Week 2: Ruth 2 — Provision Through Torah (Boaz, Gleaning Laws, and Divine Providence)

In Week 2 of our Book of Ruth study, we explore Ruth 2:1–23 through historical, linguistic, and theological analysis. This chapter introduces Boaz and reveals how God’s provision operates through obedience to His law—specifically the gleaning laws found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

What appears as chance—Ruth “happening” to enter Boaz’s field—is presented in the biblical text as divine providence working through ordinary life. We examine the Hebrew meaning of Boaz (“in him is strength”), the concept of chen (favor/grace), and how Torah-based systems provided for the poor, the widow, and the foreigner.

This episode highlights how Ruth, a Moabite outsider, is brought into Israel’s covenant structure—not by ethnicity, but through loyalty and alignment with the God of Israel. Drawing from both Jewish and Christian perspectives, we explore how this chapter reveals a consistent biblical pattern: provision through obedience and inclusion through covenant faithfulness.

For the Christian seeker, this study connects the Jewish roots of the Bible with the historical continuity of Scripture—from Torah to the lineage of David and ultimately to Jesus.

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Transcript

Tempo: 120.0

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Did you know that the second chapter of Ruth opens with a Gentile practicing Torah in a place in Israel practicing Torah when Israel was not practicing Torah?

SPEAKER_01 0:19

I did know that, Roger. I did, I did, I did. I actually know that one.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Hello, and welcome to another Modern Mind Nation book. My name is Roger. I'll be your host today. I've got Chip with me again. Chip, how are you? I'm doing wonderful. How about you? I'm doing well. Uh, we're gonna be doing Ruth chapter two. It's verses one through 23 today. Um, and this replaces our series that we were doing at the church on Friday nights. Uh, so these release on Shabbat night for you, for your listening pleasure. Uh, we hope that you are thinking about, praying about, considering, uh, practicing Friday night as a day of rest in agreement with the Bible that God gave us a day every single week to stop, reflect, remind ourselves that He's creator, teach our children, our friends, and our family about Him, and have a really good meal and just be thankful. Find life, find life and His rest. Life. So you're stopping and you're centering. That's what we're asking her to do. We uh we pray that you might start doing that. We've been doing it, we've been blessed doing it. It's a wonderful thing, it's the most prolific holiday in the Bible, and we want you to make it your holiday.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

It's uh it's worth it.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

There we go. Okay, so Ruth chapter two is about provision, Torah obedience, and divine providence. This is in the days of the judges. Why do we have the days of the judges?

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Well, everybody's doing what they wants to wants to do. All they're all's doing what they wants to do. It's a brilliant really a bridge showing them that they need a king. But they think it's a temp uh uh earthly king, but that's not what they need.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Yeah. So what it is, is it's social instability, decentralized leadership, covenant inconsistency, and a people that refuse to be led by God. Leading to a boatload of violence, leading to a boatload of violence. The thing is, is we always knew they were not gonna do it. Yep. So the Bible is continually leading us forward to something else. So this is, I mean, I love this, I love this frame because I love how God teaches us. He says, I will take you out with a mighty hand, I will make you a people, and he does it. Yep. Then he says, I will be your king, and they say, Oh, okay, but they never do what they're asked to do. Meaning the Levitical cities, the breakdown of the different areas, of the different tribes, the leadership style would have been um Levites running over ruling over things, it would have been a centralized temple that people would have brought their sacrifices to three times a year, and then these Levitical cities where they would have brought their sacrifices normally, which were all within 10 miles of every city.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

And the thing that interests me most as a debtor is the Jubilee.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Yeah, the Jubilee, which has never ever ever happened. Shocker. We're gonna we're gonna learn about the Jubilee at some point, but it is.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Men will be men. Men will be men.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Yes. Yeah. So, you know, here we are now. We had a tension at the beginning where these righteous sword-bearing killers were gonna go kill everything and create Eden. They didn't. Right. Now they're in a place where it's constant struggle, and God still continues to offer provision, even though they've broken the covenant, because it was never about them actually killing everything and creating Eden, it was about men realizing that we can't create Eden. Only God. Only God. So he keeps bringing these judges in, right? To just keep his name on time and to keep the story moving forward because, as you see, progressive revelation now leads us to the need for a king. Yep. And so, who is that king? Well, Ruth is in David's line, and this is the prophetic thing that keeps happening. So, what you're gonna see is that the Bible constantly speaks to itself into the past and into the future, and then when you're in the future, into the past and then into the future, it's it's this amazing meditative document.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Yeah, and as a Christian, I see progressive revelation.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Yeah, that's exactly what this is. We Christians call it progressive revelation, but then we break this out and we say that this is Old Testament and it's all just pretty Oh, it's just a love story. Yeah, it's just a love story. But this is all messianic, yeah, and this is the book of Ruth introduces the need for a king. Yep. This is all about Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Yep, it's also an example of the Torah in action.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Yes. Okay, so Bethlehem, the house of bread, has been restored from famine. Okay, that's why um Mara, the bitter one, previously Naomi, and Ruth are heading back. Now they're going back because in in my mind, I imagine the story arc developing, like, you know, Mara, she says, I've forsaken everything I loved, everything I was. I'm not staying here any longer. I don't want to be here. I'm gonna send these, I'm gonna legally allow these two girls to go, and I'm gonna go back to my God and to my people. But Ruth, she says, No, I'm gonna go with you because I love you, because you've been good to me, and I don't want to be like these people either. I want to be like you, Naomi. Fruit of the spirit. Yeah. She was called to not go, which is the reason I believe Elimelech left Israel during the war and during the famine with his son. So to the rabbis, they say he abdicated his duties during war, he and his sons left. And they have names associated with that. What were the two names of the sons?

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Uh one of them is weakness. I can't remember if it was Malkor or the other one, but yeah. Yeah. I've the other one doesn't come to they're both very negative. You would never name your oldest kid weakness. Hey, meet my son weakness. He's my heir. Never.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

So, you know, but for me, I think it's it's just the story. This is how it's been developing. This this group of people is teaching all of the world what it is for people to try to be righteous. It's you know, that there's nothing short of people failing and God bringing back, God restoring. That that's what this is all about, okay? So Elimelech, whatever he was, whatever he was, it didn't matter because now it's led to Ruth. So Ruth and Naomi come back in the days of the judges, back to Bethlehem, the house of bread. This is where Jesus was uh from, too, anyways. And they're restored from famine. They now we meet Boaz. What does Boaz mean? Uh in him is strength.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

In him is strength, and the narrative shifts. Ruth one is emptiness, exile, loss. Ruth chapter two, provision, structure, covenant system functioning. The structure, the literary structure of this book is Ruth Street seeks provision, chapter two, verses one through three. Boaz arrives and observes, chapter two, four through seven. Boaz protects and blesses eight through sixteen. Ruth reports that to Mara, 17 to 21, and then Naomi recognizes covenant significance, 20 to 23. So what this is, is Torah in action.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Yep. So it allows a foreign widow from uh from Moab, which is like a dark, dark, dark, dark land.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Enemy of Israel.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

To to come into a a city in Judea, and the Torah and the Torah protects her ability to live with the gleaning laws and so forth. Yeah. It's just a thing of beauty. Yeah. I mean, so it's like basically the ultimate hospitality to a weak foreign.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

The Torah protects widows. Yep. And what does Timothy teach us? Orphans and widows in their distress. This is true religion. Yep. It's amazing. Torah is true religion. Yep. My goodness. Okay, so this was likely finally written during the monarchy or later period. And in that time period is like Samuel was probably the author. Okay. All right. It has Davidic awareness. Okay? Meaning this: there's a covenant coming. The covenant with David, the Davidic covenant. And this book is echoing toward that.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Right. So Boaz and Ruth end up having. Is it Jesse or Obadiah?

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Yes. And they're another, yeah, they're so maybe. I don't remember now. So one of the two. The point of this is there's a mirror, there's a future-looking prophecy forming in this, and it's informed in this book. You just have to recognize it. Right. But it's it's more than just David, because David isn't the king who made it either.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Right. Yeah, that that's just it's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

And so this this demonstrates how Torah faithfulness works in real life. Not abstract law, but lived practice. This is one of those things that Christians should go in and read and go, wait a minute, I was told that the law is just entirely burdensome and it's no good, and we shouldn't even bother with it. Well, you're right.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Yep. Fences and fences on top of fences on top of fences to protect the temperature.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

The moral law and the formation of the Talmud and all these extra things. But here, this is pretty much purified Judaism. Yep. They have to care for the widow, and they have to care for their kinsmen, and they have to redeem lines. You can't let people's bloodline just die because you have to be fruitful and multiply. I mean, this is all of the covenants. This is the Edenic covenant, this is creation, this is the Noahic covenant, this is the Mosaic covenant. And the Mosaic covenant's not the least covenant. In my mind, even though it's failed, it's one of the greatest things that's ever happened in the Bible because it leads to Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Right, and it sets Israel apart also amongst all of the evil that surrounds it.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

It creates the place that brings the king. Yep. And the new covenant, the Brichadishah, the one that we practice, that is the New Testament, is because this covenant's failed. It sets it up. Right. It's always prophetic looking. Okay. The Davidic the Davidic kingdom is implied. Okay, it's coming. That David's lineage is the purpose of this book. And this demonstrates how Torah faithfulness it works in real life. This is this is the way you live when you love God. It shows inclusion of a foreigner within covenant structure. There's a couple terms in here. Gleaning, structured provision for vulnerable populations. This was a part of the law of the nation. You couldn't take all the way to the ends of your field. You had to leave it so that people who were hungry would have food. Favor or grace, unearned acceptance within a covenant system. Grace was present in the Mosaic Covenant. I mean, the people didn't keep it, and God kept bringing people to make the difference. It's not only implied, it's totally present.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Yeah, and this is like grace for the loins of Lot, if you think about the structure of the Moabite descent from Lot and his iniquities with his daughters.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

Yeah. Yeah, that's it's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

That is grace right there with Ruth I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Yeah, because she's a Moabite, right? Like she comes from Lot. Yeah. And now he's redeeming Lot's line. Yeah. So it's a it's a it's a creation account failure that's now being corrected on the backside. Like, I don't know if Chris, I don't know, this isn't kind of part of this, but it's worth talking about. King Saul, who is one of the kings who is coming actually before David, right? Was a Benjamite. And Saul of Tarsus is a Benjamite. Yep. Where Saul failed, Saul was redeemed and wrote most of the New Testament.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Oh, mind-blowing. Alright, move on. Okay, I'm learning, guys. That's awesome. So last time I discovered that Torah was given on Shabot, which is the same thing as the Holy Spirit coming. I mean, it's not the same thing, but the Pentecost. But Pentecost and the Holy Spirit. Wow. All right. This is why I do this, y'all.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Okay, so everybody did what was right in their own eyes, Judges 21, okay? This is this period. Yet Ruth II shows a functioning Torah observant landowner in Boas. So there's always this island of people that live and love God, right? Live for and love God. Law exists versus inconsistent application across Israel. It's still there and it's still serving its purpose. That's why Israel has never been totally unredeemable. Right. Because God is always working amongst a small group of people that are Torah observants.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

And interestingly, this is this is the town of Bethlehem in Judea. Oh, it's you know, we're not up in the tribe of Gad or down somewhere. We're we're down we're down in the holy holy.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

And it's all pointing toward the future. Sure is. If you know this story, when you read about Jesus, you go, whoa. Yep. So logs this versus an versus inconsistent application. Now there's a Moabite issue. Moab traditionally was excluded. Check Deuteronomy 23.3. Ruth's inclusion creates interpretive tension, ethnic exclusion versus covenantal loyalty inclusion. Right? So because you're a Moabite, you're not, you're not, you're not uh what you're not covered.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Yeah. But guess what? They covered her.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Uh because she made so so rabbis would say, well, she um she's a proselyte. She converted.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Right? Okay, true. She did. That's true. Now she's included. So the wild branch was put into with the natural branch. Wait a minute, didn't Jesus teach us something about this?

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Something like that, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And Paul said something about it too.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

So a widow plus a foreigner, that's very low social status.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

It doesn't get any lower, probably.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Yeah. So, but the gleaning laws, they actually act as a structure and a welfare system, and it's all rooted in divine command. Okay. So God puts in place a way for you to eat, even if you don't have a means for it. You know, the United States could learn something about that. We have a lot of homeless and hungry people. Yep, we sure could. And we don't have good structures in place. Maybe we should keep Torah.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Well, I tell you what, I got some blueberries. I'll only I'm only going through them once. Y'all can come pick the rest.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Moab are descendants of Lot, check Genesis 19, and they're historically in conflict with Israel. Check Judges 3 and Numbers 22 to 34. Moabites were associated with idolatry and covenant opposition. But Ruth, she represents this movement from an outsider into covenant participation. Yep. In in its modern mind ancient books argument that this is exactly what the Bible teaches, Israel and the church are to be one new man who can take in anybody. Because God makes provisions for all, because He's the creator of all. None of this is illogical.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Right. And we're we're not really talking that many generations past when Moses and and the boys went up against uh wasn't that Balaam was working for Moa the Moabites. Yeah. When they were before they crossed the river.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Yeah, and and how did the Moabites operate? They sent in women.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah. So this is uh my my point is in human terms in our four-dimensional world, we're only looking at a couple hundred years since that event and look at what God's doing.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Well, I see, I'd love the turnaround in this because it's it's these stories that make me just love this God so much. In the brokenness of the world, okay, they send in these women who seduce, they do sex magic. Yep, right, and they bring the people outside of the covenant, but in this case, the men died, and this woman is coming into the covenant.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

God is good.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

And listen, she uses almost the exact same mechanism for Boaz to create the marriage. Right. She goes to him, right? Just like the Moabites did.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Yeah, the interesting difference to me is that she showed the fruit of the spirit of love for Naomi. Yes, she followed Naomi into into Judea from Moab because she loved her. That is the ultimate fruit of the spirit.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

So, so um Balak, the king of Moab, commanded these women to go do this thing. Yep. Right? And they and and they were cursed for this. And in Balak and everybody died. Now Naomi, well, we'll get there when we get there. Yeah, let's get there when we get there. But it is this whole it's a turnaround, it's a redemption arc.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

This is what I love about the Bible. One of the many things. This is just amazing.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

So, okay, there's um there's provision for the poor in in in in this system, okay? So there it's not, it's not a it's it's not a structured-based covenant welfare system. It's provision tied to power, but divine command, okay? So if you if you control land, then you have to give to people. Right. You have if you have wealth, you have to freely give to people. You can't take everything for yourself, right? So now foreigners would have been excluded from this.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

If they were in if they were in another place.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

If they were in another place.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Like if we could say Mara or Naomi was still in Moab, I mean, would what would they do?

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Yeah, well, Ruth would not have had the favor that she had. She was she was tied to Naomi. Yeah. And because she converted, because she became a proselyte, she was now Israel. Right. The same thing Jesus did for us. Right.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

But I mean that that's you know, I'm I'm not convinced. I mean, I know that is one one filter to look through that, but I'm not convinced that she became a proselyte until after, or proselyte until after Boaz. I don't know, and I'm not I'm not in a position to say.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

All we know is that she said, Your people will be my people will be my God. Yep. And I mean that's you know, whatever she knew or didn't know at that point. This well, this much we this much we do know that she does know. She knows all the covenant framework, yep, because she's able to go and glean, and she knows that she can go and glean. Yep. Right? So either either um either Mara was a Torah expert, or maybe maybe Elimalek was, and he taught the household.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Or maybe Bethlehem practiced Torah.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Or maybe just Bethlehem practiced Torah, and it became pretty apparent that this is where you get food. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

The house of bread.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Yeah. Shocker. And she's gleaning to get bread. Yeah. Right? So it's like this double Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's it's all this stuff is in here. Yeah, it's awesome, man. These books are very, very deep.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Yeah, this little four-chapter book of Ruth is extremely deep.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

And I love these books. I remember in the first episode, I said that this is another one of those ones that's kind of like Esther. Right. Where it's, you know, you know God is there, you know he's working, he's not really mentioned. Um, in this too, there's this chance language, like the book of Esther. So uh she happened to come, right? It it appears like apparent randomness, right? But it's divine orchestration. Yeah. And you know, like in in here, you have Boaz. So she just happens to be there, and then you have Boaz. The Lord be with you, right? Yeah, so this covenant faithful Boaz. God has faithful men. That's that's the point of that, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 21:21

And he always has in the midst amongst Israel of judges in all of the failures.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Yeah, I love it. It reflects covenant awareness still present in pockets in Israel. Now, in Israel, and this is how the Bible is written, and and this is something that the modern mind has to grasp. There are harvest cycles, okay? Reapers and overseers. This is a depiction of Iron Age agrarian life. That's what you're studying when you're reading the Bible. Right. Iron Age Agrarian Life. It's not 2026. Right. So, in order to Understand this, you need a little bit of knowledge about the past. And there's lots of books out there for this type of thing.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

Uh-huh. And it's a tough life, too. I mean, you know, we make it sound like Ruth went tiptoeing through the barley field. Oh no, it's look at all the work she did. That was one of the reasons Boaz was like, look at this girl working for her and her mother-in-law. She worked hard and diligently.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

Well, and and see, this is, you know, to build on last week's, remember, I I said they could have stayed. Yeah. Because in the same representation that Noah had, or I'm sorry, Naomi has for Ruth, Ruth could have had for Naomi. Yep. She could have stayed, but Naomi didn't want to stay. She wanted to go back to her god. She wanted to go back to the people. Yep. And Ruth came with her. But you see, Ruth could have married a man and took care of Naomi just as easy in Moab.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Maybe. I don't know. Those Moabites are kind of bad people. They might not have taken care of that old Jewish mother-in-law. Maybe. You never know. I don't know. Maybe.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

I can see that that's possible, but then again, but it doesn't matter because covenant faithfulness brought him back. Amen. See, God, you know, for you folks out there, and I just I just want to say this as heartfelt as I can. I know there are a lot of people who are praying for their children, for their cousins, moms, aunts, uncles. They can go away and God can bring them back. That's a fact. The Bible teaches us this, okay? So if that's you, I want to speak to your heart right now and say, don't give up. Just keep praying. God can bring them back no matter where they are, no matter where they fled to. God can bring them back. Okay, let's go back to Iron Age agrarian life. Landowners held legal and moral responsibility under what? Torah. Under the law. Yeah, under the law. And what's true today? What did Jesus teach us about our wealth and our stuff?

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Well, stored up in heaven.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Yes. Not here. And be generous with it. Yeah. Use the unrighteous mammon, right? We have learned this very principle without recognizing that it is Torah. Because Jesus taught Torah. He taught this is the purified Judaism of Jesus, right here. Yep. What Ruth and what Boas are doing. It's kindness to the stranger, love for the other, taking care of the orphan and the widow, being generous with your stuff, and taking care of those who cannot take care of themselves.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

So, okay, you practice Torah if you do those things. It's true.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Yep. Well, it's written on many people's hearts now, man.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Yeah, that's the purified Judaism of Jesus. Okay, there's no miracles, visions, or divine voice in this one. God is working through fields, laws, and human decisions. It's hidden divine action with visible human provision.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Just like Esther.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

Yep. Law is not abstract, it feeds people, right? Gleaning is institutionalized compassion. And Boaz embodies Torah. He doesn't just observe it. Right. He's doing it. Yep. He's using the colour.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

He's the Torah. He's he's in action.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

He's in action. Now Ruth, she's a Moabite field laborer, but she's a protected participant. Yeah. Because she's gleaning. Because she's gleaning. Yep. So the inclusion isn't because of ethnicity, it's because of covenant alignment.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Loyalty and submission to Israel's God.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

And now Israel's God will protect her.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

And now she's protected. And Ruth one, it's empty, emptiness, famine, and loss, loss. And Ruth two, it's food, favor, and provision beginning. Naomi's theological shift from the Lord has dealt bitterly to recognition of Chesed. What is Hesed? That's the walk, right? Yes, the way. The way. Right? So she's seeing that God is making a way for restoration of her family. All of the lost is about to be turned around. Elie Malek's gone, the two sons are gone, but it doesn't matter because God is bringing something else into the picture. A new way is moving ahead because of covenant faithfulness. So in and that's why I'm my character development of her says she hit her face in Moab and said, Lord, I'm coming home. You know?

SPEAKER_01 26:30

Yeah, I can I can see where you're coming from. That seems reasonable.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

So the field is a sacred place. It's it's not a temple and it's not an altar, but that's where God's work is happening by the sweat of your brow, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Yeah, it's a lot deeper than it's a lot deeper. The field is a lot deeper than the Bible even talks about. If you go work a field for a year and see the cycles of life and and the your your need for for you know divine providence to help you with a good harvest and a good rainfall and the earth teaches you about it. It teaches you about God. It certainly does. And and you know, this is just a beautiful pattern, also. It really is. The the the the idea, if you can envision what the fields around Bethlehem must have been like under this system. I mean, it just well, it's the bread, it's the city of bread, right? Yeah, and there's you know very little to that.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

There's I mean, these are small little places. It's not like today where there's just bricks everywhere. God is in the details, God is in the details, that's right. So this is labor, economy, but also in the Iron Age, just daily survival. There weren't grocery stores.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

No, there weren't. I mean, if you didn't have a good judge, here come the Amalekites.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Yeah, they'll take it all from you. Yep. So, you know, you you have to be a hard worker, right? And that's what Ruth was. She was a hard worker. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Good good wife material. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:53

This is theology embedded in in everyday life, right here. Now, there's a Jewish emphasis on Boaz, that he's the model of walking the way and of lawful kindness.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

Right? So fair. And we can see that. That's that's good, that's good teaching. Now, the Midrashic themes, they focus on Ruth's modesty and humility as qualifying traits. She was the right woman.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Yeah, and yeah, and she was very careful to follow the law.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

The thing that trips me out about this is that here we have in the mid-rosh a Moabite woman who's rightly suited for uh Boaz, a faithful Jewish man, yeah, when just a little bit prior, the Moabites were absolutely cursed for leading the people out to the city.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

So it also isn't there like a mid a middle um, it comes after the crucifixion where they reinterpret Ruth and they they sort of write out the part about it, wasn't Moabites, it was Moabite men that couldn't come into covenant. Oh, yeah, yeah. Didn't that come in as like a rabbinic opinion, like a thousand years after this? Yep.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Yeah, there's there's a whole there's a whole thing about Moabite men, right? Right. We don't have time to talk about it right now. No, but I didn't touch on it last year.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

Yeah, but we can see God in action here. Oh, a million percent.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

I mean, this is this is redeeming that failure a hundred percent. So her careful gleaning behavior demonstrates respect for Torah boundaries in this Pentecost connection, right? So Ruth is read during the Feast of Weeks, and here's the link the law was given, and now the law is lived out. And in the New Testament, Jesus is taught to all of the Jewish people.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

Yeah, and his his spirit, the spirit is poured out on the people in the upper room. Were there 300? I know it was more than it's it was quite a few. I mean, you know, it the the whole Pentecost this is, dude, you're teaching me so much. This is this is just mind-blowing.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

I love it that the Torah was given and Jesus was given.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

Yeah, at the same yeah, in the same feast. Yeah, separated, separated by a thousand what what eighteen hundred years or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Yeah. So, you know, so so Ruth is, you know, she's a conver she's a conversion, but she's defined by loyalty and practice, not origin, right? So, you know, once you come in, you are it. Yep. Once you have been made new, you're new. Ruth is exactly what Jesus taught us. Yeah. If you want to learn the way to become like Jesus, to be the one new man that Jesus taught you, it's the book of Ruth.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

Yeah. This is an example of being born again.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Yeah, she was born again. That's right. It happened before it happened.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:51

That's so cool. So for Christians, you know, Boaz is typological, right? He foreshadows Christ as a kinsman redeemer. It's important to note that this idea of kinsman redeemer is totally new in the book of Ruth. This is when the subject comes. Really? Yep, and it's also tied to the need for a king.

SPEAKER_01 31:07

Oh, okay. Okay, well, I can see that.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

Yeah, it's it's so good. Okay. So she so you know, Ruth represents the Gentile inclusion into the covenant, right? She's the first one new man. Right. Yep. Uh God works behind the scenes, like Romans 8.28 framework later reflects this pattern, okay? It's also a kingdom pattern. There's marginalized, brought into redemptive lineage. Matthew 1 includes Ruth. Right. Right? Yeah, the lineage, yeah. Now there's a Christ-centered trajectory here. The field, the provision, the redemption, David, Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

Oh, that's awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

Oh, that's cool. Didn't now get this. Jesus is the provision that was given in the field that leads to redemption.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

Yeah. That's just that's just so cool. And there's a harvest motif in there. And there's a harvest motif in there with first fruits. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

Yeah, it's all there. So cool. You know, so provision for provision, these are the theological, Christ-centered theological things. Okay, so provision is built into the covenant system, right? So Torah has a way to provide, always for the lesser, right? Right? For the least. Now, obedience is provision, is inclusion, is redemption.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

I'm gonna say this one more time because I want Christians to understand this. Obedience gives the provision, which creates the inclusion, which brings the redemption. Jesus said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. If you want to learn how to follow Jesus, look at Ruth. And then do what Ruth did.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

That's awesome. Yeah, that that that really is cool.

SPEAKER_00 32:59

Now, Ruth advances um the fathers, right? So Noah to Abraham, Abraham to Israel, Israel to David, David to Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Right.

SPEAKER_00 33:12

Jesus as fulfillment, okay? So he's the greater Boaz, the Redeemer. He's the greater provision, the bread of life, the John 6 thing from the place of bread. Yeah, Bethlehem. Right? So cool. So the theological claim is what it what appears random, random is structured, okay? And it's structured by God. And what appears small, the field, it leads to global redemption.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

See, that is a beautiful motif. I mean, I do. I love that's like the butterfly in the chaos theory or whatever. The butterfly flaps its wings in Africa and a hurricane blows into South Carolina.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

You know, that it's not the same at all because there's the divine providence involved in this, but it's the same, the concept that's if you can picture, I don't even know how big this field would have been. I bet you they weren't very big because they had to be eked out.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

Maybe, maybe, maybe a maybe an acre or two.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

Yeah, something.

SPEAKER_00 34:04

Yeah, not much.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

Yeah. Yeah. In the middle of a small little country in the eastern Mediterranean.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

Enough to feed a thousand people.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

Um brings Jesus Christ. Yeah. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

This this is the way. God, God is always working on the behalf of his people. And to the listener out there, I again I want to speak to the heart at this moment, okay? We we kind of we we we as a group, as a ministry, Modern Mind Ancient Book, what we desire for you is that you would fall in love with the words of the Bible, and then realize that there are things that are worth practicing because they honor God, and then start doing them. One of these things is the Sabbath, okay? The Friday night dinners that you might just stop. And 52 weeks a year on Friday night, you might have people over, love them, love your children, love your neighbors, eat good food together, and talk to them about how God made everything and you're his.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

And rest. And rest in God.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

Yeah, just trust that day to him. So, you know, that's a major push for us, it's a desire. But also that you might go and study Ruth and realize that she practiced good things, and that that was what we call the covenant of law. It's not a covenant of law, it's a covenant of grace, it's always been about grace. Yep. God has always been moving in history. Go back and learn what he's done for the people who came before you so that you can be better than you are today. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen. Chip, thanks for joining me today. It's been a pleasure, man.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Yeah, but once again, once again, mind-blown little book in the Bible. And this is the second episode where I've learned something I skipped prepping for this because I didn't know to look for it. Thank you, Roger. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 35:45

The uh the book of Ruth is truly a treasure. So, Lord, we thank you for this time. Uh, I pray the Lord bless you and keep you and make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you and turn his face towards you and bring you peace. I hope your day is well. I hope your week is well. We look forward to talking to you again real soon. Feel free to reach out to us at modernmindancientbook.org. Bye bye.