Ruth 1:1: The story is set “in the days when the judges ruled”, and “there was no king in Israel” (Jdg 17:6). There are two possible meanings here: (1) that there was no human king, at this early stage, as we know; and also (2) that GOD, who should have been considered king nonetheless, was not respected as king.
Thus it was a time of great wickedness, both institutionally and individually.
The story of Ruth presents an ideal example of individual faith, in the midst of a society in which prevailed equal parts indifference and wickedness.
In contrast to most of the stories of the Judges, this is a story of ordinary people going about private lives, in a quiet corner of history. Yet they were, some by birth, and others by character, the unrecognized royalty of Israel.
V 2: In a time of great trial (a famine in the Land), Elimelech and Naomi left the Land of Promise. It was a step toward falling away, with sad consequences. It began a downward spiral: they went to Moab for a while (i.e., to sojourn), then they decided to remain there, and finally their sons married Moabite women.
Vv 3-5: “Now Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.”
Moab was a land of idolatry, a land close in miles (30 miles away), but remote in mind.
The irony is that they went to Moab to prosper, and be safe. But in Moab all the men died, and the women were reduced to poverty.
Is this a punishment? The Bible does not say so specifically, though we might be driven to that conclusion by the circumstances. Yet, even if the story describes a serious failure of character, and a whole series of bad life decisions, nevertheless out of the failures and sins, God can, by His wonderful providence, bring about great good, salvation, and the furtherance of His purpose in the earth. What a great God we worship!
V 6: “When she heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.” There is “famine” in Moab, but there is life in Israel, and “bread” in Bethlehem (the name signifies “the house of bread”). Naomi has endured much hardship, and terrible loss, but she still believes in the God of Israel.
There is a thin line between despair and faith, between death and life, between anger with a God who causes (or allows) suffering, and trusting in a God who chastens His children. Naomi stood on that line and looked both ways, and she chose to return home, the “prodigal daughter”: ‘In my father’s house there is food in abundance; why do I remain here in the land of the Gentiles?’
Vv 7-14: Naomi offered her daughters-in-law the chance to stay in Moab, or to go on to the new land of Israel.
(Vv 11,12: “If I should say, I have hope [Heb. “tiqvah”: the same word as “cord”, the hope of children] — i.e., to have other sons, who might marry you — would you wait for them?” (It was clearly out of the question.)
[Here is a passing allusion to Deuteronomy 25:5-10, and the Levirate law, of raising up seed to the dead brother. This will be important later in the story of Ruth.]
“Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, but Ruth clung to her.” The depth of our conviction must be measured not just by what we grasp (‘She knows the Truth’), but also by what we are prepared to let go of! Orpah had been willing to go, but not to “let go”. Bethlehem was in her eye, but Moab was still in her heart.
And (as with Lot’s wife and Sodom) Orpah’s heart pulled her body back to Moab. When offered the choice, Orpah kissed her mother-in-law and returned, to Moab, the land of false gods and false hopes, and (ultimately) death.
“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” Like Naomi and Orpah, Ruth also stood at a crossroads, looking both ways. What would she choose? The rest of her life hung in the balance.
Charles Spurgeon wrote: “We have come to a turning point in the road. If we turn to the right mayhap our children and our children’s children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word.”
Vv 16,17: But Ruth replied, “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.”
She chose Naomi’s life and Naomi’s God. She chose an unseen Land and an unseen God!
“Your people will be my people, and your God my God!”: It was an echo of the great Abrahamic promise, perhaps the greatest of promises: “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan… I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God” (Gen 17:7,8).
Ruth would know that even Abraham, the father of all the faithful, had been an “alien” coming to a strange land, as she was about to be. The God who offered him an everlasting possession of that Land would offer it to her as well! Ruth sold all that she had to “buy” these promises, and thereby she showed that, despite her Moabitish roots, she was a “daughter” of Abraham.
“Where you die, there I will die… and there I will be buried”: She might well have added: ‘And there I will be raised up again!’
With this compare the words of Jesus. He had been multiplying the loaves and fishes and feeding the multitudes, and many were following him, and listening to his teachings. But then, in John 6, he began to tell them some very hard sayings. After that, gradually and then in increasing numbers, his followers began to leave him. So, with his closest disciples near him, he asked them: “Will you go away?” [Like Orpah did?] But, along with Peter, they reply: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!” (John 6:66-68). Is there any real choice, no matter how hard the road?
Along with Naomi, Ruth now set out on the last leg of her journey: Abraham An important question is suggested by Deuteronomy 23:3: “No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even down to the tenth generation.”
Was this a problem? Consider the possible explanations:
- Ruth, being a “convert”, was now no longer a Moabitess.
- The restriction of the Law applied only to males.
- Ruth was the 11th generation from Moses. — a real stretch, and a rather artificial and legalistic answer.
Or (by the way, I like this one best!)…
- The Lord God of Israel was (and is?) prepared to make an exception even to His own Law for one who truly believes in Him. The Law of faith is greater than the Law of exclusion. Are there other Bible examples of this? Do WE believe God can do this? Is it wrong to believe that God can do this?
Later, the specter of Deuteronomy 23:3 (and some of these related questions) may have occupied the minds of the people of Bethlehem, and Boaz, and the unnamed near-kinsman, as we shall see. (‘Do we really want someone like this in Israel?’ ‘I’m afraid she’s just not our sort.’)
*****
Vv 19-23: Several days journey would have brought them home to Bethlehem. The women asked: “Is this the Naomi we once knew?” There had been a great change, due to her sufferings and her bereavements in the land of Moab.
Naomi (signifying “pleasant”) said, “Call me Mara” — bitter! But she had not abandoned her faith. And life is full of startling developments. Out of her sorrow and bitterness there would come, surprisingly soon, new beauty and joy and life. It is as though the narrator pauses while a still, small voice whispers in our ear, “Just wait and see what happens next…”
“I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty” (Ruth 1:21). “There is a marvelous dramatic irony about this, for, had she but known it, Naomi returned more full than when she went out. How could she realize that every word of God’s glorious promises to Abraham was going to be fulfilled through this helpless but devoted stranger returning with her from Moab?” (Harry Whittaker).
Think of the Jews who stand on the seashore, between the “devil and the deep blue (red?) sea”! God tells Moses, and Moses tells them: “Stand still! And see the salvation of the LORD!” Sometimes all we can do is stand still and wait. In the fullness of time, God will act on behalf of His people, who believe in Him.
Ruth 2:1: “Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, from the clan of Elimelech, a man of standing, whose name was Boaz.”
If Elimelech and Naomi had a wealthy kinsman all along, then why did they go to Moab in the first place, instead of going to him for help? What foolishness it is in the hour of weakness and need to forget the “near kinsman” who is strong and able to help! And when we need help, to whom do we turn? to everything and everyone except the One who has promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” We have a “near kinsman” who holds the key to the universe and all of its treasure. Let us go to his fields, and humbly work there, and ask for and wait for his blessing. It will surely come.
V 2: And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.” Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” There was poverty in the household, two widows with no visible means of support. Ruth, the daughter of a hated race, and only a proselyte at best, shows a wonderful knowledge of and dependence upon the Law, which allows special privileges for widows: i.e., to glean in the fields during harvest. She represents the anxious person in search of truth; forsaking her old companions and her “gods”, she leaves all, and is not ashamed to put on the apron of the “gleaner”.
Ruth did not need to keep her poverty a secret; and it was that very poverty, and how she dealt with it, that brought her to the attention of her rich kinsman.
And what about us? When we are weak (and when we know it!), then we may begin to find strength in the Lord, whose strength is perfected, and finds fulfillment, in our weakness. Frail vessels of clay we may be, but we can take our vessels to the place where the riches and glory of our Father are dispensed, and there we can ask for our share.
For the second time in these chapters, we are reminded of the Canaanite woman who approaches Jesus. A member of a hated Gentile race, she still needs his help.
Being “unclean”, she doesn’t mind likening herself to the unclean dogs that eat crumbs falling from the children’s table. Like the dogs, she is a “gleaner” too, taking what scraps are available to her. Even the bits of bread that fall from the Master’s table are a blessing. And Jesus commends the great faith of the Gentile woman. For didn’t he count such Gentile women among his “grandmothers”?
V 3: “So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.”
“As it turned out…”: i.e., apparently, by chance. But was it really chance? Or was it the overruling providence of God, God working in mysterious ways, to perform His wonders?
How strange it is, but what a revelation for us. The entire redemptive purpose of God in Christ seems to hang on such an apparently trivial circumstance. In the life of the believer, the dividing line between random chance and God’s design is so thin that it can scarcely be drawn or discerned. In short, we might ask: what isn’t according to the design of God?
Vv 4-8: And in the fields of Boaz, Ruth came to the attention of her rich kinsman, and met him and talked with him.
“Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and drink from the water jars the men have filled.” To us also, our “Boaz”, our “strong man”, says, “Abide in my fields”; don’t stray away. “Remain with me” (John 15:4).
At this, Ruth bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me, a foreigner?”
There is such a charming modesty here. Ruth doesn’t realize how attractive she
is… how noble is her devotion to an old woman…
how exalted is her choice of an unseen God…
how impressive is her diligence in gleaning…
how touching is her intelligent meekness and sincere thankfulness.
There is no false pride in Ruth. One has the feeling that she isn’t the sort to spend hours in front of a mirror, or fretting about clothes and makeup, or scheming how to attract attention to herself. Rather, she’s the sort you’ll find in the study, or the kitchen, or the garden, or teaching the children.
It is interesting to note that nowhere is Ruth called “beautiful”, like some others in the Bible. But the good man Boaz, a rich man who might have commanded the attention of all sorts of beautiful young women (and their families), noticed her right away. He was impressed, not by her outward beauty (though, for all we know, she may have been quite beautiful). Instead he told Ruth (v 11), “I’ve been told all about what you have done.” Compare Christ’s words to the ecclesias: “I know your works.”
Ruth was the perfection of the “virtuous woman”! Later Boaz called her just that, a “virtuous woman” (Ruth 3:11).
V 12: Ruth had come to the Land of Promise, to seek refuge under the wings of Almighty God. This is an allusion to the cherubim in tabernacle and (later) in Temple. Many of David’s psalms would echo this language (Psa 17:8,9; 36:7; 57:1; 61:4; 63:7; 91:4; etc). And David’s greater son would speak of his yearning to take Jerusalem under his wings, as a mother bird protects her chicks. Here especially, “wings” signify the arms of a husband and protector, as he overshadows his beloved under his arms and in the folds of his garment. (This language will recur again in the next chapter also.)
Vv 15-17: Ruth proved to be the most diligent of gleaners. She was not only intensely grateful for what she was given, but she labored long and hard to make the most of the gift.
Vv 19,20: Now, through her daughter-in-law Ruth, Naomi once again saw God’s providence: There was a “near-kinsman” (Deut 25 again), a “redeemer”, to redeem their property, to marry Ruth, to care for Naomi, and to raise up “seed” for Naomi, her family, and (what turns out to be) the royal line of Judah.
Vv 21-23: Her advice to Ruth: “Stay close to the One who is blessing you. Be patient. Don’t stray or wander away from him” — like I did from God!
Ruth 3 outlines Naomi’s plan.
Vv 1-4: One day Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not try to find a home for you, where you will be well provided for? Is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been, a kinsman of ours? Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Wash and perfume yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.”
All this suggests the preparation of a bride (Psa 45:10-14), and/or the purification of a Gentile woman (Deut 21:10-14). In the New Testament, washing and new garments also symbolize baptism and conversion. All this is essential to the story of redemption. “The bride has made herself ready.”
Was Naomi’s plan for Ruth “indecent”? No, but it was (potentially) dangerous, for it could have appeared to be immodest or unseemly. Perhaps it was, also, a carefully thought-out and carefully measured “indiscretion”. It was as if Naomi planned to put Ruth into a mildly compromising position, in the hope and expectation that Boaz would “save” her out of it.
Some background might help here. By custom, Boaz would sleep (fully clothed) at the threshing-floor during the harvest, the better to guard his crops. Also by custom, a servant might sleep nearby, at his feet.
Vv 5-9: “Spread the corner of your garment over me!” (Literally, it is the same word as “wing” of 2:12.) Coming from Ruth, this was a request for protection, a marriage proposal.
Moreover, these are echoes of the past. Where have we seen this before — a special garment, a special fabric, a special emblem belonging to a great prince of the tribe of Judah? Perhaps this is not so obvious here, as in the earlier stories of Tamar (with Judah), and Rahab (with Salmon?), but it is quite possible under the circumstances.
‘Take me under your wing, under your care. Make me a part of the ongoing redemption story of your people and your tribe. May the scarlet thread, the thread of faith and blood, bind me to you, and both of us to the people of faith, generation by generation. May your God be my God. I will live and die with you, and our seed will bind us with the “cord of hope” to the promises of the past and the glorious expectation of the future.’
“The LORD bless you, my daughter,” he replied. “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor.”
Boaz was not young at all. He showed dignity and restraint under these circumstances.
“And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character.”
“A woman of noble character” (NIV), “a virtuous woman” (KJV). These words suggest force of character, and strength of faith. In the Old Testament, this phrase is applied to Ruth and to no one else.
Thus, “Don’t be afraid”: Virtuous women may sometimes be found in situations, through no fault of their own, which might naturally expose them to suspicion (like Ruth with Boaz on the threshing floor). If their former behavior has been uniformly virtuous, then they have every right to be absolved of any suspicion. It is true: all sins may be forgiven. But the blessing (freedom from suspicion) is more than forgiveness; it is the continuing value of a virtuous life.
Vv 12-14: “Although it is true that I am near of kin, there is a kinsman-redeemer nearer than I. Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to redeem, good; let him redeem. But if he is not willing, as surely as the LORD lives I will do it. Lie here until morning.” So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized; and he said, “Don’t let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor.”
Many a faithful Gentile “Ruth” lies asleep at the feet of Jesus (the “Boaz”, or “mighty man” of the Jews), awaiting the “morning” of resurrection, when he will stand in the “gate” of the great city and proclaim her for his very own.
Vv 15-18: Boaz also said, “Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out.” When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and put it on her. Then he went back to town. When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did it go, my daughter?” Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her and added, “He gave me these six measures of barley, saying, ‘Don’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’ ” Then Naomi said, “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.”
Thanks be to God that His Son (our “Boaz”, or strong redeemer) did not rest until the matter of our redemption was settled. Relieved and happy are we when we hand over our worries and anxieties to the Lord, in the certainty that he will bear the burdens for us: “Cast all your cares upon him, for he cares for you.”
Ruth 4: As outlined in Leviticus 25, the “Gaal” or “kinsman-redeemer” did three things:
- He bought back the land that had been sold out of the family to pay debts, or left in disuse; then he returned it to the family, and put it into service again (Lev 25:23-27). Boaz was prepared to do this, as we see in Ruth 4 here.
- He saved his brethren out of poverty and bondage (Lev 25:47-53). Boaz would do the same in caring for Naomi as well as Ruth.
- And he preserved the family by raising up seed to the “brother” who had died without children (Deut 25:5-10). Boaz was prepared to do this as well, by marrying Ruth.
[For more detail, see the Appendix: The “Gaal”, or “kinsman-redeemer”.]
In all this, Boaz is one of the most beautiful types or patterns of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament:
- Jesus as King of Israel will bring back God’s land from the Gentile, and establish it as the basis of God’s Kingdom for ever.
- He will redeem his brethren, Jew and Gentile, out of bondage to sin and the poverty of death. By his life and death, he paid the price of redemption for all who believe in him.
- As the Lamb of God, and the bridegroom, he will “marry” his bride, those who through faith in him will bring forth fruit to God in His Kingdom.
Notice that God’s plan of salvation involves:
- His Land: There is no eternal life apart from God’s land (as Abraham understood perfectly: Gen 13:15-17).
- His people: “I will be their God and they will be my people!”
- His “bride”: Nothing else, in this world or the world to come, so perfectly expresses the Love of God as the love of a husband for his cherished wife. All of God’s work, since the beginning, has been to prepare a special “companion” for Himself, for all eternity. “They will be my jewels, my special and precious possession,” He says.
*****
In carrying through to the end of the story, one obstacle remains in Ruth 4: the unnamed nearest-kinsman. He must be offered the opportunity to “redeem” the land, the family, and the woman Ruth. Boaz does this, and the nearest kinsman refuses his obligation.
Why?
- Is he prejudiced against Moabites? Is he afraid of the Law (Deut 23:3) that excludes them from God’s congregation? (But God has cleansed; so who are we to call common or unclean?) Boaz is not prejudiced. How could he be, since he is himself the descendant of the harlot Rahab?
- Is he not prepared to risk his own inheritance (v 6)? (But where is that inheritance now? Vanished.)
- Is he afraid of God’s “curse” that seemed to have fallen on the family of Elimelech? (But Boaz is not afraid. And neither is Christ, to bear the “curse” of being our kinsman-redeemer. “He will save his people from their sins.”)
- Does he lack faith to see her faith, and act upon it? (If so, he disappears from Israel, still without a name, in contrast to v 10.)
In all this, the unnamed kinsman is like the Law of Moses, which, though given by God, cannot (because of human weakness) provide the means to complete God’s plan of redemption. While the Law of Moses should have been the agency to develop faith in others, it all too often caught its followers in a trap of prejudice, fear, and doubt. True faith had to be found outside the Law, as Paul argues in his letters to the Romans and the Galatians.
*****
Ruth 4:5: Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabitess, you acquire the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”
Please consider this alongside Christ’s little parable in Matthew 13:44, the treasure hidden in the field:
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
Ruth was the real “treasure in the field”. Boaz was the one who discovered what a “treasure” she was, and then set about buying, or redeeming, the field (meanwhile seeming to conceal the true value of the “treasure” Ruth). The kinsman with the prior claim gave up the “treasure” along with the land, not realizing its value.
In this sense consider also Proverbs 31:10: “A wife of noble character [a virtuous woman] who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.” Thus our “Boaz” sells all that he has in order to buy the “field”, i.e., to redeem the Land of Promise, and in the process to claim us as his “special treasure”.
*****
- “May your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.” This is a remembrance of Tamar, the earlier Gentile bound into the royal family of Judah. May her fruitfulness (both naturally and spiritually) be yours!
- Ruth, who had been childless for years, now (immediately?) conceived and gave birth to a son, Obed, who would perpetuate the line of the tribe of Judah.
Vv 18-22: The little genealogy at the end of the Book gives the real reason for the inclusion of this lovely story in the Bible. It connects the Book of Ruth with the great king David, and with the special genealogy that leads, at last, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Scarlet threads, threads of blood bind together portions of Scripture, promises with fulfillments, and generation with generation in hope and love.
Lessons:
- Elimelech and Naomi left the Land of Promise and went to Moab. But God can overrule for good even the bad decisions of His children, if they have faith in Him. After all, God became, through His Son, our “Kinsman-Redeemer”.
- Ruth makes a hard choice, a long journey, and demonstrates faith in adversity. She desires the spiritual crumbs that fall from the Lord’s table, and she gleans in the fields of the Lord. She is, in short, a Gentile who becomes a Jew in faith, a faith enlivened by works.
- ‘Where is God anyway?’ The unseen providential Hand of God guides, protects, chastens, and blesses at the last. God is active even in ordinary lives of ordinary people. After all, no one can really be considered ordinary who is destined to rule in the kingdom with the Messiah of Israel.
- Malachi 3:16,17: “Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name. ‘They will be mine,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him.’ ”
- Boaz (signifying strength) is the provider, the kinsman, the redeemer, the Lord of the harvest, and (finally) the Bridegroom, who spreads his arm/wing/garment of protection over the Gentile bride who comes to him in faith.
- Imagine, for just a moment (and it can only be our imaginations, because we can’t tell for sure if it really happened), we see an old woman in Bethlehem:
They put the sleeping bundle of life into my arms and as I gazed upon him through aged eyes, I remembered… I remembered another baby a long, long time ago. I, the new mother, had placed my son in another pair of old arms; and I remembered how Naomi’s face had glowed with joy at the sight of him, my little Obed.
And now, much greater in years than Naomi had been, I, Ruth, widow of Boaz, held my seventh great-grandson, David. I remember it all now, as I gaze upon this new bundle of life, this my latest great-grandson, David. David, son of Jesse, son of Obed, son of Boaz and Ruth, son of Salmon and Rahab, son of Abraham, and son of Israel.
And I have the strange and powerful feeling, at what must be nearly the end of a very long and full life, that something fresh and new and wonderful is just beginning.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One