Ruth
The Story of Love and Redemption
Israel was still young
she’d never had a king
The judges ruled the nation
Every man lived as he pleased~
Then famine
Sweep the nation
Food was scarce
And life was hard~
A family of the tribe of Judah
Headed for higher ground
they settled in the country of Moab,
In a ‘Wash pot’ of a town~
Elimelech
And his household
Moved to
An ‘unholy’ land~
The father died
While they were there
Leaving his
Wife and sons ~
The brothers married Moabite women
Contravene to the Mosaic Law.
Mahlon and Chilion later both died
Leaving their mother in Moab with their brides~
Ten years they’d lived
In this Gentile place
now! Naomi’s whole Family,
Was dead~
Then word came out of Judah
that the famine had finished its days
Naomi said; ‘I’m going back home
to the house of bread and praise~
So, the women headed…down the road
that led to Bethlehem
Naomi stopped to kiss them Goodbye;
The women were sad, they began to cry^^^
They did not
want to leave their
Mother in-law’s side~
Naomi tried to reason with them, she cried,
‘I have no more sons to marry you
Go back to your families get on with your lives,
God bless you and bestow you good men’~
Going to Bethlehem
With Naomi
had its pros and cons
the pro was to worship
The One True God
Not a statue
of gold or bronze~
On the other hand leaving Moab
to live among the Jew’s, meant being a stranger
in a strange land, and the prospects of marriage
they had little chance~
You see! The Jews married, from inside their own tribe’s;
They obeyed the Mosaic Law
That commanded them to protect the land,
And to keep it within their own clan~
Well! Orpah loved Naomi
and she loved Naomi’s God
But! Not enough to go to Judah
Away from the land of Moab~
These women would Need MALE PROTECTION
to escape poverty and strife
Orpah bid…Naomi fair-well
Then she turned towards Home and cried~
Ruth on the other hand, refused
to turn around, she made it clear to Naomi
‘I’m staying by your side.
Wherever you go dear mother in-law
I will be there too…
I’ll put my trust in your God
only death can separate, me from you!’
What a valiant young woman Ruth was~
Ruth, left her pagan land
With her dead husbands mom, A Moabitess moving to Judah,
Life was sure to be hard
She would not be allowed to enter…The Congregation of the Lord
Naomi
Was an excellent
Role model
A great woman of God~
Naomi and Ruth entered Bethlehem
it was time for the barley harvest.
Naomi’s friends began to cheer
‘Naomi! Has Come Back Home!’~
‘Call me Mara,’ she replied;
‘God has dealt bitterly with me,
I left here full I came back empty,
Woe is me, woe is me!’ She echoed the words of Job~
Naomi, a widow of the tribe of Judah
With Ruth, her dead sons wife
Arrived in Bethlehem alone
Without a male
To provide them a home
Naomi had no right to own land
According to the Mosaic Law~
Poverty
O poverty!
Naomi
knew her fate~
‘Ruth’ the ‘proselyte,’
Exclaimed;
‘Let me go,
And look for grace!’~
Ruth headed down the road
When ‘she’ ‘happened’ to find a good place
The young widow saw the maidens gleaning
She perceived that the field would be safe~
The parcel was owned by Boaz
a mighty man of wealth
an observer of the Mosaic Law
the poor were welcome there.
They followed behind
the reapers,
Picking up what fell~
During the course of the day
Boaz came along
He noticed Ruth among the damsels
Gleaning with the poor and the foreign~
He asked his trusted foreman
‘Who’s that beautiful girl?’
‘She arrived from Moab with Naomi,’
He said; Boaz met Ruth in his field~
Boaz had heard a good report About Ruth
He invited her to lunch
then he told his servants to
‘Let her glean
Any place she wants…’Let fall’
some extra corn for her
Even among the sheaves’~
Ruth went home that evening
Her arms were filled with food
‘Who’d you find favor with my dear?’ Naomi questioned Ruth;
‘I gleaned in Boaz’s field’
she said; Naomi was overjoyed
‘This man is our near kinsman’
Praise the Lord~
Throughout the gathering season
the pair’s fondness cultivated.
The twinkle was visible in their eyes.
During the barley and wheat harvest Ruth continued to glean
Naomi noticed them
Looking like…a couple of
Love sick teens~
She then inquired of her daughter in-law
‘Would you like to find ‘rest,’ with Boaz?’
The blushing Ruth replied; ‘why yes!
I’d like to be his wife’~
Naomi took advantage
Of the custom of the times
She told Ruth what she must do,
To become Boaz’s bride~
The harvest is over;
The men are on the hill
Separating wheat from the chaff
Silently,
Go to the threshing floor after they fall asleep;
Find the place where Boaz rest his head,
And lay quietly
At the foot of his bed
When He awakes and sees you there
lift the covers off his feet.
Boaz, will tell you what to do next~
(This act is amazing to me; it’s the same way we are saved.
We have to ask the Lord to…save us, in order
To receive His grace; the custom of the ‘kinsman redeemer’
-If a relative wanted to be bought back-
They’d have to ask the ‘nearest kin’ but, ‘he’ did not have to say yes.
Thank God, our Lord is not like us
He’d never refuse our plea.
If you believe and ask to be saved,
He’ll redeem you, right now…today
And that’s the difference between…
Law and Grace)
When he awoke around midnight
the maiden was at his feet
Ruth made the proposal of marriage
‘Spread the corners over me.’
Boaz was elated, that Ruth had chosen him
She was lovely and pious
And, she did not consort…with the
Immature young men~
Though Boaz could not accept her request
He was honored none the less
He reluctantly told the gorgeous Ruth
‘There’s a kinsman closer than myself.
I’ll speak to him
In the morning
you can depend on that~
Boaz was a man of God
who’d read Leviticus 25
He said to Ruth; ‘stay here tonight
Leave early in the morn
don’t…let the other men see you…
Leaving the threshing floor’~
Take home some food
to your mother in-law
I’ll talk to my near kin
If he turns down Naomi’s offer
you’ll be…my wife
my love…my friend~
The next morning
Boaz left the floor
He went to the city gate
Where all legal transactions…
Of the little town, took place.
He waited for his kinsman
with ten elders at his side
When his relative came into the courtyard
Boaz caught his eye~
‘Come over here…fellow’
Boaz said-
‘I’d like a word or two,
There’s a field in the HANDS
Of Elimelech’s wife, and
I’m in line after you’~
(Now Boaz was a skilled orator, he knew the right
Words to say; he understood just how…to
present his case)
The kinsman said; OK! Boaz
‘I’ll redeem the field.’
Then Boaz told him the stipulation
Hoping to siege the deal~
‘The day that you Redeem the land
our relative Naomi has said
you’ll have to buy The Moabitess Ruth
the wife of the dead’~
Not many men would mar their own inheritance
and buy a kinsman’s field.
Then father a son for a deceased man…
So the relatives name though dead…still lives~
The kinsman told Boaz
‘you can redeem the field
somebody! Take my shoe
to seal this deal
I’m out of here’~
Naomi’s distress was over
Liberation had come at last
by the birth of her
Grandson, Obed
The family’s name surpassed.
In the lineage of Our Messiah
Jesus Christ the LORD~
Why depart thy-selves to a place of idol Worship?
God was surely in the plan, for He returned Naomi With her Gentile daughter in-law, to be included in HIS Messianic Line.
The Story of Love and Redemption, Boaz received his bride. A ‘descendant’ of Lot and his incestuous daughter, ‘Ruth’ the Moabitess was bought.
Ruth 4: 13, 14 “So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bare a son. And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the LORD, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel.”
Ruth 4: 17 “And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and thy called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.”
Ezekiel 16: 8 “Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread My skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.”
See: Deuteronomy 25: 5~10 “The Law of Levirate Marriage [Brothers]
This law would not help Naomi or Ruth, because all the men of their household were dead.
Note: The word ‘dwell together.’ There were no male relatives left who lived with Naomi and Ruth.
See Leviticus 25 “The Redemption of Land” (or person). Any close relative, in the order of the [Nearest kin]; Elimelech’s ‘family’ property was qualified to be redeemed from the ‘hands of Naomi,’ his widow…at her request, by a kinsman ‘willing’ to redeem it under her terms, which included the marriage of her dead sons wife.
Even though Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon was not of the tribe of Judah, and according to custom she was an outsider, Boaz accepted her as his bride…because he loved her.
See: Numbers 26 “Division of Land,” [tribes of Israel]; The MALE off spring, were ascribed to keep the land divided among the tribes through inheritance; the land was later abandoned during the dispersion. Christ will redeem it back, at the Second Coming. There was one exception to the rule, concerning land being passed down, male to male. See Numbers 27: 5~11. “The daughters of Zelophehad”
Read: Genesis 29: 35; 49: 8; Exodus 1: 2~5; Deuteronomy 23: 3; 1 Chronicles 2: 3; Joel 3: 20; and the book of Ruth.
Scriptures are taken from the: King James Version of the Bible.
[The tribe of Judah, (the kingly, Messianic line) Jacob’s forth son (Judah)]
Word Meanings
Bethlehem “House of Bread”
Judah “Praise”
Moab “Wash Pot”
Main Characters:
Naomi: A type of Holy Spirit, teacher and comforter.
Ruth: A virtuous Gentile woman in need of a Savior, and a
surrogate for Naomi
Boaz: Goel, a picture of Christ, kinsman redeemer, protector,
guardian, savior
Obed: The family redeemer, this child carried on the family name.
Orpah: The one who turned back.