In the line of Jesus
Ruth
Ruth was a Moabite, from a people Israel was told to keep at a distance (Deuteronomy 23:3). Widowed young, she left her country to follow her mother-in-law Naomi and Naomi's God. In Bethlehem she married Boaz, and their son Obed became the grandfather of King David (Matthew 1:5, Ruth 4:17). A foreigner stands in Messiah's line.
“And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;”Matthew 1:5
The story
Famine drove an Israelite family from Bethlehem into Moab, where the two sons married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. Then the father and both sons died, leaving three widows. Naomi, bitter and empty, decided to return home and urged her daughters-in-law to stay in Moab. Orpah went back, but Ruth clung to Naomi and vowed that Naomi's people and God would be her own (Ruth 1:16). In Bethlehem the two widows were destitute, so Ruth gleaned in the fields for grain. The field belonged to Boaz, a relative of Naomi's late husband. At Naomi's counsel, Ruth approached Boaz at the threshing floor and asked him to act as kinsman-redeemer. Boaz did, marrying her and buying back the family's land. Their son Obed was placed in Naomi's arms (Ruth 4:13 to 17).
The grace hidden here
Ruth's story carries less scandal than the others, but the same shock. She was a Moabite, and Moab was born of Lot's incest and later cursed for opposing Israel. The law kept Moabites out of the assembly. Yet here a Moabite woman becomes the model of covenant loyalty, more devoted to Israel's God than many Israelites, and God rewards her not with mere tolerance but with a throne in her family tree. Grace is that God's family is not decided by bloodline or birthplace. A convert who came with nothing, gleaning leftovers in a stranger's field, was lifted to become the great-grandmother of a king. What she was born as did not fix what she could become.
How it points to Christ
At the heart of Ruth stands the kinsman-redeemer, the relative who had the right to buy back a family's land and raise up its name. Boaz redeemed Ruth and Naomi from poverty and loss at his own cost. It is one of Scripture's clearest pictures of Jesus, our near kinsman who took on our flesh to redeem what we had lost and to make us His own. Christ paid the price no one else could and brought the outsider home. And He came, in the flesh, through this very redemption: Ruth the Moabite, Boaz the redeemer, Obed, Jesse, David, and at last the Redeemer Himself (Matthew 1:5, Ruth 4:21 to 22). The story of a redeemed foreigner is literally the story of His family.
Questions people ask
Why is Ruth important in Jesus genealogy?
Ruth was a Moabite foreigner, yet she became the great-grandmother of King David and an ancestor of Jesus (Matthew 1:5, Ruth 4:17). Her inclusion shows that God draws Gentiles into His redemptive plan long before the New Testament. Her devotion to Naomi's God, despite her outsider origins, makes her a picture of faith crossing every boundary.
What is a kinsman-redeemer in the book of Ruth?
A kinsman-redeemer was a close relative who could rescue a family member from debt, poverty, or the loss of land, and could marry a childless widow to continue the family name (Ruth 4, Leviticus 25). Boaz filled this role for Ruth and Naomi. The office foreshadows Christ, who redeems His people at His own cost.