The Book Of Ruth

The book of Ruth is an interesting story, because it deals with a woman who was a Moabitess'. Ruth was not a Jew. Moab, as we have already seen, was one of the sons of Lot, born through his committing adultery with his own daughter. From this incestuous relationship came a race called the Moabites. Among these Moabites was a young girl named Ruth. She had a very bad heritage. Yet, she became the great grandmother of King David., and thus in the ancestral line of Jesus Christ. We see here God's love for children born out of fornication and incestuous relationships.

Some of you may have a bad family heritage or lived a very wicked life yourselves in the past. Maybe your mother was not married when you were born. Or she may have been a prostitute. Or you may have been born out of an incestuous relationship. It doesn't matter. Men may reject you and despise you, but not God, You can still be a saint. That's the encouragement we get from the book of Ruth. God did not condemn her because she came from a certain race either.

God had given the Israelites a law that said, "The...Moabite, even after the tenth generation shall not enter into the church of the Lord for ever" (Deuteronomy 23:3). Yet God bypassed that law when it came to Ruth. God looked at her heart and saw that she sincerely sought for Him - and so God accepted her. God has every right to bypass His ceremonial laws when He sees a sincere heart - and He did. Ruth's great grandson, David, became a man after God's own heart. And the fourth generation from this Moabitess woman - Solomon - far from being denied entry into the temple of the Lord, actually built that temple!