History
Gospel In
Ruth
Gospel in Ruth We have looked at the Gospel in various Old Testament books and after writing a paper on the Theology of Ruth, this allows me the opportunity to share my findings regarding Christ and the ‘Good News’ of His saving work in this book. The book of Ruth is a great story which functions within the O/T canon for a specific purpose. It acts as something of a ‘flashback’, as it was likely written after the Exile and thus provides a commentary for the people of God contemplating the plan of God and His purposes for them.[1] The story begins on a dark note of famine, moving Elimelech and Naomi and their two sons to Moab – an enemy of Israel. Things get worse as Elimelech dies and the two sons take wives from Moab to continue the family name. After ten years and no children (1:5), the sons die and Naomi hears that God has visited His people with food (1:6). Ruth will not depart from Naomi when she attempts to send the girls back to their families, and thus her ‘kindness’ (hesed) that is extended to Naomi is returned to her through Boaz (2:10-18), the kinsman-redeemer. The Gospel is threaded through the story, as God is behind the scenes ‘causing’ all things to work together ‘for good for those who love Him’ (Rom. 8:28). He works in and through the characters to accomplish His Divine purposes. We see the purpose of the famine, and despite Naomi grumbling about the Lord dealing bitterly with her (1:20-21) she sees His hesed toward her by the providence and provision through Ruth ‘happening on to the field of her relative – a kinsman-redeemer – at harvest time. It was the obligation of the near kinsman to act as a redeemer to assist in provision for life, and perpetuating the family through Levirate marriage. In short, Boaz is a type of Christ, for Jesus is the ultimate Redeemer and He provides for those of God’s family. He repays His people in kind who reflect His hesed or His lovingkindness; what is right by going and doing above and beyond the call of duty. Ruth, the Moabitess, is a type of the Church that represents the later inclusion of the Gentiles. Naomi is a type of Israel who, after exile and being widowed, is again restored by God’s hesed in granting her a child to continue the name and perpetuate her prosperity through the marriage of Ruth and Boaz. The story that began in darkness and death ends on a high note of light and life through God who causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. Israel was to reflect on God’s calling of people from Moab, and their darkness being again turned to light through the marriage of a Redeemer who would perpetuate the family and protect the family of God. What a glorious story that preceded King David, the clearest type of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, but also continues to show that God, the Lord of Life turns famine to harvest, death to life, and the sad widow to the happy bride by the ultimate Redeemer – Jesus Christ.[1] Stephen Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible. pg. 191. “Ruth provides an earlier analogy for the larger question of Exile with which the narrative of the Tanakh ended, and this prototype helps to give perspective on the present situation. Even David’s royal line experienced exile, in some ways necessary to further the divine purposes.”
Esther
Gospel in Esther It is a strange thing that we should talk about a Gospel in Esther, when it is a book that does not even make mention of God. Yet, as one reads carefully it becomes clear that God’s fingerprints are all through the story of Esther, and so it is the crux of the Gospel. The Gospel is ‘good news’ regarding salvation, or the message of God’s saving acts that secure His peoples’ safety from their enemies: sin, the world, the flesh, and devil, and the last enemy – death. God has acted in history by sending His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to overcome all of these for His people Esther touches on the theme so woven throughout the Scripture, of the seed of the woman conquering the seed of the serpent or the devil.[1] Indeed, it was Esther, in the providence and plan of God that brought about the salvation of God’s people and the defeat of Haman, the ancestor of the evil king Agag who should have been put to death by Saul.[2] This brilliant story speaks of the amazing way God provides and protects His people through His providence that leads, guides, and directs all to its appointed end. It entails the truth of the Apostle Paul, who wrote, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, and are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). The plot by Haman to destroy the Jews, that began against Mordecai, and grew to encompass all the Jews in Persia, was thwarted by God’s providential arrangement of Esther becoming Queen. Her position and influence ended up exposing the real enemy, Haman who ended up hanging on his own gallows! This is a picture of what the Scripture teaches elsewhere, that those who devise evil plans bring destruction on themselves. Moreover, those who plot against God’s people will see the futility of their efforts as they are actually plotting against God Himself, and they will indeed pay for it. There is the pivotal statement of Mordecai’s faith in God’s providence when he sends the message to queen Esther, “…And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14)? In other words, Mordecai recognized that with God permitting her to become queen she was in a place where she could do something to help save her people. This was from the edict where Haman plotted to have all the Jews destroyed. Indeed, if the devil had his way, all would be destroyed, along with him. But God’s plan and providence brought Jesus Christ into the world that the evil intent to destroy all would not come to pass. There is a similar uncanny irony in the New Testament. Just when Haman thought he had secured his wicked design to have the Jews destroyed and Mordecai hung from the gallows, God’s Divine intervention turned it on its head and Haman was hung and the Jews were equipped to be saved by destroying their enemies (Esther 7:10). So too, just when the devil thought he had won by enticing the religious hypocrites to incite the crowds against Jesus so He was scourged and crucified, God raised Him from the dead and His death paid the penalty for the sins of His people (Mat. 1:21). In this way, we see how Esther is a precursor to the Gospel story. God reveals, through Esther, that although wicked plotting and scheming against His people exists, He is the Sovereign protector of His people, and in the end those who plan evil, do eventually bring it on their own heads. While it is true that this book, as it stands in the Old Testament, is cause to warn and speak against any anti-Semitism, it is better to see it in the light that what was true for the Jews in Esther is transferred to God’s people as a whole in the New Testament. For in the ‘big picture’ and the grand scheme of things the devil is the enemy of God and His people. What the Old Testament reveals as hostility towards the Hebrew people, beginning with Moses and Pharaoh seeking to destroy all the Hebrew children, there is a precursor with Cain and Abel that began the divide of the two seeds: the children of the woman and children of the devil (Gen. 3;15; Jn. 3:10-12). Hence, rather than seeing the hostility focused solely on the Jews, it is more accurate to see the hostility from the devil to God’s people. “Its source is satanic: it represents the attempt to defeat God’s redemptive purpose. It afflicts all of God’s people, Christians as well as Jews, and in its final form it is anti-Messiah or anti-Christ (personified as “Anti-Christ”)”.[3] In closing, we see the story of the Gospel in Esther through God’s miraculous intervention and providence that provides what is needed, when it is needed, and that God protects from the wicked intentions of the enemy of God and good. The Lord Jesus Christ is God’s miraculous provision to spare us from the devilish designs of destruction.[1] Stephen Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible, pg. 223[2] Ibid. pg. 222. Dempster, in tracing this, has led me to see that the narrator was likely making the implicit point that what God has said to ‘put to death’ will come back to haunt us if we neglect to obey Him.[3] William Sanfor LaSor, David Allan Hubbard, Frederic William Bush, Old Testament Survey, pg. 541
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