Ruth’s Example

In the book of Ruth we are introduced to a young woman who is a Gentile, a Moabite, yet she joined herself to Israel and to Israel’s God. She provides an example for those of us Gentiles who have embraced the God of Israel today.

Ruth never becomes a Jew; she is referred to throughout the book as “Ruth the Moabitess.” Yet she very specifically identifies with at least two things, the God of Israel, and the people of Israel. “Your people will be my people, and your God my God.” She becomes fully part of the covenant people to the extent that she becomes an ancestor of King David, and by extension, of the Messiah.

We see something similar in the New Testament. In Ephesians 2 Paul reminds Gentile believers in Jesus that they were once separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise. But now in Christ they are brought near to God, included in citizenship in Israel, and beneficiaries of the covenants.

Paul expresses the same thing a little differently in Romans 11 where he represents believing Gentiles as wild olive branches being grafted into a cultivated olive tree. The olive tree clearly represents Israel, and through faith these Gentiles become a part of that. But they are not Jews, not cultivated olive branches. They are always wild branches that have been grafted in.

I used to think that the idea of Gentiles identifying with Israel and becoming part of the covenant people was exclusively a New Testament concept. After all, Paul emphasizes that the mystery of the gospel “is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel.” (Eph. 3:6)

But then I discovered, by the reading of an excellent book, “fellowHeirs” by Tim Hegg, that to some extent this situation had been the norm throughout the life of Israel. When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, they were a mixed multitude. (Exodus 12:38) There were both native-born and foreigners. The Hebrew word “ger” is used to designate foreigners who had joined themselves to Israel. Many times in the books of Torah it is mentioned that there is one law for both the native-born and the foreigner. (e.g. Num. 15:14-16; Lev. 24:22)

These foreigners living among Israel and embracing God and his commands and people were analogous to the Gentile believers in Jesus in the first century. They were recipients of God’s grace and members of the covenant community.

Suppose, for the sake of argument, that during the wilderness wanderings, these foreigners had multiplied and become far more numerous than the native-born Israelites. Suppose further that these foreigners turned against the native-born and started considering them as their opponents. Suppose also that these foreigners abandoned God’s Law, considering it obsolete, but still considered themselves followers of God and his promises. That would have been a major disaster. But that was essentially what happened to the Gentile church in the second and third centuries.

If we Gentile believers in Jesus understood that our identity, like Ruth and the foreigners in Israel, depended on our connection with Israel, as well as with Israel’s God, we would be less likely to, as Paul says in Romans 11:18, “boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.”