Study #7: ZAYIN
ZAYIN IN THE BOOK OF RUTH
Ruth had nothing when she accompanied Naomi back to Israel:
1. She was a childless widow without a husband or son to support her.
2. She was a Moabitess – a cursed race from the incestuous union between Lot and one of his two daughters.
3. She was a Gentile going to a country where rejection of aliens would be a norm. Even the first claimant who could marry her refused to do so.
4. She had to support a compaining mother-in-law who cursed herself by changing her name from Naomi ( Pleasant ) to Mara ( Vexatious ).
But Ruth was a reverser of curses. Her confession of faith to her mother-in- law was extraordinary:
” Do not urge me to leave you, or to go back from following after you. For wherever you go, I go; and wherever you stop over, I stop over. Your people is my people, and your Elohim is my Elohim. Where you die, I die, and there I shall be buried. YHVH do so to me, and more also – for death itself parts you and me” ( Ruth 1:16-17 ).
Her declaration of faith in the God of Israel instead of the idols of her past was truly prophetic. For Ruth 1:22 tells us that she and Naomi came to Bethlehem ” at the beginning of the barley harvest”. This note is significant for “barley” symbolizes the ingathering of Gentiles like Ruth into the commonwealth of Israel at the Feast of Passover ( when the Lamb of God would redeem the world by His shed Blood on the Cross ).
What was her ZAYIN, her secret weapon?
1. She had faith in YHVH – the covenant-keeping God of Israel. One of His covenantal names was YHVH JIREH ( God her Provider ).
2. She had love in her heart for an aged widow who was equally destitute.
3. She knew Elohim was her Creator God who would somehow redeem her.
4. She was led by Elohim – not by accident – but by divine appoinment to glean in the fields of Boaz who would become her Go’el, her Kinsman Redeemer ( Ruth 2:3 ).
Father God, it is wonderful to see Ruth taking her spiritual weapon of ZAYIN for her breakthrough. Indeed Your Word says You will always take up the cause of the poor, the orphans, the widows and aliens and treat them justly ( Deuteronomy 10:18 ).
