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When we open the Lodge in the First degree, the Chaplain reads from 'the Book of Ruth chapter 2, verse 19. Later, he reads Ruth 4:7-8 during the Reason for Preparation. This seems ample reason to look more closely at the Book of Ruth.
To most of us, the Book of Ruth is a simple tale of the love of Ruth for Naomi (for whither thou goest, I will go), and later, the love of Boaz for Ruth. But there is much more to the story than that.
Ruth was written long after the period portrayed (see Ruth 1:1 and 4:7). It was probably written when the Jews were returning from Exile in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had captured Jerusalem and destroyed it in 586 BC, and carried the Jews off captive to Babylon. Cyrus released them from their captivity in 538 BC and permitted them to return to Jerusalem to rebuild it.
The returning exiles were anxious to purify the land from the strangers who had settled there during the Exile. Their leaders established a rigid and narrow racial policy by which marriage with foreigners was forbidden, and all who had married foreign women must put them aside.
But there must have been many among the Jews who were appalled by the pettiness of such a policy, and at the heartlessness with which it would have been enforced. One of them wrote the Book of Ruth as a clarion call for universality and for the recognition of the essential brotherhood of man.
The writer gave a very sharp point to the story by emphasising the fact that Ruth was a Moabitess. In the four chapters of the book, the fact that Ruth was from Moab is mentioned eight times. The Moabite women were the traditional corrupters of the Israelite men (Numbers 25:1-2 and 31:16). The Moabites worshipped a number of gods rat her than the one true God (Ruth 1: 15). And the Moabites were foreigners - people to be despised and viewed with contempt.
Yet, in spite of this, Boaz, who was a man of substance and standing among the Jews (Ruth 2.1 and 4:2) befriended Ruth. He gave instructions to his servants to leave barley on the ground for her to glean, and told them not to molest her. Finally he married her. Ruth, although a Moabitess is now considered a fully assimilated member of the community, and the Israelite women praise her.
But now comes the real point of the story. Ruth had a son Obed. He was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David, who was the father of Solomon. Ruth was therefore the great grandmother of Israel's hero king, David, and the great great grandmother of the great king, Solomon.
The point could not have been made stronger. Not only could a foreigner be assimilated into Judaism and prove a worthy addition to it, but the same foreigner might be the source of the highest good. If Boaz's marriage had been forbidden, there would have been no David and no Solomon.
It will be seen then that there is an important and useful lesson hidden in the Book of Ruth.
R Jeffery 8/2/87
References: Issac Asimov - Guide to the Bible, 1968.
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