families perished in the Holocaust. Some of the survivors have returned to the land of Israel, believing, as did Naomi:

That the Lord’s hand has gone out against her. (Ruth 1:13)

Naomi was bound, through covenant, to two Gentile women, wives of her two dead sons. One was named Orpah and the other Ruth. Jews and Christians are also joined (whether they want to admit it or not) through covenant with the God of Israel and through the Messiah. The New Covenant tells us that those who are ‘Gentiles by birth, who used to be excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world, are now included as fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household (through the blood of the Jewish Messiah).’(Ephesians 2:11,19) Therefore, Ruth and Orpah may represent two types of the Christian Church. Both are technically bound to Israel through covenant, but notice the two responses.

Orpah in Hebrew means ‘back of the neck’. This daughter in law wept and kissed her mother-in-law goodbye before departing, at Naomi’s insistence, to her own people and her own gods. There is a portion of the Christian Church, even that which professes love for Israel, which is only prepared to go so far with her. They are more comfortable with their own people and with their own paganized interpretation and worship of God. And yes, sometimes it is because the Jewish people push the well-meaning Christians away. But Ruth, whose name means ‘friend or comrade’, decided to stay with her widowed mother-in-law, despite her grief and her bitterness. Nothing could dissuade her from her complete devotion to Naomi. She clung to her, pleading:

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. (Ruth 1:16)

Notice that Ruth pledged her allegiance to the people of Israel even before binding herself to the God of Israel. How many people today, who have bound themselves to the Lord through the Messiah, could claim the same? Here in the land of Israel, I personally know of several ‘Ruths’, both male and female. These are people, Gentiles by birth, aware of their intimate link with Israel and the Jewish people through covenant, who have pledged their utter devotion unto the end. They live here for no other reason than to stand with and bless the Jewish people, even through hardship and sacrifice. I know of others who do the same in other nations. There exist so many others who stand as ‘Watchmen on the walls’ all around the world who:

Give God no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth. (Isaiah 62:6-7)

The Spirit of God is planting a supernatural love in the hearts of many Christians for Israel and the Jewish people. If you are reading this, you are probably one of them. Halleluyah! Many others, though, who represent Orpah, need to become aware of the significance of their choice to ‘kiss Naomi goodbye’.

When Naomi finally realized how determined Ruth was to go with her, she finally stopped urging her to leave. Jewish people may reject the offers of friendship from Christians due to fear and mistrust, but when they see the sincerity and determination of the Gentile Christian to love the Jewish people, despite all their bitterness, their resistance may gradually melt away. Naomi lashes out, as do many Jewish people today against God, believing that He has made their lives very bitter. Secular Israelis, especially, who have been through so much war, terrorism and bloodshed, believe that God has afflicted them; that it is the Almighty who has brought so much misfortune upon them (1:20-21). It is the role of the Christian, those who know the Messiah and the Word of God, to bring comfort to His people (Isaiah 40:1-2).

Boaz, as kinsman-redeemer in the book of Ruth represents Yeshua, our redeemer. Boaz protects Ruth and makes sure she is provided for. When she asks why she, a foreigner, a Gentile, has found favor in Boaz’s eyes, what does he reply?

I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law…May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. (Ruth 2:10-12)

Do not think that the Lord does not take notice of those who offer kindness, mercy, and comfort to the Jewish people (and those who do not). Read Matthew 25:31 to the end of the chapter to discern how the Lord separates the sheep and the goats in the final judgement. Who does He declare righteous and who is cursed and damned? In this portion of scripture, the Lord’s selection depends upon what one has or has not done for the least of His brothers and sisters. In this context, when Yeshua walked on earth, He states His mission as only towards the ‘lost sheep of the House of Israel’ (Matthew 15:24); therefore, these brethren He refers to here are the Jewish people. Who were the only ones saved when Joshua and his men destroyed all of Jericho? It was Rahab and her family. Why? Certainly it was not due to her righteousness or morality – she was a prostitute. No, kindness was shown to her because he showed kindness to Israel by helping the spies to escape (Josh 2:12). One’s actions or apathy towards Israel may become an exceedingly serious issue in the days to come.

Ruth asked Boaz, her kinsman-redeemer, to spread the corner of his garment over her (3:9). This seems like a lovely, romantic gesture, but unless we understand the original Hebrew text, we miss the spiritual significance of this episode. Ruth actually asks Boaz to take her under his wing, since he is her redeemer. This is an act of covenant.

In Ezekiel 16:8, the Lord says He spread His wing over the woman, thus entering into covenant with her.

I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” says the Lord God.

Yes, those of us – Jew or Gentile – who have taken refuge under the mighty, protective wing of the Lord, our Redeemer, have become the special, treasured possession of God. It is all too easy to look upon our own nakedness and sin before the Lord, and forget His awesome, redeeming love. Even the people who have despised His oath and broken the covenant will be redeemed:

Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. (Ez. 16:60)

Some people believe Israel to be lost and damned, but the Lord, Israel’s redeemer, promises to make atonement for us and to bring Israel into an everlasting covenant of peace (Isa. 54:7-10).

The story of Ruth also has a happy ending. Boaz marries Ruth and together, give life to a son whom they name Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David (4:17). This union of Jew and devoted Gentile, then, produces a child in the lineage of King David and the Messiah of the World. Naomi’s womb was barren. She was unable to conceive new life.

But Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. The women said, 'Naomi has a son.' (Ruth 4:16-17)

Israel, in its present spiritual condition, is unable to conceive new life in her own womb. Bitter, grieving, survivors of exile, persecution and Holocaust, they say:

Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off. (Ez. 37:11)

I sense in the people of Israel this heaviness, hopelessness, and spiritual oppression. But God has promised that these dry bones will live! First, he will bring the Jewish people back to the land of Israel. This He is doing – re-gathering the exiles of Israel from all four corners of the earth. But God also promises to put His Spirit in the people so that they will live and so that they will know Him (Ez. 37:14).

I believe that God is looking to and fro over the earth for a Ruth – for the non-Jew devoted to the God and people of Israel – in order to give birth to new life and lay it in the lap of tired, worn-out Israel. This can only be accomplished through fervent intercessory prayer for the spiritual restoration of the nation of Israel. Will you answer the call of God to this noble and privileged position?

Hannah and her husband Radek made Aliyah (immigrated to Israel) in December of 1998, and now live in Jerusalem. Their ministry has grown out the desire of so many, (mostly non-Jewish) people to reconnect with their truly Biblical roots in the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua. You can find out more about D'var Emet Ministries at http://www.outofzion.com/.

Copyright 2002