Rahab and Ruth: Love Stories of Redemption

I would like to cite the stories of two women of the Gentile race namely Rahab and Ruth. Sure we have Asenath an Egyptian who married Joseph and also Zipporah an Ethiopian who married Moses but I would like to focus on these two who had become part of the human genealogy of David which led down to Jesus Christ. So what's the big deal with them?

First let's talk about Rahab. In Joshua 2, there is the story of Rahab who was already doomed for death as God had ordered the Canaanites to be wiped out for their sinfulness. What was worse is that prior to being saved, Rahab was a prostitute. Methinks that she was probably a temple prostitute herself. But she received the spies and in Hebrews 11:31 that she by faith received the spies and received the God of Israel. She was an outcast yet she was accepted and she was spared. However the Bible remains silent about how she met Salmon from the tribe of Judah (to where the Messianic line would come from according to Genesis 49:8-12) and from whom she would bear Boaz who would interestingly become Ruth's redeemer. 

Ruth as the Bible says in the book of Ruth was a Moabite. Elimelech, his wife Naomi and their two sons Mahlon and Chilion went to Moab during famine. Under unknown circumstances (but some suggest that it was malaria) that Naomi lost her whole family and she was left with her two Moabite daughters-in-law Orphah and Ruth. Orphah went back to Moab but not Ruth. Ruth clang to her mother-in-law and got saved by believing in the one true God, Jehovah instead of going back to her pagan gods which she knew would not save.

So here's where it boils down to- Ruth an outsider of the Jewish race because of the law against Moabites (because of their idolatry) yet she caught the attention of Boaz's (the old bachelor) eyes suggesting she must have been a very pretty woman whose virtue shone over her attractiveness. Boaz allowed her to gleam. What was interesting is that Boaz was a kinsman to Elimelech making him a possible redeemer, who was possibly his uncle. He had Ruth may have had a huge age gap due to the fact he called her "daughter" in Ruth 2:8. He was someone who was waiting for the right girl at the right time. Boaz was however hesitant but it came to the point that the nearer kinsman didn't want the woman Ruth. Ruth married Boaz thus saving the estate of Mahlon her first husband.

So it goes down to this - Rahab a Canaanite became the second mother-in-law of Ruth who was a Moabite who bore Boaz and both abandoned the falseness of idolatry for the worship of Jehovah the God of Israel. This plan proves that God had not only intended to save the Jews but even the Gentiles in which is evident even in the Old Testament like when he sent Joseph to Egypt to picture the coming Savior.