In our modern world of hyper-individualistic self-reliance, it can be difficult to imagine a time when tribalism was essential for survival. For most of humanity’s existence, the world was organized around tribes, bloodlines, and hierarchies. Tribal allegiance ensured survival, security, and potential promotion, while disloyalty led to expulsion, social rejection, shame, and even premature death. With that in mind, imagine living in ancient times in your own homeland, among your own tribe, as a member of a royal family. Why would one leave this comfortable, safe lifestyle behind? What could compel an individual to leave the refuge of their own culture and people to accomplish a greater mission? And what mission could be more important than tribal survival?
In the Bible, this story plays out in a book named after its main character, Ruth. According to tradition, she was a princess of royal Moabite lineage, descended from Eglon, married to a foreign Israelite dignitary, and well established within her tribe. As the story unfolds, she and her sister Orpah both lose their Israelite husbands and must choose: stay in their homeland and reestablish themselves within their tribe, or leave with their former mother-in-law, Naomi, and start a new life in a foreign land among a foreign people. Orpah decides to stay in Moab, as Naomi tells Ruth: “Behold, your sister-in-law (Orpah) has gone back to her people and her gods…” Ruth, whose name means “friend/companion” in Hebrew, remains committed to her mother-in-law. From there, the question becomes: What hope does a woman of ancient times have when leaving her tribe for life among foreigners? She could have remained a princess in Moab. What drove her to leave everything she knew for a life in a foreign land called Yehuda/Judea?
Ruth was an outsider, a pagan, one who, according to the Torah, was forbidden from entering Israel’s community “because they (the Moabites and Ammonites) did not meet [Israel] with food and water on the way when [Israel] came out of Egypt… and [] they hired against you Balaam… to curse you.” (Deuteronomy 23:3-4)
How then does Ruth enter the community of Israel? She comes into covenant by way of a “tikkun—a rectification of the past.” The Moabites were barred from Israel because they did not provide bread and water to their brothers, the Israelites, during the Exodus. They also hired Balaam, son of Beor, to curse Israel. The Moabites were stingy with bread and abundant with curses. But Ruth, a Moabite daughter, did the exact opposite. She provided bread and blessings to Naomi. She knew she might never be fully welcomed among her new people. Her past might prevent full acceptance. Yet she knew someone had to make a rectification for the past. She felt Naomi’s pain as her own, as the New Testament teaches, “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). She knew faithfulness to her own tribe would not bring redemption. In the end, she knew the redemption promised to Israel was the only hope—not only for Israel but also for her and her former people, the Moabites.
This is why, in Ruth 3:9, Boaz asks Ruth, “Who are you?” A simple reading might imply Boaz is asking, “Who is the person sleeping at my feet?” But on a deeper level, I believe Boaz was asking who Ruth really was—meaning, “Who are you, Ruth? Why are you here? What do you want?” Think about this: a foreign girl in a foreign land. At this moment, she could tell Boaz her true desire. Did she ask for status, wealth, comfort, or security? No. Her one humble desire was, “Spread your garment over your slave, for you are a redeemer!” Her one cry was for redemption. She knew redemption was found in Israel, among God’s people. Therefore, she gave up everything—from princess to slave—just to see redemption take place.
In the Christian Canon of the Bible, the book of Judges comes right before the book of Ruth. I always tell people, “If you want to understand the significance of the book of Ruth, read the final verse found in Judges.” There it states, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes…” (Judges 21:25). Ruth 1:1 then tells us that this story transpired, “In the days when the judges governed…” We now know the situation in Israel. And where is the answer to be found? In the final few verses of Ruth. In Ruth 4:21-22 it says, “to Boaz [was born] Obed, and to Obed was born Jesse, and to Jesse, David.”
David! King David is the answer to fixing the problem of every man doing what was right in their own eyes. He is the one who would bring about redemption for Israel and the nations! Ruth’s desperate cry for redemption did not go unanswered… and God did not simply answer her plea; He enabled her to become a part of the story as well!
Today, this Biblical story is not simply a feel-good story for us to appreciate and then move on with daily life. Rather, it is a blueprint for how we, from the nations, are to leave our “relatives and father’s house,” even as Abraham did in Genesis 12 and Ruth did in her life’s story, in order to encourage the nation of Israel towards its destined destiny—the destination of redemption!
This current world is being divided once again into tribal groups and cultural affiliations. Do not get sucked into the identity politics of this world. The system is rigged and “the house always wins.” Let us, from the nations, instead realize that our hope is the exact same hope of Ruth. For as it says in Isaiah, “A Redeemer will come to Zion!” That is the only true hope we have in this world. And the beautiful thing is, we do not just get the opportunity to hope for redemption. When we place our identity, hope, faith, and future with the nation of Israel, we suddenly find ourselves on the front lines participating in an amazing story of Biblical proportions—the redemption of the entire world! And that, my friends, is the Greatest Story Ever Told!
