Lecture Seven: Ruth, Samuel, and Saul

The Book of Ruth

The story of Ruth is set in the time of the Judges.

Christians place the book of Ruth immediately after the book of Judges for this reason.

Jews place Ruth near the end of their canon.

The story of Ruth was written much later than the book of Judges, most likely during the post-exilic period.

The main character of the book, Ruth, is from Moab.

The book of Ruth tells the story of King David’s ancestors.

Chapter One

There was a famine in Israel, so Elimelek, his wife Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Chileon, leave Israel and settle in Moab.

Mahlon and Chileon marry two Moabite women - Ruth and Orpah.

The three men die right away.

“Mahlon” means “sickly,” and “Chileon” means “bound-to-go,” so their deaths are no surprise.

Naomi decides to return home and takes Ruth and Orpah with her.

As they are leaving, she tells them to go back to Moab.

Orpah leaves, but Ruth refuses to go.

“Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”

-- Ruth 1:16-17

When they arrive in Bethlehem, Naomi tells everyone that her new name is “Marah” because the LORD has dealt bitterly with her.

"Marah" means "bitter," showing how Naomi has become a bitter person.

Chapter Two

Ruth gleaned in the fields of Boaz with the other poor women of Bethlehem.

Boaz provided protection for her.

Boaz also told his servants to leave extra grain behind for Ruth to pick up.

Boaz also let Ruth eat lunch with him and his servants.

Later, Ruth showed Naomi all the grain.

Noami told Ruth that Boaz was their “kinsman-redeemer,” meaning that he was next in line to lead the family after the death of Elimelek.

Chapter Three

Noami told Ruth to wash herself and then go to the threshing floor where Boaz slept that night and “uncover his feet” once he fell asleep and lay by him.

"Uncovering his feet" is a euphemism for exposing his private parts. However, this is not necessarily meant as a sexual act, but rather as a blunt reminder of Boaz's circumcision, which was the sign of the covenant he had sworn to uphold, including his role as kinsman-redeemer.

Ruth did as she was told.

Boaz woke up and was startled to find a woman in his bed.

Ruth told him to “spread his garment over her.”

Boaz praised her for not chasing after younger men and choosing him instead.

Boaz agreed to be her “kinsman-redeemer” and let her stay the night with him.

She left before dawn to avoid a scandal.

Before she left, Boaz told her to spread out her garment, and he poured grain into it for her to carry.

So after this night, Ruth carries the seed of Boaz… 

Chapter Four

In the morning, Boaz found the man who was actually in line ahead of him to be the kinsman-redeemer and offered him the property of Alimelek’s sons which belonged to this man by right…but the property also included Ruth.

The man didn’t want a Moabite wife, so he refused to be the kinsman-redeemer, and the job fell to Boaz who was next in line.

Boaz and Ruth were married.

The elders blessed them and said, “May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”

Boaz was a descendant of Perez, Judah’s son through Tamar.

The story of Ruth ends with a brief genealogy:

Boaz and Ruth had a son named Obed

Obed was the father of Jesse

Jesse was the father of King David, the greatest king of Israel

 The Book of First Samuel

Structure of 1st Samuel

1st Sam. 1:1–8:22 – The story of Samuel

1st Sam. 9:1–15:35 – The story of Samuel and Saul

1st Sam. 16:1–2nd Sam. 1:27 – The Story of Saul and David

1st Samuel according to puppets...

A continuation of the book of Judges

Judges is the second book of the Deuteronomistic History.

1st Samuel is the third book of the Deuteronomistic History.

Begins with “There was a certain man…”

Similar to Manoah and Micah in Judges.

The book of Judges ends in Shiloh.

1st Samuel begins in Shiloh.

The Birth Narrative of Samuel (1:1–2:7)

Elkanah’s lineage (v. 1)

We don’t know anything about the people in his lineage.

However, great prophets are usually introduced by their lineage in the Old Testament.

Elkanah’s family (v. 2)

Two wives

Peninnah bears children, her name means “prolific.”

Hannah is the favorite wife, but is barren. Hannah means “favor.”

Similar to previous stories (e.g., Jacob’s wives, Leah and Rachel)

In the Old Testament, if a woman is barren and gives birth, something important will happen with that child.

Peninnah is cruel to Hannah.

Elkanah is clueless, and the best he can do to comfort Hannah is to state that being married to him is a much greater blessing than ever having kids.

Hannah’s vow at the Shiloh shrine (v. 11)

The Septuagint translation of the Old Testament says that Hannah vows to give her son to God as a Nazirite if He would give her a son.

Eli the priest hears Hannah praying and thinks she is drunk – ironic since Nazirites don't drink.

Hannah’s response (v. 15)

She is “not drinking” but “pouring out her soul,” this language sounds like “pouring” a blood sacrifice.

Eli’s blessing (v. 17)

A note of promise that God has heard Hannah's plea.

The family returns home

Elkanah “knows” her

The LORD “remembers” her.

She has a son and names him Samuel.

“Samuel” means “God heard.”

Hannah’s offering (v. 24)

Samuel is her offering

Not traditional sacrifice, but a “living sacrifice.”

Hannah’s Song (2:1-10)

Very old section of the Old Testament

Praises God

Reference to a barren woman having seven kids

Reference to a king, which points to the beginnings of monarchy in Israel

The New Testament figure of Mary, the mother of Jesus, has very much in common with Hannah.

Eli’s Sons (2:12-36)

Hophni and Phinehas

They’re no good scoundrels

Three indictments:

Inappropriate sacrifice – robbing God (vv. 12-17)

Sex at the sanctuary (vv. 22-25)

Becoming fat off the offerings

A “man of God” condemns Eli’s family

Chastises Eli for doing nothing about his sons

Predicts Eli’s house will be “cut off”

Predicts a faithful priest will be brought up

Samuel’s Dream Theophany (3:1–4:1a)

Conditions at Shiloh

“The word of the LORD was rare”

“Not many visions”

Eli is going “blind”

Samuel’s dream

Samuel sleeps near the Ark

God calls to Samuel, not Eli

Samuel goes to Eli

It takes Eli three times before he realizes what’s going on

Samuel becomes prophet

Eli demands to know what the LORD said

Samuel is honest and faithful to God’s word

God’s Message: I will destroy Eli’s family

The word of the LORD keeps on appearing to Samuel at Shiloh

The Ark Narratives (4:1b-22)

Philistines defeat Israel

Israel camped at Ebenezer, which means “stone of help”

They receive no help and are defeated by the Philistines.

They ask “why?”

Conclusion: “we didn’t bring the Ark with us so we lost”

Battling the Philistines with the Ark

Ark has become an idol (vv. 3-4)

Ark is captured by Philistines (vv. 10-11)

Eli’s sons killed in battle

Eli faints and breaks his neck because he’s so fat

Eli’s daughter-in-law gives birth and dies, names her son “Ichabod,” meaning “The glory has departed.”

The Ark among the Philistines (5:1–7:17)

The Ark at Ashdod

The Philistines take the Ark to the temple of their god Dagon.

Dagon lays prostrate in front of Yahweh.

Yahweh humiliates Dagon and decapitates him (opposite of Samson’s story)

Humiliation of the Philistines

There is a rat infestation at Ashdod because of the presence of the Ark of God.

Also, the people begin to develop some sort of tumors or hemorrhoids. We're not exactly sure, but either way, it was a pain in the butt.

Hot Potato with the Ark

Ashdod sends the Ark to Gath, plagues break out at Gath

Gath sends the Ark to Ekron, plagues break out at Ekron

The people “cry out” because the “hand of God was heavy” upon them.

Return of the Ark

The Philistines present a guilt offering, admitting they were wrong

They also make five golden replicas of the "tumors" and five golden replicas of the rats.

They put the Ark on a cart pulled by two milk cows, and the milk cows apparently head straight back to Israel.

The Ark arrives in Israel

Comes to the field of Joshua

Some Israelites peeked inside the Ark and dropped dead

All of the people gathered at Mizpah and Samuel told them to get rid of all their idols so they did.

Later the Philistines tried to attack Israel again.

The text says that God “thundered” among the Philistines so that they were too frightened to do anything.

The men of Israel chased the Philistines away and defeated them in battle.

Samuel set up the “Ebenezer stone,” or “stone of help,” saying, “Thus far has the LORD helped us.”

The people ask for a King (8:1-22)

As Samuel got older, his sons did not follow in his ways and were not trusted by the people.

The people went to Samuel and told him they wanted to have a king rule over them, just like their neighbors.

Samuel was displeased that the people had asked for a king.

God said to Samuel, “They are not rejecting you, but they are rejecting me.”

God told Samuel to tell the people that if they chose the path of kingship, the king would be their master and he would make them work as slaves.

The people told Samuel they wanted a king anyway.

So God told Samuel to give them a king.

Saul Becomes King of Israel (9:1–11:15)

Saul and his buddy wandered the countryside looking for his father’s missing donkeys, but unfortunately the donkeys outsmarted them.

They decided to go ask “The Seer” if he knew where the donkeys were.

Samuel was “The Seer.”

Samuel already knew that Saul was on his way.

God told Samuel that Saul was to be ruler of Israel.

Samuel told Saul to not worry about the donkeys, they had been found.

Samuel told Saul that he was the “desire” of all Israel.

Saul was confused and pointed out the low-rank of his Benjamite family.

He was also from Gibeah, the scene of the nasty incident that sparked the civil war at the end of the Book of Judges.

Samuel put together a feast for Saul and his friend.

Samuel anoints Saul’s head with oil before sending him on his way.

Confirmation of Saul’s Calling:

Donkeys found (v. 2)

Saul will meet three men; is given two loaves of bread (vv. 3-4)

Saul will meets band of prophets; is possessed by Spirit of God and prophesies (vv. 5-7)

The text explains that this event is one reason why the Israelites had a saying: “Is Saul also among the prophets?”

Saul kept quiet to his family about his new role as king.

Later, Samuel had all of the people gather together for the inauguration of Saul as King of Israel.

Saul was nowhere to be found.

He was hiding because he was afraid.

The people pulled him from his hiding place and shouted “Long live the king!”

The festivities were interrupted with word that Nahash king of the Ammonites had attacked the city of Jabesh Gilead.

The people of Jabesh Gilead were Saul’s cousins.

Nahash tried to gauge out the right eye of every man in the land.

Saul came to the rescue and defeated Nahash in battle.

Some Israelites had previously mocked Saul, and after Saul’s victory the people wanted to kill them, but Saul spared their lives.

At this point, Samuel officially sets Saul up as king over Israel.

Saul is Rejected as King (13:1–15:35)

First Failure

Saul’s son Jonathan fought a successful battle against the Philistines.

Saul took credit for the battle.

The Philistines mustered their armies to attack Israel again and the people fled and hid in caves.

Saul and his army waited seven days for Samuel to show up and give them God’s instructions.

Samuel did not show up right away, so Saul took on Samuel’s role and made sacrifices to God in order to figure out what to do next.

Just as Saul had finished making the offerings, Samuel showed up.

Saul made excuses.

Samuel told him he had done a foolish thing and that his dynasty would not last forever because of his unfaithfulness.

Second Failure

After this, Saul took his 600 men back to Gibeah.

Saul and Jonathan were the only people with weapons as the Philistines were preparing to attack.

Saul just sat around “under a pomegranate tree.”

Jonathan and his armor-bearer sneaked away from Saul and crossed over a canyon to where the Philistines were at.

The Philistines attacked them, but Jonathan and his armor-bearer began slaughtering them.

The text says that God caused the Philistines to panic, and that the ground began to shake.

Meanwhile, Saul had made a rash vow, forbidding the people to eat any food under penalty of death.

Saul was caught off guard by the sound of battle, but joined in as well only to find the Philistines killing themselves in confusion.

After the battle, Jonathan ate some honey because he did not know about his father’s vow.

The people told Jonathan about the vow, and Jonathan told them that what his father had told them was stupid.

The people refused to let Saul kill his son Jonathan for breaking the fast.

Similar to Jephthah’s vow, but with different outcome.

Third Failure

Later, Samuel told Saul to go completely destroy the Amalekites.

Saul was victorious in battle, but he failed to destroy everything.

He kept the livestock for himself.

He kept King Agag alive.

God said to Samuel, “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.”

Samuel cried bitter tears before he went to confront Saul.

When Saul saw Samuel approaching, he said, “Look! I did what God said!”

Samuel asked him about the livestock.

Saul blamed the soldiers.

He said they were actually planning on making a sacrifice later.

He said they had completely destroyed everything else.

Samuel stopped him and rebuked him for “pouncing on the plunder.”

Saul again tried to say that they would eventually get around to sacrificing to God.

Samuel's response:

“To obey is better than sacrifice.”

“For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.”

“Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king.”

Saul begged for forgiveness and grabbed ahold of Samuel’s robe and tore it as Samuel was turning to leave.

Samuel said, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you.”

Samuel had to go kill Agag himself.

Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament

In Christopher Wright’s book Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament he presents the concept of Jesus as Messiah. The two main issues he addresses are that of the Old Testament passages that refer to the Messiah and how the New Testament writers saw Jesus in the Scriptures, as well as the issue of Jesus’ own views on the role of the Messiah and how he fit in this role. The idea of Jesus as Messiah or Christ is not uncommon among Christians, but Wright shows how the concept of Jesus as Messiah actually has a much deeper meaning than what we generally think of today. Wright shows that the Gospels are filled with language indicating the nature of Jesus as that of Messiah. The Gospels and the other writings of the New Testament constantly refer back to Old Testament passages in their attempt to show that Jesus truly was the Messiah of Israel. Matthew’s gospel begins with the genealogy of Jesus. While this at first may seem like a boring passage simply showing that Jesus had a long human ancestry, this text goes deeper than that. It is a summary of the people of Israel and their history, saying that the history of Israel may be summed up completely in Jesus himself (34).

This genealogy begins with the person of Abraham and lists off fourteen generations until the time of King David, followed by fourteen more generations to the period of the exile, and finally fourteen more generations until we get to the birth of Jesus. Here, the genealogy ends. It begins with Abraham because of the Abrahamic Covenant (3). In the book of Genesis, God made a covenant with Abraham saying that he would have a son, and that the descendants of this son would be great and numerous. God also promised that through Abraham’s seed all nations would be blessed. This was the role of Israel as Abraham’s descendants (4). They were to be a blessing and light to all the nations of the world, showing them the way back to God. However, Israel failed in its mission repeatedly. The second major stop in this history of Israel is with King David. God made a covenant to David as well, promising him that he would never fail to have an heir or a descendant of his sitting on the throne, fulfilling the role of king (5). This promise remained true until Israel reached the next major event, the exile to Babylon. Here, it looked as though God’s promise had failed and that he had given up all hope for Israel and its redemptive role in the world. However, the people of Judah returned from exile. The genealogy lists another fourteen generations from this time until the time of Jesus’ birth. The expectation at the time of the restoration of Judah is that the King of Judah, the one of David’s line would be restored to the throne. The history of Israel is then summed up with Jesus because Jesus is not only the one who will restore the Davidic dynasty in himself as the eternal king, but he will also fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant by becoming a blessing to all nations of the earth as Abraham’s seed. The Davidic Covenant became linked with the Abrahamic Covenant at some point after the time of David (5). This can be seen in the language of Psalm 72 where the understanding has become that the ruler who sits on David’s throne will fulfill a particular kind of role, one in which all nations on earth would be blessed through him (6).

In Matthew’s gospel there is an emphasis upon the fact that the fulfillment of Jesus as Messiah is not just something that is only for the Jews, but for Gentiles as well. (5)  This is seen in the list of women who are briefly mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy. All of these were foreign women, most of whom bore children by questionable means. Yet, these are the people Matthew chose to include in his genealogy – Tamar, who bore twins by her father-in-law; Ruth, a Moabitess supposedly descended from an incestuous relationship; Rahab, a foreigner and a prostitute; Bath-Sheba, a foreigner who committed adultery with King David (4-5). Matthew did this on purpose. He wanted to show that even Jesus, the ultimate Jew, had Gentile blood in his veins, just as King David. The Davidic King must represent all nations so that all will be blessed. Also, Matthew gives very specific groups of fourteen in his genealogy, even leaving certain generations out, and altogether ignoring the generations before the time of Abraham (6). He did this because of the numerical significance with the groups of numbers being divisible by seven, an important number, and with Jesus being placed at the conclusion of all these sevens, showing that he is the ultimate completion of Israel and Israel’s purpose (7).

Another one of Wright’s main points is that of Jesus’ own perception of himself and his purpose. The writers of the New Testament go out of their way to show that Jesus is indeed the Messiah or the anointed one and that he is the true and final fulfillment of Israel, summing up the Law and the Prophets, and that Jesus is Israel’s true Davidic king. The Gospel writers use various passages from the Old Testament to show that the Old Testament predicted his coming and what he would do. Modern exegetes may find some of these uses of Old Testament passages by the Gospel writers to be taken out of context. An example would be the passage in Isaiah 7 where King Ahaz is told by the prophet that a “virgin” (LXX) with give birth to a son and he will be called Emmanuel, God with us. Matthew uses this passage, along with others, for his own purposes. This passage may not have been talking about Jesus, but about the circumstances of King Ahaz’s time. However, what Matthew did was not necessarily wrong. Yes, he takes these verses out of context and applies them to his own story of Jesus’ birth, but in Matthew’s understanding he was recognizing the similarities between what God had done in the past and what he had done most recently in Jesus. Matthew believed that what took place in the past had significance not only for the past, but for what had happened in Jesus in his own time (58).

The gospel writers use much language to describe Jesus as the fulfillment of the Davidic King of the Old Testament promises.  However, Jesus does not really use this kind of language when he is referring to himself throughout the gospels. Wright says that Jesus more thoroughly identifies himself with the Son of Man as referenced in the book of the prophet Daniel, especially in chapter 7, as well as the Suffering Servant as portrayed in the book of Isaiah, especially in chapter 53 (148-58). However, the Son of Man in Daniel does not seem to very well portray the picture of Christ in the gospels even though Jesus referred to himself as “son of man” (153). He identifies the most with the Suffering Servant (154). In Jesus’ time, the passages in Daniel and Isaiah and some elsewhere had come to be seen for the most part as referring to the coming of the Messiah in Israel’s history. Jesus seemed to agree with this conclusion and, seeing himself fulfilling these roles. However, Jesus’ view of himself also differed considerably from others in that many believed that when the Messiah would come, he would overthrow the Romans and Jesus did not intend to do this (138). He identified much more with the Suffering Servant who would carry the sins of his people upon himself. With this understanding, Jesus would go to the cross and die, dashing the hopes of many of his followers who did not understand the nature of the Suffering Servant and how to reconcile this picture with that of the all-powerful Son of Man. While this may have dashed the hopes of many, Jesus truly does fulfill the expectations of both the Suffering Servant and the Son of Man in both his death and his resurrection.

At the time I was reading this book, I was also reading Scot McKnight’s King Jesus Gospel for Prof. Robertson’s evangelism class. These two books had some very similar things to say about the role of Jesus as Messiah, so I kept getting the two books mixed up. However, having looked back upon this book, I believe that it is superior to McKnight’s book. McKnight got caught up on his own pet peeves about the church and this served as the basis of his look at Jesus as Messiah. Wright looks at Jesus as Messiah on a much more academic level. Wright is also does a much more thorough job when looking at the history of Israel He goes into the details of the texts, and this is something that I appreciate. I think that often when people try to take a serious look at these texts they wind up talking too much about what they personally have gotten out of the texts. While this is certainly a valid thing to do, it becomes tiresome after the third or fourth rant. Wright, however, does an excellent job in presenting the facts and details of the passages he uses without getting caught up too much in his own opinions. While his opinions are obviously present, he gives fair treatment of various perspectives and possibilities without being too quick to jump to conclusions.

Something I enjoyed about Wright’s book was that he provided a fairly thorough look at the various scriptures of the Old Testament that refer to the concept of the Messiah as well as looking at the various kinds of covenants and their contexts within the Old Testament (77-101). Wright’s book was a helpful resource for my paper on Psalm 72 because of his conversation on these covenants. I was previously aware of the Davidic and Abrahamic covenants coming into play with Psalm 72, but after looking at surrounding psalms I saw how these two covenants are not the only ones to which the psalmist refers back. The psalms speak of Mosaic and Noahic covenants as well. I enjoyed examining Psalm 72 further, using Wright as a reference and guide, to see if this particular psalm contained hints at other covenants besides those of David and Abraham.

Another thing I appreciated with Wright’s book was the issue of Jesus’ human identity in his recognition of his role as Messiah. I find it fascinating to think about how Jesus first learned that he was the Messiah. I think we often do not think about this because we assume that because Jesus was God he of course knew it all along. Yet, I appreciate learning more about how the Jews had come to view the Messiah during Jesus’ lifetime and how they thought that the one who would be Messiah would not necessarily know until God revealed it to them at some point in their life. Wright made me wonder when Jesus might have realized this for himself as well as getting me to think about many other thought-provoking issues and concepts.