In the Book of Ruth there is a story behind the story that is absolutely magnificent. You may have heard that the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. I want to take a moment and look at how the Old Testament Book of Ruth conceals the true and faithful kinsman-redeemer that was promised to us, the Lord Jesus Christ. We should also see how the New Testament reveals the great truths of the Book of Ruth.

  A similitude shows how one thing is like another. Parables, analogies, and types are all examples of similitudes. In our culture we use the term “model.” A model is a representation of something for our insight or instruction. There are simple two-dimensional models. There are three-dimensional models. When you get fancy, there are also complex computer generated simulations.

  Remember how Peter talked about how the Old Testament prophets knew of the great salvation that laid ahead for God’s people, but couldn’t figure it out because it was part of the mystery, which had been hid from ages and generations.

  Ruth was part of the kethubim, the other writings, not part of the law and prophets. It was read yearly at Pentecost, and most scholars suggest that was because of the association with the harvests in the Book of Ruth. However, I would like to suggest that it was because the Book of Ruth was prophetic of the salvation that God would make available on the day of Pentecost of which the Book of Ruth is prophetic.

  Although Ruth relates a historical story of the redemption of Naomi and Ruth by Boaz, (An account which is totally, historically, accurate and true.) it also prophetically foretells of the redemption of the Jews and Gentiles by our kinsman-redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. It does so by the use of symbolism or what some people may call types.

  Types are figures or examples of something future, and are prophetic in nature. The value of identifying types is not to point out intricacies of doctrine, but to help us understand God’s sovereignty and His work throughout history. When God had the Book of Ruth written, He was not only thinking of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz, He was thinking about Jesus Christ, our kinsman-redeemer. It was not only a wonderful story about God’s deliverance of Naomi and Ruth by Boaz, their kinsman-redeemer. God wanted to show us how a kinsman-redeemer acted because Jesus Christ would ultimately do the same for us. The presence of types is an indication that God (Who knows the beginning from the end) is at work in history and that He inspired the Old Testament writers to record these typological events.

  They may be used to illustrate truths of doctrine only after those truths are clearly revealed elsewhere. They are illustrations in as much as they agree with the clear revelation that follows. Understanding types helps us grasp and appreciate what God accomplished for us in Christ.

A type may be: [From Bible note on Genesis 2:23 in the Scofield Study Bible]

  Types occur most frequently in the Pentateuch, but are found, more sparingly, elsewhere. The antitype, or fulfillment of the type, is found generally in the New Testament. Scofield says two warnings are necessary: (1) nothing may be insisted upon as a type without explicit New Testament authority; and (2) all types not so authenticated must be recognized as having only the authority of analogy or of spiritual congruity.

  The phrase “shadow of things to come” (Colossians 2:17 and Hebrews 8:5; 10:1) also shows the function of these types. They foreshadow the truth they are designed to illustrate.

  For example sacrifices under the Mosaic law were but a shadow of the greater sacrifice to come. Today after seeing what Jesus Christ accomplished by his sacrificial death on the cross we understand how the Old Testament laws served as a shadow of things to come. If you stand in the shadow of a thing and look at the thing, you cannot see the details of it with distinction, because there is no light to illuminate it. But if you move to the other side of the thing and view the lighted side which casts the shadow, the details are illuminated and highlighted. The Old Testament laws concerning sacrifice are like that. What was unclear in the Old Testament as they stood in the shadow of the cross became clear for us as we view the cross with the light of the gospel of God's grace shining in its full brilliance upon it. In the shadow of the cross, their understanding was very limited. Now, we see it more clearly.

  Romans 10:4 says, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” That not only means that the law ceased to function as it did before. It ended when all was fulfilled and the gift of holy spirit was given on Pentecost. It also means that Christ was the end, the goal, the final target toward which the law was aiming. The law pointed to Christ who would ultimately fulfill it.

  Major events in the Old Testament were memorialized and communicated in feasts that foreshadowed what was to come in the future. The Passover lamb pointed to Christ who as our Passover was sacrificed for us. The scapegoat pointed toward Christ who took upon himself the sins of the world.

  The law points to Christ as:

  Ruth paints a wonderful word picture of our kinsman-redeemer Jesus Christ as we saw in the first four parts of this series.

  Adam, the man, the historical person, who lived in the Old Testament was a type of the coming Christ. Adam’s father was God and so was Christ’s. There are also many more ways in which Adam was a type of Christ. Jesus is called the last Adam in I Corinthians 15:45. Aaron, David, Eliakim, Joseph, Melchizedek, and others were also types of Christ.

  Because God knows the end from the beginning, he can use the figure of speech type to demonstrate His awesome magnificence. Ruth, Boaz, and Naomi were living out a story that was much bigger than their own lives. Yes it is a true and accurate historical account, but God shows His sovereignty in how the story prophetically fortells the work of our kinsman redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Is there a type of Christ in the Book of Ruth? If you have read it, I think you know that there is. Next week we will see who it is and look at that symbolism in depth.