Clint Loveall and Michael Gewecke dive into the book of Ruth, exploring its themes, structure, and significance. They discuss how Ruth differs from Jonah, emphasizing its earthy, relatable nature. The story of Ruth highlights vulnerability, racial prejudices, and God’s faithfulness in the midst of misfortune. With its complex and beautifully woven narrative, Ruth teaches valuable lessons about everyday faith and the presence of God in ordinary life.
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00:00:00:30 – 00:00:26:15
Clint Loveall
Hey, friends, thanks for joining us. As we, start here at the end of the week, a new study, as you might see on the screen, the book of Ruth. another, just a short book, sticking in the Old Testament and, in lots of ways, Michael. Similar to Jonah. Not not so much in theme, but the idea that we have a short book, we have the idea of insiders and outsiders.
00:00:26:15 – 00:00:55:12
Clint Loveall
We have the idea of some some trouble, some difficulty that has to be navigated. it not not completely different than when then what we’ve been doing, though, a very different setting. also an interesting book in and similar, I think, to Jonah in that, scholars tell us this book is very well written. It’s very well crafted.
00:00:55:17 – 00:01:21:57
Clint Loveall
It is thoughtfully done. it it is definitely, seems to have been intended to be presented at, as a cohesive work. think less history and more story. And, and we can talk about the historical nature of the book, but in the way that it’s written and presented this, this is a pretty this is a pretty tightly crafted narrative.
00:01:21:57 – 00:01:25:57
Clint Loveall
And I think in that way we may see some similarities to Jonah.
00:01:26:02 – 00:01:53:00
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, very much so. In fact, some scholars have called Ruth almost a novella or a short story, and it has as part of that beginning, middle and end. So it’s very well written and it has with it that idea of a story that’s been told for a long time. It it’s very clearly concise. And yet it also has those kind of embellishments that you would expect from any good story.
00:01:53:00 – 00:02:24:18
Michael Gewecke
So so not only is it well-written, I think it also is similar to Jonah that we just finished, in the sense that it also, it has a way of teaching some moral values along the way. I think Jonah is asking questions about what God is willing to do for the other. And and this story in some ways gives us a really human, fleshed out account of what it looks like to be faithful to to family, God’s faithfulness in the midst of that.
00:02:24:32 – 00:02:49:21
Michael Gewecke
And then ultimately, if you can understand, Ruth, within the whole biblical context, there’s actually even some themes that extend beyond Ruth to God’s faithfulness in the the whole, economy of history. There’s some amazing sort of pieces of this story, I think, that reflect, an awareness that God is faithful, that humans, reflect that faithfulness when they’re faithful to one another in that way.
00:02:49:33 – 00:03:17:21
Michael Gewecke
It’s a beautiful story. Where this is different from Jonah is Jonah focuses on the story from the perspective of a male, not so willing prophet. And here this story focuses very much on the experience of women, and that it gives women a kind of low center location in this story to to weave together these themes in a way that we don’t always have in the Bible, which makes it, I think, a really compelling and interesting book to engage with.
00:03:17:25 – 00:03:44:04
Clint Loveall
We do have a few stories in the Old Testament where there are female lead characters, but Ruth is almost exclusively a story told through the eyes of women, and there is some, controversy is way too strong of a word, but there is some at least disagreement over whether Ruth or her mother in law, Naomi is actually the the main character of this story.
00:03:44:04 – 00:04:17:23
Clint Loveall
Now, it bears the name Ruth. So clearly she is vitally important in the story. But as we get in, you will also see that, a case can be made that the Israelite woman in the story, Naomi, Ruth’s mother in law, is in many ways a central character. In some would argue, the central character. You can make up your mind on that as we go along, but, it is certainly the case, as you said, Michael, that this is a book told, through the lens of and regarding the experiences of women.
00:04:17:23 – 00:04:42:20
Clint Loveall
And that does stand out as relatively unique, not exclusively, unique, but, it’s not typical. And there are only a few instances where that happens. One of the thing that’s interesting about this book, and again, not to draw too many similarities with Jonah, but that’s where we’ve been. And so if that’s fresh in people’s minds, it may be helpful.
00:04:42:25 – 00:05:10:32
Clint Loveall
this is also a book that’s very hard to date. It’s it’s very hard to, at the academic level, scholars have struggled to know when this book was written and exactly what its purpose is. you may know this, but the books of the Old Testament and the books of what the Jewish people would call the Hebrew Bible or the Bible for them, are the same books, but in a different order.
00:05:10:37 – 00:05:44:37
Clint Loveall
And in the, in the Christian or the Bible we know as the Old Testament, Ruth is put between judges and first Samuel. Judges is the story pre kings, and Samuel is the beginning of the narrative that leads to the people having a king. And there in the middle is Ruth. And because Ruth is is kind of considered David’s origin story, that gives it the sense of a, an in-between, an in-between time of the judges and the monarchy.
00:05:44:42 – 00:06:21:50
Clint Loveall
But in the Hebrew Bible, it’s a very different location. it comes very close to the end of the Hebrew scripture, and it’s paired with a section of books called The Five Scrolls. And those books are the Song of Songs, Ruth, lamentation, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. And so it’s grouped with more poetic books rather than more historical books. Now, that’s not to say that it isn’t considered history in the Hebrew Bible, but it is flavored differently.
00:06:21:50 – 00:07:01:49
Clint Loveall
Its setting changes how you read it, and the books that it’s coupled with, paired with also give it the sense of what is the full purpose of this book. And as one of the things we’ll try to answer, at least try to address as we go through, or when we see elements that are particularly poetic versus historical. And I don’t want to I don’t want to put those against each other because I don’t think that’s a helpful argument, but I think it is helpful to know that even in the ordering of the books in the Hebrew Bible, there is a clue that this is more than a historic story.
00:07:01:58 – 00:07:18:45
Clint Loveall
There is something of lesson, there is something of sermon. There is something of parable here that is that is deeper than just okay, here’s a thing that happened. Yes, it’s telling us what happened, but it’s doing far, far more than that.
00:07:18:50 – 00:07:46:35
Michael Gewecke
So I take another point towards that end. Clint, is the idea that you’re going to experience a very different kind of tone as it relates to God’s action in Ruth than what you’ve seen in Jonah. And I think what makes this so interesting is because both of these stories, I think, really have a lot to say about God’s action in the world, but they’re very different ways of speaking of that action in the world.
00:07:46:35 – 00:08:10:24
Michael Gewecke
And so what you’re going to discover with Ruth is there’s not this kind of dialogical conversation between God and Ruth or Naomi. It’s not that God is saying, it’s saying. And then it’s either being done or not done. No, this is a story which you can see God’s hand at work in some of the more mysterious human lived life, parts of our own experience.
00:08:10:24 – 00:08:34:28
Michael Gewecke
And I think that part of that is intended to your point, Clint, to be a lesson. There’s something to learn here about how God is at work in the midst of life’s misfortunes, about how God can be present, even to be faithful, to bring us into positions of good. On the other side of that misfortune, this is a compellingly beautiful story.
00:08:34:33 – 00:09:16:17
Michael Gewecke
Not because of is it? It’s it’s bliss. It kind of God language, but rather because God just lives and breathes throughout the entire story. God is the the fabric of this story, but it is lived out in all of these beautiful human and very real and very accessible, all kinds of ways. And I think in that way, for for a lot of us, reading Ruth may surprise us that this is a book that’s in the Bible, that this is a book that is considered to be part of God’s holy Word to us, that there’s something in Ruth that has to say that God can speak to us through what we might call common, or what
00:09:16:17 – 00:09:41:24
Michael Gewecke
we might call the every day that that somehow God is written into all of that. And when this writer comes to the task of telling the story of these two women, God can be present through it all. But there doesn’t have to be divine speech. There doesn’t have to be, you know, lightning and mountaintops. There’s just faithfulness. And that faithfulness is more than what you could possibly imagine when you start the story.
00:09:41:24 – 00:10:00:20
Michael Gewecke
It is in that way. I think, a unique biblical book. And I think it’s also, in that way, a beautiful invitation to reconsider our faith to be not just Sundays and mountaintops, but but every day, Monday through Saturday and the things that we do in the midst of that time.
00:10:00:25 – 00:10:36:58
Clint Loveall
There’s certainly a contrast that can be very evident. If you’ve been with us through Jonah, you’ll remember that that book, God is very active. God sends a when God tells Jonah what to do, God sends a great fish. God builds a shelter for Jonah. God relents from punishing it. There’s a supernatural way that God is present. There’s also God directly addresses no, no, our Jonah at several points, and we see none of that in the book of Ruth.
00:10:37:03 – 00:11:13:01
Clint Loveall
We see things happen and they are interpreted in light of a faith in God. But we’re not explicitly told that God has done these things. We’re also not told that God specifically addresses any characters. This is much, a much earthier picture of people living out their faith, facing the challenges in their life, looking for divine guidance and explanation over those events.
00:11:13:06 – 00:11:46:54
Clint Loveall
some good, some bad, and yet also having to put their own incentive to make their own way that one of the things that Ruth is celebrated for is that it is a book that very much highlights the, the competency and the decision making of women who have to find their way in a difficult world, in a difficult moment and celebrates their ingenuity, their resourcefulness.
00:11:46:58 – 00:12:20:07
Clint Loveall
and we’ll see that and we’ll tell you what will point out when that happens. But that’s a very, very different theological perspective than the book of Jonah, where God was an active first person character. God is very much more a kind of background reality in this, in this. And I hope, I hope that doesn’t sound offensive. I certainly don’t mean to imply that God isn’t in the story, but God doesn’t act as a first person character in this story the way that he did in the Jonah story.
00:12:20:18 – 00:12:57:57
Michael Gewecke
This is going to be fleshed out as the story continues. So if this doesn’t make total sense, subscribe. Stick with us as we go. But I think one could say that because of the way that this story really hones in and reflects these women’s experience, this book has something to say about vulnerability, has something to say about what it looks like to be in a position where where your life is truly on edge, where having the food for today is in question, where your security, where your stability is every single day questioned and and fought for.
00:12:57:57 – 00:13:22:28
Michael Gewecke
And we would love to believe that we live in a world in which that’s not the reality anymore. But the truth is all around the world, even close to home, there are people who live on the edge, the people for whom every day is not a given. And I think that this story reflects how, as humans seek to live out some of their deepest held values, and faith is, of course, at the center of that.
00:13:22:28 – 00:13:42:55
Michael Gewecke
But as humans seek to to live openly and courageously, these women will show us that God is faithful in the midst of that, that God is able to work even miraculous things. Even if to your previous point, God is not lifted out, or if there’s not these divine signs, God is still doing these things in the small places of life.
00:13:42:55 – 00:14:05:13
Michael Gewecke
And those especially those who might be looked over because of their vulnerability. God is with them, and there’s good outcomes even for them. In a story like Ruth. And I think that that is part of the the tone and tenor of this book that is so beautiful. And, and there are many people who you would ask women, I think, specifically who you would ask, what’s your favorite book in the Bible?
00:14:05:13 – 00:14:24:11
Michael Gewecke
And many of them would name Ruth. If you’ve encountered this at some point in the past, there’s a high likelihood that that this has left a mark on you as a beautiful story, and I certainly hope that will be your experience at the end of the study. But that certainly is on its own merit without anything else to be said about it.
00:14:24:16 – 00:14:32:06
Michael Gewecke
It’s a beautiful story and it’s well-told, and there’s real lessons for us if we’ll be open to hearing them.
00:14:32:20 – 00:14:54:14
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And again, and and sorry to keep making this contrast, but I know they’re fresh in people’s mind. So in in Jonah, we have a story that’s probably somewhat difficult to relate to. I mean, you have the idea of running from God. Maybe we’ve experienced something like that. You have the idea of carrying some hardness in your heart towards other people.
00:14:54:14 – 00:15:27:20
Clint Loveall
And and maybe we’ve had to confess that. But I think in some ways, Michael, the the story of Ruth is much more accessible. And I would say the reason that’s true is because it’s so much more earthy. This is a story with tragedy in it, with real danger in it. This is a story with, some kind of, racial overtones or prejudice in it.
00:15:27:25 – 00:15:55:15
Clint Loveall
There’s just it’s a very human kind of story, and there’s allegiance, there’s relationship. There’s these women trying to make their way in a in a world where the wind is against them and in the background there’s God being praised and and being questioned. And I think in a way very different than Jonah. This is a more hands in the dirt kind of story.
00:15:55:15 – 00:16:14:00
Clint Loveall
Don’t. Jonah’s very esoteric God, Jonah, in this battle. This is this is far more, I won’t say complex, but but it’s it’s far more complicated. And I think that, that gives it a very interesting flavor.
00:16:14:15 – 00:16:38:43
Michael Gewecke
just very, very briefly in that point that we’re complicated is a real jumping off point. I think for me, because what you might be surprised in Ruth, is it does take some of these things vulnerability. There’s some race relations in this, some prejudices in this, and it deals with those in incredibly complex ways through the end. It is not a single pointed book.
00:16:38:43 – 00:16:58:58
Michael Gewecke
At no point does it say, now everyone circle around. Here’s the point. I’m going to deliver it to you that this book is beautiful in how it teaches us, through the story and experiences of these women, full stop. It doesn’t try to turn at any point and then sort of say, now, students, listen up, I’m ready to use these women to an end.
00:16:58:58 – 00:17:02:02
Michael Gewecke
No, the women are the point. And I think that’s what’s so beautiful.
00:17:02:11 – 00:17:31:31
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And to that end, I mentioned earlier that scholars kind of struggle with the purpose and date of this book. And I think that’s a really interesting point. Michael, there’s a suggestion that this book is probably written fairly early as a way of legitimizing David’s reign. In other words, it’s the Baxter story of King David, and it hints at him being the key figure in a monarchy in the coming years.
00:17:31:31 – 00:18:18:12
Clint Loveall
And so there are those who suggest, if you want to read this as a story that gets finished and crafted fairly early, then it probably has to do with propping up the idea of David in replacing Saul. If, however, you see this as a later story, there is the suggestion that maybe what it’s doing is speaking to the movement to expel all non Israelites from Israel in the Ezra Nehemiah period, after the exile, there are remnant Jewish people who come back to Jerusalem, and one of the things they commit themselves to is to get rid of foreigners, not least among them Moabites, which is the nation that Ruth represents.
00:18:18:12 – 00:18:43:03
Clint Loveall
And so the people who would date the book from then, or say that that’s its primary purpose, would say no, this is a way of saying, hey, let’s not overdo it. We need to make room for for other people here. And so that the way that you read the story gives it a different flavor, a different new nuance, and I think allows us to see some different themes in it.
00:18:43:15 – 00:18:46:55
Clint Loveall
And again, we’ll do our best to point that out as we go through.
00:18:47:00 – 00:19:01:28
Michael Gewecke
100%. Glad to have you with us here today as we embark on the new study, because it’s not a long book, it won’t be a long study, but that does not mean that there’s not a lot in it. So do subscribe so you can stick with us along the journey. Give the video a like. It will help others find the beginning of this study as we go.
00:19:01:33 – 00:19:14:42
Michael Gewecke
consider sharing this with someone at the beginning of a new study is a great point for people to jump on with us. Hope that you will share it with someone who might be interested, but we will begin again as we go every week. Next Monday we’ll see you at 2:00 central. Until then, be blessed.
00:19:14:45 – 00:19:16:08
Clint Loveall
Have a great weekend everybody.