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Old Testament: Ruth

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Old Testament: Ruth

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Today we’re going to finish talking about the five scrolls, which are Esther, Ruth, Lamentations, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes. You’ll remember that Esther is about Esther, our Jewish Heroine who saves her people from Xerxes the jerksy and his awful advisor Haman. Lamentations is a book of laments, in the form of acrostic poetry. Song of Songs is the other scroll besides Esther that doesn’t mention God. Song of Songs is mostly about kisses and things related to kisses. And Ecclesiastes is the wisdom of someone named Kohelot. The five scrolls are short and beautiful, and in a minute we’re going to start talking about my favorite of the five, Ruth.But first, before we do, a word on organization of the Bible overall, and of these books In particular. Ruth, the eponymous hero of Ruth, is the great grandmother of King David. So when Christians were sorting books, instead of putting it with the other writings, it was kind of organized chronologically. That is to say, it’s sandwiched between the book of Judges, which chronicles the period before Israel had Kings, and the book of I Samuel, in which we meet the first and kings of Israel, Saul, and David, and learn of their interactions with Samuel, who anoints both of them.So in terms of overall organization, we have the Torah or the Law, which is the period from Adam and Eve through Moses. Moses brings everyone out of Egypt, but never enters Canaan, he hands off the reins to Joshua, who takes the Hebrews into Canaan, don’t worry we’ll learn more about this later, but after they enter the land, there’s a period where there are judges but no kings, described in the book of Judges. So the Torah or the Law are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Then Joshua, Judges, Ruth, like Lyle Lovett’s fourth album. That makes Ruth the eighth book in the Bible as we typically count it. Chronologically, it puts Ruth right on the edge between the period when Israel is governed by Judges, and when it’s governed by Kings. Samuel is the final Judge, and Ruth’s great grandson David is the second king, who’s just a boy when he begins his journey. The point there being that Ruth and Samuel are probably about the same vintage.Does that all make sense? Thematically this scroll is part of the writings, but we put it chronologically sandwiched in with the prophets between the judges and the kings. Hopefully the way we’ve approached this doesn’t cause confusion, but I think it’s more fun to encounter the scrolls somewhat together even though they’re all different in chronology and style.So what kind of a scroll is Ruth? Well for starters the story is set hundreds of years before Esther, but they were probably actually written pretty close to one another. in her story, Esther is a Jewish woman in Persia. Ruth is also a foreigner, but the opposite kind - a non-Jew in ancient Israel, and at the beginning of her story, instead of having just ascended to be queen, she’s just become destitute.In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion.They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died,and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.Strong start, right? I told Dan’l earlier that it would be a feminist story, certainly all the main characters are women and most of the men in the story die in those first two paragraphs But it’s also a feminist story set in a culture where women don’t have a great deal of autonomy. Which I suppose is why the author would have killed off all the men.The story has a few elements that are interesting to consider. It features the marriage of a Jew and a non-Jew, which might have been controversial when it was written. Same as Esther, actually. But Ruth is also a beautiful story of friendship. The other sister-in-law is named Orpah and here’s her brief but lovely story:Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons—would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.Ruth clung to her. Here’s one brief side note about the story of Orpah, her name is spelled O-R-P-A-H, just like Oprah, except with the p and the r reversed. The funny thing is that Oprah Winfrey’s birth ...

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