The Book of Ruth

God Is our Redeemer

Interweaving throughout Old Testament scripture the book of Ruth presents a marvellous picture of God’s love for us through the ages. This is a glorious love story. The story of Boaz, a wealthy landowner, and Ruth, a beautiful Moabite woman. It also is a picture of the great love of Jesus for us.

Many people think of the Law of Moses (Mosiac Law) consists of only the Ten Commandments, but the Law of God spans through four books  –  of Exodus, Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy. There are all kinds of Laws the Lord gave Israel protect them and to demonstrate His love for them, right down to how to build the roof on your house to protect people from falling over the edge (Deuteronomy 22:8). In houses of that time the roof was like a family room, sort of like a rumpus room in the basements of many homes today.

We see in the Book of Ruth how God in His Laws made allowances for the widows, and the poor and destitute. Please read The Book of Ruth before reading this post (it’s 5 pages in my Bible). I can’t stress enough times the power of the Word of God. It is living and powerful and no person can match it with his mortal mind and soul – not me in this post, not the greatest evangelical orator, not anybody.

Hebrews 4:12-13 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

We see in this love story a likeness to Jesus’ Love for us when He calls those of us who have a contrite heart toward Him.

Naomi was married to Elimelech, an Israelite from Bethlehem. There was a famine in the land, so Elimelech decided to sell his land and move his wife and two boys to the land of Moab, to try his luck there. This was not a prayerful decision, but one borne out of his own logic. They remained there, and the two sons married Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah. In time Naomi’s husband and her two sons died, leaving her and her two daughter-in-law in a foreign land which was not particularly friendly towards the Israelites at the best of times. Naomi had heard that the Lord visited Israel and that the drought have been lifted. Israel had bread again. She determined to go back to Bethlehem. She consulted her two daughters-in-law and told them they must go back to their families; she had nothing to give them, and as foreigners, they would not be accepted in Israel. They had no hope of marrying again in Israel, so they needed to go back to their own. This was a tearful time. Orpah went back to her people and their gods, but Ruth clung to Naomi. Naomi entreated Ruth to go after her sister-in-law, but Ruth would have none it. “…wherever you go I will go…your people shall be my people and your God will be my God.”  She loved Naomi and the Lord had touched her heart. She didn’t want to back to the false gods of the Moabites.

They travelled to Bethlehem. The women were very excited to see Naomi again but she was very grieved at her situation. “…Don’t call me Naomi (pleasant, gentle, pleasant). Call me Mara (bitter),…for the Lord has afflicted me.” She and Ruth were without any means to sustain themselves since her husband had previously sold the family’s land.

Philippians 4:5-7  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

This is where we find that Naomi will start to blessed by the Lord. She has turned back to the Lord; she is back in His Promised Land. We will find some of the ways that the Lord takes of the poor and destitute, the Lord’s welfare system. The widow, the poor, and the stranger were allowed to “glean” or take from the leavings of the fields or vineyards of the Israelites. (Note references 1 & 2 at the end of the post.)

Ruth knew about this, and asked Naomi if she could glean some barley heads that they may able to eat. She said, “Go my daughter.”

Hebrews 13:5 Let your conduct be without covetousness, be content with such things as you as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave no forsake you.”

Ruth “happened” (by the Lord’s leading) to start in the fields of Boaz, a wealthy landowner of Bethlehem, who was a relative of Elimelech. She asked the head reaper if she could glean from the fields even though it was her right by Mosaic Law to do so. Knowing that she was not accepted in in this foreign land, she conducted herself in a lowly manner, with all meekness and humility.

Then along comes Boaz. He was a wealthy man, but he worked alongside his reapers; he got his hands dirty like everybody else. He had a good relationship with his workers.

“The Lord be with you,” he says.

“The lord bless you,” say the reapers.

While working in the field he spies this beautiful dark skinned woman. “Who’s young woman is this,” he asks the head of reapers.

“She’s the Moabite woman that Naomi brought from Moab,” he says, “she asked to glean of the field and she’s been working since this morning.”

Boaz immediately takes a shine to her and wants to protect her.

“You will listen, my daughter, will you not? Do not go to glean in another field…stay close to my young women…I have told the young men not touch you.” As a young foreign woman she was very vulnerable to attacks from unscrupulous Israeli workers.

She bows down to the ground to Boaz, and asks why she found favour in his eyes. He says he has asked around about her. He knows all she has done for mother-in-law and she that has left her people to find refuge under the God of Israel. “the Lord repay you work, and a full reward be given to you by the Lord God of Israel.” Not to mention the fact that he is totally in love with her. She has captivated him. Boaz invites Ruth to eat with the reapers. The meal was parched grain and bread dipped in vinegar. This would have like manna from heaven to her, a starving woman with little hope for better days. Typically a gleaner would count himself lucky to glean enough in a day to eat for a day. Naomi and Ruth would have been barely eating enough food to survive every day. Today she ate her fill and was able to save some aside for her mother-in-law.

Naomi was grateful to the Lord that He provided for them.

“Where have you gleaned today? And where did you work? Blessed be the one who took notice of you.” She finds out that Ruth has been working in the fields of Boaz.

Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he of the Lord, who has not forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead!” Naomi said to her, “This man is a relation of ours, one of our close relatives.”

Ruth added that she had found favour in Boaz’ eyes.

So now Naomi realized that the Lord has truly blessed them. And as all Jewish mothers and mothers-in-law are wont to do, she starts plotting for Ruth to set her up to put in the best light to Boaz.

In those days during harvest the men slept on the threshing floor in a circle, head towards the grain, feet outwards  like spokes in a wheel. They needed to protect the grain from thieving animals and men. So Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, for tonight, wash up, anoint yourself (put on some perfume) and after they have finished eating and drinking, after Boaz lies down, lie at his feet. So Ruth did all her mother-in-law directed.

Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was cheerful. When Ruth laid at Boaz’ feet she startled him, “Who are you?” he says.

This was Ruth’s chance to lay it all on Boaz, “I am Ruth, your maidservant. Take your maidservant under your wing, for you are a close relative.” Ruth is asking him to be her “kinsman redeemer.” (Note references 3 and 4 at the end of the post).

Jesus loves us. When we repent of our sins and ask him into our hearts, we are asking Him to be our Redeemer, our Kinsmen Redeemer. He redeems form sin.

Boaz is beside himself. He can’t believe this this beautiful woman who he is completely infatuated with has chosen him. Then he said, “Blessed are you of the Lord, my daughter! For you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning, in that you did not go after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you request, for all the people of my town know that you are a virtuous woman.” He knows that there is a closer relative who could redeem the land of Naomi’s husband.

Boaz saw the inner beauty of Ruth’s heart, a heart that loved the Lord. He loved her.

Psalms 34:18: the Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite heart.

In Israel at that time civil matters were conducted at the city gate. The elders of the city were always there managing the city’s business. The very next morning Boaz waited at the gate until Naomi’s other relative showed up at the gate. Boaz explained the situation to the relative. He was Naomi’s closest relative and could redeem the land if he chose to do so.

And he said, “I will redeem it.”

Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must also buy it from Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance.”

And the close relative said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I ruin my own inheritance. You redeem my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”

The relative thought it would be good chance to increase his stature financially by redeeming the land until he found out that the land came with the responsibility of another wife. He wasn’t about to get into that for sure.

So there was an agreement. The close relative said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself.” So he took off his sandal. And Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, from the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, I have acquired as my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brethren and from his position at the gate. You are witnesses this day.”

God has given marriage to help us understand His Love for us. Hosea 2:19-20 I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me, in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.

And all the people who were at the gate, and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel; and may you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.

Paper and pen were in short supply in those days, so were ink and papyrus or tanned sheepskins. But the Israelites had a method of recording deals that worked quite handily for them. All business was done at the front gate of the village in front of witnesses. The men at the gate were the respected elders of the village. Business deals were cemented by trading a sandal.

So then, the prophecy of Jesus to be born in Bethlehem started here. In the time of Joseph and Mary, Jesus’ parents, Caesar Augustus took a census. Everyone had to go to the city of their lineage to be registered. Joseph and Mary had to go to Bethlehem to be registered (Gospel of Luke 2:1-5). In the town of their forbearers.

The Jews always looked to a pure blood line. The line Jesus was not pure from the line of Judah, but had the blood line from the beautiful Moabite woman, Ruth. He came to usher in a new covenant that included not only Jews, but non-Jews (Gentiles) as well, just as He Himself was a descendant of both Jew and Gentile.

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1               Leviticus 19:9 -10        When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God.

2               Deuteronomy 24:19-22           When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this thing.

3          Leviticus 25:23-28       The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me. And in all the land of your possession you shall grant redemption of the land. If one of your brethren becomes poor, and has sold some of his possession, and if his redeeming relative comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother sold. Or if the man has no one to redeem it, but he himself becomes able to redeem it, then let him count the years since its sale, and restore the remainder to the man to whom he sold it, that he may return to his possession. But if he is not able to have it restored to himself, then what was sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the Year of Jubilee; and in the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his possession.

4          Deuteronomy 25 :5      “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family; her husband’s brother shall go in to her, take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. 

Brian Pickup