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| "Ruth" by Antonio Cortina Farinós |
Ruth
“Then she fell on her face, bowing to
the ground and said to him, ‘Why have I found grace in your sight that you
should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?’ ”
(Ruth 2:10)
Reading:
Genesis 19:30–37; Ruth 1–4
Ruth’s Story
Naomi looked out of her window, waiting
for her daughter-in-law to return. She had been up all night because she knew
the mission was fraught with danger. Naomi knew that Boaz, an elderly relative,
was a near kinsman to her late husband and as such a possible kinsman-redeemer
for Ruth, her Moabite daughter-in-law. Boaz had shown compassion toward Ruth
and Naomi, and so Naomi had suggested that a marriage be arranged. But Ruth was
a Moabite, from a people whose ancestry was begotten of an illicit sexual union
between Lot, Abraham’s nephew, and his daughter. Lot’s daughters had gotten
their father drunk in order to lie with him. Moab, the son Lot’s daughter
conceived, was the ancestor of Ruth’s people. The Moabites were notorious for
immorality and idolatry.
So
how was Naomi to prove to Boaz that Ruth was a covenant daughter of the faith?
Naomi told Ruth to go to the threshing floor by night and to wait for Boaz and
his men to finish drinking in celebration of their bounty after the harvest.
Ruth was to take note of the place where Boaz lay and to approach him secretly
while he slept. Ruth was to lie down at Boaz’ feet—not by his side. She was to
uncover his feet so that the chill would awaken him in the night. Naomi
instructed that after Boaz awoke, Ruth was to ask for covenant marriage
according to the levirate law of the kinsman-redeemer. Naomi knew that she was
placing Ruth in a position like Lot’s daughter, where Ruth could take advantage
of Boaz. But Naomi knew that Boaz would see that Ruth would not behave like her
immoral ancestress. It was Naomi’s way of showing Boaz that although Ruth was a
Moabitess by birth, she was truly a daughter of Abraham by faith. Yet Naomi’s
plan was not without danger. If anyone recognized Ruth that night, her
reputation for purity would be gone forever (Ruth 3:14).
So
Naomi anxiously awaited the dawn. At last she saw the silhouette of a young
lady approaching the house. But in the light of the early dawn, the young
lady’s shadow looked like it belonged to a pregnant woman. That couldn’t be
Ruth, Naomi thought. But as the young woman drew near, Naomi saw that it was
Ruth after all—carrying something in her apron. As Ruth entered the house, she
told Naomi that Boaz had promised her right of redemption would be respected.
Then Ruth opened the apron of her gown, and she showed her mother-in-law that
she was carrying a large portion of grain that Boaz had given her. Naomi gave
thanks to the Lord. All the bitterness of her past life was turned to joy.
Naomi knew that the Lord had given her a sign that Ruth would bear a child to
Boaz. God would preserve her and her daughter-in-law. How wonderful are the
ways of the Lord, Naomi thought. She recognized that the union of Boaz, a son
of Abraham, and Ruth, a daughter of Moab, would heal the ancient quarrel that
had divided Abraham and Lot so many centuries before. God would work a great
redemption through her daughter-in-law.
Ruth
looked at the abundance of grain Boaz had given her, and she thought of the
first time she had come by chance to the field of Boaz to glean. Her arms had
grown weary from her hard work, and her back had begun to ache from the long
hours of stooping in the late springtime sun.
Ruth
had been working since early morning in that field, gleaning from the meager
stalks of barley left by the reapers—mostly by the edges of the field. She had
paused and stretched her sore muscles, thinking how gracious the law of the
Lord was to make provision for the stranger and the poor by letting them glean.
She had learned about the law of the Lord from her late husband, Mahlon. She
recalled how the tenderness of the Lord’s mercy had struck her, for in her
country there was no similar provision for the widow or the stranger. Ruth was
now both a widow and a stranger. The brief rest from her labor allowed Ruth’s
mind to wander, and she grew reflective. She had learned about the God of the
Hebrews from her husband, who was now dead. They had been married for ten
years. Ruth assumed from the childless marriage that she was barren. But it
didn’t matter anyway, she thought. She was a Moabite, and no respectable
Israelite man would have her. So she comforted herself in the love of her
mother-in-law and in the love of the Lord.
After
the death of Naomi’s husband and two sons in Moab, Naomi had decided to return
to Israel. Years before she had fled to Moab with her husband to escape a
famine in Israel. But after the death of her husband and sons, she resolved to
return, and Ruth had insisted on going with her. Ruth’s anguish at Mahlon’s
death still tore through her heart. There was little hope for Ruth or Naomi—two
grieving widows with no sons to care for them. But Naomi was determined to
return to Israel, and she had urged Ruth to return to her mother’s house in
Moab. Instead, Ruth’s great love for her God and for her mother-in-law had
compelled her to go with Naomi.
And
so Ruth accompanied Naomi on the journey back to Bethlehem, the town Naomi had
left many years before. Their arrival had caused quite a stir. A Moabite in
Bethlehem! The people of Israel were all too familiar with the history of the
people of Moab. All Israel knew that the king of Moab had once hired a prophet
to curse Israel as they fled from Egypt—although Moab had been cursed instead.
All Israel also remembered how the Moabite women had tried to seduce the sons
of Israel at Baal Peor. They knew that Chemosh, the idol god of Moab, required
violent and bloody child sacrifices from the Moabites. Even the namesake of
this people, Moab himself, was born out of the incest and drunkenness of the
family of Abraham’s nephew, Lot. It was all recorded in the book of Genesis.
The very name of Moab was scandalous to the people of Israel.
And
now there was a Moabite stranger gleaning in their fields. Naomi was too old to
work in the field with the gleaning women, but Ruth was still strong, and she
was willing to work for both of them. So she had come to glean in the field
behind the harvesters. Although Ruth couldn’t help but notice all the
whispering, the women gleaning with her had been kind to her. They respected
her love for Naomi, and they were amazed that Ruth, a Moabitess, claimed
Naomi’s God as her own.
The
painful thoughts and memories passed. Ruth wiped her brow with her sleeve and
resumed her work. As she gathered a few more stalks overlooked by the
harvesters, she gave thanks to the Lord for His law, for the grace of the
commandment that would provide both her mother-in-law and herself with a supper
that evening. Naomi was all she had now, but she was a kind and godly woman in
spite of her deep bereavement at the loss of her husband and sons. Husband and
sons—Ruth was now unlikely ever to have either. She was a Moabite widow who was
poor and barren. God may have provided her with a means of obtaining food, but
what else was there ever to be for her? Who would ever notice her, or give her
any regard?
So
she continued working in silence, stooping to pull more stalks from the ground.
Lost in her thoughts, Ruth was startled by a man’s voice nearby, greeting her
fellow harvesters.
“The
Lord be with you,” he shouted, and the workers around her responded, “The Lord
bless you!”
Ruth
asked the young woman working next to her who this man was. “His name is Boaz,”
she answered. “He is the owner of these fields.” Ruth returned to her work, but
a few moments later, she heard footsteps and looked up to see that Boaz was
walking towards her. She rose nervously to greet him, trying to think of a
proper way to express her gratitude to him for permitting her to glean. But
Boaz spoke first.
“Listen,
my daughter,” he said. “Do not go to work in another field. Stay and work in my
field, following along with the young women working near you. You will be safe
here. I have given orders that you be protected. When you are thirsty, you are
welcome to drink from the vessels of water which are drawn for the harvesters.”
Ruth could hardly believe what she was hearing; she immediately knelt down to
the ground before the man, overwhelmed by his kindness.
“Why
have I found grace in your sight that you should take notice of me, since I am
a foreigner?” she said.
His
next words startled her even more. “All that you have done for your
mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me—how
you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth and came to a
people that you did not previously know,” he said. “May the Lord reward your
work and may your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose
wings you have come to seek refuge.”
Boaz’s
words brought a peace to her heart that she had not known since her husband’s
death. She answered, “I have found grace in your sight, my lord, for you have
comforted me and indeed have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not
worthy to be called one of your maidservants.” With a bow, Boaz moved on, and
Ruth returned to her gleaning. Her heart was filled with thanksgiving, and she
thought to herself, “Surely the Lord God is watching over me after all.”
At
mid-day, the harvesters rested and ate. Ruth sat apart from the others, not
thinking herself worthy to sit with the people of the Lord. As she ate alone in
silence, she again heard Boaz’s voice. This time he was calling her! “Ruth!
Come join us and share our meal!” Humbly, she came and sat with the other
reapers, and she ate until she was satisfied, saving enough to share a simple
supper with her mother-in-law.
Ruth
returned to the field and worked until evening, but the gleaning was different
now. It seemed to go more easily. That morning she had gathered the barley
stalks that left upon the ground by the harvesters according to the law of the
Lord. But now, she also found grain left behind that had already been cut down,
lying there as if it had been left for her. “This is strange,” she thought, and
as she was wondering about this, the young woman next to her spoke. “You have
certainly found favor with the owner of this field,” she said. “As you left the
meal to return to work, I overheard him command his servants to pull grain from
the bundles they had already gathered and leave it for you.”
“How
kind the Lord’s people are to strangers,” she thought. “Their love goes beyond
the requirement of the law.” Ruth returned to her gleaning, marveling at the
favor she had received that day. She continued gathering until evening, then
stopped to beat out the stalks of grain. When she returned to Naomi that
evening, she was carrying a half-bushel of barley—far more than she could have
imagined she would be able to gather.
“The
Lord blessed your labor today, Ruth,” Naomi said. “Tell me—in whose field did
you glean? Someone took notice of you to do you this measure of kindness!”
“His
name is Boaz,” Ruth replied. Naomi’s eyes widened, and she lifted her hands to
heaven. “May he be blessed of the Lord! Ruth, this man is one of our closest
relatives. Truly God was leading you today!” And so all through that season,
Ruth followed Boaz’s instructions, gleaning faithfully in his fields alongside
the young women working there until the end of the summer harvest.
Your Story
Ruth’s love for Naomi and her humility
before God demonstrated her true faith in the Lord God of Israel. Month after
month Ruth labored in Boaz’ field, stooping low over the earth to collect the
fallen stalks—first of the springtime barley and then of the summer wheat. Ruth
could not imagine that anyone would take notice of her—bereft and poverty
stricken as she was. She came from a rebellious and idolatrous people. She was
a foreigner and destitute. She was a widow without children and only an aged
mother-in-law to care for. Perhaps this is why she was completely overwhelmed
when Boaz spoke kindly to her and made provisions for her comfort.
But
there is much more to Ruth’s story. Boaz did not merely take notice of this
poor foreign widow and provide food for her. We learn from Scripture that Boaz
was a “close relative” or “kinsman redeemer” of Naomi’s family. According to
the custom of the time, the closest blood relative had the duty of preserving
the family name, and thus of marrying the widow of a deceased relative.
Surely
Boaz had already seen in Ruth a faith much like that of Abraham, the father of
the faithful. Ruth, like Abraham, left her people and her country to come to a
strange land. We, too, must exercise the same faith, as Christ calls us to follow
him and live as aliens in a foreign land (Heb 11:9), and love him above our
family of origin (Matt 10:37; Luke 14:26). Boaz knew well that faith can be
found in unlikely places—even in a poor, barren Moabite widow—for his mother
Rahab was a Canaanite of Jericho (Matt 1:5), a harlot who had been rescued from
death to become an ancestor of Christ himself and whose faith would be
memorialized forever in Scripture (Heb 11:31).
And
so Ruth’s story is much like ours. Like Ruth, we were destitute outcasts, strangers
to the covenants of promise and the family of God (Eph 2:12), with nothing to
offer God but our barrenness and poverty. Far too many of us, like Ruth the
Moabite, come from family lines scarred by the most heinous of sins. Thus, the
question Ruth asked of Boaz is the same question we might legitimately ask of
our Savior: “Why have I found grace in your eyes?” Like Ruth, we can point to
no righteousness in our works, no respectable family history, nothing that
qualifies us for the redeeming love of Christ.
But
just as Ruth is a picture of us, Boaz is a picture of Christ. Boaz prayed that
Ruth would be blessed by the God of Israel, “under whose wings you have come to
seek refuge” (Rut 2:12). Ruth later echoes these words when she asks for Boaz
to redeem her. As she lies at his feet, she asks Boaz, “Spread the corner of
your garment over your servant” (Rut 3:9). Some translations recognize that the
Hebrew word for the “corner of a garment” that Ruth mentions here is also the
word in chapter 2 that is translated as “wings.” Ruth is thus asking Boaz to be
like God to her—to spread his wings of protection over her. Because Boaz goes
beyond merely providing for her physical needs but also takes in and redeems
her—though she is an outcast—he becomes an image of God Himself, who promises
to hide us under the shadow of His wings (Psa 17:8; 91:4). Like Boaz, Jesus
does not simply offer to care for us and provide for us. He pledges to stand as
our Redeemer and to one day take us as His bride.
Ruth
could never have imagined, as she stooped over those fields of Bethlehem to
glean, that not only had Boaz taken note of her, but God Himself in heaven had
appointed her to be nothing less than the hope of the world. For it was the
barren Ruth, humbly gleaning in Bethlehem’s fields, who would one day have a
son by Boaz named Obed, who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of
David the King, ancestors in the line that led to Jesus Christ! The very fields
where Ruth gleaned, where the outcast was taken in, would one day hear the
songs of angel choirs announcing to shepherds the birth of a greater Redeemer
from Bethlehem than even Boaz! What a story of redemption! Ruth, humbly
gleaning in the Bethlehem fields, was appointed by heaven to be the hope of the
world, one of the ancestral mothers of Jesus!1
1. Gage, W. A. (2014). The Romance of Redemption: Biblical Types of the Bride of Christ (pp. 38–43). Fort
Lauderdale: St. Andrews House.
