In June 2002, author Eva Marie Everson toured the Holy Land as a journalist and photojournalist.  For eight weeks, Crosswalk.com will feature articles taken from her journal, as a Christian who "fell into the Bible."  Use them in your personal study time or as a group, focusing on what the Bible says. Then-using the reflections at the end-explore what it means to you personally.

We traveled from Jerusalem to the Kibbutz Ramat Rachel (the hill of Rachel), which overlooks the tomb of Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob who died giving birth to their second son, Benjamin.
Standing on the patio area of the kibbutz's dining area (a kibbutz is a communal farm or settlement in Israel and a wonderful place to get a warm, delicious meal when you're a pilgrim there), high atop a plateau on the southern end of Jerusalem, we looked down across lush green valleys and fields toward a city we were not allowed to enter, Bethlehem.
Just beyond Bethlehem rose the hills of Moab, rolling like fresh baked bread against a sea of blue sky. Our tour guide, Miriam, pointed to them and said, "Can you imagine Ruth and Naomi, walking along just there, cresting the hills, making their journey toward Naomi's home of Bethlehem?"
Yes, I believe I could....

"And just there," Miriam said to me, "to the left of the outer gates of Bethlehem, are the traditional fields of Boaz where Ruth would have gleaned."
I thought I could see that, too.  Ruth the Moabitess, gleaning in the fields of her kinsman-redeemer.

Biblical History

"Ruth the Moabitess," the author of Ruth writes, not once but six times, as though the land from which she hailed was as much a part of her as the name she'd been given at birth.  This was for good reason.  To come from Moab was, according to Psalm 60:8, to come from the Lord's "wash basin," or, a place with which He would use to wash the dust from His feet.
The people of Moab had descended from the incestuous relationship between Lot (the nephew of Abraham and survivor of the fiery destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah) and his oldest daughter.