Waters in the Wilderness

Scripture and Spanish Guitar

Track 6. Song of Ruth.

Song of Ruth.

by Michael Field

The guitar follows the rhythm of donkey hooves as Naomi journeys home with Ruth. A scarcity of food in their own land had caused Elimelek, his wife Naomi and their sons Mahlon and Kilyon, to leave Beyth-Lechem in Yahudah, to sojourn in the land of Mo’ab. Naomi is later widowed, and her sons marry Mo’abite women, Orpah and Ruth.
After some ten years, Naomi is bereaved of both sons, and having heard that Yahuweh had visited His people in giving them bread, she sets out for the land of Yahudah with her daughters-in-law. Naomi urges both women to remain in Mo’ab, and eventually, Orpah tearfully turns back, but Ruth is resolved and clings to Naomi. This song echoes the words of her commitment.

The book of Ruth is an example of how a gentile is “grafted in” among the Chosen People. Even the New/Renewed Covenant is only promised to the house of Yisra’el and the house of Yahudah, it is not promised to any other nation! This might come as a surprise to those who are ignorant of this scripture. Any convert from the Gentiles has to be grafted into Yisra’el if they wish to become a “partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree.”
See Romans 11:16-27, Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 31:31 and Ibrim/Hebrews 8:8, Tehillim/Psalm 147:19&20, Zekaryah/Zechariah 8:23.

This truth is endorsed by Yeshayahu/Isaiah 56:6 Also the sons of the foreigner (gentiles) who join themselves to Yahuweh, to serve Him, and to love the Name of Yahuweh, to be His servants, all who guard the Sabbath, and not profane it, and hold fast to My covenant.

Ruth, this ex-Mo’abite, later became the great-grandmother of Dawid, out of whose line The Messiah was born. Mattithyahu/Matthew 1:5.

The great, great-grandmother of Dawid was also an ex-gentile, Rahab from Yeriho, who hid the spies sent by Yehoshua. Yehoshua/Joshua chapters 2 and 6.

Note: Believers in The Messiah never die, they fall asleep. Yahushua died to pay the death penalty incurred by the sins of all who accept Him as The Messiah. Therefore sleep, rather than death, is the more correct description of their state, as they take their leave to await the resurrection. In support of this, please see: Mattithyahu/Matthew 27:52, Luke 8:52, Yohanan/John 11:1-45, Acts 7:60, 1 Corinthians 15:20-26 and 15:51-55, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Mishle/Proverbs 12:28.