As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these
verses:
1And
it was in the days of judging one judging, it was a famine in the land and it
was a man from Bethlehem Judah going to sojourn in the fields of Moab, he and
his wife and his two sons. 2And the name of the man [was] Elimelech
and the name of his wife [was] Naomi and the name of his two sons [was] Mahlon
and Chilion. [They were] Ephrathites from Bethlehem Judah and they went [to]
the fields of Moab and they lived there.3And Elimelech the husband
of Naomi died and she was left and the two of her sons. 4And they
carried to themselves wives of Moabite women. The name of the one [was] Orpah
and the name of the second [was] Ruth and they dwelt there about ten years. 5And
also died both of them Mahlon and Chilion and the woman was left from the two
of her children and from her husband.
As I have often related in my posts, I believe the basic
logic of life is predominantly fractal, not linear. Our Western culture minds,
for whatever reason, want to see everything linearly, like timelines and number
lines and Roman Numeral outlines. We think everything is a “this then that,
then this then that”. Years ago I realized there was something very strange
about the logic of the Bible, that it utterly defied outlining. Then I had
opportunity to study the mathematical concept of fractals, which are basically
patterns which repeat themselves an infinite number of times on an infinite
number of scales. I realized then that a repeating pattern is actually an
entirely different but valid form of logic, and that was what I was seeing so
prevalently throughout the Bible. With fractal logic, and so often in the Bible,
what is important is not the order, but the pattern. Then I began to realize
the world is full of fractal logic, and, in fact, that it is the very logic of
life itself – the logic of repeating patterns.
While I’m at it, that is why we can speak of a “family tree.”
Both trees and families are living things, and so they share this logic of
repeating patterns. A tree repeats the pattern of branching (repeating its own
pattern) and families do too. Not only that but trees produce trees that look
the same, and so do families. That, you see, is the logic of life, and it is
fractal, not necessarily linear.
Anyway, I need to get off my incorrigible fascination with
math and get back to Ruth! Well, actually, … not completely. Math has
everything to do with what I want to post today, just for the fun of it!
The most basic cycle in life is the week or 7 days. That
being the case, 6 of anything is naturally incomplete, 7 is complete, and 8 is
a new beginning. What absolutely fascinates me right off the bat is that the
book of Ruth (like the rest of the Bible) is full of this same cycle.
As related in the text above, the book starts with 6 named
persons: Elimelech, Naomi, Mahlon, Chilion, Ruth, and Orpah. The whole point of
the book is that somehow these six are “not enough.” In spite of their efforts
in various ways to survive and prosper, everything they do seems to fail. Of
course. There are only six of them. Then enters the 7th – the Kinsmen
Redeemer, Boaz! All of this of course is typical of Jesus. The whole book of
Ruth is, in a sense, a picture of the entire human race (which, by the way,
measures time and space in multiples of 6 – both clocks and compasses use a
senary (base-6) number system – our very essence of time and space is
inherently incomplete). Everything we try to do to survive and prosper in the end
fails. Our only real hope, that which will “complete” us, is the coming of the
Kinsman-Redeemer Jesus. His coming into our lives today in a sense “fixes” us,
and then His Coming will finally “fix” our universe.
It is also of note that Ruth is the 8th book of
the OT. It is highly significant that the book of Judges (the 7th
book) ends with two accounts mentioning Bethlehem (2, by the way, being the
number of testimony – can’t get into that now). Bethlehem, we know, is the
birthplace of the Savior, the Completer. Following Judges, the book of Ruth is
the 3rd (God’s number) account in a row mentioning Bethlehem and the
8th book -- which should tell us to expect some kind of new beginning
– which, in fact, it does. Ruth herself is all about a new beginning, but more
than that, the book will finally reveal the coming of David, and through him ultimately,
of course, the great Completer Jesus. So, in the “days of the judging ones
judging,” with all its hopelessness and confusion, the book of Ruth reveals a
new beginning – a beginning of hope.
Interesting too, that Naomi and Ruth arrive back in
Bethlehem “as the barley harvest was just beginning” (1:22). Would anyone
believe that, according to the ancient calendar, the barley harvest occurred in
the 8th month(!). Naomi and especially Ruth arrived in Bethlehem to
make a new beginning, right at the beginning of the “8th month,” a
great time (mathematically) to make a new beginning! (PS – That the beginning
of barley harvest (late April/early May) occurs in the “8th month” is
according to the Gezer Calendar – a calendar dated to about 1000 BC, a
limestone plaque unearthed by archaeologists about 20 miles west of Bethlehem).
While I’m on the subject, we see the 8th of
anything being a new beginning throughout the Bible. Eight people stepped off the
Ark to populate the new world. Jewish boys were circumcised on the 8th
day. Cleansed lepers presented themselves to the priests on the 8th
day (Lev 14:10,11) – a serious new beginning! And, of course, Jesus arose on
the 1st day of the week – the “8th” day. Very serious new
beginning! After the 70 weeks of Daniel and at the end of the 7 years of
Tribulation, Jesus will return to initiate the Millennium – another serious “new
beginning!”
All of this is absolutely fascinating to me, but, to bring
it all back to planet earth, what it tells us is to see in the book of Ruth the
whole concept of new beginnings. Throughout the book, I will try to keep that
in mind as I try to understand the text and its application to my life.
I loooooourve numbers!
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