Sermon Series Notes

The book is named for its central character, a Moabite woman who married the son of a Judaean couple living in Moab. After the death of her husband, Ruth moved to Judah with her mother-in-law, Naomi, instead of remaining with her people. Ruth then became the wife of Boaz, a wealthy kinsman of her former husband, and bore Obed, who, according to the final verses of the book, was the grandfather of David. This attempt to make Ruth an ancestor of David is considered a late addition to a book that itself must be dated in the late 5th or 4th century BC. Its author wrote the story to correct the particularism that characterized Judaism after the Babylonian Exile and the rebuilding of the Temple of Jerusalem (516 BC). The redactor who added the genealogy of David (4:17–22) carried the correction one step further by making David the great-grandson of a foreign woman.

“Ruth replied, “Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God”

Ruth 1:16

This is a series of sermons on the Book of Ruth… If you’re new, please begin listening by scrolling to the bottom, and then work your way up as you go. Also, discover even more exegetical and topical sermons on the Sermons Page.