This week we pause our Parashat reading and we read about the Festival of Shavout. We Christians know Shavout as Pentecost. We know it as the giving of the Holy Spirit. However a little more than 1,300 years before the Word of God was given at Mt. Sinai. These 2 events go hand in hand. They testify of one another. The Holy Spirit teaches us the Word of God.
The Jewish People read the book of Ruth during Shavout. It seems to be a strange book to read on the giving of the Torah and the Holy Spirit. However the story takes place during the harvest season which Shavout/Pentecost falls in. The story of Ruth is a story of redemption. Before you read the Book of Ruth remember our introduction to Abram.
Genesis 11:27-31
“This is the account of Terah’s family. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of Lot. But Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, the land of his birth, while his father, Terah, was still living. Meanwhile, Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah. (Milcah and her sister Iscah were daughters of Nahor’s brother Haran.) But Sarai was unable to become pregnant and had no children. One day Terah took his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai (his son Abram’s wife), and his grandson Lot (his son Haran’s child) and moved away from Ur of the Chaldeans. He was headed for the land of Canaan, but they stopped at Haran and settled there.”
When you dig into external sources you will find out that ISCAH and SARAI are one in the same. Every external source confirms this to be true. Now Abram’s brother died and both Abram and Nahor take their dead brother’s daughters to keep his name alive. This is a practice called Yibbum.
Deuteronomy 25:5-10
““If two brothers are living together on the same property and one of them dies without a son, his widow may not be married to anyone from outside the family. Instead, her husband’s brother should marry her and have intercourse with her to fulfill the duties of a brother-in-law. The first son she bears to him will be considered the son of the dead brother, so that his name will not be forgotten in Israel. “But if the man refuses to marry his brother’s widow, she must go to the town gate and say to the elders assembled there, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel—he refuses to fulfill the duties of a brother-in-law by marrying me.’ The elders of the town will then summon him and talk with him. If he still refuses and says, ‘I don’t want to marry her,’ the widow must walk over to him in the presence of the elders, pull his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. Then she must declare, ‘This is what happens to a man who refuses to provide his brother with children.’ Ever afterward in Israel his family will be referred to as ‘the family of the man whose sandal was pulled off’!”
When Lot’s Daughters get their father drunk and sleep with him they believe everyone in the world was destroyed. They think they have to repopulate the earth, so their Father’s name will go on. Generations later a woman named Ruth who was a descendant from the offspring of Lot and his daughter. Ruth was a Moabite a descendant of Lot. She chose to walk away from everything she had ever known to make her mother in law’s God her own. She and Boaz preform the act of Yibbum bringing the family back together. 3 generations later we have King David, once the family is restored. Remember how the story began. “This is the account of Terah’s family. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of Lot. When everyone comes back together and are restored the door is opened for the Messiah to come.
If you find this interesting please watch the video below where I show you the break down and restoration of the family.
