The Book of Ruth points to the Time of the wedding of the Lord Jesus to the Church
Hello John and Doves,
Dear brothers and sisters, in this study I am following up on the previous teaching on the feast of Pentecost. Pentecost is an absolutely exceptional feast for the church among all other biblical feasts, because on the feast of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out about 2000 years ago and the church was born. Now we are waiting for Pentecost, which will be fulfilled personally by the Lord Jesus by descending into the clouds and the subsequent rapture of the church, when the age of the church on Earth will be ended and the Holy Spirit will be taken from the Earth. The church will then be with the Lord at the marriage of the Lamb in heaven.
There is one book in the Scriptures that is entirely prophetic of these events. It is the book of Ruth, which deals with the marriage of the faithful Israelite Boaz with the pagan woman Ruth. This book is perceived by many teachers of the Scriptures as a type of the marriage of the Lord Jesus with his bride - the church. For this reason, it is important to know in which part of the year the marriage took place. A close examination of the book of Ruth reveals that the time of year for the wedding is accurately recorded, and that the wedding of Boaz and Ruth took place during the feast of Pentecost, which is in the middle of the summer season.
Now let us examine the verses in this book that will help us to understand when the wedding took place.
1. Naomi and Ruth returned from the land of Moab to Bethlehem and arrived there in the spring at the beginning of the winter barley harvest (Ruth 1:22). Ruth went to the field to glean behind the reapers and happened to be in the field belonging to Boaz (Ruth 2:3). That day she gathered an ephah of barley and that same day she first met Boaz.
2. The wedding of Boaz and Ruth could not have taken place during the harvest, but only at the very end of the barley and wheat harvests. Until then, Ruth had been living with her mother-in-law Naomi (Ruth 2:23).
3. The events of chapters three and four take place entirely in one day. We know that the winter barley harvest in the land of Israel ended in the month of April-May and the winter wheat harvest in the month of May-June. From the second chapter, we know that the wedding took place after the entire grain harvest. (Ruth 2:23). Since Boaz was winnowing barley on the threshing floor and it was already at the time of his marriage to Ruth, it must have been the harvest of the spring barley crop, which is harvested as the last crop, i.e. in the month of July (Ruth 3:2). The winter barley had already been in the granaries for about two months at that time. The fact that it was the last harvest is also confirmed by the fact that Boaz gave Ruth six measures of spring barley (Ruth 3:15). From the above it is clear that all grain harvesting has already been completed and the last harvested crop - the spring barley crop - is being processed for storage in the granaries (Boaz winnowed this barley on the threshing floor).
4. Preparation for the wedding. Ruth was instructed by Naomi on what to do next, see Ruth 3:4-6. Ruth did exactly as Naomi told her. The moment Boaz realized that the woman was lying at his feet and that it was midnight (as in Matthew 25:6 “at midnight there was a cry, ‘The bridegroom is coming...“) and that it was Ruth, he decided to act. When Ruth returned home, Naomi prophesied to her that Boaz would complete her matter that day (Ruth 3:18).
5. Wedding day. When Ruth left the threshing floor, Boaz immediately went to town (Ruth 3:15), where he immediately acted on the matter and accepted his role as an advocate (redeemer) for Ruth. He met with the elders at the gate, resolved the situation legally, and that he declared Ruth his legal wife that very day. This marriage contract was confirmed by the elders, including all the people in the gate (Ruth 4:9-11).
The wedding of Boaz and Ruth therefore took place on the day after the spring barley harvest, that is, in the period of late July, early August (spring barley ripens 3.5 to 4 months after the grain is sown in late March-early April). We know from Scripture that the feast of Pentecost falls within this time period. As already mentioned, the wedding of Boaz and Ruth is a type of the wedding of the Lord Jesus with his church, and this wedding of Boaz and Ruth took place during the feast of Pentecost.
It is also interesting that on the wedding day, Ruth received six measures of barley from Boaz (her redeemer). This is very reminiscent of the six stone jars in which Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee.
Addendum.
Why is the spring barley harvest mentioned in the book of Ruth on the wedding day, when the church is compared to the wheat harvest? This is so that the time of Boaz and Ruth's wedding would be clearly revealed. If Boaz was winnowing spring wheat on the threshing floor, then the wedding period would not be clearly determined, because the time difference between the autumn and spring wheat harvests is about 3-4 weeks. However, the difference between the autumn and spring barley harvests is about 2-2.5 months. If it is recorded that Boaz was winnowing barley on the threshing floor, it is spring barley, because winter barley, which has been stored in the granaries for a long time, absolutely cannot be processed at this time.
With the completion of the spring barley harvest, for the reasons mentioned above, the total harvest of all grain in Israel is completed. The harvest is therefore over and Boaz and Ruth's wedding can take place during the Pentecost period. When the Lord reveals it to us in this way, it is evident that God wants us to know the time of the marriage of Boaz and Ruth. Since the book of Ruth is a type of the marriage of the Lamb with the church, we can look forward to the day of Pentecost with our blessed hope of our marriage in heaven.
The book of Ruth does not mention the specific day of Boaz and Ruth's wedding, but it clearly defines the time of the wedding, which corresponds to the time of the feast of Pentecost. In the Gregorian calendar, the feast of Pentecost ranges from mid-July to mid-August, depending on when the feast of Passover is that year, from which the feast of Pentecost is counted. This is exactly the time of year in Israel when all the grain harvest has already been harvested and new wine is also available, with which the disciples were supposedly drunk on the day of the feast of Pentecost in Acts 2.
Petr
Maran atha