The Gospel According to Ruth: Gentiles Grafted In

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The Book of Ruth records how a woman from Moab became part of Israel and the great-grandmother of King David (and thus part of the genealogy of Jesus). Ruth is the most profound account of a Gentile (non-Israelite) becoming part of God’s people in the Old Testament. Her story foreshadows God’s plan for the mass ingrafting of Gentiles through Christ—a plan “which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations” (Eph. 3:4).

“Your People Shall Be My People”

Ruth’s identity as a “Moabite” (Ruth 1:4) is central to the story. To fully appreciate this, we must go all the way back to Abraham’s nephew Lot. Lot’s firstborn daughter got him drunk and lay with him, a wicked and incestuous act which resulted in the birth of a son named Moab (Gen. 19:34–38). Moab’s descendants, the Moabites, then became opponents of Abraham’s descendants, the Israelites. When Israel left Egypt, the Moabites refused to show Israel hospitality (Deut. 23:4). Instead, Balak king of Moab hired Balaam to curse Israel (Num. 22:4). Balaam ended up prophesying that “a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab” (Num. 24:17), an allusion to the enmity between the offspring of the woman and the offspring of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). When Israel settled in Shittim, a city in the plains of Moab, “the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab” (Num. 25:1). Israel turned to the Moabite gods, especially Baal, and God punished Israel with a plague that killed 24,000 people (Num. 25:2–9). Later, Eglon, the king of Moab, attacked Israel and subjugated them for 18 years (Judg. 3:12–30).

The enmity between Israel and Moab was great. When Israel prepared to enter the land, Moses instructed, “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” (Deut. 23:3). Moab was to be completely cut off: “You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever” (Deut. 23:6).

In God’s providence, a famine forced an Israelite man named Elimelech and his wife Naomi to flee to find food in the land of Moab. Their two sons married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. Tragically, both Elimelch and his sons died, leaving Naomi alone with her daughters-in-law. Orpah returned to her people, the Moabites, “and to her gods” (Ruth 1:15)—that is, to Baal worship. But Ruth refused to leave her mother-in-law, saying, “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). Ruth appeals to Yahweh (Ruth 1:17) and is then depicted as “a worthy woman” (Ruth 3:11) who has taken refuge under Yahweh’s wings (Ruth 2:12), which suggests that Ruth truly feared and trusted Yahweh, and was not merely paying lip service to him because of her affection for Naomi.

The Redeemer

The law provided for widows like Ruth to gather grain from the corners or edges of Israelite fields and to pick up dropped stalks (Lev. 19:9–10; Deut. 24:19), so Ruth went to glean in the field of Boaz, a relative of her late father-in-law Elimelech. Boaz notices her, charges the young men not to touch her, and tells Ruth to continue gleaning in his fields and to drink freely from the water that his men draw (Ruth 2:9). Ruth falls to her face and bows to the ground: “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” (Ruth 2:10). Then at mealtime, Boaz tells her, “Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine” (Ruth 2:14), and “she ate until she was satisfied” (Ruth 2:14).

Naomi rejoices in what happens and explains that Boaz is “one of our redeemers” (Ruth 2:20). By “redeemer,” Naomi means a close relative who was responsible for the well-being of another relative, especially if they faced an economic crisis (e.g., Lev. 25:25–30, 47–55). At Naomi’s instructions, Ruth boldly proposes marriage to Boaz: “Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer” (Ruth 3:9). Boaz follows procedure, first checking with a nearer kinsman, then ultimately takes Ruth as his wife: “Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife” (Ruth 4:10).

The people and elders of Israel then pray that Ruth will be “like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel” (Ruth 4:11), and that Boaz will “act worthily in Ephrathah 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” (Ruth 4:11–12). The book ends by recording that Boaz and Ruth had a son, Obed, who fathered Jesse, who fathered David, the great king of Israel (Ruth 4:13–22). The women say to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age” (Ruth 4:14–15).

Typology and Allegory

In light of the New Testament, Ruth is a clear type of the Gentiles being grafted into Israel (Eph. 3:6). A “type” is something that corresponds to something else in the future and finds its fulfillment in that thing (the “antitype”). For example, Paul identifies Adam as “a type [τύπος] of the one who was to come” (Rom. 5:14). Adam’s single act (of disobedience) had major (destructive) consequences for the whole human race. Adam corresponds to Christ, the “second Adam,” whose single act (of obedience) had major (life-giving) consequences for humanity. We see the type most clearly in light of the antitype (that which fulfills the type). For example, Peter says that God saving people through the waters of Christian baptism corresponds to (literally, is the “antitype” [ἀντί-τυπος] of) God saving Noah and his family through the flood (1 Pet. 3:20–21).

More broadly, the story of Ruth is an allegory of Christ’s work to bring the Gentiles into God’s covenant people. An allegory is a story that contains numerous types or symbolic correspondences that work together to paint a fuller picture than a single type could portray on its own. For example, in Galatians 4, Paul says that the story of Sarah and Hagar “may be interpreted allegorically [ἀλληγορέω]” (Gal. 4:24), and then identifies numerous points of correspondence.

Christ and the Gentiles

There are numerous correspondences between the story of Ruth and God’s inclusion of the Gentiles in the New Testament. The Moabites were truly “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). There was a “dividing wall of hostility” (Eph. 2:14) between Israel and Moab. However, Ruth, a Moabite and a type of all the Gentiles, was brought near to Yahweh and incorporated into his covenant people, Israel, most profoundly through her union with Boaz. The same language of covering with “wings” is used of both Yahweh and Boaz (Ruth 2:12; 3:9), amplifying Boaz’s role as a Christ-figure.

As Ruth was “bought” by Boaz and incorporated into Israel, Christ spread his wings over us Gentiles and bought us with his blood to be part of his bride, the Church (Eph. 5:25–32; cf. Ruth 4:10). Christ our Redeemer brings all nations near and kills the hostility (Eph. 2:16), so that we are “no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Eph. 2:19). As Boaz protected the Moabite, provided for her, gave water to her, and served her with bread and wine (Ruth 2:14), Christ protects believing Gentiles, provides for us, gives us the water of life, and serves us with the “one bread” and “one cup” of the Lord’s Supper, a sign of our oneness in Christ, where there is neither Jew nor Moabite (Gal. 3:28). At his Table, we eat until we are satisfied (cf. Ruth 2:14). Foreigners are not despised but find favor in Christ’s eyes when they humbly seek his God and Father (cf. Ruth 2:10).

The law was given through Moses that “no Moabite may enter the assembly” (Deut. 23:3), 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 who were once accursed (Deut. 23:6). Christ, the star out of Jacob and the scepter out of Israel, has risen as Balaam foretold (Num. 24:17), and in his second coming he will crush the forehead of any “Moabite” who resists his grace. But because he first crushed the head of the serpent on the cross, he offers redemption to any “Moabite” who will turn to him.

Through Ruth’s descendant Jesus Christ, the house of Israel has been built up more than Rachel and Leah could have imagined. Through the Savior born in Bethlehem, the house of Boaz has far exceeded that of Perez. Through the greater King David, many sons have been raised up from the stones for Abraham (Mt. 3:9).

The Mystery of Christ

Ruth highlights an often-neglected aspect of the gospel: Christ does not just bring us to God, he brings us into the people of Israel. The Savior does not go out from Israel, save Gentiles, and make them into a second people. He incorporates them into Israel, as Ruth was incorporated into Israel. Paul says that we Gentiles were one separated not only from Christ, but also “from the commonwealth of Israel” (Eph. 2:12). He then says that we who were once far off have been brought near, not only to Christ, but to the commonwealth! (Eph. 2:13). We were branches from another tree, but we have been grafted into the olive tree of Israel, and made to share in the nourishing root (Rom. 11:17). We are now a part of Israel just as much as Ruth was a part of Israel. In fact, we are in one sense more a part of Israel, since we are now grafted into the branch of Jesse (Isa. 11:1), the true and perfect Israel! (Mt. 2:15). Everything that was promised to Abraham and Israel belongs to us through our union with Christ. Paul goes as far as to call this “the mystery of Christ” (Eph. 3:4): “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Eph. 3:6).

The inclusion of Gentiles like Ruth in Israel was a rare occurrence in the Old Testament, but Ruth was a picture of what God always intended to do on a massive scale through the coming of his Son. The “Ruths” of the world (that’s you and me!) are no longer second-class citizens, but full and equal members of the covenant family because Jesus Christ, our “Boaz,” has taken notice of us, married us, and become our great Kinsman-Redeemer. Ambrose of Milan explains,

Ruth, who exceeded the limits of the law and entered the church and was made an Israelite and deserved to be counted among the honored figures in the Lord’s genealogy, chosen for kinship of mind, not of body, 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 of the Lord. (Exposition of the Gospel of Luke)

Notice that Ambrose calls Old Testament Israel “the church,” the same church into which we Gentiles have now entered. Moses said that “no Moabite may enter the assembly [LXX, ekklesia]” of Israel (Deut. 23:3), and it is this same Greek word (ekklesia) that is used for the Church in the New Testament. Church means “assembly” and derives its name from a common way of referring to Israel in the Old Testament. The Church is not a completely new, second, or separate people; it is the assembly of Israel expanded in Christ to include believing Gentiles. As John Wesley explains, the Church is simply another name for “the Israel of God,” which now “consists of all those, and those only, of every nation and kindred, who walk by this rule”: “glorying only in the cross of Christ” (Notes on the New Testament, Gal. 6:16).

As Ruth was “made an Israelite,” we Gentiles are made Israelites. We become “Abraham’s offspring” when we become “one spirit” with the Lord Jesus, the ultimate offspring of Abraham (Gal. 3:29; 1 Cor. 6:17). In Christ, we are truly Jews (Rom. 2:28–29). God does not replace Israel with a new people because of their sins (the error of “replacement theology”); God preserves Israel and incorporates Gentiles into it. God does not renege on his promises to the Jewish people (Rom. 9:28); he extends his promises to Gentiles also. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are now also our fathers. Israel’s story is now also our story. The promises made to Abraham are now also our promises. We, too, are the blessed of God. We, too, are the people that all nations must bless in order to be blessed, and if the nations curse us, they will be cursed (Gen. 12:3). This is good news for Gentiles—the gospel according to Ruth!

Children of Ruth

To share in the blessing of Ruth, we must be the children of Ruth by having the faith of Ruth. As Ruth fell on her face before Boaz, we must bow down and cry out to Christ our Redeemer, “Why have I found favor in your eyes?” We must seek refuge under his “wings,” his outstretched arms on the cross, for “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Then, we must 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” (Ruth 2:1). “Blessed are all who take refuge in him!” (Ps. 2:12).

Johnathan Arnold is pastor of Redeemer Wesleyan Church, global trainer with Shepherds Global Classroom, founder of holyjoys.org, and primary author of The Whole Counsel of God: A Protestant Catechism and Discipleship Handbook.