Publisher's Synopsis
The Biblical story of Ruth takes place during the time of the Judges and tells of a Moabite (Gentile) woman who marries into a Jewish family and becomes a direct ancestor of King David and Jesus. Is it a premonition of what would take place in the Church Age when salvation becomes available to all Gentiles? If so, how would the Jews respond to this major religious change? The relationship between the Jew and the Gentile in the current age may be illustrated in this account between Naomi (a Jew), Ruth (a Gentile), and Boaz (a kinsman redeemer). One may look at this account as an allegory, similar to Major Ian Thomas's great work "If I Perish, I Perish," which takes the book of Esther and recognizes the major players in the story as a picture of the new covenant warfare taking place inside each believer in his pursuit of knowing Christ.
I grew up in a single-parent home with no direction or guidance from my human father. The mainline Christian denomination that taught me about God left me wanting as a new college student, searching for the truth and an understanding of God's love. The new covenant relationship with Jesus is not religious, as if through some set of rites or sanctioned activities, but a discovery of the love that God has for each one, demonstrated by Jesus's suffering, death, burial, and resurrection (Romans 5:8). First-century believers, both Jew and Gentile had to reconcile their own limited knowledge of God with a new revelation, explained most profoundly by the Apostle Paul. The relationship that existed between Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz provides a framework for the new covenant experience with God.
This book examines covenant relationships with God in light of Scripture as well as ancient Jewish writings and other works of some of our early church fathers, who were instrumental in the establishment of the church after Christ's death. From this examination, believers will more fully appreciate the depth that is available to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:18-19). It also addresses relevant subjects of today, including antisemitism and Rabbinic Judaism.
