30. The Story of Ruth (Ruth 1:1-4:22)

by Beka Jackson

So my husband died. My brother in-law died and I am in a foreign country pretty much alone. Who do I turn to? My mother-in-law, of course! The story seems so strange to me even from the very beginning, but the way God redeemed this seemingly unimportant woman and her husband's family is so incredible. As I read this passage, I was brought to tears, which I thought was so weird because I have read/heard this story so many times and have never cried. But now, I read it as a mother, as a daughter-in-law, and as a wife. Apparently, my life circumstances really affect how I read scripture!

There are a few things in this story that didn't really makes sense to me. Ruth is gleaning in Boaz's fields. I honestly had no idea what that meant. Thank goodnes for Google, right? Reapers in the field would inevitably (and sometimes on purpose, like in Ruth) leave behind some of the wheat or barley or whatever it was they were harvesting. The poor could come behind the reapers and glean (pick-up and take for themselves) whatever was missed by the reapers.  Ruth and Naomi didn't have much, so this was how they were providing for themselves.

Boaz went down to the city gate to settle all things with the other kinsman, or redeemer. I have this picture of Boaz sitting by the entrance of the city waiting for the other guy and grabbing him before he enters the city so that the matter of marrying Ruth can happen quickly. But really, the city gate was where legal business would take place. This was the place Boaz had to go in order to make the transfer of ownership, both for the land and (as strange as it sounds) Ruth and Naomi.

But really, the strangest thing in the passage was when Ruth went to Boaz and laid by him while he slept. Apparently, this was all part of Jewish custom and law. So what may seem strange to us was just Ruth doing things the way they did them thousands of years ago. She was giving Boaz an out. If he didn't want to marry her, this was his chance to say so (Deut. 25:5-10). I'm pretty sure if I tried that 14 years ago with Bobby, we would not be married today! But obviously, it worked for Ruth!

And Boaz is such a great guy, right? The first time he meets her, he provides for her immediate needs. He tells her to stay near his men in his fields so she would be safe. Then he tells his workers that it would be alright if they let a little extra harvest fall to the ground, leaving more available for Ruth to glean. When Ruth lays at his feet, he wakes to find her there and is anxious to marry her. First thing in the morning he sets of to take care of the matter, but not beofre he sends her on her way with more barley for her and her mother-in-law. Boaz sounds like the kind of man a girl would want to be her kinsman-redeemer.

So there were a couple of strange things to me in this passage, but I love this passage for several reasons, too! I love the comittment we see in Ruth. She didn't have to go with Naomi.  She had every right to go back to her people and her land, but she stays. It isn't out of duty or law that she stays. The Scripture tells us more than once that they were crying over not only the death of their husbands, but over the idea of being apart from each other. Naomi had become Ruth's family, and Ruth wasn't going to let that change. Ruth 1:16-17 are great: "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."

And even though it doesn't say anywhere in the passage that Ruth and Boaz loved each other, you get that sense as you read. It's obvious that Boaz was a really great guy, but it also pretty obvious that he was crazy about her right away. He had heard about her and loved her character. I think its great to read true love stories in the Bible! Yep, I'm a hopeless romantic!  (Facebook even told me my life movie is the Notebook and we all know FB knows what it's talking about!)

And how cool would it be for the people at the city gate to know what happened to the family line later on? After Boaz had bought the land, the people at the gate said this: (3:11-12) "Then the elders and all those at the gate said, "We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah."

The book of Ruth ends with the lineage of King David, beginning with Perez. This is the family line that Ruth was blessed to marry into! The Great-Grandmother of the King of Israel!  But even greater, in the book of Matthew, that lineage continues on to the birth of Jesus Christ. In Matthew 1:5 she is even mentioned by name as one in Christ's family line! Absolutely amazing! And this is where the tears start streaming down my face!