Imagine living in fear for twenty years. Your people are oppressed. Your land is broken. And it’s been a long time since anyone heard God speak. You try to survive, maybe even rebuild, but every time you begin to hope, the cycle starts again. All that remains is loss, silence, and defeat.

That was Israel under Canaanite rule...until the people cried out to the Lord. And in response, God raised up a woman named Deborah. She didn’t come with a sword, but with a word from the Lord.

What would you do if God Himself had rejected people like you? No way in. No hope of acceptance. No place among the people of God, because of where you came from, because of what your ancestors had done?

That was the fate of the Moabites. According to Deuteronomy 23:3-6, the Moabites were cursed and excluded from the assembly of the Lord because of how they treated Israel during the exodus: refusing them bread and water and hiring Balaam to curse them. They were outsiders. The forgotten. The condemned.

And Ruth was a Moabitess.