- The story of Ruth leads us straight to the manger.
After the resurrection Jesus was walking with two men on the road to Emmaus. Before their trip was over, He taught them “in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.” Among those writings was the account of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz.
Remember the storyline? Two widows in the country of Moab return to the nation and town (Bethlehem) where Naomi had once resided. Naomi calls herself “bitter,” and her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth takes charge by heading out to a field to find them some food. She traverses to land owned by Boaz, a relative of Naomi’s husband. There she finds favor with this relative; Boaz later finds her at his feet on the threshing room floor, basically asking for his hand in marriage. Boaz is overwhelmed at his good fortune as Ruth is hopeful for hers.
But some haggling that needs to take place first. Boaz knows there is a relative ahead of him in line for her hand in marriage, so he goes to the city gate to confront the challenge. A closer relative gets the prize of Naomi’s land and Ruth’s hand in marriage if he wants it. As it turns out, the land sounds good but the new wife complicates inheritance dynamics. He defers. Boaz gets a bride.
People at the city gate are exuberant and exclaim “May you…be renowned in Bethlehem.” Boaz – a virtual nobody in the written history of Israel who becomes a name prominently featured in the genealogy of Jesus because of this whole redemptive episode. Renown in Bethlehem? Can you imagine Jesus saying on the road to Emmaus: “And so he was, for it was that very place where God chose to show up in a cattle trough. For I ‘emptied myself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, I would eventually humble myself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.’” (Phil. 2:7-8)
Ruth is structured in a unique way. The first five verses of the account talk about how bad life can get. In the time of the “judges” (a terrible time in Israel’s history), Naomi and her faily leave Israel for Moab (a move towards true wickedness and the god Chemosh). There her husband and her sons die, and she is left without a man and with two widowed daughters-in-law. Bleak.
The author of Ruth treats his readers to a phenomenal ending. The last five verses (before the genealogy) use the exact same number of Hebrew words as the introduction and contain a near giddy list of blessings: Ruth and Boaz’ marriage, their new baby, how Boaz will be for Naomi a “restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age,” how Ruth has become for Naomi “better than seven sons”; and the woman with no husband and no sons now has a bouncing baby on her lap who would become the grandfather of the great King David.
I have no idea what Jesus detailed for those guys on the road to Damascus. But do you suppose He might have said that while Boaz was a kinsman-redeemer for Naomi and Ruth, Jesus was their kinsman-redeemer?
Thomas Oden declares, “The story of Boaz and Ruth is a testament to God’s providence, where divine love is channeled through human faithfulness.” It is not only a marvelous story for the ages, but a Bethlehem story that can come alive for us today.
Jesus redeems.
