RUTH’S REDEMPTION STORY

Shavuot starts tomorrow on the Hillel Calendar (sundown June 11-13, 2024)! “Shavuot” (also known as Pentecost) occurs 50 days after Passover. Please recall that God’s people read the Book of Ruth during Shavuot.

Ruth’s redemption story is quite remarkable. Both Ruth and her sister-in-law Oprah were from the Moabite clan. The nation of Moab got its questionable and controversial beginnings with Lot and his oldest daughter: “Lot’s two daughters conceived from their father. The older bore a son and she called his name Moab; he is the ancestor of Moab until this day” (Genesis 19:36-37). And this all started with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

When, by the grace of God, Lot arrived in the small sanctuary city called Zoar, YHVH caused sulfur and fire to rain upon Sodom and Gomorrah at sunrise (Gen. 19:23). God’s Name of Mercy was used in this sulfurous fire judgment from heaven, which means that the people of Sodom had fallen into such depths of depravity that it was an act of mercy to remove them from the face of the earth.

The destruction story began when two angels came to Sodom in the evening. Lot was sitting at the gate. He stood up to greet them and insisted that they stay at his house. The Sodomites converged on Lot’s home before they went to bed. They demanded: “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them” (Genesis 19:5). Do you remember Lot’s response? He offered his two virgin daughters to the depraved masses. I wonder how those young girls felt about that.

Once the angels blinded the lecherous horde, the angels told Lot: “Whom else do you have here – a son-in-law, your sons, or your daughters? All that you have in the city remove from the place, for we are about to destroy this place; for their outcry has become great before YHVH, so YHVH has sent us to destroy it” (Genesis 19:12-13). Immediately, Lot went to both of his sons-in-law who pledged to be married to his daughters. He warned them that they had to leave immediately, because God was about to destroy their city. Their degeneracy was so complete they had no room for the fear of the Lord, only mockery. Lot and the two angels wasted no time trying to reason with mockers.

As dawn broke, the angels first urged Lot to take away his wife and two daughters. When they delayed, the angels forcibly grasped Lot’s hand, his wife’s hand, and the hand of his two daughters due to God’s mercy. It was as the angels took them out of the city that one said: “Flee for your life! Do not look behind you nor stop anywhere in all the plain; flee to the mountain lest you be swept away” (Genesis 19:17).

This is when Lot begs for a concession to go to Zoar instead the mountains because he felt they were too far for him, which God granted while urging them to hurry. Perhaps, this special consideration had consequences. When Lot and his family arrived in Zoar, the sulfurous fire rained down and destroyed all the cities, the inhabitants, and vegetation of the entire plain. It must have been horrific. Can you imagine the ruckus? His refining fire was all around them. Lot’s wife couldn’t stand that she couldn’t see what was going on, so she peered behind her husband and infamously turned to a pillar of salt (Gen. 19:26).

The impact of his wife turning to salt and the smoke of the earth rising like a kiln off the entire surface of the plain sent Lot and his two daughters to where God originally sent them – to the mountain – because now Lot was afraid to stay in Zoar (Gen. 19:30-31). Lot dwelt in a cave with his two daughters. This is when the not-so-innocent virgins plotted to get their father drunk and lie with him. Unfortunately, this is the origin of the Moabites, the family Ruth was born into.

However, this is not the end of Ruth’s story. Ruth overcame the generational iniquity that had been handed down to her through her single-hearted devotion to her mother-in-law Naomi and her God. Naomi’s people were from the Tribe of Ephraim from the town of Bethlehem – the House of Bread (Ruth 1:2).

Naomi set out to return from the country of Moab with her two daughters-in-law because she had heard that the LORD attended to His people by giving them bread (Ruth 1:6). During their return to the land of Judah, Naomi gave them a way out. She turned to her two daughters-in-law and told them: “Go, return each to her mother’s house. The Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband” (Ruth 1:8-9). Both Ruth and Oprah vowed: “Surely we will return with you to your people” (Ruth 1:10).

Naomi continues to plead with her daughters-in-law about how it grieves her very much for their sakes that the hand of the LORD was against her, having lost her husband and both sons (Ruth 1:11-13). Whereupon Orpah kissed her beloved mother-in-law good-bye while Ruth clung to her (Ruth 1:14). When Naomi pointed out, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law” (Ruth 1:15), Ruth bears her soul: “Urge me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God” (Ruth 1:16). Notice that this was not just about being faithful to her vow, Ruth also wanted the God of Naomi and her kin. She forsaked everything to know Him.

Naomi tested Ruth’s genuineness three times. She saw that Ruth was determined to go with her and get to know her God. This determination to press into what was right as well as loving and serving Naomi and her God is what led to Ruth overcoming the curses in her bloodline. Her determination and voyage were so sincere that even God suspended His own Word to make an exception for the faith filled Ruth. Not only did God make an exception for no Moabite being admitted into YHVH’s congregation (Deut. 23:4), He also rewarded Ruth’s diligence, faithfulness, and hard-work by giving her favor with Naomi’s kinsman-redeemer – Boaz – which led to the highest privilege of all. Her great grandson – King David – inherited Ruth’s ability to set his heart like flint to be a man after God’s own heart.

So, it’s not your past history or what people see that matters, it’s what God sees in you. Ruth was not only an unlikely candidate for King David’s Messianic line, but she was originally even prohibited from being part of YHVH’s congregation. We all can be a Ruth, overcoming to the utmost, even the limitations of our generational bloodlines. We all can set our hearts like flint to be faithful and true. We all can demonstrate God’s greater love where we lay our lives down for another (John 15:13).

Give em heaven!!!

Robin Main

www.sapphirethroneministries.com
www.santa-tizing.com
www.mysticmentoring.com

Written June 10, 2024 – Sapphire Throne Ministries – Robin Main. Copyrighted – If you are going to copy this, please copy it right by giving attributions to this source. Blessings!

#biblicalfeast #biblicalfeasts  #BookOfRuth #boaz #KingdomOfGod #KinsmanRedeemer #Pentecost #sapphirethroneministries #shavuot2024

P.S. There are several different Hebrew calendars. When I asked the Lord about what Biblical Calendar to use, He told me that all of man’s marks of time are off, but He knows the time. Therefore, I join the majority of Jewish people in celebrating the Biblical Feasts according to the Hillel Calendar to act as a bridge for the One New Man in Christ.

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