Overview of the Book. The Book of Ruth is set in the days of the judges given there was no king in Israel, and “every man did that which was right in his own eyes”. Judges shows that the light of conscience is insufficient. The remedy for this is seen fully in 1 Samuel, where a prophet is raised up, to bring the Word of God, a superior guide. Meanwhile, the book of Ruth gives what God is doing behind the scenes while there was no king in Israel: it shows the operations of the grace of God.

 

Grace. While Judges describes the ruin of Israel, Ruth shown God’s counsels according to grace. “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom. 5:20). The book of Ruth therefore is all about: 

David’s line: The Promises Secured. Through the book of Judges the tribe of Ephraim took the lead, but God was about to prepare the way for David, and further for David’s greater Son. 

Prophetic Application. Sometimes we make an application of this to us as Gentiles being brought in a strangers and foreigners into the church of God. However, the real prophetic application is to the Jews. Naomi represents the nation of Israel, outside of the land, having forfeited their inheritance by unfaithfulness, yet ultimately brought into blessing through a remnant, represented by Naomi’s daughter-in-law Ruth. The whole book is really God’s grace to Israel, restoring them in the future. Boaz, the the kinsman redeemer, is a type of Christ who takes upon Himself Israel’s cause. A mighty man of wealth, Boaz pictures the grace of God toward Israel under the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31), though Christ had to meet the claims of the Old Covenant – the law, a nearer kinsman – which could never redeem Israel, only condemn them.