Ruth and the first man of Hindustan

In reading the book of Ruth, I feel like the six men of Hindustan, an opinionated lot who stumbled upon an elephant and each insisted to the other that the pachyderm was something different: a rope, a wall, a tree, a spear, a snake, a fan. The book is a mere four chapters (the German poet Goethe called it "the loveliest complete work on a small scale"), but it keeps changing on me.

The Hindustanis, it turns out, were each "partly in the right and all were in the wrong." But it is not the same with us who see hues of truth in the Word of God. Let us have fun together touching and feeling all that God has shoehorned into this small gem of the Old Testament.

I start today with the basic story line. But wait, what is the basic story line?

Said one of the six wise men of Hindustan: "'Tis evident what it is! The book of Ruth is all about Gentile inclusion in the Kingdom of God." In the beginning we have a woman of Moab, that nation east of the Dead Sea (modern day Jordan) that is excluded from the assembly of worship because they failed to greet Israel with food and drink when the tired band of exiles was headed to the Promised Land. From the dregs of society, Ruth the Moabitess ends up married off to a wealthy and prominent citizen of Israel. More importantly, she is given the high honor of being Jesus' great-great-great-great grandmother.

The inclusion of foreigners in God's family is not an afterthought but the plan all along: "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth" (Isaiah 49:6).

I, for one, am glad of it, being of French-Canadian and not Hebrew extraction. I was a foreigner to the covenants, having no hope and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:12), both by birth and by choice of sin. Now I am a child and therefore an heir.

I find that embracing this truth is the most practical theology there is. There is nothing that colors your day like knowing there is someone there who loves you and is for you, and that that someone is the God of the universe.

To read Andrée Seu's series on the book of Ruth, click here.

To hear commentaries by Andrée Seu, click here.