Árdís - 01.01.1964, Page 16

14
ÁRDÍ S
Ruth
HRUND SKULASON
All of you are acquainted with the Book of Ruth, the 8th book
of the Old Testament. All the books of the Bible have been written
with a specific purpose in mind, and bring us a message and certain
rules to live by. This Book of Ruth has brought a message to women
of all ages at the same time as it relates the story of the great
grandmother of David. In Halley’s handbook of the Bible we are
told “That there is a field about a mile east of Bethlehem, called
the ‘Field of Boaz’, where traditon says, Ruth gleaned. Adjoining
is the ‘Shepherds’ Field’, where, tradition says, the angels an-
nounced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. And according to these
traditions, the scene of Ruth’s romance with Boaz, which led to
the formation of the Family that was to produce Christ, was chosen
of God, 1,100 years later, as the place for the Heavenly Announce-
ment of Christ’s Arrival. Tradition also has it, that under the
Church of the Nativity, in Bethlehem, there is a room in which,
it is said Jesus was born, and that this same room was a part of
the ancestral home of David, and before David, that of Boaz and
Ruth. So according to this tradition, Boaz took Ruth to be his bride,
and started the Family that was to bring Christ into the world,
in the very room in which, 1,100 years later Christ himself was
born.” Thus tradition lives through the ages.
How many times have we not heard of families like Elimelech
and Naomi who, with their two sons decided to leave the country
of their birth because famine confronted them there. The land
they chose was Moab, a very rich and fertile land. Food was there
in abundance, and work for the sons. However, there were other
difficulties, the barriers that are set by difference in religion and
tradition. The Moabs were heathen people, and their God Chemosh
was worshipped by child sacrifice. The family was tolerated and
allowed to worship and work in peace.
The sons Mahlon and Chilion like all young men do, met and
admired the women of Moab, and as love knows no barriers, they
married the lovely damsels of Moab, Ruth and Orpha. Now begins