Redemption
Israel was still young,
She had never had a king.
The judges ruled the people;
Every man did 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 family,
Moved to an “unholy” land~
Elimelech died
While they were there
Leaving his wife and sons;
Then the two boys 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 cried out,
“I’m going back home,”
To the house of bread and praise!
So, the women headed
Down the road, that would lead
To Bethlehem; Naomi, stopped
To kiss them good-by, and
Then send them back home to their clan.
‘I have no more sons
For you’ she said:
‘Go back to your families,
Get on with your lives;
God bless 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
Meant being a stranger
In a strange land,
And the prospects of marriage
They had little chance.
You see! The Jews, married
From within their own clan
They obeyed the Mosaic Law-
That commanded the people
To protect the land,
And keep it within their tribe~
Now! Orpah loved Naomi, and she loved
Naomi’s God, but not enough to go to Judah,
Away from the land on Mo-ab;
These women would need male protection
To avoid 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~
A Moabitess moving to Judah,
Life would surely be hard.
Ruth’s [kind] could not enter,
The “Congregation of the Lord”~
Naomi was an admirable influence,
A great woman of God!
The women 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 started down the road,
Where she happened to find a safe place;
When she saw other maidens gleaning;
She perceived the Field would be safe
The parcel was owned by Boaz,
A mighty man, of great 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~
Boaz asked his trusted foreman:
“Who’s that beautiful girl?”
“She arrived from Moab with Naomi,”
-he said. The owner met Ruth in his field.
Boaz, 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 filed 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 notices them looking,
Like, a couple of lovesick teens~
Naomi 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 day;
She told Ruth, what she must do,
To become Boaz’s mate~
‘The harvest is over the men are on the hill,
Separating wheat from chaff,
Silently, go to the threshing floor
After they fall asleep;
Find the place where Boaz slumbers,
And, lay quietly at the foot of his bed;
When he awakes and sees you there
Lift the covers off his feet
Boaz, will then tell you
What to do next.’
When he awoke
Around midnight the
Maiden was at his feet,
She 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 nonetheless.
He reluctantly told the gorgeous Ruth:
“There’s a kinsman closer than I.
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’
That morning Boaz
Left the floor,
He went to the city gate,
Where all the Legal transactions
Of that day took place-
He waited for His Kinsman,
With ten elders at his side;
When his relative entered the courtyard,
Boaz caught his eye.
‘Come over here, fellow’
Boaz said: ‘I’d like to bend your ear
About a tract In the HANDS
Of Elimelech’s wife,
And I’m in line after you’
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’
The kinsman, then, told Boaz,
‘You can buy-back the field~
Somebody, take my shoe
To seal this deal, I’m outa here!’
Naomi’s distress was over,
Liberation came at last;
By the birth of her grandson Obed,
The family’s name surpassed.
The LORD works in mysterious ways-
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 oldest
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 they 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.”
Deuteronomy 25: 5-10 “The Law of Levirate Marriage.”
Leviticus 25 “The Redemption of Land”
Numbers 26, “Division of Land.”
Numbers 27: 5-11 “The daughters of Zelophehad.”
Question: Is Jesus qualified to become KING of Kings and LORD of Lords?
Simple answer: Yes! Jesus is God: therefore He is flawless…without sin or condemnation.
This is a beautiful story. According to the Mosaic Law, Boaz couldn’t ask Ruth to marry him; she had to ask him (to marry her). Boaz accepted her proposal of marriage only after the nearest kin rejected Naomi’s stipulation. The nearest kin, did not want to share his worldly goods with a protentual offspring of a widow woman (he didn’t break the law, it was his choice). Boaz also obeyed the law; he followed the protocol…and, he married the woman of his dreams. Boaz became the father of: Obed the grandfather of king David.
And at the same time, Naomi’s family name will never die! It was a win-win for all!