Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.” 13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14 The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! Ruth 4:12-14 NIV
Advent Chronicles – Anticipating the coming of Christ, the Messiah, let’s listen to the hopes and dreams of the people intertwined in His coming.
Ruth was a Moabitess, a gentile, when she married Naomi’s son, Mahlon. Naomi and her husband Elemelich and sons had traveled to Moab from Bethlehem to escape a famine. The husband and both sons died after living 10 years in Moab. Naomi and daughter-in-love, Ruth, returned to Bethlehem poor, but intimately devoted to one another. Ruth finds herself gleaning in the fields of Boaz.
As she gleans from the wheat in the field she thinks. “I made the confession to Na that her God would be my God. I have rejected all of the idols and worship of my family heritage. I really don’t want to go back to that. I have a peace in my heart when I sing the worship songs of Ya. But Lord, will we starve? Can I find enough among the left over wheat to feed Na and I? She hears a man of importance walking among the gleaners.
Boaz bends over and picks up some of the left over wheat and hands it to Ruth who puts it in her bag. “The Lord be with you”, he says. Before she could think, the words flowed forth from her own mouth, “And may His blessing be with you also.” Embarrassed she looked back down and continued to work.
Boaz felt a warmth in his heart. As owner of this field, he inquired of who this foreigner might be working among the other women. He was told of her kindness and relationship to Naomi. He spoke again to Ruth that she should remain gleaning in his field. He even invited her to sit and eat the warm cooked food. She kept some to take back to Na. He instructed his workers to leave a little extra near where she worked to add to her findings.
Later she told Na what had happened and about meeting Boaz. She told how she had bowed down in humility expressing appreciation for his kindness to her. She explained that he knew of Na and her plight and need. The she quoted him as saying, “May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” It was hard to imagine how he could make a statement about herself who had once worshipped false idols, and was a foreigner.
Na expressed a glimmer of hope that Ruth knew existed within her mother-in-love but had been suppressed by the grief of death. Na told Ruth, “He is a close relative of my husband, he is our kinsman redeemer our “goel”. A “goel” was the nearest relative who had the responsibility to restore the rights and avenge the wrongs. He would rescue a person from the hopelessness that life had brought upon them by being their provider for life. He would also become the husband for widows.
Later Boaz does indeed declare among the men of the gate that he will redeem both Ruth and Naomi as the levitical law aloud. Boaz took Ruth for his wife and they had a son named Obed who begat Jesse, who was the father of King David.
The blessing and favor of that first encounter with Boaz never left Ruth. Her own rags to riches story was implanted in her heritage, as the shepherd boy David would come to know. God honors those who seek him. She would not be the only person that would be redeemed and brought into the family of God. Perhaps she sang to little Obed.
I was a foreigner of no degree When your Daddy I did meet My redeemer he became for me We share a love so sweet May you follow in his ways Speaking blessing as you go May God shine upon your days His favor always. you should know Who knows where this story leads Kings and rulers be found in thee May God’s blessing follow your seed A kinsman redeemer shall he be
Our Savior, Jesus was mingled with the blood of Jews and gentiles alike. In our plight and deepest need, he will redeem us with the sacrifice of his own life and blood that we would be able to obtain the favor and blessing of God. Ruth’s story lives on in the purpose and life of Messiah, to seek and to save that which is lost. May all who come to Messiah find safety and life under the wings of His refuge.
Blessings Love y’all