Boaz meets Naomi’s redeemer in the gate of the city. The gate was used for both protection and for the business of the city. Boaz begins telling the Goel (redeemer) about the land that he has the opportunity to redeem, and the Goel initially says, “yes”. Boaz goes on to say that he must also redeem Ruth (see Deut 25:5-6), to which the redeemer declines due to potential inheritance issues. For example, if Ruth bore him a son, that son would eventually inherit not only the redeemed property, but probably part of his own estate too. This would “endanger” his estate.

In verse 7 we see that “to confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was the manner of attesting in Israel.” (Deut. 25:7-10). The passing of the sandal symbolized Boaz’s right to walk on the land as his property. So Boaz took off his sandal and made the transaction in front of the 10 witnesses. Boaz’s giving money to Naomi to “acquire” Ruth was not the purchase of a slave but the payment of a bride price. This payment was a protection for the bride. The bride’s family held the money, which would be given to her in the event of her being divorced or widowed. The witnesses blessed Boaz. “So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went into her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son.”

Boaz is a beautiful illustration of Jesus, who became mankind’s Kinsman-Redeemer and who makes things right before God the Father for those who trust in Him!

The book of Ruth is read every year at Shavuot, or the Feast of Weeks. It comes 50 days after the second night of Passover, and it marks the beginning of the wheat harvest, or first-fruits. It is connected to God giving the commandments to Moses, which is viewed as a marriage covenant between God and His people. Pentecost is observed 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection, and is marked by God giving His Spirit to all who have given their lives to Jesus. It’s no coincidence that the Spirit came at a harvest festival; and it’s fitting that the book Jews still read today at that festival is Ruth-a story of an impoverished Gentile who became one of God’s people by marriage to a man with an inheritance in the land. It’s as if God was creating a picture over the centuries to represent His ultimate plan for the nations. He would bring a multi-ethnic harvest into His inheritance through a romantic redemption. It represents everything a marriage is meant to be: holy, heaven-sent, and heartwarming.

Every love story points to The Love Story.

Ruth and Boaz’s son was Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, the father of Jacob, “the Father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.” (Matthew 1:16)

God uses all sorts of people to tell His love story. Ask the Holy Spirit to keep your heart soft to His leading this week. Let that overflow into your marriage, your home, and your work this week. Your life and your relationships are designed to tell a story of His love and grace.

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“Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, ‘My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?'” Naomi has now turned from being a bitter widow to a matchmaker for Ruth. “Seeking rest” meant finding a home and security with a husband. Naomi tells Ruth to wash and anoint herself and go to the threshing floor where she will find Boaz. She goes on to tell Ruth to wait for him to lie down for the night. “Go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do.” So she did! When Boaz woke up at midnight, startled by a woman laying at his feet, he ask who she was. She replied, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” Ruth was bold in living into her identity because she didn’t refer to herself as a Moabite woman, the daughter–in-law of Naomi, or as the widow of her deceased husband, Mahlon. She is owning her new identity. Spread your wings was a Hebrew idiom for marriage. (Ezekiel 16:8) Ruth proposes to Boaz, and is reminding him of his own words from Ruth 2:12. She is basically saying, “Boaz, would you answer your own prayer for me?” She had put herself under the wings of Yahweh, and now she is asking to be put under the wings of Boaz. This was extraordinary of Ruth because: -It was a servant demanding her boss to marry her -It was a Moabite demanding something of an Israelite -It was a woman demanding something from a man -It was a poor person demanding something from a rich person. Boaz (v10) praised her for being willing to marry an older man in order to fulfill her commitment to her first husband, Mahlon, and the family name of Elimelech. He then agrees to her and calls her a “worthy woman”. This term was the same term as the word “excellent” in Proverbs 31:10. He considered her a person of the highest reputation. Then, being a person of honor, Boaz recognizes that there is a redeemer closer to Ruth than he was. He told Ruth that if the closer man would not marry her, then he would. He then told her to lie down until morning. In this, Boaz acted responsibly in two ways:

1. He did not send her home in the middle of the night. He would protect her and he would touch her only if she could be rightfully his.
2. He protected the rights of her nearer kinsman. If the other relative wanted to redeem, that was his right. But if the nearer kinsman was not willing, Boaz would. He covered his pledge with a vow.

Then, in the morning. he loaded her up with 60 pounds of barley to take back home to Naomi! It was incredibly generous. When Ruth told Naomi what happened with Boaz, Naomi said, “the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.” Boaz was the answer to his own prayer for Ruth. When you pray for others, do you think God is going to do a great work through someone else, or are you willing to be a part of the answer to that prayer? Is there something in your life right now that you have been praying for someone, and you are realizing it might be you that is a part of the solution? What will you do? Don’t miss the joy of allowing God to use you!

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In Ruth 2, we are introduced to Boaz. The story clearly shows Boaz to be a man of wealth and influence, and someone who has good standing in the community. More than that, Boaz is a man with integrity and godliness. As Ruth meets Boaz, we will see that God did something for Ruth, in Ruth, and eventually through Ruth. Ruth is referred to as “the Moabite woman”, which reminds us that not only is she a poor widow, but an immigrant in Israel’s patriarchal society.

Ruth is also a “go-getter”. We see that she is courageous, compassionate, humble, loyal, and very hard working. She and Naomi decide that Ruth needs to go and glean in the fields. She “happens” (God’s providence) to glean in Boaz’s field. Gleaning consisted of gathering dropped grain or grain left standing after the reapers went through the fields. The harvesters were to leave the edges of the field for the poor and not retrieve dropped crops. (See Deut 24:19-22) Remember, this is all taking place during the time of the Judges, where “everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes”, which means many would not have left the corners of their fields for the vulnerable.

Boaz was extravagant in his provision for Ruth and did much more than was required by law:

1. “keep close to my young women” (v8)
2. “Have I not charged the young men not to touch you?” (v9) – offers her protection
3. “And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.” (v9) Normally, foreigners would draw water for Israelites, and women would draw it for men.
4. “The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge” (v12) – he blesses her for her loyalty and companionship to Naomi
5. “Come here and eat some bread” (v14)
6. “Let her glean even among the sheaves and do not reproach her.” (v14)
7. “Pull out from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.” (v16)

Boaz is speaking and offering dignity, which Ruth realizes and acknowledges his extravagance and kindness. Boaz is showing us what faith is like in the everyday. He is living out Micah 6:8.

Ruth goes back to Naomi with about 30 pounds of grain! Once Naomi realizes who Boaz is, she blesses him (v20).

In this beautiful story of faith and love, we are represented by Ruth because everything we have is a gift from our extravagantly generous Father. We need Jesus to cover and protect us because we are lost and vulnerable without Him.

The men of our community should also embody Boaz to the point where every woman and child feels safe when we are around.

All of us should live extravagantly with what God has given us. We never know the story of the one we encounter…

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We return to our story of Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah after their husbands have died. In verse 6, we see the first good news, “that the Lord had visited his people and given them food.” Naomi decides it is time to go back to Israel, but she releases her daughters-in-law and tells them to go back home and find rest and a husband. (verse 9). They both told Naomi that they would stay with her and they all cried together. In verses 11-13 Naomi basically says, “Why bother going with me?”, “Leave me alone”. She is pleading for isolation.

Orpah kisses Naomi goodbye, but Ruth “clings” to her. She is attaching herself to Naomi. Naomi tries again to get Ruth to stay by appealing to Ruth’s old way of life. Ruth responds with, “where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people will be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried.” She was fighting to stay with Naomi.

Ruth had endured three pleas of her mother-in-law to go home to Moab, but she chose life with Naomi over her family, her national identity, and her religious idolatry. In one of the most beautiful expressions of commitment in all the world’s literature, she tied her future to that of Naomi. Like Abraham, Ruth decided to leave her ancestors’ idolatrous land to go to the land of promise. Ruth did this without the encouragement of a promise. In fact, she made her decision despite Naomi’s strenuous encouragement to do otherwise!

Ruth was fighting against isolation and for congregation. We need to build the kinds of relationships that make a “clinging love” possible. We must fight for friends in the flesh instead of online or virtual friends. We must find community.

When Ruth and Naomi returned, the people in her hometown were stirred into a frenzy when they saw her. Naomi was so distraught that she asked the people to call her “Mara” which means “bitter”. She saw nothing ahead but the loneliness, abandonment, and helplessness of widowhood. She fixed her gaze on what was gone instead of who was by her side. We must be careful not to do the same in times of calamity.

But the chapter ends with hope…”And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest”

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The book of Ruth was written around 1010-970 BC, and is the only book in the Old Testament named after someone not Jewish. Verse 1 starts, “In the days when the judges ruled”, which speaks of a very dark time in history. There was no national government and Israel was a collection of tribes. It was a period filled with violence, idolatry, moral depravity, and civil war. This period lasted about 300 years and was the setting for the story of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz. It is in this dark season that the providence of God shines.

Verse 1 goes on to say, “there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.” Theologically, the famine may be explained as a judgmental act of God. If Yahweh’s people would go after other gods and persist in rebelling against their covenant Lord, he would respond not only by sending in enemies to destroy their crops and occupy the land, but also by cutting off the rains and sending famine.

Geographically, the story begins in Bethlehem of Judah. The irony of crisis is apparent. Bethlehem, which means “house of bread,” has no food for this family. According to Deuteronomy, if the people would repent, Yahweh would withdraw his anger and lift the famine. It seems, however, that Elimelech (Naomi’s husband) designed his own solution instead of calling on God for mercy and repenting of the sins that plagued the nation during the dark days of the judges.

Elimelech took his family to Moab:

1. The Moabites’ origin came from an incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughter (Gen 19:30-38) The fruit of their incest were Moab and Ben-Ammi, the founders of the Moabites and the Ammonites, two nations that were always at odds with Israel.
2. The Moabites’ resisted Israel’s passage throughout their territory when they came from Egypt (Numbers 22-24).
3. The Moabite women used seduction to lure the Israelites and the Israelites were punished because of it (Num 25:1-9)
4. Israel excluded Moab from the assembly of the Lord (Deut 23:3-6)
5. The Israelites were oppressed by King Eglon of Moab (Judges 3:15-30)
6. The Moabites worshipped Chemosh, a fierce god who demanded child sacrifice.

Instead of mourning over the sin of the land and asking God to restore things, Elimelech leaves Israel. He acted like the people of the day and did what was right in his own eyes. He felt more at home in the land of compromise than the land of promise.

Verse 3 says, “But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons.” The weight of the ownership transfers from husband to wife. His sons marry, and then both sons died. This meant Naomi had no hope. A widow without any sons meant no heirs. This meant she had absolutely nothing. She was utterly hopeless.

When life feels utterly hopeless, choose to put your hope in the One who is utterly faithful.

In the end, we will see that the book of Ruth is also the only book in the Old Testament named after an ancestor of Jesus. (Matthew 1:5-6; 16). We must remember that He has a plan bigger than we can see. We must be careful that don’t compromise by following our own understanding and by looking at the culture. Instead, we must remember God’s promises and follow His plan as it (often) slowly unfolds.

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