Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ruth 1-4.

I know I have written about this before, but it is the primary thing which struck me today.  Ruth’s declaration of loyalty to Naomi is moving: “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.  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.”  We see that as a commitment to seek in our own lives, and it is.  But I think we should seek to emulate Naomi more than we seek to emulate Ruth.  It is not that it is bad to emulate Ruth, rather Naomi is an even better model for us.  After all, it was Naomi who inspired such devotion in Ruth.  The passage does not tell us much about Naomi, but clearly her faith inspired such great devotion in Ruth that Ruth left her people in order to follow Naomi.  We should strive to inspire people around us to want to be part of our people, the people of God, and to serve our God.  

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ruth 1-4.

There are many different lessons we can learn from the Book of Ruth: Ruth’s faith, Naomi as a role model, Boaz as a man of integrity.  Today I want to look at the love story: Boaz and Ruth.  First, the hand of God in bringing them together.  Ruth did not pick Boaz’ field to glean in because he was a potential husband.  She chose it more or less at random.  At most there were reflections of his personality in the way his workers treated her, but the way the story tells it she was not thinking about that.  However, Boaz was smitten by Ruth from the moment he saw her.  OK, “smitten” is too strong of a word, but he clearly found her attractive.  If he didn’t, he would not have asked after her when he saw her in his field.  He had also been impressed by what he had heard about the way she treated Naomi.  However, Boaz also didn’t think that Ruth would be interested in him.  So, he waited for her to seek him out.  Well, again, OK he didn’t exactly wait; he made clear his interest for those with eyes to see (which Ruth was not one of, but Naomi was).  And let us not forget the hand of God in all of this.  There were men who would have taken advantage of the fact that Ruth was a foreigner, an attractive foreigner.  But, because she had chosen one of Boaz’ fields when she started gleaning, Boaz made known that he would protect her.  Then when sufficient time had passed for Naomi to be sure that she was not reading into Boaz’ actions what she wanted to see, she counseled Ruth on how to make her interest known to Boaz.  So, a love story where both parties acted according to God’s leading.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ruth 1-4.

I want to comment on two things about this passage.  I want to express the first thought because, in my opinion, so many people get it wrong.  I have often heard people, even pastors, say that Orpah did wrong by doing as Naomi told her and returning to her people.  I disagree.  On the contrary, what Orpah did was the correct decision for her.  While Ruth made the better choice, things might not have worked out so well of Orpah had made the same decision. There was no wrong in Orpah’s choice.

Which brings us to Ruth’s decision and what she told Naomi.  We often encourage women to take Ruth as a role model, and that is not a bad thing, but we rarely think about what a great role model Naomi is.  After all, it was Naomi who lived a life which inspired Ruth to say, “Your people will be my people and your God my God.”  We should seek to live lives which inspire others to do the same.  I want to dig into that a little further.  First, Naomi lived a life which caused Ruth to believe that she would be welcome among Naomi’s people.  Naomi treated Ruth in such a way that Ruth believed that the people Naomi belonged to would accept her and welcome her among them.  We know the Israelites were not all welcoming of Moabites, that many of them had hostility to them (much like how most groups of people view outsiders), but Naomi demonstrated acceptance as if that was how everybody acted.  More importantly (although the first part is why) Naomi inspired Ruth to want to serve God.  Ruth wanted to be like Naomi.  Let us strive to live our lives so that others want to become part of our people.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ruth 1-4.

The Book of Ruth is packed full of things worth expounding upon.  Today I want to focus on what could easily be seen as an afterthought, but is really why the Book of Ruth was written.  Boaz is King David’s great grandfather, which means that Ruth is is great grandmother.  This would seem to be problematic, since Deuteronomy commanded that Moabites not be allowed to enter the Assembly of the Lord until the eleventh generation.  I have seen arguments that this does not apply because Ruth was the Moabite, and that only applies if the father is a Moabite.  However, that overlooks something stated in the passage.  The passage seems to suggest that legally, Obed was Naomi’s son, not Ruth’s.  So, while it was Ruth who gave birth to Obed and was his biological mother, from the perspective of Jewish law the passage seems to say that Naomi was his legal mother.

I was going to stop there, but as I reviewed the passage to make sure I had said everything about that subject that I wished to say, I came across a comment about the Book of Ruth which struck home for what is going on in my life now.  The Book of Ruth illustrates God’s providence.  When Ruth and Naomi returned to the land of Israel, they were in a precarious position.  Ruth went out to do what little she could to help them survive.  By pure chance she chose to glean in the fields of Boaz, she had no knowledge that he was related to her dead husband and thus legally obligated to provide for her (an obligation which no one would have forced him to fulfill, or even thought badly of him for neglecting).  And it is worth noting that she chose Boaz, not the other possible kinsman-redeemer who would not have fulfilled his obligations.  Except we know that it was no chance that led her there, it was the Hand of God.  Ruth was faithful and God provided.  When we face hard times, let us remain faithful and trust God to provide.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ruth 1-4.

I want to examine the story of Ruth and Boaz as just a love story.  As I read the story, Boaz found Ruth attractive from the moment he first laid eyes on her.  Boaz could have taken advantage of her, but he did not.  Not only did he not take advantage of his position as a wealthy land owner in whose fields she was gathering, he also did not take advantage of his position as “guardian-redeemer” to pressure her to marry him.  In fact, he went to great effort to leave her options open if she desired otherwise.  It was only when Ruth made her interest clear that Boaz took action to marry her.  Usually people put their focus on Ruth, which is as it should be.  But, it is good for us to look at Boaz, because he is a great example of how a man should treat women.  There are more examples in the passage for how Boaz treated Ruth which can serve as a model for men today.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.