The Gospel According to Ruth: Gentiles Grafted In

Johnathan Arnold preaches on the Book of Ruth, highlighting how Ruth is a type of the Gentiles being grafted in, and how the whole story is an allegory of God's plan to incorporate Gentiles through Christ.

Transcript

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Ruth highlights an often neglected aspect of the gospel. Jesus does not just bring us to God, but he brings us also into his people, the people of Israel.

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The book of Ruth is just four chapters, but it's a beautiful and a powerful book, a book that's beloved by many, because it tells how a woman from the nation of Moab became part of God's people, Israel, and became the great-grandmother of King David and thus of Jesus Christ. Ruth is included in the genealogy of Matthew in Matthew chapter one. Ruth is the most incredible account that we have in the Old Testament of a Gentile, a non-Israelite, or a non-Jew becoming part of God's people, Israel. And her story foreshadows God's plan to bring in all the Gentiles, all nations through Jesus Christ. Ruth is introduced in verse four of the book as a Moabite, a woman from the nation of Moab. And it's easy to maybe pass over that if you don't know much about the Moabites. And so let's just rewind for a minute all the way back to the book of Genesis, to Abraham and to Abraham's nephew Lot. Genesis 19 tells us that Lot's firstborn daughter got her father drunk and lay with him. And this wicked incest resulted in the birth of a son named Moab. Moab's descendants, the Moabites, then became opponents of Abraham's descendants, the Israelites. When Israel was fleeing from slavery in Egypt, the Moabites refused to show them hospitality, which was a big deal in the ancient world. Deuteronomy 23, 4 tells us that. Instead, Balak, king of Moab, hires Balaam, this false prophet, to curse Israel. And if you know the story, Balaam ends up actually blessing Israel, and he he gives a prophecy. He says, A star will come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and it shall crush the forehead of Moab. Now, anytime you hear about foreheads getting crushed, you should be thinking Genesis 3:15, right? The seed of the woman will be in enmity with the seed of the serpent and crush his head. And so this is depicting Moabites as the seed of the serpent that's going to get crushed by the seed of the woman. Talk about enmity and hostility. When Israel settles in a city in the plains of Moab, Numbers 25, 1 says that the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. In other words, they took these Moabite women who were pagans who didn't even believe in Yahweh, took them as their wives because they were beautiful. Didn't care about their religion, didn't care about their faith, were willing to compromise that for these beautiful women. And as a result, Israel turned to Moabite gods, especially Baal. And God punishes Israel with a plague that killed 24,000 people. And then later, Eglon, the king of Moab, attacks Israel and subjugates them for 18 years. That's a long time. Okay, so needless to say, there's a little bit of history here. And the point is that there's a lot of hostility that's been built up across the years. Enmity between Israel and Moab. You couldn't have a Gentile people that was more at odds with Israel. And when Israel prepares to enter the promised land, Moses says, No Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. No Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever. And then he says, You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever. Moabite was to be completely ignored and cut off from any dealings with Israel. And this is where the book of Ruth comes in the timeline, because in the providence of God, a famine strikes, and it forces an Israelite man named Elimelech and his wife Naomi to flee in search of food. And where do they end up? But back in the land of Moab. And two of their sons, they probably shouldn't have done this, but they did. They married Moabite women. Orpah and Ruth. Then, tragically, Elimelech and both of his sons die, leaving Naomi alone with nothing but her daughter-in-law. Orpah returns to her people. She goes back to the Moabites and to her gods, we're told in Ruth 1.15, back to Baal worship. But Ruth refuses to leave her mother-in-law. And that's where the text that we read comes in, saying, Your people shall be my people and your God my God. Now you might just think Ruth is loyal to Naomi, which is good, but she's just taking Yahweh as her God kind of willy-nilly. I'll just, whatever your God is, I'll take your God. But I don't think that's the case because in verse 17, Ruth appeals to Yahweh, and then she's called a worthy woman later in the book, and Boaz says she has taken refuge under Yahweh's wings. So I think that Ruth genuinely feared and trusted the one true God of Israel, Yahweh. She wasn't just paying lip service to him. Now, uh Ruth is eager to provide for her widowed mother-in-law, and she says, I'll go and glean. And the law uh provided for widows and sojourners from other countries and poor people to go around to the edges of the fields, the corners and edges of the fields of Israel, and to pluck any grain that had not been harvested. It was to be left there for them, according to Israelite law, and then to go through the field and look for any dropped stalks of grain that they had left behind. And so there she is gleaning the grain in the field of a man named Boaz, who is a relative of her late father-in-law in Limelech. And much to Ruth's surprise, Boaz notices her. Imagine what it would have been like to be a foreigner gleaning in some wealthy Israelite's field. I mean, that's pretty intimidating. If you've been to other countries and you imagine now here you are, and here this wealthy Israelite man takes notice of you and comes over to you. He charges all the young men, don't touch her. You treat her right. And he tells Ruth, you keep gleaning in my fields. You don't have to worry. You can get as much as you need. I'll make sure you're protected. And then he says, You can drink freely from any water that my men draw. They know that when they draw water, if you ask for it, they have to give it to you. You can drink freely from my water my water. And Ruth falls to her face and bows to the ground and says, Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should even notice me? Since I am a foreigner. Then at supper time, Boaz tells Ruth come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine. And she ate until she was satisfied. Boaz not only gives her the water of life, but brings her to his table where she can eat with him and be satisfied. When Naomi finds out, needless to say, she is absolutely thrilled, she explains to Ruth, look, because there's a family connection, he's one of our redeemers. Which, under the law, there were certain men who, if they had property and were established and had money, they had a legal responsibility to redeem or buy back the property of their relatives that had died and maybe left the widow and wouldn't be able to sustain the land to keep the land in the family. And they would also marry the widows. And so Naomi says to Ruth, go and propose, basically propose marriage to him, which was a pretty bold thing to do. And so she goes, and sure enough, she says to Boaz, spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer. And Boaz ultimately takes Ruth as his wife. And in chapter 4, verse 10, Boaz declares, Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Malan, I have bought, I have bought to be my wife. Bought in the legal sense of the language of redemption. And the people of Israel and the elders of Israel pray that Ruth would be like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel, and that Boaz would act worthily in Ephrata and be renowned in Bethlehem, that his house will be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman. And the book ends as we read by recording that they had a son who became the father ultimately of the great king David. And the women say that God has raised up for her a redeemer. Now Ruth is a beautiful story. It shows us about loyalty, it shows us about faith. It teaches us a lot of principles. But when we read Ruth in light of the New Testament, I think we see that the deepest meaning of the story of Ruth is seen in how it is a type of God's plan to bring Gentiles, non-Jews like you and me, into God's people. You know, you read the Old Testament and it's about Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel. Well, there's a lot of nations and a lot of peoples in the world. There's one little nation. And Ruth is a hint, it's a foreshadowing that it was never only about Israel, but that God's plan was always, as he told Abraham, to make Israel become a source of blessing to all peoples. And Ruth is a depiction of how that happens. Her story is an allegory of God's plan through Jesus Christ to bring the Gentiles into his one covenant people. We see in the book numerous correspondences between the story of Ruth and God's inclusion of the Gentiles. Chandler read Ephesians chapter 2 into chapter 3, and wow, does that description ever fit the Moabites? They were alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in the world. There was a dividing wall of hostility between Israel and Moab. And yet, Ruth, a Moabite and a type of all the Gentiles, was brought nearer to Yahweh and incorporated into his covenant people most profoundly by her marriage and union with Boaz. Boaz is described as spreading his wings over Ruth, and that very same description is used earlier to describe how Yahweh has spread his wings over Ruth. And so it amplifies this picture of Boaz as a godlike figure, as a Christ figure in the story. That as Ruth is a type of the Gentiles being brought in. And by the way, that's you and me, right? We were the foreigners. We were the outsiders. So as Ruth is a type of Gentiles, Boaz is a type of Jesus Christ. Ruth is bought by Boaz and incorporated into Israel. Brothers and sisters, Jesus has spread his wings over us, his outstretched wings, his arms on the cross, and he has bought us by his blood. He has paid the redemption price so that we can be part of his bride, the church. Jesus, our Redeemer, is the one who brings all nations near and kills the hostility, so that we are no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. As Boaz protected this vulnerable Moabite woman, provided for her, gave water to her, served her with bread and wine. Jesus protects believing Gentiles who take their refuge in him. He serves us with the one bread and one cup of the Lord's Supper at His table, which is a sign of our oneness in Christ, that now there is neither Jew nor Moabite, but all are one in Christ Jesus. We are united as one covenant people. At his table we eat until we are satisfied. Foreigners are not despised, but find favor in Christ's eyes when they humbly seek his God and Father. The law was given through Moses. No Moabite may enter the assembly. But grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Moabites and all nations are welcome in the assembly of the church. Christ seeks the peace and eternal prosperity of those of whom Moses once said, You shall not seek their peace and prosperity. They're accursed. Christ, the star out of Jacob and the scepter out of Israel, has risen as Balaam foretold. And make no mistake, in his second coming, he will crush the forehead of any Moabite and anyone who resists him and rejects him and opposes his kingdom. But because he first crushed the head of the serpent on the cross, of Satan on the cross, he offers redemption to any Moabite, to any Gentile, to any outsider like you and me that will seek refuge in his fields. Through Ruth's descendant, Jesus Christ, the house of Israel has been built up, has it not? Far more than Rachel and Leah could have imagined. Through the Savior born in Bethlehem, I think Boaz's name has been renowned in Bethlehem and far exceeded that of Perez. Through the greater King David, many sons have been raised up from the stones for Father Abraham. Brothers and sisters, Ruth highlights an often neglected aspect of the gospel. Jesus does not just bring us to God, which is ultimate, of course, and most important, but he brings us also into his people, the people of Israel. The Savior does not go out from Israel and save Gentiles and make them into a second people. He incorporates them into his people, Israel, as Ruth was incorporated into Israel. In Ephesians 2, as we heard, Paul says that we Gentiles were once separated not only from Jesus, but from the commonwealth of Israel. He then says that we who were once far off have been brought near not only to Christ, but to the commonwealth. In Romans 11, Paul uses another illustration. We were branches on a totally different tree. Israel was an olive tree, and we were some wild briarbush. We were branches on a completely different tree, but we have been grafted in. I was watching videos of this again the other week. It just popped up on social media actually. Amazing people taking branches. In fact, there's a guy that goes around through forests, finds broken branches, cuts a slice, takes a branch from another tree, the sapling that he grows in a nursery, and takes up a branch and actually inserts it in, wraps it, and that branch grows into the tree. So you can see a little line where it was done, but it looks like it's just part of the tree. We've actually been made part of God's one covenant people, Israel. How? Because we've been united with the greatest branch, the branch of Jesse, the greater King David, and then made part of Israel. That means that everything that was promised to Israel and Abraham is now ours through our union with Jesus. Paul goes on to say in Ephesians 3 that this grafting in, this union of Jews and Gentiles as one people, one tree, is, quote, the mystery of Christ. To misunderstand this is to misunderstand the very mystery of Christ. He says in verse 6, this mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs. What's a fellow heir? It means I inherit the same thing as ethnic sons of Abraham. The promises are equally mine, members of the same body. I'm as much an Israelite as any ethnically born Israelite. And partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Israel's Messiah is my Messiah. Moses said in Deuteronomy 23, no Moabite may enter the assembly of Israel. You catch that language of assembly? In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, assembly is ecclesia. Ecclesia. And that is the Greek word that is used in the New Testament for the church. Church simply means assembly. The very name church is derived from one of the most common ways of referring to Israel in the Old Testament. They are not two separate peoples. The church is not a completely new, second or separate people. It is the assembly of Israel expanded in Jesus Christ to incorporate believing Gentiles. Now we know that in the Old Testament this was rare. The inclusion of Gentiles like Ruth was a very rare thing. We have a few examples, like Rahab went and lived among them, right? As far as we know, her and her descendants were Israelites forever. But that was a rare thing. That's why when it happens, we're like, wow, this is amazing. But that was just a picture of what God always intended to do on a massive, massive scale through the coming of his son. The roofs of the world, you and me, are no longer second-class citizens. We are full and equal members of the covenant family because Jesus Christ, our Boaz, has taken notice of us. And we say, Lord, how, why have you taken notice of us? Sinful, selfish, didn't seek you. Why would you take notice of us? But in his love and his mercy, he notices us and he marries us, and we become part of his people through our great kinsman Redeemer. In the fourth century, the great Ambrose of Milan, who was the bishop who was instrumental in leading St. Augustine to be converted as a Christian, he preached this way. He said, Ruth exceeded the limits of the law. In other words, the law said, No, no Moabite shall enter. She exceeded the limits of the law. And listen to what he says and entered the church. What's he referring to there? Old Testament Israel. He called It the church and was made an Israelite and deserved to be counted among the honored figures in the Lord's genealogy. David, Abraham, and Ruth the Moabitus. Wow, right? Genealogy of our Savior. Chosen for kinship of mind, not of body. She didn't have Abraham's blood flowing through her, but she had the faith of Father Abraham, and therefore she's counted a kinsman. That's what Paul says in Romans 4, and in Galatians chapter 2, and 3 and 4. He says, She is a great example for us because she prefigures all of us who were gathered from the nations for the purpose of joining the church, the ecclesia, the assembly of the Lord. We Gentiles have been made Israelites. We have become Abraham's offspring because we have become one spirit with the Lord Jesus, who is the ultimate offspring of Abraham. In Christ, Romans 2, 28 and 29 say, we are truly Jews. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are our fathers. Israel's story is our story. The Old Testament is our book. The promises to Abraham become our promises. We are the blessed of God that people must bless in order to be blessed. And if people curse us, they will be cursed. And this is good news for Gentiles like you and me. It's what I like to call the gospel according to Ruth. The good news according to Ruth. Brothers and sisters, this morning, if we want to share in all the blessings of Ruth, we have to start by having the faith of Ruth. I think Ruth shows us the way when she falls on her face. Gotta bow down to Christ and just say, Why have I found favor in your eyes? That humble recognition I'm a sinner, I'm unworthy, and we seek refuge in him. Refuge under his wings, his outstretched arms on the cross. For there is salvation in no one else. There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Then we've got to live our lives to make his name renowned in Israel and to the ends of the earth. For he is the restorer of life and the ultimate worthy man, as Boaz was called. As the psalmist says, blessed are all who take refuge in him.

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And all God's people said, Amen. Thank you for listening to the Holy Joy Sermon podcast. Our labors for a holy, happy church are supported by generous listeners like you. Please pray about partnering with us at holyjoys.org forward slash donate.