RUTH, A MOABITESS WHO CHOSE JEHOVAH (1 4)

RUTH RUTH, A MOABITESS WHO CHOSE JEHOVAH (1 4) The Book of Ruth begins with the setting of the book: Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, that there was a famine in the land (1:1). The book stands as an entity in itself, yet its events occurred during the time of the judges. The time of the judges was a wicked time, a time when everyone was doing what was right in his own eyes, but some good people did live during the time of the judges. In the Book of Ruth we read of some of these people who were intent on serving God. It is a story of kindness, of man s kindness to man. It is a story of providence, of God s kindness to man. Almost obscure in the story, we see the importance of coming to the God of heaven as opposed to the god of Moab or any other false god of any other country and taking refuge in His land under His wings. LOVE S RESOLVE (1:1-22) A famine occurred in the land of Israel. Elimelech and his wife, Naomi, with their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, went to the land of Moab to live. Before long, Elimelech died. Then Mahlon and Chilion married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. After ten years of marriage the two sons died, leaving three widowed women living together in their sorrow. A little later, Naomi heard that food was available again in the land of Israel, so she told her daughters-in-law that she was returning to her homeland. She instructed them to go to their mothers homes and marry again, commending them because they had been good to her. Both daughters-in-law at first said, No, but we will surely return with you.... (1:10). Naomi insisted that they marry and try to have happy lives, and that they should stay in their own land with their people. With that Orpah returned home, but Ruth 1

wanted to stay. She is famous for her response: Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for 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 I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me (1:16, 17). First, notice that Ruth had already begun to worship Jehovah God instead of the god of the Moabites. She proclaimed, Your God will be my God, and May the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me. Second, notice that she had accepted the responsibility which has been inherent from the beginning of time. Children are to take care of their parents. Ruth was saying, Your children are gone, your husband is gone, and I plan to stay with you and take care of you. I will accept this responsibility, and may God deal with me severely if I do not fulfill this responsibility that I see as mine. Her statement is famous because a wedding song has been made from it and used in many weddings. While it is a beautiful statement of commitment of one person to another, we notice the context. It is a statement from a daughter-in-law to her mother-in-law. As she saw her mother-in-law alone in life, and she saw her God-appointed responsibility to look after her, Ruth committed herself to fulfill that responsibility. The two women traveled together to the land of Israel. When the people saw Naomi, they asked, Is that you, Naomi? She said, Do not call me Naomi [meaning pleasant]; call me Mara [meaning bitter],... (1:20). Naomi said that the Lord had dealt with her bitterly, and that she had gone out full and had come back empty. By full she meant having a husband and two sons and, no doubt, the hope of grandchildren. When she said she was empty, she was forgetting about Ruth, was she not? LOVE S RESPONSE (2:1-23) Ruth showed great and noble character that we need to emulate. She was willing to go into the fields to glean. Leviticus 19 says that according to God s commands, when the Israelites harvested a field of grain, they were to leave some grain for the sojourners passing through the land and for the poor, who could come into their fields and pick up the grain left behind by the harvesters. They were not to harvest too closely into the corners of their fields, but were rather to round off the corners with their sickles and leave some grain standing. Furthermore, they were to let some grain drop as they were cutting and were to leave what fell on the ground for the poor people. This practice of picking up the fallen grain and the grain left purposefully is referred to by the English word gleaning. Ruth went into the field of Boaz to glean. Boaz was a man of the city of Bethlehem and was a relative of Elimelech. He had property and influence. He came to work later on the first day that Ruth gleaned in his fields and asked, Whose young woman is this? (2:5). She was someone he did not recognize, and his workers said, She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab. And she said, Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. Thus she came and has remained from the morning until now; she has been sitting in the house for a little while (2:6, 7). Boaz immediately went over to her and said, Listen carefully, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field; furthermore, do not go on from this one, but stay here with my maids. Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Indeed, I have commanded the servants not to touch you (2:8, 9). Some of these men were probably quite rude to the women working in the fields, and particularly to women who were foreigners. Remember that this was not a period of time when morality was the rule of the day in Israel. This was the time of the judges, when every man did what was right in his own eyes. Boaz had already told his servants not to bother her and to drop a little extra grain for her. He told her that when she was thirsty she should get some of the water which was prepared for the field workers. Notice his kindness to her. She was filled with amazement and asked, Why have I found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner? (2:10). His response was, All that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me, and how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people that you did not previously know. May the Lord reward your work, and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge (2:11, 12). Obviously, Boaz had heard about her kindness, 2

and he rewarded her with kindness. A biblical principle is shown here. This principle is stated most plainly in Galatians 6:7:... for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. Obviously, Ruth had sown great kindness in leaving her homeland to take care of her mother-in-law, and she was being rewarded with the same type of kindness. We will find that the kindness shown to Ruth was even greater. Ruth had come to God, not just to the land of Israel; she had taken refuge under His wings. This may imply that Boaz was a very religious man; perhaps part of his reason for being kind to Ruth was that she had come to his God. Not everyone in Israel during the days of the judges was evil. Boaz may be the best example of someone who served others who had come to take refuge in God. At mealtime that day Boaz invited Ruth to join the workers and eat some of the roasted grain. He was taking care of her in a double or triple fashion. We read in 2:17 that by the end of the day she had gathered a full ephah of barley. Ruth returned home, and her mother-in-law, who knew what gleaners get when they follow behind workers, was surprised at the amount of grain she had gleaned. She asked, Where did you glean today and where did you work? May he who took notice of you be blessed (2:19). Ruth responded that the man s name was Boaz. The last few verses show Naomi s efforts at matchmaking. She immediately declared that he was a near kinsman, and that Ruth should go back there and work again. LOVE S REQUEST (3:1-18) Chapter 3 tells more of Naomi s matchmaking intentions. Some time had passed since the latter part of chapter 2, when she had found Ruth coming in that first day with so much grain. We do not know how much time had passed. One commentator said that Boaz had obviously displayed considerable interest in Ruth. He may be reading too much into the story. The idea may come out of our culture, not Ruth s. In courting, a man or a woman pays the other special attention, and when that attention is rewarded, it increases. Customs were not then what they are now. Had Boaz shown an interest in Ruth? We will find later that Boaz was surprised at her interest in him. Naomi, speaking as a mother-in-law, said to Ruth, My daughter, shall I not seek security for you, that it may be well with you? (3:1). She was referring to part of the law of Moses which said that parents were to arrange for their children s futures, and the people understood that the command included arranging marriages for their children. Naomi told her, Wash yourself therefore, and anoint yourself and put on your best clothes, and go down to the threshing floor; but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. And it shall be when he lies down, that you shall notice the place where he lies, and you shall go and uncover his feet and lie down; then he will tell you what you shall do (3:3, 4). Verse 5 is important to the story. Ruth replied, All that you say I will do. When Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down near a heap of grain. Ruth came secretly, uncovered his feet, and lay down (3:7). The Scriptures seem to indicate that later, in the middle of the night, Boaz awoke and was startled to find a woman lying at his feet. He bent forward and said, Who are you? (3:9). She said, I am Ruth your maid. So spread your covering over your maid, for you are a close relative (3:9). The NIV says, since you are a kinsmanredeemer. The Old Testament law declared that it was the responsibility of a close relative to take care of a widow in a case like this and ultimately to rear children in the name of the deceased. This redeemer s responsibility included not only the privilege of taking the land and all of the inheritance from the deceased relative, but also looking after his widow and passing on his name so that it would continue through generations. In other words, Ruth proposed marriage to the man. Indeed, these times were different. Boaz was moved. It seems that he was somewhat surprised. He said, May you be blessed of the Lord, my daughter. You have shown your last kindness to be better than the first by not going after young men, whether poor or rich (3:10). Her kindness to him in offering to marry him was greater than the kindness that she had shown to Naomi by making sure that she took care of her. Boaz said that she could have married any of the young men. Earlier he had called her daughter. He was somewhat older than she; how much older, we do not know. He graciously responded to her by saying, And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you whatever you ask, for all my people in the city 3

know that you are a woman of excellence. And now it is true I am a close relative; however, there is a relative closer than I. Remain this night, and when morning comes, if he will redeem you, good; let him redeem you. But if he does not wish to redeem you, then I will redeem you, as the Lord lives. Lie down until morning (3:11-13). The word redeemer was an important one in Old Testament times, but did not mean redemption from sin. Jesus Christ is our redeemer from sin. The redeemer in ancient Israel was the one who would take up the cause of a person who was in trouble. Think of Job and how he was afflicted by everything in his life. When his friends were accusing him, he said, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth (Job 19:25). We sing, I know, I know that my Redeemer lives. That song takes a passage out of context. I love the song and want us to continue singing it; but when we sing it, we must disassociate it from the text from which it comes. Job was saying that all of his friends had turned against him, but someone somewhere would stand for his cause. That is all he was saying. Ruth was saying in 3:9 that Boaz was her redeemer. She was not saying that he could cleanse her from any sins. She needed someone to stand for her cause, someone to take care of her and her mother-in-law and to have children in this lineage, so that Naomi and Elimelech would have descendants. Ruth lay at the feet of Boaz until morning was approaching. When it was dark, before everyone else awakened, Boaz gave Ruth some grain, sent her on her way, and promised her that he would be in touch with her soon. LOVE S REWARD (4:1-22) The conclusion of the story is given in chapter 4. Boaz went to the gate of the city, and soon the closer relative who had the first right of redeemership passed by. Boaz said, Turn aside, friend, sit down here (4:1). Boaz had ten elders of the city as witnesses and said to him, Naomi, who has come back from the land of Moab, has to sell the piece of land which belonged to our brother Elimelech. So I thought to inform you, saying, Buy it before those who are sitting here, and before the elders of my people (4:3, 4). Being capable of buying it, this near relative jumped at the opportunity. He said that he would redeem Naomi and buy that land. Then Boaz sprang the second part of the deal, saying, On the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of the deceased, in order to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance (4:5). Immediately, the near relative said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I jeopardize my own inheritance. Redeem it for yourself; you may have my right of redemption, for I cannot redeem it (4:6). According to the custom of the day in sealing of contracts, that near relative took off his sandal and handed it to Boaz as a sign of the deal. Boaz with this sandal, was able to complete the contract. He married Ruth, and in time, they were blessed with a son, Obed. Let us look at the end of the story: So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her. And the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. Then the women said to Naomi, Blessed is the Lord who has not left you without a redeemer today, and may his name become famous in Israel. May he also be to you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age;... (4:13-15). The phrase a restorer of life means that her generation had been cut off, but now that generation would continue because of this marriage and because of this child.... your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him. Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her lap, and became his nurse. And the neighbor women gave him a name, saying, A son has been born to Naomi! So they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David (4:15-17). We should note that the writer, recording these events some time later, assumed that everyone in Israel knew the name of David. He did not need to explain further. What a noble position this woman received! She became the great-grandmother of David. LESSONS FOR US Kindness Some powerful lessons are presented in this beautiful Old Testament story. First, notice the kindness. Naomi was kind to her daughters-inlaw. When she was planning to leave them, she was complimentary of their role as daughters-in-law. In many instances tension exists between mothers-inlaw and their daughters-in-law. That is not the way 4

God intends it. Naomi complimented Ruth and Orpah and encouraged them to marry and make new lives for themselves. Her kindness was reciprocated immediately by Ruth, as she said, No, I will follow you. I will take care of you. I feel a responsibility toward you, and may the Lord deal quite severely with me if I do not accept this responsibility. She did accept the responsibility. She gleaned in the fields, doing poverty-level work, in order to fulfill that obligation. Naomi s kindness was returned. Ruth s kindness also came back to her. Boaz treated her very kindly in the fields. He said to her, I have told my men not to harm you. Take some of our water if you want some. Come and eat with us. Have some roasted grain. He told his workers to drop extra grain, and Ruth went home with such a large amount that her mother-inlaw was surprised. Boaz kindness came back to him also. This younger woman in effect said to him, Marry me and let me bring up children. Ephesians 4 warns Christians to put away all bitterness, railing, and anger, disputes of every kind. That kind of angry response that seems so natural to us is to be foreign to the spirit of the mature Christian. Many of us, when we come to the Lord, have had problems. One of the most common problems for us to have is explosive tempers, sharp tongues that retort before we even stop to think about what we are saying. If one has been a Christian very long, he or she is supposed to have put away all of that anger and bitterness and those quick, sharp-tongued responses that hurt people. In their place, Ephesians 4:32 says, And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. The Old Testament story of Ruth teaches us the lesson of kindness, particularly kindness in families. For some reason, we frequently remember to treat strangers with courtesy, but within our own families, we excuse our inconsiderate attitudes by saying, Here I can be myself. I understand Paul s words to be saying, Don t be your natural self. Grow out of it and become like Jesus. Be kind to each other. Providence The story of Ruth also teaches us about the kindness of the Lord. It is a grand story of providence. Perhaps we do not see the providence until the end of the story, when David is mentioned. Then we see how God had His hand in every development of the story. Mankind s view of providence is sometimes flawed. If we are not careful, we ascribe some things to the Lord that are not consistent with His character. Did He kill Elimelech, Mahlon, and Chilion? He is not the God of death. When those bad things happened to Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah, He could have intervened. No doubt their situation turned out even better than it would have if their lives had continued normally and they had never suffered the tragedies which caused God to step in. A vast difference exists between miracles and providence. I know that miracles can be broadly defined as God s working with humans. That definition is a little too broad. A miracle is a sudden, obvious interruption of the natural course of events. Providence, on the other hand, calls for a gradual working through natural causes and people, and thus God changes what would otherwise happen. Let us consider this illustration. Suppose that on your way home you come upon an automobile accident, and there are people scattered everywhere. If you had the spiritual gifts of 1 Corinthians 12, you could touch the injured and restore them to health immediately. Some of them might be dead, others bleeding, others broken; you could restore the dead and mend every injury that needed to be mended immediately. That would be a miracle. Since we do not have the miraculous spiritual gifts of 1 Corinthians 12 today, you can call for medical assistance and pray. With the assistance of the emergency medical team, the hospital, and the medicine that God has helped us to discover, many of those people will get well. When they walk out of the hospital, they need to thank God for His providence in the help they have received. Miracles do not occur today. Miracles were for an express purpose for a limited time. The purpose was fulfilled, and the time has passed. That does not mean that God is not alive and active in the world today. That does not mean that we should not pray. That does not mean that we should not depend upon Him. We just need to be careful about attributing events to the Lord. Let us thank the Lord for every good thing. As time passes, I am sure that we can, with correct hindsight, see His hand working in our lives, for He is a God in whom we can take refuge. Ruth is to be commended because she left the false gods of her home nation and took refuge in 5

Jehovah God. He always rewards people who live for Him. In the case of Ruth, we can see providence, but we could not have seen that providence if she had stayed in her homeland as did Orpah. Maybe He was kind to Orpah. The book does not tell us. The book does tell about the great wonders that He worked in the life of Ruth and how she had the glorious privilege of being in the lineage of David, and ultimately of Jesus. No doubt it was all because she came to worship the Lord, to live for Him, and to accept responsibilities that she saw inherent in His Old Testament code. GOD S INVITATION The important lesson for us is to live for God and let His code determine our lives. Only if we live with Him here can we live with Him in eternity. Are you serving the Lord? Are you trying to do what He would have you to do? It is important to look back in the Old Testament to see the great stories and learn from them about how to live. First Corinthians 10:11 says, Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. We need to learn from God s Word. We need to learn lessons about kindness. We need to learn about the providence of God and trust Him in our day-to-day living. Perhaps the most practical lesson for us is that we need to see the importance of following the one true and living God, accepting the responsibility that comes with that commitment, and then we can know His blessings. If you are not living for Him, you cannot know His blessings in this life or in the life to come. If you have not been baptized into Christ or if you have wandered from Him, I plead with you to come to Him in obedience. Live His way, and you will come to know His rich blessings. Goodness Goodness does not get any press. When we turn on the television for the nightly news or read the daily newspaper, we hear or read only of murders, car wrecks, and other tragedies. Very seldom do we hear any goodness reported. No one is interested in goodness, the news reporters say. Goodness may not be exciting or newsworthy. Man may not be interested in it, but God certainly is. Ruth was good to Naomi, and God blessed her (Ruth 4:13). Barnabas, who was full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, was called a good man (Acts 11:24). Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, showed several traits of goodness. He was just (Matt. 1:19), thoughtful (Matt. 1:20), merciful (Matt. 1:19), and obedient (Matt. 1:24). Surely these are qualities which we want to emulate. Copyright, 1993, 2001 by Truth for Today ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 6