Ruth – The Gentile Bride in Christ’s Lineage
A Moabite widow with no claim on Israel’s God became the great-grandmother of King David and an ancestor of Jesus Christ. Ruth’s story overflows with themes that anticipate the gospel: a Gentile grafted into Israel, redemption through a kinsman, grace given to the undeserving, and hesed—covenant loyalty—transforming tragedy into triumph. Her simple declaration—”thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God”—makes her the pattern for all who leave their former allegiances to follow the God of Israel.
From Moab to Bethlehem
The book of Ruth opens with famine, exile, death, and despair. Elimelech of Bethlehem took his wife Naomi and two sons to Moab to escape hunger. There the sons married Moabite women—Ruth and Orpah. Then Elimelech died, followed by both sons. Naomi was left with two foreign daughters-in-law, no grandchildren, and no future.
When Naomi decided to return to Bethlehem, she urged her daughters-in-law to remain in Moab where they might remarry. Orpah tearfully complied. Ruth refused: “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God” (Ruth 1:16).
This confession is remarkable. Ruth had every reason to stay in Moab—family, familiarity, prospects for marriage. Israel offered her nothing but the stigma of being a foreign widow following another widow. Yet she chose Naomi’s God over Moab’s gods, Naomi’s people over her own people, an uncertain future over comfortable past. She converted.
Ruth’s Moabite identity carried weight. Moab was born of Lot’s incestuous relationship with his daughter. Moabites were excluded from Israel’s assembly “even to their tenth generation” (Deuteronomy 23:3). Ruth came from outside the covenant, barred by birth from entering Israel’s community. Yet grace brought her in.
Gleaning and Redemption
In Bethlehem, Ruth gleaned in the fields to provide for herself and Naomi. Gleaning was a provision for the poor—harvesters were to leave the edges of fields and dropped grain for the destitute. Ruth “happened” to glean in the field of Boaz, a wealthy relative of Naomi’s deceased husband. Providence directed her steps.
Boaz noticed Ruth and treated her with unusual kindness. He protected her from harassment, invited her to drink with his workers, and instructed his men to leave extra grain for her. When Ruth asked why he showed such favor to a foreigner, Boaz answered: “It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine husband… The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust” (Ruth 2:11-12).
Naomi recognized opportunity. Boaz was a near kinsman—one who might serve as a goel, a kinsman-redeemer. This legal role involved purchasing back family property and raising up children in a deceased relative’s name. Naomi sent Ruth to the threshing floor to request Boaz’s redemption: “Spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman” (Ruth 3:9).
The language echoes Boaz’s own blessing—Ruth had come under Yahweh’s wings; now she asked Boaz to spread his wing (same Hebrew word) over her. The kinsman-redeemer would become her husband. She appealed to the very grace he had invoked.
The Kinsman-Redeemer
Boaz faced a complication: a closer relative had first claim as kinsman-redeemer. At the city gate, Boaz presented the situation. The closer kinsman initially agreed to redeem the family land. But when Boaz added, “What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess” (Ruth 4:5), the man declined. Redeeming the land was acceptable; marrying a Moabite was not.
Boaz gladly accepted what the other refused. He purchased the property, married Ruth, and through their union raised up seed for the deceased. The elders blessed the marriage, comparing Ruth to Rachel and Leah who “did build the house of Israel” (Ruth 4:11). The Moabite stranger became a matriarch of Israel.
The kinsman-redeemer role pictures Christ’s redemption. Like Boaz, Christ was a near kinsman—God becoming man to be related to those He would redeem. Like Boaz, Christ paid the full price—not with silver but with His blood. Like Boaz, Christ took a foreign bride—the church drawn from every nation. Like Boaz, Christ was willing when others were not—He embraced the cost that others spurned.
Ruth in Christ’s Genealogy
The book closes with genealogy: Ruth bore Obed; Obed begat Jesse; Jesse begat David. The Moabite widow became David’s great-grandmother. Matthew’s Gospel opens with the same genealogy, placing Ruth among Jesus’ ancestors—one of only four women mentioned in that lineage.
The other three women—Tamar, Rahab, and Bathsheba—also carried irregular or foreign elements. Tamar dressed as a prostitute; Rahab was a Canaanite prostitute; Bathsheba was taken in adultery. Together with Ruth the Moabitess, these women demonstrate that God’s grace transgresses human categories. The Messiah descended from the impure, the outsider, the scandalous.
Ruth’s inclusion in Christ’s lineage fulfilled the broader pattern of Gentile incorporation. The Messiah would bless all nations, as promised to Abraham. Having Ruth in His ancestry anticipated Christ’s mission to gather people from every tribe and tongue. The Moabite great-grandmother foreshadowed the Moabite (and Egyptian and Greek and Roman) believers who would worship her descendant.
Your Place in the Story
Ruth’s confession—”thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God”—marks every genuine conversion. She left Moab’s gods for Yahweh; you leave whatever gods you’ve served for Christ. She joined Israel despite her foreign origin; you join Christ’s people despite your sinful past. She found a kinsman-redeemer who paid the price; you find in Christ the Redeemer who paid infinitely more.
Like Ruth, you come with nothing to offer. She was a widow, a foreigner, a member of a despised people. She brought no dowry, no status, no credentials. She came simply as she was—poor, needy, trusting. And Boaz received her gladly. Christ receives sinners gladly—the poor, the outcast, those with nothing to bring but their need.
The book’s opening words—”in the days when the judges ruled”—place Ruth in Israel’s darkest period. It was a time of moral chaos, spiritual apostasy, and national disintegration. Yet amid that darkness, God was working through a Moabite widow to produce the line of David and ultimately Christ. Grace flourishes in unlikely places.
Has God placed you in a field where you’re gleaning provision? Do you recognize a kinsman-redeemer willing to take your cause as His own? Ruth’s story is not merely ancient history but living pattern. The God who brought her from Moab to Bethlehem, from widowhood to marriage, from poverty to inheritance, works the same transformations today. Come under His wings. Trust His providence. Find in Christ what Ruth found in Boaz—and infinitely more.