Outsiders: Foreign


The book of Ruth begins with a famine in Israel.  Elimelech, a native of Bethlehem, moves to Moab to find food.  He takes with him his wife Naomi, and sons Mahlon and Kilion.  Elimelech dies in Moab, but Naomi still has her sons.  They married Moabite women named Orpah and Ruth.

Naomi's life takes another tragic turn when her sons die. About that time, she hears the famine is over in Israel.  She decides to return home and pleads with her daughters-in-law to return to their homes.  But they want to go with her.  She pled with them again, and Orpah leaves.  But Ruth continues to cling to her, speaking the unforgettable words of devotion recorded in Ruth 1:16-17. (It's best in the King James Version!)

You probably know what happens next.  Naomi returns home, a bitter and grieving woman.  But she instructs Ruth to go a field and glean grain for them.  As God works it out, it turns out to be the field of Boaz, a relative of Elimelech.  That makes him a kinsman-redeemer, someone who has responsibility to Elimelech's family.

Boaz is attracted to Ruth and provides for her.  After some drama, they get married and have a son.  After the son is born, they place him on Naomi's lap.  They name him Obed, and as Naomi tends to her newborn grandson, she moves from bitterness to blessing.

Then, we learn something surprising.  Obed will be the father of Jesse, and Jesse will be the father of David the greatest king of Israel!  We can say without this foreigner Ruth coming into Israel's family, there would have been no Obed, no Jesse, no King David, and ultimately, no Christ!

The Israelites always had a process by which foreigners could join God's family.  It was extensive, but some Gentiles took it.  If they went through the process, they were just as much a Jew as one who was born that way!

The Lord Jesus established his church as a body in which all were welcome, Jews and Gentiles.  Yet it would take time for his church to learn this.  Some Jewish Christ followers were reluctant to include Gentiles in the church unless they first became Jews.  In books like Ephesians, Paul said there should be no wall in the church between Jews and Gentiles because all were saved the same way: through faith in Christ!

The church should be a body in which all are welcome, insider or stranger, home or foreign.  The book of Ruth tells us when we do that, wonderful things can happen.  Even the birth of a king!

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