Ruth

March 21

Ruth

Ruth is like a breath of fresh air after all the turmoil in the book of Judges. Ruth is a love story that reveals not only Ruth’s love for her mother-in-law, Naomi and Boaz’s love for Ruth, but it also gives us a glimpse of God working behind the scenes to bring redemption to a family and a nation.

Ruth who came to Bethlehem to find shelter under Yahweh’s “wing” will find her full reward from Yahweh when the man who himself voiced such a blessing spreads his “wing” over her in marriage!  Boaz has absolutely no legal obligation to Ruth whatsoever. He owes her nothing.. He’s not marrying her to obey the law because the law speaks nothing of this situation, gives no commands to Boaz. So why does he marry her? He loves her. This is a love story it is about love.

What he tells her is this. “I’m not legally obligated to do anything. Some other man is legally obligated. But I love you, and he doesn’t love you. And I want to marry you, and he may just want the land. I’ll figure it out.”

Boaz meanwhile goes to town and confronts a man who was a closer family member who would have first right of refusal on the property. If someone had to sell their land because of hard times, a family member had first right to purchase it or to buy it back into the family if it was sold to an outsider.

Naomi had no money and could not buy it back so the next of kin could buy it back and it would remain in his family since Naomi did not have any children he was the closest relative. So even on the day of Jubilee the land would go to his family. The man said he would redeem the land. Boaz told him that if he redeemed it he also should care for Naomi and Ruth and as the kinsman redeemer he should marry Ruth and have a child who would inherit the land. He said this in front of the townspeople so peer pressure kicked in.

The man said you are crazy. I can’t do that. You redeem it. Boaz announced that he was going to redeem the land, marry Ruth and have a child who would carry the name of Mahon Ruth’s dead husband so that Elimelech’s family line would continue.

A couple of interesting pieces of this story. Do you know who Boaz’s mother was? Rehab the prostitute that protected the spies in Jericho before Joshua and the Israelites marched around and the walls came tumbling down. So Boaz knew Yahweh even though is mother was from Jericho. He married Ruth a Moabite a gentile. The son of Ruth and Boaz was Obed who was the father of Jessie who was the father of King David and as you may know down through the generations this is the family line of Jesus.

God welcomes everyone into his family. Jews Gentiles, slave free rich poor. Jesus is our kinsman redeemer. We are enslaved to sin. We cannot buy ourselves out. Our only hope is our redeemer. But like Boaz, Jesus is not obligated to buy us, he is not obligated to redeem us, but he loves us and he spreads his wings over us. We cannot do anything to earn his love or to earn our redemption, we merely come to him and he will accept us because he loves us.