Normally the Book of Ruth is read on the second day of Shavuot. It contains only four short chapters that celebrates the loyalty of Ruth, a young Moabite widow who chose to follow her Israelite mother-in-law (Naomi) back to Bethlehem after Naomi was bereaved of her own husband and two sons. Ruth’s sister-in-law, Orpah, who was married to one of the two deceased brothers, returned to her community, but Ruth decided to “cleave” to Naomi and share her fate in Judah.
According to the sages, Ruth gleaned the four corners of Boaz’s field because these belonged to the poor and it was their right not their privilege to do so. It so happened that by Divine ‘coincidence’ Boaz was a first cousin of her late husband. He discovered that she was a princess of Moab and a very beautiful woman.
A Moabite could not be accepted among the people of Israel unless they converted, and then they would only be recognised after three generations. However, around this time the interpretation of Torah was amended and applied only to Moabite men because they, not the women, refused the Israelites bread and water during their wilderness wanderings.
Boaz fell in love with Ruth and married her but died one day later. The sages claim that this was the sole purpose he came into the world that through them would be born David who we know was the ancestor of Yeshua our Mashiach.
There is more to the story. Abraham had two star pupils. One was Lot, his nephew, and the other was Chedorlaomer who became the King of Sodom, a city saturated in evil. For example, if anyone was caught doing charitable acts, they were killed. Everything good was regarded as evil and vice versa. Shortly afterwards the second star pupil, who was Lot, became the high judge of Sodom. This was the end for Abraham. It marked the first occasion when Abraham really prayed for a son, because before this he had placed all his hopes upon Chedorlaomer and Lot.
In the story, the actual star pupil of Abraham was a little girl, the daughter of Lot who eagerly followed Abraham’s teachings but reluctantly followed her father to Sodom. Upon arrival, a tragedy would soon occur. The poor wouldn’t die in the streets anymore much to the chagrin of the Sodomites who couldn’t find who was feeding them.
In Scripture we read that three angels came to Abraham and one of them said, “God sends word to you: Her crying reaches Me, and I am going to destroy Sodom.” (Gen.18) The second angel told Abraham he would have a son, Isaac. The phrase, ‘her crying’ referred to the day in Sodom when the little girl was caught giving a piece of bread to a poor man. The Sodomites poured honey all over her and they put her on the roof, and she was eaten by the bees, the most painful death anyone can be subjected to.
The following day Sodom was destroyed, and Isaac became Abraham’s new star pupil. Yet even he did not compare to that girl who gave her life for giving a poor man a piece of bread. Here is the connection. Yeshua is directly descendant from Isaac, but the hidden message is that He is the ‘Bread of Life’ who GAVE HIS LIFE as a ransom for many.
