Ruth | by Tessa Hershberger

Themes to Track: Sacrificial love that benefits others

helping hands Since we’ve been talking a lot about men so far (Moses, Joshua, the judges, etc.), it will be refreshing to look at the life of Ruth, one of the most significant women in the Bible. Her story portrays a very important message that comes in a small package of just four short chapters.

The definite author of the book is unknown, but many believe it to be written by the prophets Nathan or Samuel sometime during the reign of Saul or David. The original readers of Ruth are likely living in the time when David’s kingship is not yet firmly established or hasn’t even officially begun. The brief genealogy at the end of the book (see 4:12,18-22) indicates that one of the purposes for writing the book was to make a defense for David’s having come from the line of Judah, which fulfills Jacob’s prophecy in Genesis 39:8-12 and makes him a legitimate king over the Israelites.

However, there is much more to the book than defending David’s kingship.

Ruth doesn’t know it, but God is in the works of carrying out His ultimate plan to redeem man through the death and resurrection of His son Jesus, and He is about to give her a vital role in the story. Fast forward about a thousand years to Matthew chapter one, where Matthew lays out the genealogy from Abraham (father of the Israelites) to Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Redeemer of not only the Israelites, but the entire world:

… and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the Father of Jesse, the father of King David … and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. —Matt. 1:5,6,16 (emphasis added)

Following a very sorrowful time in her life, Ruth becomes a part of the ancestral line of Christ. When we view the book of Ruth in light of that, it becomes an amazing picture of the sovereignty of God! I wonder, how often do my circumstances make me assume that God has forgotten me, when really He is in the works of something bigger and better than I could have imagined? My guess is, often!

The author begins by telling us the story takes place during the time of the judges, and immediately establishes a scene of much sorrow. Naomi and her husband Elimelech had left their homeland of Judah to live in Moab in order to escape a famine. Elimelech dies, leaving Naomi as a widow with two sons. As if losing a husband weren’t hard enough, both of her sons die, leaving their Moabite wives, Ruth and Orpah, to mourn with her.

Naomi decides to return to Judah, the land of her own people, the Israelites. As a loving and understanding mother-in-law, she encourages Ruth and Orpah to go back to their own Moabite families where they can start over and remarry. Orpah chooses to go back, but Ruth cannot be persuaded.

In unreserved determination, Ruth declares that she will not leave Naomi’s side:

Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. —Ruth 1:16

It is important to remember that these words are being spoken by a Moabite woman to an Israelite woman. Ruth grew up among the Moabite people who worshiped Moabite gods. Thus is the significance of her declaring that she would be a follower of the God of the Israelites rather than the false gods of the Moabites. (We are not told on what scale she was introduced to the God of the Israelites after marrying Naomi’s son, much less why two Israelite men had ever intermarried with Moabite women!) If she were to return to her Moabite family, there was a good chance she’d be able to remarry, have a family, and be provided for. If she chooses to go with Naomi to Judah, her chances of those things happening become much slimmer. Her decision is the beginning of the central theme in Ruth—sacrificial love for the benefit of others. She is giving up security for the benefit of Naomi. If only she knew at that point how God was going to use her selflessness!

Continuing in a setting of sorrow and despair, Naomi and Ruth arrive in Bethlehem of Judah, where Naomi tells everyone to call her Mara, meaning “bitter”. She does not understand why God has dealt so “bitterly” and “harshly” with her (1:20,21) by allowing her husband and sons to be taken from her. There is comfort in the fact that she has the company of Ruth, but is that the last of her hope?

Enter Boaz.

Boaz is a wealthy relative of Naomi’s from her husband’s side living in Bethlehem. It just so happens that Naomi and Ruth arrived in Bethlehem at the time of the harvest, when Boaz’s fields were ripe for gleaning. In Deuteronomy 24:19, God commanded the Israelites, “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 left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all your undertakings.” (Also see Leviticus 19:9; 23:22.) In another act of sacrificial love, Ruth goes out to the fields and works all day gathering leftovers behind the reapers. She unknowingly comes to Boaz’s fields, and when he notices her unfamiliar face, he questions his servant about Ruth’s identity.

When Boaz is informed that Ruth is the daughter-in-law of Naomi and left her own people to come to a foreign land, he goes straight to Ruth and tells her that she is welcome and safe to glean in his fields. Boaz even invites Ruth to help herself to a drink of water when she gets thirsty and to eat with him and his reapers at mealtime!

When Ruth returns home and tells Naomi whose fields she had been gleaning from, Naomi blesses the Lord for leading Ruth to one of their nearest kin (relatives), and instructs Ruth to continue gathering from Boaz’s fields. What is the significance of Boaz being one of the nearest kin? In those times, Boaz would have been what they called a kinsman redeemer. One of the roles of a kinsman redeemer was to take part in something called a Levirate marriage. In the occurrence of the death of a man who had no sons, the brother (or nearest kin) of the deceased would marry his widow so that the family name and property could be carried on. The firstborn son coming from a Levirate marriage was considered to be the son of the deceased man and would then inherit his property. (See Genesis 38:6-26 and Deuteronomy 25:5-10.)

One night, Naomi instructs Ruth to go down to the threshing floor where Boaz and the other men would be lying by the grain to protect it and celebrate the harvest. Ruth bravely obeys, and when Boaz wakes up to see Ruth by his side, he understands that Ruth is there to ask him to complete his role as kinsman redeemer and marry her.¹ Here again we see Ruth practicing sacrificial love for the benefit of others in agreeing to marry Boaz, who was likely much older than her (implied in Ruth 3:10). Ruth is probably in her later 20s or early 30s, and it is unlikely that she has romantic feelings for Boaz, but she is willing to make the sacrifice so that Naomi’s family line can be carried on.

Boaz’s actions also show a sacrificial love for the benefit of others. Boaz has already proven himself to be a very kind and generous man, but if he agrees to marry Ruth, it means that he will take her and Naomi on as further financial obligations, as well as any children he and Ruth may have. In acting as the kinsman redeemer, Boaz also took on the responsibility to buy back Elimelech’s land, which would have been a further financial loss. But Boaz is willing to make those sacrifices for the benefit of both Naomi and Ruth.

By the end of the book, the setting has changed drastically—it is no longer one of bitterness and despair, but of gladness and thanksgiving! After Ruth and Boaz marry, God allows Ruth to conceive a son, who is named Obed.

Remember when Naomi first returned to Bethlehem and told the people that God had dealt bitterly with her? Now the women of Bethlehem are saying to her, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without next-of-kin” (4:14). God did not abandon Naomi in her sadness. He redeemed her through two amazing examples of sacrificial love for the benefit of others.

Is anyone getting a picture of a cross in their heads by now? Jesus’ death on the cross was the greatest act of sacrificial love of all time—and it abundantly benefits every person who receives His salvation!

Jesus commands us to carry that same cross of sacrificial love on a daily basis (see Luke 9:23-25), and to be sons and daughters who are constantly looking for ways to die to self and serve those around us, even when it is uncomfortable, inconvenient, or unrecognized. We live in a ME generation, seldom encouraged by society to do anything but look out for our own benefit, let alone sacrifice something for the benefit of others! Instead we ask, How can I make myself comfortable? How can I gain for myself? How can I make myself secure? How can I make myself happy? We are being fooled! Remember, Jesus endured the cross for the sake of the JOY that was set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). Pray and ask that God will show you specific ways to show sacrificial love for the benefit of someone around you, and except Him to give you opportunities to live it out!

¹Ruth asks Boaz to “spread [his] cloak” over her, which is most likely a euphemism for marriage/intercourse. It is debated as to whether or not Ruth was merely referring to marriage or if they had actual intercourse. If you would like to study this further, the footnotes in your Bible for Deuteronomy 22:30 and Deuteronomy 27:20 will help.