Ruth
Ruth 1:11-18
11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!” 14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-
in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. 15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” 16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
Who is Lazarus?
Ruth is a direct ancestor in the genealogy of David. Ruth 4:21 shows us that Boaz fathered Obed, who fathered Jesse who fathered David. Who went on to become king David, a hugely influential and God-fearing king. This also means Ruth is a direct ancestor of Jesus Christ. Ruth was a foreigner, a Moabite from Moab and she and Naomi moved to Naomi’s home in Bethlehem. As two widows, it would have been very difficult for the two of them to get by and gleaning fields for crop was done out of necessity
Ruth was widowed and moved to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law Naomi, in search of stable food in the wake of a famine that wracked the land. She got to work in a field and gathered the remains and scraps of collected grain which had been dropped by harvesters. The owner of the field, Boaz, saw favour in her, having heard of her kindness to stay with Naomi rather than to ‘return back to her people and her gods’ (Ruth 1:15). Boaz instructed his workers to leave some barely for her to collect and for her not to be ‘rebuked’ (Ru 2:16) or touched by any of the workers there. Boaz provided her with six measures of barley when she went to see him at the threshing floor, where she stayed the night, following the advice of Naomi. Through the culture in early Israel, Boaz was able to marry Ruth through the acquisition of property Naomi was selling, and the Lord ‘enabled her to conceive (Ru 4:13).
What can we learn from Elijah?
The book of Ruth is a reminder that the Lord cares for absolutely everyone. As a Moabite, Ruth is a foreigner in Bethlehem who lives with the mother of her deceased husband, her origins are neither grand nor particularly lucky. Through Ruth we can see a reflection of ourselves, where there is nothing particularly royal about us, some days our own circumstances seem so terribly mundane or unimportant it can be strange asking someone like God for help.
And yet the Lord provided for Ruth and rewarded her richly. It is Ruth’s perseverance and care for others that inevitably gets her noticed by Boaz, and through him, blessed by the Lord, she is able to provide for herself and Naomi. Like Ruth, we can do things that honour those around us, regardless of whether they are public or private acts of goodness, the Lord provides and rewards richly, just as he did for Ruth.