Ruth: An Introduction and Overview

Today’s message is titled “Ruth: An Introduction and Overview” and is based on a reading of the entire book. It is the first message in our exposition of the book of Ruth.

One of the reasons that the Old Testament is important is that it helps us fill out and understand the New Testament. When we are told in Acts of the nobility of the Bereans for comparing what Paul told them to the scripture, it was referring to our Old Testament. After expositing John’s gospel for several years and learning of God’s love in a New Testament context, we now come to an Old Testament account of God’s love and grace in the Old Testament, that is, the book of Ruth.

The book is the only one in the Bible named after a Gentile. We aren’t told who wrote Ruth. The setting is during the time of the Judges, and there are clues regarding the time of its writing (probably much later). The period of the Judges was a time of great social upheaval; a downward spiral of cycles of disobedience and delivery. Apostasy becomes so prevalent toward the end that the situation is so dark that sins too degrading for the pagans are practiced by the Israelites. This is lead-up to the story of Ruth and Naomi.