Ruth, A Zionist at Heart

(Again, TS represents Type and Shadow and PF represents Prophetic Fulfillment.)

PF:  But the Ruth Church, the Gentile Church who by marriage is a part of a Jewish family and heritage – is a Zionist at heart, equally devout in love and duty, vows her loyalty even unto death to both Israel and Israel’s God! We are that growing, global phenomena of born-again Christians who are called the Biblical Zionists.

Just as an interesting side note, the Midrash illustrates a further character study of Orpah and Ruth.  Orpah went back to her Gentile-ness and gods and became the great grandmother of the giant Goliath. Ruth stayed in the family of Israel and served the God of Israel to become the great grandmother of David. The choices we make today matter generations from now!  Obviously, Goliath represents the uncircumcised assault against the nation of Israel and David represents the circumcised heart that took him out!

TS: Naomi and Ruth Return to Israel: Needless to say, Naomi was in the birth pains of a very painful identity crisis as she returned to Israel – she didn’t even want to be called by her name, Naomi, meaning pleasant. Rather, she preferred to be called by her state of heart, which was Marah, meaning bitter. Ouch! 

Ruth, being tempered with an understanding of what Naomi had been through, patiently and compassionately served the embittered Naomi. Ruth put her sweat where her mouth was and went out to work hard in the fields to help provide for Naomi.  Ruth was not a hindrance or baggage for Naomi, but a blessing!

PF: Obviously, this depicts the prophetic fulfillment of the Jews returning to the Land after the devastation and bitter holocaust at the re-birth of Israel in 1948 and the re-claiming of Jerusalem, as her Eternal Capital, in 1967. Most of the Israelis coming back into the land were secular Jews who were painfully disconnected from their faith. And we, the Ruth Church, serving and walking alongside them, have been working to demonstrate an allegiance and loving relationship to build a bond of trust. Another interesting parallel was a powerful revival and outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Gentile Church when Israel became a nation in 1948.

TS: Naomi & Ruth’s Inheritance Restored: It was precisely at the end of the barley and wheat harvest period, Pentecost, that Ruth is married to Boaz! Their union completely secured the once seemingly lost inheritance of both Naomi (Jews) and Ruth (Gentiles) – what the New Testament calls the One New Man. This beautiful story does not end with Ruth holding her precious offspring, but Naomi in absolute amazement of God’s faithfulness to her in spite of her bitter failings. Her primary gain was that her heart and faith in God were restored!

In fact, the women of Israel said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a close relative; and may his name be famous in Israel! And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourished of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him.”

PF: In this we see the restoration of Israel at the end of the age, known as the final redemption of the Jewish people. And who is by her side? A Gentile daughter-in-law, the Ruth Church, receiving with her the original inheritance given by God to them as one family. I wonder, Beloved, does our loyalty to Israel, as the Ruth Church, provoke the Israelis to say, “Their love for and to us is better than seven sons!”

The Book of Ruth characterizes our role in the latter day and there is soon coming a day when the Jewish people will experience their appointed fulfillment into the Pentecost of the New Covenant. God promised, and so it will be,

For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God. Ezek 36:24-28

There is a soon-coming day when the Jewish people will experience a national outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the promised New Covenant to them! This will be an inauguration of both Jew and Gentile joined shoulder-to-shoulder and heart-to-heart as God’s witnesses, His One New Man upon the earth in this final hour.