Day 8 – Thursday -- The Book of Ruth

Day 8 – Thursday

The Book of Ruth

The Book of Ruth is about Ruth. And Naomi. And Orpah. (Let’s get this out of the way: Oprah Winfrey was named after Orpah; but they misspelled the name on her birth certificate.)

Here’s the story. Naomi and her husband are Jews. They have two sons who both marry women who are Moabites. The husband and the sons die. That leaves three women: one Jew and two Moabites. Naomi plans to return to Judah (they had been in Moab because of a famine). Ruth, out of loyalty, decides to go with her. They go to Judah. Ruth hangs around a wheat field to get the leftovers for food. A man named Boaz owns the field. Ruth flirts with Boaz and they get married. Boaz (a Jew) marries Ruth (a Moabite). It so happens that Ruth becomes the great grandmother of King David.

This little pamphlet is written to remind the zealously nationalistic Jews that King David himself had non-Jewish blood. Therefore, let’s not be so xenophobic.

You probably recognize these words of Ruth:

Where you go, I will go; 

where you lodge, I will lodge; 

your people shall be my people, 

and your God my God. (1.16)

The Book of Ruth is a love story—a double love story—i.e., Ruth’s love for her mother-in-law, and the love of Ruth and Boaz. But the larger story is about God’s love for all people, not just one nation or one race.

Why is it that people get so uppity about their own country or their own race? And why is it that Christians so often forget that Jesus was a Jew? And why does skin color matter so much? Why can’t we see our common humanity and treat each other as sisters and brothers of the human race? Huh?

Finish this: I can broaden by circle of friends to include people of other races or religions by…