Scroll to the bottom for thoughts/discussion questions!
One-sentence summary: There is a beautiful story about faithfulness and redemption through a woman named Ruth, who was a in the lineage of Jesus.
Thank God we have the story of Ruth after all that! (See yesterday's blog.) In the days of the famine, a certain man of Bethlehem of the tribe of Judah whose wife is named Naomi goes with his wife and two sons to Moab, and he dies. His sons marry two women, and the name of one of them is Ruth. The two sons die as well. Naomi hears the Lord has blessed Israel in Judah, so she tells her daughters-in-law to return to their fathers' houses and find husbands among their kinsmen, but at first they both resist. Naomi convinces one to go back; however, Ruth refuses to leave but clings to her. She says, "Wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people will be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die." She says that nothing but death will part them. They travel to Bethlehem, and the city is excited because of them and ask if it is Naomi. But Naomi tells them to call her Marah, meaning "bitter." She says she went out full but came back bitter. They arrive in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Naomi has a relative, a very wealthy man named Boaz, so Ruth asks if she can glean in his fields, and she says yes. She happens to come to Boaz's field, and he asks the reapers about her, and his servants tell him. He tells Ruth to stay in his field and reap there, and that he has commanded the young men not to touch her, and offers her to drink from his vessels. She falls at his feet and asks why she has found favor, and he says it is because of all she has done for her mother-in-law and says may the Lord reward her fully, "under Whose wings you have come for refuge." She asks him for favor. At meal time, they eat bread together, and when she rises up to glean, he tells the men to let grain fall for her and to let her glean even among the sheaves and not to rebuke her. So she stays until evening. Naomi blesses Boaz and the Lord when she hears this.
Then, Naomi gets the idea for Ruth to marry Boaz, so she tells Ruth to wash and anoint herself and put on her best clothes, and to go to the threshing floor where he is in secret. When he lies down, she is to uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell her what to do. She obeys. He lies down at a heap of grain, and at midnight, he wakes and sees Ruth at his feet. She says she is his maidservant and asks him to take her under his wing (in marriage, as he is her kin.) He blessed her and tells her she has shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning in not going after young men. He agrees and says that all the people know she is a virtuous woman. He says, however there is a closer relative, and he must speak to him first, and if he does not want to "perform the duty," then he will. So he tells her to lie there until morning. She arises before daylight, and he tells his people not to tell anyone. She goes to the city (with barley he has given her) and reports it to Naomi, who says, "Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will turn out. For the man will not rest until he has concluded the matter this day."
Boaz goes to the gate, and he speaks to the other relative with ten elders of the city. The man says he cannot perform the duty to redeem Ruth and carry on her late husband's name, so he tells Boaz to do it. To confirm, the relative takes off his sandle, which is a custom to make the matter official. This way, Ruth's husband's name "would not be cut off." The men bless Ruth and say, "May she be like Rachel and Leah." They also bless the fruit of her womb. So they marry, and the Lord blesses her with a son, and the women all bless Naomi and the baby. They say that Ruth is better to her "than seven sons." They call the boy Obed, who is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
Thoughts/discussion questions:
The idea of a "kinsman redeemer" is a beautiful one and a picture of Christ for us!