Ruth - the women in Jesus genealogy

This is the third week in our sermon series on the women in Jesus’ family line and I encourage you to read the short book of Ruth in your bible this week. It’s a wonderful, true, historical story about a noble Moabite woman who chose to be associated with the Israelites and their God rather than her own people. Her own people had descended from Lot after he escaped the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah with his wife and two daughters (Read Genesis 19). His wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt, but Lot and his daughters found refuge in a cave. His daughters conspired to lure their father into sleeping with them. On successive nights they got Lot drunk and slept with him. Both sisters got pregnant and gave birth to sons; one named Moab, the other named Ammon. Those two boys, born of incest, grew up to found nations that would eventually become both incredibly evil as well as bitter enemies of Israel. The Jews hated the Moabites and Ammonites and wanted nothing to do with them. In this historical context, the book of Ruth reveals how a romance blossomed between Ruth the Moabitess and Boaz the Israelite. They were a very unlikely couple but in God’s providence they were brought together in marriage. They had a son named Obed who had a son named Jesse who had a son named David, thus, Ruth is King David’s great-grandmother. Come along this Sunday to hear more about Ruth, and how a person from the hated nation of Moab entered the line of the Messiah.