RUTH רות

The main theme of Ruth’s book and her life is integrity, kindness, and believing God blesses obedience. Ruth had great integrity. Although she was a Moabite she came under the covering of God when she married into Elimelech’s family. She came to worship the One True God, and she did not abandon God when she was widowed. She took her commitment beyond “until death do us part” in choosing to kindly stay with Naomi.

When Naomi encouraged her to return to her father’s home she showed great compassion and courage remarking, “Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” (Ruth 1:16).

Ruth’s true stance of integrity and kindness followed her to Bethlehem where she and Naomi moved. In fact, her story reached the wealthy landowner, Boaz, and it touched his heart. In their first conversation face to face, he remarked, “may you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge” (Ruth 2:12). Boaz recognized and praised her great compassion and he looked for a way to help her.

God’s faithfulness and the believer’s obedience are clear themes in the Book of Ruth. Despite being a Moabite, Ruth came to know and worship the Lord, and she was greatly accepted under His wings. God set things in place so that favor follows her, and she trusts and obeys without knowing the outcome.

In the book of Ruth, the character of Boaz represents the culmination of God’s providence for the two destitute widows at the center of the story. The son of Salmon and his wife Rahab, Boaz was a wealthy landowner of Bethlehem in Judea, and a relative of Elimelech, Naomi‘s late husband. He notices Ruth, the widowed Moabite daughter-in-law of Naomi, a relative of his (see family tree), gleaning grain in his fields.

He soon learns of the difficult circumstances her family is in and Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi. In response, Boaz invites her to eat with him and his workers, as well as deliberately leaving grain for her to claim while keeping a protective eye on her.

Ruth approaches Boaz and asks him to exercise his right of kinship and marry her. Boaz accepts, provided that another with a superior claim declines. Since the first son of Ruth and a kinsman of her late husband would be deemed the legal offspring of the decedent and heir to Elimelech, the other kinsman defers to Boaz.

In marrying Ruth, Boaz revives Elimelech’s lineage, and the patrimony is secured to Naomi’s family. Their son was Obed the father of Jesse and grandfather of David. According to Josephus, he lived at the time of Eli.

The book of Ruth illustrates the difficulty of trying to use laws given in books such as Deuteronomy as evidence of actual practice. Naomi planned to provide security for herself and Ruth by arranging a levirate marriage with Boaz. She instructed Ruth to uncover Boaz’s feet after he had gone to sleep and to lie down. When Boaz woke up, surprised to see a woman at his feet, Ruth explained that she wanted him to redeem (marry) her.

Since there was no heir to inherit Elimelech’s land, custom required a close relative (usually the dead man’s brother) to marry the widow of the deceased in order to continue his family line (Deuteronomy 25:5–10). This relative was called the goel, the “kinsman-redeemer”. Boaz was not Elimelech’s brother, nor was Ruth his widow.

A complication arises in the story: another man was a closer relative to Elimelech than Boaz and had the first claim on Ruth. This conflict was resolved through the custom that required land to stay in the family: a family could mortgage land to ward off poverty, but the law required a kinsman to purchase it back into the family (Leviticus 25:25ff).

Boaz met the near kinsman at the city gate (the place where contracts were settled); the kinsman first said he would purchase Elimelech’s (now Naomi’s) land, but, upon hearing he must also take Ruth as his wife, withdrew his offer. Boaz thus became Ruth and Naomi’s “kinsman-redeemer.”

The redemption of Ruth and Naomi through Boaz was God’s providence in action and was wholly sufficient for their need. Yet, it wasn’t immediately obvious that Boaz would be the redeemer in their story, despite his noble manner toward Ruth. In Hebrew culture, it was understood that if a man died leaving a widow without a son (to be his heir and provide for his mother) the man’s nearest male relative (usually a brother) would marry the widow to provide for her and produce an heir for his deceased relative.

When Ruth approached Boaz, he revealed to her that another held precedence before him according to the law. Waiting to hear whether it would be Boaz or another man who would redeem her and Naomi must have been a time of agonizing suspense for Ruth. After all, these matters did not always end well. Ruth had probably heard the story of Tamar in Genesis 38.

But God’s provision for Ruth through Boaz was not misplaced. The other man declined to step forward as a redeemer when he realized he would have to marry Ruth and eventually divide his estate between two heirs. Boaz did not hesitate. He would become perhaps the best biblical example of a redeemer short of Jesus Christ himself, the Redeemer.

He recognized his responsibility and did what he knew was right. After showing her great consideration as she gleaned from his field, he married Ruth, and in so doing provided for Naomi. Ruth and Boaz would have a son named Obed, who would be the grandfather of King David, the forefather of Jesus.

During the time of the judges, an Israelite family from Bethlehem (who are Ephrathites) – Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their sons Mahlon and Chilion – emigrated to the nearby country of Moab. Elimelech died, and the sons married two Moabite women: Mahlon married Ruth and Chilion married Orpah.

After about ten years, the two sons of Naomi also died in Moab (1:4). Naomi decided to return to Bethlehem. She told her daughters-in-law to return to their own mothers and remarry. Orpah reluctantly left. However, Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus and more may the Lord do to me if anything but death parts me from you.” (Ruth 1:16–17 NJPS).

Naomi and Ruth returned to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest and, in order to support her mother-in-law and herself, Ruth went to the fields to glean. As it happened, the field she went to belonged to a man named Boaz, who was kind to her because he had heard of her loyalty to her mother-in-law. Ruth told Naomi of Boaz’s kindness, and Ruth continued to glean in his field through the remainder of the barley and wheat harvest.