Ruth - A Woman After God's Own Heart

The Book of Ruth is fairly short and can be read in probably less than an hour, so I encourage you to read the whole book for this blog.

One thing the sermon of Ruth taught us was that the author’s intention for the story was not to give women a romantic story to read but rather to teach a very important message. We used the Book of Ruth to learn how to handle heart-breaking loss. But what was the author of Ruth trying to teach? Was it about how to handle heart-breaking loss or something else entirely? Before we can determine that, we need to dig into the book a little bit more.

Here is how we dig into the Book of Ruth

One of the keys to understanding a book of the Bible is to know when it was written. If we can determine this we can have great clues as to who the author was, who he was writing to and also allow us to match up the book with other historical events. Putting all three of these things together allows us to determine what the author was trying to accomplish by writing or telling the story.

So when was it written?

The two most significant verses in the Book of Ruth that tell us of the time it was written happen to be the first and last verse of the book. The first verse says that the story of Ruth took place at the time of the judges and the last verse records the latest event relative to the story, which is in a genealogy ending with the birth of David. Knowing that David was born before this story was told gives us a strong clue as to when it was written. Since the last verse does not title him as a king like other genealogies it leads us to believe that the story of Ruth was told before David became king. Therefore the Book of Ruth was written probably written about the time that David was gaining in popularity but before he became king. This would place the date of the writing at about 1020 B.C.

So who wrote the Book of Ruth?

The most prominent spiritual leader of that time was Samuel the Prophet. He was also interested in raising David, God’s choice of leadership, up as the king of Israel.

Why did Samuel write the Book of Ruth?

To understand the purpose of the book we need to understand the cultural background of the people first. Understanding this will help give us some insight as to what the audience of the story was supposed to learn from the telling of the story.

The time of the judges was when Israel was supposed to look to God as their King but instead abandoned God and forgot all the things He had done for them. When this was brought to their attention by Samuel they not only continued to reject God but demanded to have a flesh-and-blood king like the nations around them. The people chose a man named Saul as their king. Eventually, King Saul rebelled against the Lord and led Israel down a very dangerous path because King Saul did not have a heart of obedience but of pride (1 Sam. 13:1–13; 15:17–23). Hopefully, a humble shepherd boy with a heart for God could lead the nation of Israel back on the right track. That boy was David (1 Sam. 13:14).

The Book of Ruth communicates two things to the nation of Israel.

1. The genealogy in the Book of Ruth (4:18-24) proves that David was of the linage of Judah and therefore qualified to be a king.
2. The story of Ruth illustrates what happens when a family living in disobedience, even to the point of suffering because of it, comes back to the Lord.

These two conclusions lead us to the great possibility that the Book of Ruth was written by Samuel to promote David as the king of Israel by God’s choice and to encourage the Israelites to follow him and come back into favor with the Lord so healing and restoration of the country can begin to take place.