THEMES THAT COUNT IN RUTH

Literary Structure

A1. Devastation of Naomi’s family (1:1-5)

B1. Naomi’s two female in-laws deliberate whether to support her; Ruth does (1:6-22)

C1. Ruth goes to Boaz’ field: Boaz’s protection and generosity

Question: Who will feed Naomi’s family?(2:1-23)

C2. Ruth goes to threshing floor: Boaz’s protection and generosity

Question: Who will seed Naomi’s family? (3:1-18)

B2. Naomi’s two male in-laws deliberate whether to support her by marrying Ruth; Boaz does (4:1- 12)

A2. Restoration of Naomi’s family (4:13-22)

Compare A1 and A2

A1(1:1-5). Famine strikes Bethlehem. Marginal farmers are forced into exile. Among them is the family of Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons. This family goes to Moab, a pagan country where the people do not know the LORD. Elimelech dies in exile. The two sons take Moabite wives. Then the two sons die, both childless, leaving only Naomi and her two daughters-in-law, one of whom is Ruth.

A2(4:13-22). The end is quite different from the beginning. Ruth has married Boaz, a relative of her father-in-law Elimelech and her deceased husband Mahlon. The town elders have blessed them that they may have the fertility characteristic of their male-line heritage as descendants of Perez. They have given birth to a son whom the village women declare will restore and nurture Naomi’s hopes in her old age. She who was empty is now full again. The narrator informs us that this turn-around leads to the later emergence of King David.

Compare B1 and B2

B1(1:6-22). Naomi, having no other option, sets out for Bethlehem whence the family had come. Both daughters-in-law follow until Naomi emphasizes that they have no hope of husbands and children through associating with her. Daughter-in-law Ruth still will not turn back, but swears to take Naomi’s people as her people and Naomi’s God as her God. Naomi cannot see that she has anything to offer Ruth, and perhaps she cannot see that Ruth has anything to offer her, but together they travel on to Bethlehem. Their arrival creates a stir among the Bethlehem villagers. Some think that they still recognize Naomi, a name meaning pleasant. When they inquire, Naomi answers, “Don’t call me pleasant, call me bitter.” Her stated reason for bitterness is that she had left full, but is returning empty. She had left with a husband and two sons and now returns with none. All she has is Ruth who does not know the culture, the religion, or the laws of Israel. Yet Ruth distinguishes herself by her unusual choice to remain loyal to Naomi and her God even though there appears to be little hope for a bright future.

B2(4:1-12). Boaz distinguishes himself by his unusual choice to become the kinsman-redeemer for Naomi’s family, a role declined by the one closer relative because the costs appear to outweigh the benefits.

Compare C1 and C2

C1 and C2 set in motion the turning points of the story in the harvest fields and on the threshing floor, turning points based on the mutual recognition by Ruth and Boaz of the other’s remarkable loyalty to important obligations that do not appear to match self-interest. They exercise their own godly qualities in ways that will eventually restore the family tree. The questions regarding who will feed and seed Naomi’s family are answered by Ruth’s unfolding relationship with Boaz.

Word Studies

I have selected three key words from Chapters 2 and 3 (C1 and C2) that help us understand the divine and human qualities that came together in turning this story around.

1. wings/corner of your garment (kanaph/kanap)

Naomi and Ruth arrive in Bethlehem in grim circumstances. Their only slim hope is that they have arrived during the barley harvest. The law of Moses provides that farmers, when they harvest, are to leave some grain for the poor to glean. Ruth goes out to glean and happens into the field of Boaz, not knowing that he is a relative of her deceased husband and her deceased father-in-law. When Boaz discovers who Ruth is, he treats her with great consideration, prompting her to ask why. He explains that her loyalty and kindness to her mother-in-law have won his respect.

Then Boaz blesses Ruth: “The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!" (ESV). Boaz recognizes Ruth as a convert from Chemosh the god of Moab to Yahweh Elohim, the Lord God of Israel. He prays that her loyalty to Naomi will be repaid, rewarded richly, by the Lord under whose wings she has sought refuge. The image he uses compares God to a mother bird caring for her young and Ruth to a fledgling needing the care of the mother. His prayer is that the refuge will be sufficient to her needs.

Boaz immediately takes steps to insure that Ruth’s gleaning will go well. When Ruth took her gathered grain home and told Naomi about Boaz, Naomi told Ruth that Boaz was her in-law, one who had the right to reclaim the land Naomi’s family had forfeited in leaving Bethlehem and thereby to care for them.

Blessing Boaz for his kindness, Naomi decided that it would be best if Boaz were encouraged to marry Ruth. Following Naomi’s advice, Ruth goes to the threshing flooor at night, waits for Boaz to fall asleep, and then lies down at his feet. When he awakens, he is startled to discover her. She identifies herself: "I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer." Most of the translations say something like spread the corners of your garment or spread your cloak over your servant, but the ESV reports what she actually said, “Spread your wings over your servant.” She thus echoes the words of Boaz’ prayer. He had prayed that Ruth would find refuge under the wings of the Lord.

Wings was a triple figure of speech. Besides literal wings, it referred (1) to the place of refuge that a mother bird’s wings provide, (2) to the corners of a garment, and (3) to marriage. Ruth is asking Boaz to become part of the answer to his own prayer by using his own wings, not just to cover her with his cloak, but to marry her.

Ruth is proposing to Boaz. His answer indicates that he probably would not have thought to propose because he considers himself too old for her, but he is delighted with her proposal. Boaz reveals himself as a man of extraordinary honor and propriety in the way he handles the proposal, taking things in a proper order, with full regard for Ruth’s reputation and well-being, clearing away the social and legal obstacles, and then proceeding with the marriage. He becomes her wings of refuge.

2. Kindness/covenant loyalty/steadfast love (chesed/hesed)

In the Book of Ruth, the successful repair of the broken family line hinges on one of the most important words of the Old Testament [(c)hesed in the original Hebrew]. It is variously translated steadfast love, unfailing love, devotion, loyalty, kindness, loving-kindness, mercy, and compassion. It is first of all a quality of God that God shows in relationship with his human children. This quality flows out of God’s nature and shows itself in the deep and lasting commitments God makes with his children, commitments that we call covenants. If we understand that this quality flows from God’s nature and not just from contractual obligation, we may refer to it as covenant love because it is enduring and dependable. It is the quality that most constitutes and characterizes our relationship with God.

God shows covenant love in the way that he does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He delivers us from ignorance and bondage, from affliction and sin, from fear and want. God does these things in order to enable us to be more fully in covenant partnership with him, so that we may take our part in his mission of love.

Human beings who enter into covenant with God come to know God’s character, and God’s character begins to show up in their relationships. God’s obedient children show the qualities of covenant love as they relate to family, neighbors, and even strangers.

Relationships built on covenant love are enduring. They give stability and dependability in the midst of the moral upheaval that often characterizes human cultures. They repair much damage in the world.

When people know God’s covenant love, it should begin showing up in their lives. Ruth and Naomi recognizes this quality in Boaz. Boaz recognizes this quality in Ruth. Boaz goes beyond his legal obligations in helping Ruth and Naomi. Ruth goes beyond her obligations to her mother-in-law and to her deceased husband and father-in-law. They choose to give up some of their personal options in order to help others. Ruth and Boaz found their marriage on recognizing these qualities in one another. By that mutual recognition of covenant love, David’s (and Jesus’) family tree is repaired.

When Ruth returns from gleaning with an unusually large amount of barley and identifies the owner of the fields, Naomi exclaims, "May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness (covenant love) has not forsaken the living or the dead!" (ESV).

The translations vary on whether it is Boaz or the LORD who has not stopped showing covenant love. But it does not matter. If the subject of the sentence is Boaz, then it is the LORD’s covenant love that he is showing. If the subject of the sentence is the LORD, then he is showing his covenant love through Boaz.

When Ruth proposes to Boaz, he responds, "May you be blessed by the LORD, my daughter. You have made this last kindness (covenant love) greater than the first in which you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich” (ESV).

The first instance of Ruth’s covenant love of which Boaz here speaks is what she had done for her mother-in-law since the death of her husband--how she had left her father and mother and her homeland and had come to live with a people she did not know before. The second instance of her covenant love is that she did not go out looking for a husband purely on the grounds of best protecting her own interests. She did not go looking for the strongest or most handsome or most romantic husband or, for that matter, the wealthiest. She went to the one who would not only be able to care for her, or even for her and Naomi, but also to preserve the family lineage. And she went to one who had already displayed the qualities of godliness that our keyword summarizes.

Boaz apparently considers himself too old for Ruth, and so he has a personal appreciation of what she has done, but he is most impressed that Ruth is not looking out just for herself, but for both the living Naomi and the dead, childless men of the family. This may not meet our modern notions of romance and marriage, but it does display godly qualities.

3. kinsman-redeemer (ga’al/ go’el)

Ancient Israel took family, even extended family, very seriously. When there was a need within the family, a rip in the fabric of the family, the family was supposed to take care of it. For instance, if a married man died childless, his brother was supposed to marry his widow and provide children to carry on the dead brother’s inheritance. Obviously, this was not in the interest of the living brother’s inheritance, so living brother sometimes tried to get out of the responsibility, but a great deal of public shame was attached to doing so. The widow could publicly remove her non-compliant brother-in-law’s sandal and spit in his face. There was no written law extending this obligation beyond a literal brother of the deceased, but the principle of concern for the inheritance of the deceased was maintained.

Boaz suggests that maintaining the family line of the deceased is the responsibility of the nearest male relative who is able and willing to take on a wife. This nearest male relative was called a kinsman-redeemer.

The legal passages of scripture specify four duties for a kinsman-redeemer:

1. To re-purchase property once owned by a relative, but sold out of economic necessity.

2. To purchase the freedom of relatives who out of economic necessity sold themselves into bond-slavery.

3. To avenge the killing of a relative.

4. To receive payments making amends for wrongs previously done to now-deceased relatives.

Narrative and poetic passages, including the Book of Ruth, suggest three more duties:

5. To assist a relative in a lawsuit so that justice is done.

6. To raise up the name of the childless deceased on his property by marrying his widow and providing heirs for the deceased (this expands the law which originally applied only to brothers of the deceased husband.

7. To care for a widow of a relative facing old age without anyone to care for her.

Ruth had proposed to Boaz on the basis that he was a kinsman-redeemer. But Boaz knows that Elimelech and Ruth’s husband Mahlon have a closer relative who is first in line for the job of kinsman-redeemer: “And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I.…If he will redeem you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the Lord lives, I will redeem you." Catching this relative near the city gate, and gathering ten elders as witnesses, Boaz first presents the issue as if it is just a matter of redeeming the land that had belonged to Elimelech. Boaz says that Naomi is selling the land and that it is up to a kinsman-redeemer to keep it in the family.

The sale would remain in effect until the next year of jubilee, which occurred every fiftieth year, or until someone in the family re-purchased the remaining years until jubilee. Such a re-purchase for the family was called redeeming the land.

The kinsman-redeemer who is first in line probably understands that the redeemer of the land will be responsible to provide for the living of Naomi, but, since she is past normal child-bearing years, he will not be expected to marry her and to provide heirs for her. By purchasing the use of the land until jubilee and waiting for Naomi’s death, he will add the land to his own immediate family’s holdings and pass the land along to his children. That sounds like a good deal. He says, “Yes.”

But then Boaz adds, “Of course, you understand that there is a second widow involved, Ruth the Moabitess. And the person who redeems this land will be expected to marry her to raise up a name for Elimelech and Mahlon.” The first kinsman-redeemer has not thought of that. Now he sees that he will be expected to buy the land, to care for two widows and any children he has by the younger widow, and then to turn the land over to the eldest male child he has by the woman. This does not sound like a good deal to him.

What Boaz suggests is not required in the written law, but it is in keeping with the spirit of the law, and once that fact has been pointed out, it would be shameful to take the land and not follow through as Boaz clearly is prepared to do. With ten elders of the city sitting there listening to this conversation, there was no way to finesse a way around Boaz’s challenge. “Be my guest,” the first kinsman-redeemer says to Boaz. Boaz has crafted his presentation to produce exactly this result, in front of ten witnesses, and he quickly seizes the opportunity to buy the land and marry Ruth with the blessing of the elders.

Boaz thus fulfills the role of kinsman-redeemer, one who mends the torn family fabric, sacrificing personal interests for the well-being of others. If his life is blessed and enriched in the process, as the elders pray that it will be, then so much the better. The path to blessing is often a path of risk.

By New Testament times, changes in property laws, inheritance laws, criminal justice laws, and marriage laws had eliminated most of the specific Old Testament duties of a kinsman-redeemer, but the principle of mending the social fabric through self-giving love remains valid to this day. Jesus fulfilled this role for the whole human family.

Biblical Message and Application

From Empty to Full

The Book of Ruth shows that the Messiah’s lineage almost came to an end; in fact, it appeared to have come to an end. So much is this the case, that the question the Book of Ruth raises for us is, “Why did this lineage not come to an end?”

The thread by which the hopes of the world hung was not only slender, but frayed so thin as to be invisible. But what is impossible from a human standpoint is not impossible to God. If something is in the will of God, if it accords with his purposes, plans, and promises, then the fact that it appears unlikely or impossible is no mark against its happening. We are to trust the promises and purposes of God without reservation.

There is no reason to expect God to do impossible things unless they fit his plans for restoring creation to his purposes. It is as disciples of Jesus Christ, serving his gospel, fulfilling his great commission, that we have most right to expect to see the impossible come into being.

When we serve Jesus, we may often feel that we are hanging by a frayed thread. That is the way of it when people are really doing all that Jesus calls them to do. It may seem that we never have enough time or money or energy or people to do what we are called to do. We don’t! God-things do not happen because people can do them on their own. God-things happen when people offer all they have in faith, and then God supplies what is lacking. Victorious faith is a willingness to commit and submit all we have to the purposes of God in the conviction that he will supply whatever is lacking to accomplish his purposes through us.

This is not a side point for Christians. It is a point that is at the very center of our faith. When the perfect Son of God was killed on a cross, all appeared to be over. But God turned that death into the means of saving the world from its sins, and he raised his Son from the dead, not just one major miracle but two: salvation and eternal life.

Given that foundation for our faith, who are we to limit God? When all seems hopeless, he will find a way. When we seem powerless, he will give us the resources to do what he calls us to do.

Answered Prayer

God chose to answer Boaz’s prayer by letting him be part of the answer. God does not need us in order to carry out his purposes. God has the power to do whatever he chooses. On Palm Sunday, some Pharisees complained to Jesus about his disciples celebratively greeting him as the Messiah; the Pharisees asked that Jesus silence the disciples. Jesus replied: "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out." God did not need the disciples to praise Jesus; he could have produced that praise supernaturally from the stones. But God chose to give the disciples the privilege of filling in for the stones.

When we pray, we should be prepared for God to allow us to become part of the answer to our prayer. It is not that God needs us in order to answer the prayer. It is that he wants to grant our lives the significance and integrity that comes from our participation in the answer. Plus, an answer to prayer that includes the commitment of faithful people is more interesting to the world, and carries greater weight in testifying to the reality of God’s work in our lives.

God answers prayers in amazing ways. When we pray, we need to expect that we may end up, perhaps in some quite surprising way, as part of the answer. And what a privilege it is! Boaz was surprised and thrilled by the way his prayer was answered. Perhaps, in a quite different way, we will be surprised and thrilled as well.

The Redeemer

The role of kinsman-redeemer in Israel is modeled after the character of God who hears the cries of the needy and oppressed and comes to answer. Before Boaz’s time, God had modeled the role of kinsman-redeemer in rescuing Israel from slavery in Egypt. After Boaz’s time, he would do so again in returning the Jewish exiles from Babylonian captivity. For reasons such as these, Israel praises God by calling him “our Redeemer.” The ultimate kinsman-redeemer is God’s Son Jesus, who though equal with God, is not ashamed to be called the brother of sinful human beings like us, laying down his life to rescue us from sin and death and hell, and to give us an eternal inheritance of reigning with him in a perfected new creation. Since Jesus is the ultimate Redeemer, we find Jesus to be the ultimate fulfillment of this book about the kinsman-redeemer Boaz.

Not only do we receive the work of Jesus our Redeemer, saving us from our sins, but also we are shaped by his redeeming work, shaped in his likeness, so that we are willing to give of ourselves for the redemption of others, for the mending of the torn fabric of the people of God.

We live in time when the fabric of the people of God is indeed torn. Many religious leaders have bought into approaches that depart in a wide variety of ways, liberal and conservative, from the authentic saving gospel. The faithful will be required to stand up and be counted by serving the true, redemptive mission of the church.

Boaz and Ruth succeeded in mending the torn fabric that was within their circle of influence, and so may we. The specifics of our individual callings will vary widely, but the basic qualities that determine our success or failure are much the same. Qualities such as integrity, loyalty, morality, obedience, generosity, and compassion make a difference. In short, they are the qualities of Jesus. Modeling our lives after the Ultimate Kinsman-Redeemer Jesus and letting his Spirit produce his likeness within us makes all the difference.

How the Messiah’s Family Tree Grows Today

The Book of Ruth implies that the hope for the future was for a great king who would descend from Jacob’s son Judah. Jacob had prophesied of his son Judah, that the scepter would not depart from his family until the one came to whom it belonged. In blessing Boaz, the town elders of Bethlehem looked back to Jacob and his wives Leah and Rachel, and to Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar, and especially to Tamar’s son Perez. They felt that Boaz’s significance was linked to that of Judah and Perez. And in the last verses of the book we see that the lineage runs from Perez through Boaz to the great king David. We know from Matthew that this is also Jesus’ legal lineage through Joseph. If Luke reports Mary’s genealogy, then it is also Jesus’ biological lineage.

Jesus was killed on the cross without having had children, yet his royal line goes on through people’s faith in his gospel. The Christian spiritual family tree is extended through sharing the good news of salvation in deeds of love and words of hope. We believers are children of God, little brothers and sisters of Jesus, because we have received him as the Son of God, the Christ, crucified Savior and risen Lord of our lives, because we have died to (and been forgiven of) our sins and have been raised to walk in newness of life, reborn from above by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Book of Ruth was read at the annual Jewish harvest festival of Pentecost. For Christians, this festival speaks of how the Holy Spirit equips us to take part in the great harvest of souls for the eternal kingdom of God. Christ our Redeemer and the Holy Spirit our Advocate bring us from emptiness to fullness as children and servants of God.

Light in the Darkness

The Book of Ruth is set in the latter period of the Judges. The appalling stories of Judges 17-21 are probably from earlier in the judges period, but they are placed where they are to convey the moral tone that prevailed at the end of the judges period. The moral-spiritual life in Israel was badly corrupted. Judges 17-21 and the Book of Ruth both relate strongly to Bethlehem, later to be known as David’s hometown, and later still as Jesus Christ’s birthplace. The Book of Ruth offers a narrative that strongly contrasts to the general moral and spiritual decline of the times and place in which it is set.

Marriage plays such a strong role in the Book of Ruth because lineage was at issue. The question was how the line leading to the kings of Judah and ultimately to the Messiah was to be preserved.

We receive our salvation and membership in the family of God through believing the gospel and receiving the Holy Spirit. We do not do this through marriage and conception, but through someone’s sharing the good news with us. The Greek word for sharing the good news translates into English as evangelism.

We live in a very different culture with very different laws and customs. When we look to the Book of Ruth, we are looking not for tips on romance and marriage, but for tips on spreading the family of Jesus. Yet our marriages still have a part to play in our evangelism. When others recognize rare covenant love among Christian believers in their marriages and in other important relationships, they are much more likely to allow us to introduce them to Jesus. Our mission is much more likely to be fruitful if we have first experienced God’s covenant love, and then let that love flow through our lives in our relationships with others.

Jesus’ family tree is still being mended by covenant love. It is when godly qualities of covenant love show through us that others will be predisposed to think that what we have to say about God will be good news.

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