Ruth was neither a prophet nor a princess. She was not a judge. She performed no miracles and wielded no power. She didn't win any beauty contests. SHE WASN'T EVEN A JEW!!! And yet, in a period in history when women had no rights and were rarely even mentioned in any kind of literature or public discourse, this woman had an entire Old Testament book dedicated to her story. Who was she? Why does her story matter?This story comes after the book of Judges in our current arrangement of OT books, but it actually occurred during the time of the Judges. Interestingly, there are no judges mentioned in it-you might expect there to be some judge who was instrumental in God's work in Ruth's family, but no. The judges from that period were so hit and miss...
Ruth's story can stand alone, but should be seen against the backdrop of apostasy that was that whole dark period of the judges (read in the voice of a monotonous chorus: when everyone did as he saw fit). Because that makes this little diamond that much more glorious. And it's nice, after finishing that ghastly story at the end of Judges, to come up for sweet, fresh air and see into the hearts and lives of a couple of godly women, struggling through very hard times globally and personally, who cling to their faith and become a beautiful part of God's salvation history.
There are three heroes in this story, Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz. And there are really three stories here. One is the story of two women who love each other and whose relationship is centered on their commitment to the same God. Another is the story of an older woman who has lost her children and seemingly has no way of ever having another child or grandchild. The other is the story of providence, a romance, between Ruth and an older man of means, Boaz, also committed to God's laws and to social justice.
Ruth converted to Judaism when she married her first husband, Naomi's son, as did her sister-in-law, Orpah. During a horrible regional depression all three of these women lose their husbands. They are destitute and childless. Orpah decides to go back to her people. But Ruth decides to stay with Naomi and Naomi's God. The most quoted bit of dialogue from Ruth and one of the most quoted scriptures ever comes after Naomi's selfless (and maybe just a tad pessimistic) directive to her daughters in law that they go back to their families, to which Ruth replies (chapter 1:16-18),
Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me , be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.
This was a commitment the woman was making to her mother-in-law! Till death do us part...beautiful, beautiful scene, as chick flicky as they get. (:
I'm sure these words and this act meant the world to Naomi, but the fact remains that they are both widows with no income, practically destitute, and, understandably, she is still just a little pissed at God. What was our first clue? When they get to Bethlehem, she says (1:20-21), Don't call me Naomi anymore. (Naomi means pleasant and agreeable) I'm changing my name because I'm somebody else now--my story has given me a different identity. Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life Bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me, the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me. Now there's a pleasantry to start a conversation with!
And there too, is our age old response to the crap that happens to us--God does not create crap, no evil comes from Him. It clearly comes from our sin, from the natural evil that our sin has wreaked on the earth, and from Satan, too often glorified as God's opposite- he's way too finite to be God's opposite. But if you wanted to point your finger at someone other-worldly and blame them for the tragedy in your life, it would be more theologically correct to point it at him or back at mankind. But no, when crap happens who do we blame? We blame God! It's just a fascinating little dysfunction we have going and it is so dyed into the wool of our human worldviews.
Naomi may still have her faith, and she may even have discipled someone else who converted to her faith through the course of their relationship, but she's still pissed.
Even if the Israelites never actually followed the law of jubilee and took care of the poor in the grand way God had intended them to every 50 years (we have no evidence that they ever actually did), they still maintained some customs that followed the law that was intended to protect the poor--land owners would routinely leave some of the crops along the way as they harvested and would let poorer people follow behind and glean from these, a kind of pro bono, I guess.
Naomi happens to have a relative who is just such a land owner and when Ruth decides to go out and gather grain from someone's fields, apparently by coincidence, she winds up in Boaz's fields. And she catches his eye. And he asks around. And he learns of her story about being a foreigner and being devoted to Naomi and her God. And he shows her favor in providing food and water and protection (from leering male workers). And when she expresses her surprise and gratitude for his kindness, he replies, May the Lord repay you for what you have done, May you be richly rewarded by the Lord the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. (2:12) Clearly Boaz is acting as a co-laborer with the God of Israel in providing this refuge beneath his wings. He understands how God uses him--uses His people-- to achieve His purposes.
We should also note here that, according to Matthew 1:5, Boaz was actually the son of Rahab (and by son it could mean descendant of several generations) and some Jewish dude named Salmon. Rahab, of course, was not only a non-Jew, she was a prostitute at the time when her city, Jericho, was overtaken by the Israelites and she helped hide the Hebrew spies who had come to canvass the situation. Because she helped them they basically brought her and her family in to a witness protection program outside the city until the invasion, and after that, she ended up becoming a God-fearing Jew...and an ancestor of Boaz...so Boaz had some converted foreigner blood in him too...he wasn't a purely 100% homogeneous Jew.
This gratitude and mutual admiration turns into something more and, after making sure he isn't breaking any laws and clearing it with anyone else who might lay claim, he goes before the council and asks to become her kinsman-redeemer according to the law by marrying her. Remember, Ruth is not a virgin, she is a widow. Besides being destitute, she could be considered leftovers. MOREOVER, according to the law, Boaz marries Ruth in order to maintain the name of the dead (her husband) with his property, so that his name will not disappear from the family or the town records. It is a selfless act. In this Boaz is a type, a foreshadowing, of Christ, towards Ruth and Naomi.
The council responds favorably with a blessing that says, among other things, may you have standing...and be famous in Bethlehem, through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman...
And not only do our leading lady and landlord live happily ever after, critical to the goal of not letting Naomi's son's line die on the vine, they produced a child, Obed, who would become the father of Jesse, the father of David...they become the great grandparents of the king who leads Israel's Golden Age (and remember how at Christmas they're always saying, Bethlehem, the city of David) (Places have stories and if we will seek them we will often find them).
And not only that, this romance that blossoms in Bethlehem leads, through the lineage of David, 1100 years later, to Jesus Christ being born in Bethlehem...the great great great great (to whatever exponent) grandson of a foreign woman who became a devout Israelite, and a goodly godly selfless Jew who had descended from Rahab, another redeemed pagan whose life was transformed by contact with God's people! Ancestors of a Messiah for all nations!!! Famous in Bethlehem? Yes, I should say so! (:
As for Naomi, it is worth noting that her biographer ignores her declaration that she was changing her name from Pleasant (Naomi) to Bitter (Mara) because he continues to call her Naomi throughout the book. And as Ruth continues to be gracious and selfless in her love for Naomi, she brings the baby to her, to be cared for and counted not as Naomi's grandson, but as her son. And all the women around her are like, Guess what? God didn't abandon you! He came through and He has made you a mother--this child will make you feel young again (4:15 renew your life) and will care for you when you get old. And BTW, FYI, that girl of yours is better than seven sons!
And they (usually it says she, the mother of the baby, when a birth quote and name are recounted, so it's unclear here whether they means Naomi and Ruth, Ruth and Boaz, the three of them, or Naomi and the women of the town, at any rate...) name him Obed, meaning Servant-Worshiper. Now pleasant, agreeable Naomi had much to worship God for.
Ruth, who was a Moabite, was born neither a princess nor a Jew, and yet she chose God and He chose her to become this beautiful glorious thread in the tapestry of the genealogy of Christ, a matriarch of eternal significance. After that horrific drama at the end of Judges where everyone did whatever they felt like doing, you get an inspirational romantic movie script about 3 people who made sacrifices to do the right thing according to the law of Moses and the law of Love and are richly blessed by God as a result! (:
