The story of Ruth, the Moabite woman who married a Jew
- compared to that of the Jewish woman, Allegra, who married a foreigner; an Arab
Ruth 1:1-4:18 (The Living Bible)

Long ago when judges ruled in Israel, a man named Elimelech, from Bethlehem, left the country because of a famine and moved to the land of Moab. With him were his wife, Naomi, and his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. 3 During the time of their residence there, Elimelech died and Naomi was left with her two sons.

4 These young men, Mahlon and Chilion, married girls of Moab, Orpah and Ruth. But later, both men died, so that Naomi was left alone, without her husband or sons. 6 She decided to return to Israel with her daughters-in-law, for she had heard that the Lord had blessed his people by giving them good crops again.

8 But after they had begun their homeward journey, she changed her mind and said to her two daughters-in-law, "Why don't you return to your parents' homes instead of coming with me? And may the Lord reward you for your faithfulness to your husbands and to me. 9 And may he bless you with another happy marriage." Then she kissed them, and they all broke down and cried.

10 "No," they said. "We want to go with you to your people."

11 But Naomi replied, "It is better for you to return to your own people. Do I have younger sons who could grow up to be your husbands?

12 No, my daughters, return to your parents' homes, for I am too old to have a husband. And even if that were possible, and I became pregnant tonight, and bore sons 13 would you wait for them to grow up? No, of course not, my daughters; oh, how I grieve for you that the Lord has punished me in a way that injures you."

14 And again they cried together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, and returned to her childhood home; but Ruth insisted on staying with Naomi.

15 "See," Naomi said to her, "your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; you should do the same."

16 But Ruth replied, "Don't make me leave you, for I want to go wherever you go and to live wherever you live; your people shall be my people, and your God shall be my God; 17 I want to die where you die and be buried there. May the Lord do terrible things to me if I allow anything but death to separate us." [Compared to Allegra and her husband who disgraced both their parents and their people]

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18 And when Naomi saw that Ruth had made up her mind and could not be persuaded otherwise, she stopped urging her. 19 So they both came to Bethlehem, and the entire village was stirred by their arrival.

"Is it really Naomi?" the women asked.

20 But she told them, "Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara," (Naomi means "pleasant"; Mara means "bitter") "for Almighty God has dealt me bitter blows. 21 I went out full and the Lord has brought me home empty; why should you call me Naomi when the Lord has turned his back on me and sent such calamity!"
22 (Their return from Moab and arrival in Bethlehem was at the beginning of the barley harvest.)

Ruth 2

2:1 Now Naomi had an in-law there in Bethlehem who was a very wealthy man. His name was Boaz.

2 One day Ruth said to Naomi, "Perhaps I can go out into the fields of some kind man to glean the free grain behind his reapers."
[making use of a Jewish custom on her own initiative]
And Naomi said, "All right, dear daughter. Go ahead."

3 So she did. And as it happened, the field where she found herself belonged to Boaz, this relative of Naomi's husband.

4 Boaz arrived from the city while she was there. After exchanging greetings with the reapers he said to his foreman, "Hey, who's that girl over there?" [she was still quite young and must have been beautiful].

6 And the foreman replied, "It's that girl from the land of Moab who came back with Naomi. 7 She asked me this morning if she could pick up the grains dropped by the reapers, and she has been at it ever since except for a few minutes' rest over there in the shade." [diligent, responsible, wishing to please] 8 Boaz went over and talked to her. "Listen, my child," [compared to himself] he said to her. "Stay right here with us to glean; don't think of going to any other fields. Stay right behind my women workers; I have warned the young men not to bother you; when you are thirsty, go and help yourself to the water."

10 She thanked him warmly. "How can you be so kind to me?" she asked. "You must know I am only a foreigner."

"Yes, I know," Boaz replied, "and I also know about all the love and kindness you have shown your mother-in-law [compared to Allegra who just wanted to do her own thing and showed no kindness and respect to her own parents] since the death of your husband, and how you left your father and mother in your own land and have come here to live among strangers. 12 May the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, bless you for it." [Compared to Allegra who didn't opt to become a Christian from the start, she only did it later - - for practical reasons, in a legalistic way].

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13 "Oh, thank you, sir," she replied. "You are so good to me, and I'm not even one of your workers!"

14 At lunch time Boaz called to her, "Come and eat with us." [she found favor]
So she sat with his reapers and he gave her food, more than she could eat. 15 And when she went back to work again, Boaz told his young men to let her glean right among the sheaves without stopping her, 16 and to snap off some heads of barley and drop them on purpose for her to glean, and not to make any remarks. 17 So she worked there all day, and in the evening when she had beaten out the barley she had gleaned, it came to a whole bushel! 18 She carried it back into the city and gave it to her mother-in-law, with what was left of her lunch.

19 "So much!" Naomi exclaimed. "Where in the world did you glean today? Praise the Lord for whoever was so kind to you." [chose that her going to Boaz's field wasn't planned; they didn't have an agenda, just trusted the Lord to provide for them] So Ruth told her mother-in-law all about it and mentioned that the owner of the field was Boaz.

20 "Praise the Lord for a man like that! God has continued his kindness to us as well as to your dead husband!" Naomi cried excitedly. "Why, that man is one of our closest relatives!"

21 "Well," Ruth told her, "he said to come back and stay close behind his reapers until the entire field is harvested."

22 "This is wonderful!" Naomi exclaimed. "Do as he has said. Stay with his girls right through the whole harvest; you will be safer there than in any other field!" [still no indication of an agenda in sticking to Boaz's field]

23 So Ruth did and gleaned with them until the end of the barley harvest, and then the wheat harvest too.

Ruth 3

3:1 One day Naomi said to Ruth, "My dear, isn't it time that I try to find a husband for you and get you happily married again? 2 The man I'm thinking of is Boaz! He has been so kind to us and is a close relative. I happen to know that he will be winnowing barley tonight out on the threshing-floor. 3 Now do what I tell you-bathe and put on some perfume and some nice clothes and go on down to the threshing-floor, but don't let him see you until he has finished his supper. 4 Notice where he lies down to sleep; then go and lift the cover off his feet and lie down there, and he will tell you what to do concerning marriage." [now Naomi is scheming, based on the goodwill Boaz had shown them, but more importantly, Jewish law {custom} that made him responsible]

5 And Ruth replied, "All right. I'll do whatever you say."

6 So she went down to the threshing-floor that night and followed her mother-in-law's instructions. After Boaz had finished a good meal, he lay down very contentedly beside a heap of grain and went to sleep. Then Ruth came quietly and lifted the covering off his feet and lay there. 8 Suddenly, around midnight, he wakened and sat up, startled. There was a woman lying at his feet!

9 "Who are you?" he demanded.

"It's I, sir-Ruth," she replied. "Make me your wife according to God's law, for you are my close relative."

10 "Thank God for a girl like you!" he exclaimed. "For you are being even kinder to Naomi now than before. Naturally you'd prefer a younger man, even though poor. But you have put aside your personal desires. [Compared to Allegra's defiant self-interest] 11 Now don't worry about a thing, my child; I'll handle all the details, for everyone knows what a wonderful person you are. 12 But there is one problem. It's true that I am a close relative, but there is someone else who is more closely related to you than I am. 13 Stay here tonight, and in the morning I'll talk to him, and if he will marry you, fine; let him do his duty; but if he won't, then I will, I swear by Jehovah; lie down until the morning."

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Return to Allegra

The outcome of Allegra's choice in comparison:
She forfeited her inheritance as a member of the people with the promise like Esau (Esav) did to satisfy a carnal need, by marrying a member of a people who have since become an artificially created nation trying to obtain a sovereign state on territory of another historically recognized nation - that they don't want to recognize. In this she entered into a non-sustainable situation in the long term. In the Guided Tour we site as proof that the God of Israel is a LIVING GOD, that he would drive out the nations occupying their inheritance:
Josh 3:9 Then Joshua summoned all the people and told them, "Come and listen to what the Lord your God has said. 10 Today you are going to know for sure that the living God is among you and that he will, without fail, drive out the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites-all the people who now live in the land you will soon occupy. TLB

We can therefore ask in view of the fact that these nations have actually disappeared: What chance do the so-called Palestinians have, since they are not even a nation - just Arabs who moved into the land that was promised to the Jews when they had the chance.

Her marrying a Christian Arab and becoming a Christian herself, didn't give her much more of a claim to live in Israel, since every Christian in the world would then have the same right**. Then also, most Churches (especially those who worship the Mother Mary as well), think they have replaced Israel as the chosen people (REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY). These churches and their members, therefore don't have sympathy for or recognize the Jews' claim of their ancient homeland.

Revelation 3:9 I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars--I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you

The churches grabbed fast portions of land in the Holy Land over the last 2 millennia as trophies to add to their wealth that they had no right to on territory that is eternally destined to belong to Jews according to Mosaic Law. This of course also goes for Arabs who took up land while the Jews were in the diaspora.

Allegra joined the descendants of Abraham's son Ishmael who was sent away so as to prevent him from inheriting what was meant for Isaac and the Hebrew nation. The Arab's continued occupation and claims of land in the territory mandated for a homeland for the Jews and their drive for a separate state, is an Ishmaelite attempt to become co-heirs with the Jews, overturning the God of Israel's ruling of Isaac being the sole heir. In fact, the Arab's god (of Islam) wants all the land. This of course, also applies to Esau, Jacob's first born**. See Hagar-Ishmael

**It's a typical manifestation of the God of Israel's sovereign right to, as it were, change the rules, even of nature, to fit his purposes, viz.
	Jacob making Joseph's sons his own and blessed the younger brother, Ephraim Gen 48:3 Jacob said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me 4 and said to me, 'I am going to make you fruitful and will increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.' 5 "Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. 6 Any children born to you after them will be yours; ...13 And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right toward Israel's left hand and Manasseh on his left toward Israel's right hand, and brought them close to him. 14 But Israel reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim's head, though he was the younger, and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh's head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn.  ...17 When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim's head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. 18 Joseph said to him, "No, my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head." 19 But his father refused and said, "I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations." 20 He blessed them that day and said, "In your name will Israel pronounce this blessing: 'May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.'" So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh. NIV
	Comparison of Judah with a woman Jer 31:21 "Set up road signs; put up guideposts.Take note of the highway, the road that you take. Return, O Virgin Israel, return to your towns. 22 How long will you wander, O unfaithful daughter? The LORD will create a new thing on earth--a woman will surround a man." [God of Israel can do the impossible]. 23 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "When I bring them back from captivity, the people in the land of Judah and in its towns will once again use these words: 'The LORD bless you, O righteous dwelling, O sacred mountain.' 24 People will live together in Judah and all its towns**--farmers and those who move about with their flocks. 25 I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint." NIV ** Part of so-called Westbank that global conspirators want to give to the Arabs.
	Wild olive  shoots (gentiles) grafted into cultivated olive tree (Israel) Neh 8:15 and that they should proclaim this word and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem: "Go out into the hill country and bring back branches from olive and wild olive trees, NIV Rom 11:17 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." 20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. 22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree! 25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob" NIV
	Heathen (goyim) can also become sons of the Living God Isa 19:23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. 24 In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. 25 The LORD Almighty will bless them, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance." NIV Rom 9:25 Remember what the prophecy of Hosea says? There God says that he will find other children for himself (who are not from his Jewish family) and will love them, though no one had ever loved them before. 26 And the heathen, of whom it once was said, "You are not my people," shall be called "sons of the Living God." TLB
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