BETHLEHEM

 

Bethlehem, the City of David, holds more importance symbolically than most of us know. That importance came through a noble woman named Ruth.

It is said by oral tradition that women in ancient Israel lived with a hope that the Messiah would come through their line. Ruth from Moab had no blood of Israel running through her veins.  She was a convert to the Lord, God of Israel ‘under whose wings she had come to trust’ (Ruth 2:12). When her Israelite husband died and left her with no children, Ruth became one of the lowliest of the earth, devoid of security or livelihood.

Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi also became destitute losing her husband and both of her sons. When Naomi encouraged her daughters-in-law to return to their kin and their ‘gods’, they wept. Orpah left but Ruth remained with these words on her tongue: “….whither thou goest, I will go; and whither thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” (Ruth 1:16) Makes you want to weep…..

Ruth and Naomi left Moab and returned to Judea….to a small town called Bethlehem, no less.  Once there, Ruth consented to a ‘levirate’  marriage with Naomi’s next of kin, as was the custom in Israel. Through a levirate marriage, the woman was provided with children and restored to security and society.

Here is where things become interesting. The Hebrew word for a man who would step up to this responsibility was GO’EL. The King James Version of the Bible translates it as simply ‘kinsman’ but the proper and literal meaning of GO’EL is ‘redeemer’ (Rasmussen, “Introduction to the Old Testament”, 1:157)

This is how Ruth, a lowly woman of Moab became the symbol of Christ’s redemption: Her GO’EL was Boaz, an Israelite kinsman of Naomi. Boaz became Ruth’s redeemer and restorer of all she had lost. Boaz and Ruth had a son whose name was Obed, who became the father of Jesse, who was the father of King David, who was a progenitor of Mary, who was the mother of Christ……

This is why the importance of Bethlehem…..and righteous Ruth through whose line came Christ the King. Consider for a moment how Christ redeems us from our fallen state and restores us to the presence of the Father, AND grants us eternal posterity through His power of exaltation. The Saviour himself affirms His role as the GO’EL when He refers to himself as the bridegroom and us, Israel, as the bride (Matthew 25:1-13; D&C 33:17; 65:3; 88:92; 133:10).

He is the greatest GO’EL of all….. the Redeemer, the Restorer, the Hope of Israel, the Rock of our Salvation, the Son of God who will one day sit on the throne of His ‘father’ David (Luke 1:32).

And it all started in a little town called Bethlehem…..

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Birth by Dan Burr)