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Good Friday morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Today we conclude the remarkable story of Ruth & Boaz and Naomi found in the Bible book of Ruth.
Yesterday we saw how Boaz, a man of integrity and character, met with the town of Bethlehem elders, and the closest ‘kinsman-redeemer’ to Naomi. Agreement was reached that the closest “kinsman-redeemer” was not able to accept responsibility for Naomi & Ruth, thus he passed this right and responsibility to Boaz.
Boaz was an honorable man and evidently financially positioned so that he could accept the financial burden of two widows and the land of their extended family. In addition, Boaz assumed the responsibility to marry Ruth and if God were to bless them with a son, that son would be named into the family line of Naomi and her dead husband Elimelech, and there dead son Mahlon. It was a remarkable step for Boaz but he was a man of integrity and he did to honor God more than anything else.
In verse 12 of chapter 4 there is an interesting reference someone made as they were speaking blessings over Boaz and Ruth. “Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.” To the average person, this comment would pass by unnoticed. The historical record of the Hebrews, like all people, carries with it some unpleasant even humiliating stories. The story of Tamar is one of those found in Genesis 38. I won’t retell the story here, you can read it for yourself. I do, however, want to point us to the lineage of Jesus Christ found in Matthew chapter 1. In fact it is this list of names which opens the New Testament in our Bible.
If you’ll turn there for just a moment may I point out something? Like all Hebrew lineage listings, is a male blood line list. But do you notice something very interesting? In this long list of the names of fathers & sons, there are four women, mothers, mentioned. Can you find them? Tamar in verse 3. Rahab in verse 5, and also Ruth in verse 5. The mother of Solomon, Bathsheba, the widow of Uriah, in verse 6. Each of them were unusual relationships, outside the normal, God honoring, husband and wife, Jewish lineage marriages. But in each case, God reached into the relationship and included the son, born in that relationship, into the lineage of Jesus! Why?
Do you suppose it might be yet another expression of the LOVE of God for all peoples? The MERCY of God in the face of sin? The Sovereign Power of God to accomplish His purposes, regardless of the mess we humans often make of God’s plans? Of all four, RUTH is the one most beloved and cherished for her compassionate, humble heart, and the decision she made to set aside her own future hopes and dreams, in order that she would humbly serve her widowed mother-in-law Naomi.
But Boaz, my friends, is also to be highly commended, as we saw yesterday, for his compassion for both Naomi & Ruth, and his willingness to take on the responsibility for both of them, and any indebtedness their husbands may have left to them, and to care for them for the rest of their lives! Also Boaz is highly respected for his compassion to take Ruth as his wife, primarily with the intent of having a son with her, who could continue the family name & legacy of Naomi & Ruth. Isn’t it interesting we have no record of any other children born to Boaz & Ruth? Perhaps they did, but we have no record.
I love how the author of Ruth’s story explains it: “So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to a son.” (Ruth 4:13) I hear four very powerful statements here, do you?
First Boaz assumed his God given responsibility to take the widow Ruth as his wife, and assure her that she would be safe, and provide for her all of her life, even though she was a Moabite woman. No more a destitute widow picking up scraps of left-over grain in his fields. Now Ruth was wife to the owner of those fields!
Second, I see Boaz going to her to consummate this marriage through intimacy, primarily because it was his duty to honor God and seek to provide Ruth with a son!
Thirdly, I see the clear statement that the LORD enabled Ruth to conceive! That’s true of every pregnancy isn’t it? It can’t happen with only an egg & sperm. God must be involved for life to be conceived and begin, and that is why abortion is murder, killing what God has conceived! A unique, human life, made in God’s image, for God’s glory! When God’s judgement is eventually poured out on America, I believe abortion will be one of the main reasons!
Finally, I see God also birthed that miracle baby! While BIRTH appears a very natural thing, and it happens hundreds of thousands of times around the world every day… they each are miracles, right? That’s why a birthday is actually a great opportunity for WORSHIP of Almighty God, for it’s a celebration of the unique circumstances which brought about the birth of a person! I’m sure there’s a special story related to your birth, as there is to mine, and my wife Dawn and our daughter April, and each of her four daughters! Birth… what a wonderful, spectacular miracle of God, every time, do you agree, do I hear amen? Don’t ever minimize birth my friends.
Now if you are a grandparent reading the story of Ruth with us, don’t you just love verse 14-16? Take a moment, pull up a chair next to Naomi, and just look at the miracle of this precious scene as they place this newborn boy into her arms. . .“Then the women said to Naomi: ‘Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.’ Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him.”
Now watch it closely my friends. It almost sounds like the women of Bethlehem are celebrating Boaz, the ‘kinsman-redeemer’, but if you look closely, they are celebrating the God given, little baby boy! For while it was wonderful that God provided Boaz as Naomi & Ruth’s ‘kinsman-redeemer’ who took them to himself, we presume he is an older man, perhaps of Naomi’s generation. In this statement the women are looking forward to the day when Boaz may be dead. This little son will be their future hope.
They pray that the LORD will give him long life, good health, and wisdom to care for both Naomi & Ruth in their old age, especially if Boaz leaves one or both of them a widow, for a second time. I love how all these blessings spoken in chapter four are blessings which ASSUME the LORD is a holy, good, loving, faithful, compassionate God who cares for His people! That is the story of God and His people throughout the Bible… is it your story my friends? Do you know Him in that way? Does your story celebrate this God as your God, your heavenly Father?
Finally, we come to the grand finale of this great story! “Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. The women living there (Bethlehem) said, “Naomi has a son.” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.” (Ruth 4:16,17) Oh my! Do you see what God has done here friends?
Naomi and her husband and their two sons had left Bethlehem in famine time, and went to Moab, in search of survival. (Ruth 1) God provided for them, long enough for Kilion and Mahlon to grow up and marry. Then death took all three of the men, leaving the women destitute. But God. . . always it is God my friends, who is there when life crashes down around us. He is there to hold us, sustain us, pick us up, give us life, and a purpose… always for HIS Glory!
So the story of Ruth closes with old Naomi sitting under a tree in a chair, with her grandson, whom they name Obed. She is content, happy, deeply grateful to God. Imagine Naomi suddenly seeing you and me there under that tree, as we have stepped into her story. Can you see her lifting up her grandson to us, and he waves?
Naomi will grow old and die, watching this miracle child grow up. Her remarkable daughter-in-law Ruth, we presume, lived long enough to see her son Obed take a woman as his wife, and perhaps long enough to do as Naomi is doing here. I can imagine there came a day Ruth sat under a tree, maybe that very same tree, with her grandson on her lap, and celebrated a little boy named Jesse.
We don’t know if Ruth lived long enough to see her grandson Jesse grow up and marry, and start having a family. Oh he had a big one… 8 sons! Perhaps you remember we met Jesse and his family in 1 Samuel 16. The prophet Samuel had come to Bethlehem, at God’s direction, looking to anoint as Israel’s future king, a very special young boy. God led Samuel to Jesse’s house, remember?
This great-grandson of Ruth, the youngest son of Jesse, is perhaps the most famous Jewish boy of all time. A shepherd boy whom God said had a heart like HIS. He wrote many of the Psalms, he took his sling and five stones one day, but he only needed one, to take down the giant Goliath. He became the most famous king of Israel. The Israeli flag has a six pointed star named after him, the star of David. A portion of Jerusalem, to this day, bears his name, ‘the city of David’. And finally, one of the indicators that Jesus was Messiah, is that He was born into the royal line of David!
Oh Lord Jesus, as we close the story of RUTH, we thank you that once again we see the greatness of God, the goodness of God, the love of God, the Sovereignty of God, the compassion of God, and the attention of God to the details of the lives of two dear widows. We once again proclaim to you Jesus, that we stand in awe of you, and we trust you with our very lives!!
Click to read today’s chapter: Ruth 4. Matthew 1 (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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