Read Ruth 4

Christmas is a time when we reflect on God’s goodness to us in sending Jesus, our Redeemer, to dwell with us. Jesus, though our great king, was born and lived his life as a servant. Through Jesus’ birth, God’s redemption plan for sinners headed towards its climax as a baby rested in a lowly manger in Bethlehem.

In the book of Ruth we have seen the story of God’s goodness shown to Ruth and Naomi. In Ruth 4, this story is completed as Boaz ensures that Naomi and Ruth are cared for by fulfilling the role of redeemer, and providing (with Ruth) a son to carry on the family line. Yet the final verses demonstrate how this story fits into God’s redemption plan, and ultimately leads to the birth of a greater servant and redeemer for us all, Jesus.

True to his promise to Ruth at the threshing floor the night before (3:13), Boaz went to the town gate the next morning to ensure a resolution for Ruth and Naomi (v.1). This was the place for deals and commerce. There, Boaz summoned the city elders and nameless closer redeemer to do business, politely referred to as “friend” in our translations but literally Mr “so-and-so” (vv.1-2).

Once they were gathered, Boaz raised the subject of Naomi and the land which she had inherited from her deceased husband and sons (v.3). Naomi needed to sell the right to use this land to raise money on which to live, since she could not raise crops on it herself, so was Mr So-and-so interested in purchasing the land as redeemer or was it free for Boaz to buy? (vv.3-4).

This sounded like the Deal of the Decade, so Mr. So-and-so quickly agreed. But then Boaz pointed out that the deal came with “Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance” (v.5).

Suddenly the Deal of the Decade sounded like a dud, since Mr. So-and-so would have to support Ruth, Naomi, any children born to Ruth to carry on Elimelech’s line, and see no benefit to his own children (v.6).

Unlike Mr. So-and-so who only believed in charity at a profit, Boaz believed in self-sacrifice for God and his people, so he took the right of redemption from Mr. So-and-so, bought Naomi’s land, and agreed to marry Ruth despite the personal financial cost to himself (vv.7-10).

For this act, the elders and bystanders at the gate praised Boaz and blessed him and Ruth, that they may be parents of a great multitude of descendants (vv.11-12). After this, Boaz married Ruth and, sure enough, a child was born (v.13). While Ruth had remained childless for ten years, married to Mahlon in Moab, God gave her a child to Boaz in the Land of Promise.

However, this was not just Ruth’s son, but also a descendant for Naomi (v.14). Through Boaz, Naomi’s loss was redeemed and restored with the arrival of a son to inherit the family land and carry on the family line. Further, in her old age this son would be able to care for Naomi, ensuring her health and security (v.15). All this from a gentile Moabitess who turned out to be worth seven sons in value, through her faith in God.

As the grandson sat on Naomi’s lap, emptiness became fullness (v.17). Obed, “a servant”, was given to make whole Naomi, who was bitter (“Mara”) no longer.

Yet one final twist remains in this story. Obed had a son in time, named Jesse. Jesse in turn had sons, one of whom would be a king after God’s own heart, named David (v.17). This is confirmed in the genealogy of vv.18-20, which draws our eyes to Matthew 1, and the birth of another servant and redeemer; Jesus.

In Ruth 3 we saw that Boaz was a redeemer for Ruth and Naomi, and a type of Christ our redeemer. In Ruth 4 we see this play out in a way which nobody in that book could have expected.

Boaz was not like Mr. So-and-so, motivated only by what was in it for him. Boaz was motivated by love of God and love of God’s people, willing to sacrifice and count the cost to himself for the sake of Naomi and Ruth.

In the same way, Christ was not motivated by what was in it for himself but took “the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7). Christ was willing to sacrifice his eternal glory and riches, and count the cost in his life and his death to redeem us, God’s people, from our sins and bring fullness where there was only the bitterness and emptiness that comes from sin and rebellion against God.

Just as in Ruth 4, a servant baby, Obed, was born in Bethlehem to advance God’s salvation plan, so too at Christmas we rejoice that another servant baby, Jesus, was born in Bethlehem to advance God’s salvation plan.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Read Ruth 3

Life is not always black and white. We live in a world where through naivety or bad advice, we sometimes find ourselves in morally dubious situations. Yet despite this, as the Scriptures attest there are ways we can behave which are upright and bring glory to God, as we seek after our redeemer.

In Ruth 3, Naomi places Ruth and Boaz in a questionable and morally dubious situation where things could have gone very wrong. As Ruth sought a Redeemer at Naomi’s prodding, Boaz and Ruth both behaved in a way which upheld their honour, demonstrated their love of God, and demonstrates God’s love towards us.

After Ruth’s interaction with Boaz in chapter 2, a number of weeks continued to pass as Ruth gleaned Boaz’s fields (2:23). While the initial conversation between Ruth and Boaz seemed promising, the weeks drew on. Naomi may have thought that things needed to be brought to a head.

Naomi had taken to heart the need to ensure that her daughter-in-law, who had given up her old life for Naomi and for God, found “rest” through marriage (v.1). However, Ruth was tainted by association from her Moabite background (which implied immorality), so many Israelites would have viewed her with suspicion.

Naomi suggested that Ruth press the issue with Boaz, who held the status of Redeemer for Naomi (v.2). She told Ruth to wash herself, apply perfume, walk (at night!) to Boaz’s threshing floor, and lie down next to him as he slept in the threshing floor (protecting the harvest; vv.3-5).

These instructions are extremely ambiguous, especially as phrases like uncovering feet can be a Hebrew euphemism. Perhaps Naomi was being deliberately ambiguous in her suggestions, or perhaps acting out of desperation. Nevertheless, this placed Ruth in a tricky situation as she followed Naomi’s instructions (vv.6-7).

The night had gone well, with feasting and merriment, and Boaz lay down to sleep. But midnight came and his sleep was disturbed, perhaps by the cool air now blowing on his exposed legs. He was startled as he reached over to pull the blanket back down, and “behold, a woman lay at his feet!” (v.8)

Boaz immediately asked who this woman was (v.9). However, while things could have descended into a night of passion, Ruth made clear her intentions stating “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer” (v.9). Ruth was after a husband, not a dalliance. Covering her with the blanket was an ancient custom equivalent to an engagement ring.

Strictly speaking, Boaz was not legally required to do anything. He could have taken advantage of the situation. Instead, Boaz acted honourably, blessing her for seeking him rather than a younger man, and indicating he was willing to pay the cultural and financial price of marrying Ruth and supporting Naomi, despite the taint of marrying a foreigner (vv.10-11).

One complexity remained; Boaz was not Naomi’s closest relative, another would have the first claim before Boaz could do as he was willing (vv.12-13). One way or another, Naomi and Ruth would be redeemed.

To protect her reputation, Boaz instructed her to sleep until near morning (where she was safe) and then he sent her home, before dawn revealed Ruth and Boaz in a potentially compromising situation (v.14). Boaz sent Ruth away, but again with a substantial gift of 35 kg of barley (v.15).

When she returned home, Naomi wanted to know whether Ruth was truly the one through whom God would bless and redeem her, or a nobody she had falsely pinned her hopes in (v.16). Her return with her account and the large gift made clear of Boaz’s intentions to redeem Ruth and Naomi from their situation (vv.16-17), something which would be settled one way or another very soon (v.18).

While not the primary point of this passage, this passage is written in a way that reminds us that we often find ourselves in potentially morally dubious situations. The text makes clear that this encounter could have ended very differently, but Ruth and Boaz were upright and behaved in a way which glorified God.

We too in life will find ourselves in these situations, not always of our own making. As with Ruth and Boaz, we honour God by behaving appropriately and not taking the opportunity to indulge in sin.

The uprightness of their acts reflected their faith in God, and God’s overwatch of events. God intended to redeem Ruth and Naomi, and ordered events for their good not ill. God does so today, too.

Ultimately, Boaz is a redeemer and a type of Jesus, our redeemer from sin and death. Boaz risked his reputation by his willingness to marry Ruth, and assumed cost to himself which he did not legally have to.

Likewise, Jesus did not have to save us. But he freely took the cost of death on the Cross, and accepted the taint to his reputation by associating with all types of sinners, because his redemption of us brings glory to God.

Read Ruth 2

Often when we hit rock bottom we are caught up in our sadness and bitterness at our situation that we feel God has abandoned us. That, or we fail to see the signs that God is working for our good until it stares us in the face.

In Ruth 2, God starts to show Naomi his covenant love and goodness through that same covenant love shown to Ruth. A series of “coincidences” show that God is in control and providing Ruth and Naomi what they lack. It reminds us that God does so for us too, especially with what we lack the most.

In Israel there were laws which enabled the poor to gather food on which to survive, provided they were willing to work for it (Deut. 24:19). Ruth and Naomi had arrived in Bethlehem right at the start of the barley harvest (1:22).

Naomi appears to be caught up in her bitterness, since she was likely still young enough to work. But Ruth had learned of these laws and asked Naomi if she could glean, which Naomi agreed to (v.2).

By “coincidence” Ruth found herself gleaning in the field of Boaz, a relative of Naomi and a righteous man (vv.1,3-4).

Upon arriving in the fields, Boaz asked after Ruth, wanting to know where she came from (“whose” not “who”, v.5). The supervisor explained she was a Moabite daughter-in-law of Naomi, who had been working hard! (vv.6-7)

Boaz generously offered Ruth more than required under the Law. He offered her his provision and protection through his workers, encouraging her to glean in his field and even drink from the water for his workers (vv.8-9).

This was probably the first kind thing Ruth had experienced, as a suspect outsider from Moab (v.10). It is likely that Ruth would have been looked at with suspicion, if not thinly veiled hostility. Yet Boaz is clear that his kindness is because of her kindness to Naomi, and that she had sacrificed her past to follow God (vv.11-13).

The kindness went further. Boaz fed Ruth from the meal prepared for him and his workers, and invited her to glean in the middle of the field, and instructed his workers to “drop” extra barley for her! (vv.14-16) Ruth went from a distrusted foreigner with an empty stomach to treated as if a fellow-Israelite, fed until satisfied with leftovers, and deliberately blessed with more than required.

No wonder that Naomi was shocked when Ruth returned home (vv.18-19). After a day of gleaning, Ruth returned home with an ephah of barley (v.17). That is, about 20 kilograms. That is at least a month’s worth of food in one day!

Ruth’s haul had an impact on Naomi’s hard heart. Upon hearing that it was Boaz who had been so generous to both Ruth and Naomi in their situation, she proclaimed “May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” (v.20)

Two things stand out. First, Naomi asked God to bless Boaz. While this could be written off as pious language, that she means it is clear because secondly she proclaims that God’s covenant kindness has been shown to her and Ruth! God is not out to get her for her past sinfulness in heading to Moab for greener pastures.

Naomi advised Ruth that Boaz held a role of kinsman redeemer (v.20), who was one obliged to ensure that relatives were not sold into slavery and in certain circumstances to marry a widow to provide an heir to the deceased man’s inheritance (cf. Lev. 25, Deut. 25). She advised Ruth to take up Boaz’s advice and stay near to one who, it seemed, God was working through to bless them after all (vv.21-2).

This passage should remind us that behind various “coincidences” in life, God is working. Ruth happened to turn up at Boaz’s fields. Boaz happened to be both God-fearing, and a family relative of Naomi’s. But God was directing Ruth’s paths. Boaz’s generosity was God’s generosity worked out in their lives.

Through Boaz, God was providing generously the food that Ruth and Naomi needed to live. He was showing his goodness and kindness to those who are part of God’s People, even when (in Naomi’s case) there was little thankfulness directed toward God.

This is the same God that we serve, who is able to supply our every need (Phil. 4:19). Of course, what we need and want are not the same thing, but God generously provides what we lack through a variety of means, including through the hands of his servants in the Church.

Of course, while Ruth and Naomi lacked food, there was one thing they needed more. A redeemer. In time, God would bless and fill their lives in greater measure. In the fullness of time, God did so for us all by sending Jesus to redeem us from our debt to sin and provide us with a beautiful inheritance.

God’s kindness and generosity is more than we deserve.

Read Ruth 1:6-22

When bad things happen, there are three ways as professing Christians we can react. Firstly, we can abandon the faith and go to some form of paganism. Secondly, we can become embittered and angry towards God. Thirdly, we can cling to God and trust in him to provide, even come what may.

All three responses to ruin appear in Ruth 1. Naomi embraces bitterness, Orpah embraces her old gods, and Ruth embraces Naomi and Naomi’s God, despite her position as an outsider in Israel. This passage calls us to embrace Ruth’s approach, and reminds us that even though we might have a Naomi-like approach when things go wrong, God is still working in Christ for our good; one day, by faith, we may realise it.

With Naomi’s husband and sons dead, and nobody to care for her or her two daughters-in-law, Naomi was in a desperate situation. But word reached Moab that God had blessed Israel again with plenty, so Naomi resolved to head home and rely on the charity of her relatives (vv.6-7).

As she left, Naomi encouraged her two daughters-in-law to return to their own families where she prayed they would find husbands to support them (vv.8-9). Clearly their shared grief and loss bound them together, because they wept together, and both daughters initially claimed a desire to return with Naomi to Bethlehem (vv.9-10).

However, Naomi insisted otherwise. She had no sons to give them, and even if she remarried and bore sons, they would have to wait many years for them to come of age (vv.11-13). As far as Naomi was concerned, God had acted in judgement against her (v.13).

Orpah listened to her mother-in-law’s advice, weighed up the pros of staying in the land she knew with its green fields and family connections versus the cons, and returned home to her family and her pagan gods (v.14). From there, she passed out of history. She may have remarried, and had children. But she did not have a saving relationship with God.

Ruth clung to Naomi, like a husband should cling to his wife (Gen 2:24), and refused to leave her. Ruth’s commitment to Naomi was a covenant commitment. A wholehearted commitment. She refused to follow Orpah back to her family and their gods (cf. v.15).

Instead, Ruth proclaimed that “where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you” (vv.16-17).

Ruth knew that leaving her homeland for one that was suspicious of outsiders, much less Moabites, was risky. But she was willing to because she believed that Naomi’s God would provide. Naomi’s God was her God, too.

At this Naomi stopped trying to convince Ruth (v.18). But Naomi was not exactly pleased or blessed by this expression of devotion to her and faith in God. Because while Naomi was returning home, it was not with a contrite heart.

When they reached Bethlehem and Naomi was recognised and the town was stirred by her arrival and that of a foreigner with her (likely with suspicious eyes at the latter). But Naomi’s response to recognition was not gladness but bitterness, reflected in her request they call her Mara (which means “bitter”, vv.19-20).

Naomi’s heart was bitter and angry towards God. While she had returned to her home, it was not out of covenant loyalty but practicality. Here, she could survive on charity. But she did not presume God would bless her again.

Despite her feelings, God was not done with Naomi. They had returned to Bethlehem, and the barley harvest approached (v.22).

Here in this passage are three responses to ruin. Apostasy, anger, and appropriation. The first two lead nowhere, but appropriating God’s goodness through faith leads to life. 

God would one day bless bitter Naomi, through faithful Ruth. Outsider to God’s covenant promises, yet who acquired them by faith. Ruth emptied herself of her family and cultural connections and her culture’s pagan deities to identify herself with God’s People, with Naomi, and with Naomi’s God who she believed could provide a future for her. As it happened with Ruth then, it does and will happen today.

Like Ruth, we appropriate salvation through identifying ourselves with Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. By trusting in God, we become part of God’s covenant people, the only place where salvation is found.

All of us at one point in life face this moment of choice – will we choose apostasy, anger, or appropriate Christ when bad times come? Will we love those who are bitter towards God, sacrificing ourselves that they too may find joy in appropriating Christ in their own lives?

God was still working in Naomi’s life. By God’s grace, through the Gospel, he is still working in our lives too. If you are more Mara than Ruth, hang in there.

Read Ruth 1:1-5

Sometimes a simple decision sets off a chain of events in our lives which can lead to disaster. This is especially the case with a sinful decision that sets us on a path of sustained disobedience to God.

The book of Ruth begins with just such a decision, and just such a disaster. While the lesson of the first few verses is a reminder to take care with the decisions we make and whether they honour our Creator God and Christ our Saviour, they also remind us that sometimes the depths of disaster are where God’s mercy is most strongly felt.

The book of Ruth, which begins with the story of Naomi, took place in the time of the Judges (v.1). As we read in the Book of Judges, this was a time of spiritual and moral decline for God’s People in the land, as they spiralled towards the depravity and debauchery that was the same as the nations around, came under God’s curse. God raised up Judges to lead God’s People in throwing off their oppressors and turning back to him, but as time went on the judges became just as troublesome as the people they led.

In Judges, the curse came through the form of foreign nations which oppressed and ruled over Israel. But this was not the only means of discipline that God applied to Israel. In Deuteronomy 28, we read that a series of punishments would come upon Israel for disobeying God. One of these is famine, which came upon the land at the beginning of the story (v.1).

Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, lived in Bethlehem when this famine arrived. Ironically, Bethlehem means “house of bread”, except its name was not being lived up to. Faced with famine, Elimelech uprooted with his wife Naomi and their two sons to the land of Moab (vv.1-2).

While we might relocate to another city or country in our day without much care or concern, this was a very dramatic thing for a covenant member to do. In effect, Elimelech was placing himself in the domain of the so-called gods of Moab, and suggesting that they were able to provide something which God could not provide: food for his family.

Moving to Moab, the people descended from Lot’s incestuous relationship with his daughter (Gen. 19) and who had attempted to defeat Israel through seducing them into sin (Numbers 22), was a questionable decision at best. While Elimelech’s name might have confessed that his God was King, Elimelech lived his life in a manner which suggested otherwise.

Whether Naomi agreed with this action or not is not stated, but given she remained there after her husband died (v.3) we can conclude that she either approved of the action or she at least grew comfortable with the move. Certainly, she and her sons did not move back to live with God’s covenant people, as they ought to have. They did not interpret Elimelech’s death as a sign that God was displeased with their move; after all, death comes to all of us.

Though Elimelech had died, Naomi still had her two sons to support her (v.3). In those days there was no Government support for spouses that lost their husband; they relied entirely on family for support. In Moab, away from her extended family, clan, and tribe, Naomi would rely entirely on her sons and any children they had for financial support.

Naomi’s two sons married Moabite women, named Orpah and Ruth (v.4). Things seemed alright, as they continued to live in Moab for ten years (v.4). Though neither son along with his Moabite wife was blessed with children. They did not interpret this barrenness as a sign that God was displeased with their move and continued sojourn in a foreign land.

But worse was to come. After ten years, both Naomi’s sons died, “so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband” (v.5). Now who would care for Naomi in a foreign land, with nobody to provide for her?

A simple decision to move from Bethlehem to Moab, if a more momentous and serious one than for us, but a decision which was disobedient to God and led through events and decisions to further disaster. A decision that was based in denying God’s goodness to provide (food), and trusting in themselves.

While we have more freedom about where we live in the days of the Church being everywhere, this passage does remind us to be careful with the decisions that we make in our lives. Sometimes, a simple sinful decision sets off an avalanche of pain and disaster in our lives, as a pattern of disobedience sets in. Sometimes, we forget or deny God’s goodness to us, and seek to provide our own desires in our own strength.

While some who walk away do not return, this passage is the opening to a book where God’s mercy shines through. Thus it also reminds us that sometimes salvation and mercy come from the deepest depths of disaster and despair.