Many of you know of Benjamin Franklin, one of the fathers of our country, was also the ambassador to France. And while he was in France, he was a member of a literary society. So Ben Franklin, without letting this agnostic literary society know where he had gotten the story, shared with them the love story of Ruth. Not knowing it came from the pages of the Bible, the French infidels were astounded. They said to him, “Dr. Franklin, that is beyond a doubt the most beautiful romance — love story — we’ve ever heard. Would you give us leave, please, that we might have it published and give it broad distribution?” He said, “It is already published, and it already has broad distribution. It is found in the Bible, that book that you profess to despise” — this wonderful story of Ruth that is found here, in the Bible.
If that story isn’t true, it should be!
I want to tell you a love story today that spurred the very pages of history. The little book of Ruth is a beautiful love story set 3,000 years ago in ancient Israel. Ruth is 1 of only 2 books in your Bible named for women.
Week One Reminder
Just a reminder of week one in Ruth’s story. Naomi and her husband went to Moab, modern day Jordan, because of a famine in Bethlehem. They live in the same Bethlehem where Jesus was born. While the family was in Moab for ten years, she experienced the death of her husband, the marriage of her 2 sons to foreign wives, and the death of her sons. It was one blow after another for Naomi. All this caused Naomi to say, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me” (Ruth 1:20b). Naomi knew there was a God but she felt God was against her at every turn.
She came back home to Bethlehem with only a daughter-in-law, Ruth. Widows were the most socially and economically vulnerable people of ancient society. In our day, if you want economic and social power, then you get an education and some marketable skills. In those days, it was your family that gave you the “leg up.” What you needed was your spouse and children. Naomi is left all by herself, a poor, old widow. Her life was tragic in nearly every way.
But this widow’s life wasn’t empty; in fact, she was far from empty. She had Ruth with her, a genuine friend and a young lady who was remarkably brave and sacrificial. In one of the height points in all of Scripture, Ruth says to her mother-in-law, Naomi: “Don’t try to change my mind. Where you go, I’ll lodge; your people are now my people; your God is my God. And where ever you die, I’ll be buried next to you” (Ruth 1:16-17). Yet, Naomi didn’t feel any hope from this incredibly sacrificial love Ruth shown her. She’s so despondent that she cannot see the invisible hand of God working on her behalf.
But the invisible hand is moving and hope is just around the corner for Naomi. You can see the subtle touch of God’s hand even at the end of chapter 1: “So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her … And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest (Ruth 1:22). They just happen to arrive back home in Bethlehem at the barley harvest. She just happens to come to Boaz’s field even though it wasn’t marked. And Boaz just happens to come by when Naomi’s there. The invisible hand of God is guiding these two ladies in incredible ways.
Do you think bitter Naomi thought for a minute that her little, ordinary life would be studied 3,000 years later?
Three Quick Facts to Better Understand Ruth
If you’re going to really understand the beautiful story of Ruth, then you need to know three facts about ancient Israel. There some ancient laws operate in the background but you they need to come to the surface for you to see them clearly. All three of these operate like a submarine – they are below the surface but they influence what you see.
1) Each Family Clan had a Fixed Amount of Land in Ancient Israel.
Ancient Israel was around 9,500 square miles, about the size of Vermont. Your family’s tribe, or clan, was given a fixed amount of land at the beginning of Israel’s history. Remember, land is really important because the only way you could make a living was through farming. It’s hard to farm without land, right?
1.1 Far and Away Movie
Did you ever see that movie Far and Away with Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise? Kidman and Cruise play a young Irish couple who have a dream of owning their own land one day. They board a ship to America and learn there is land being given away for free in Oklahoma It’s a rags to riches tell where this destitute immigrant couple dreams of owning land of their own. The end of movie shows them planting their flag into the ground in the Land Run of 1893, finally realizing their dream of owning land.
1.2 Land Grabs in Ancient Israel
This is NOT how land worked in ancient Israel; you couldn’t just run out to a field and stake your claim. Instead, God said, “I own all the land. The land is mine” (Leviticus 25:23). Then, God gave out fixed allotments to the various twelve tribes, the family clans. God worked to ensure every family tribe had equal access to land. There’s a lot of talk today about income inequality, the rich getting richer. Does Jeff Bezos share his profits proportionally with all the Amazon employees? God told family members within the clans to watch out for one another. Don’t allow one person to get too much so that others suffer: “If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold” (Leviticus 25:25). God worked in ancient Israel to ensure all people were given an opportunity to make a fair living.
Remember, Naomi has no husband and no sons. And she has no workable land and she has no prospects of making a living. This lady needed some land. They need a “kinsman redeemer” to work on their behalf. A “kinsman redeemer” is someone in your family clan that guards the family’s interests and has the responsibility for looking after widows in the family.
Speaking of this “kinsman redeemer” …
2) A Widow Was to Marry her Husband’s Nearest Male Relative.
It’s not as creepy as you think. If the husband died and his widow had no sons, then she was to marry her husband’s nearest relative (Deuteronomy 25:5–10). Men, your wives are right now thinking either one of two things: “There’s no way I’m marrying your brother.” Or, “I wish I had married his brother.” More seriously, if the widow had a son, then Levirate marriage was NOT necessary. If your husband died with no son, then the first son his brother and you had together was counted as your former husband’s son. The son is important in this patriarchal society because it continued the family name. And a son was important because it also continued the family’s land inheritance.
Let me show how this worked in ancient Israel for a moment. Over in the book of Numbers, you have the death of a man who had five daughters. The five daughters inherit their father’s property and Moses asks the Lord what should he do here. The Lord commands each of the five girls to marry within their family’s clan (Numbers 27:1-11). The five young ladies are to marry people within their larger family clan to keep their allotted land in their family.
Marriage to the nearest relative not only preserved the family name but it keep the land in the family’s name as well. When Ruth is looking for a husband, she isn’t just looking for love. She’s also thinking realistically about her family’s economic well-being.
3) Farmers Were to Leave the Edges of Their Field for the Poor.
Hebrew farmers were to leave the edges of their fields alone and untouched (Leviticus 23:22). If they dropped an ear of corn or some grain on the ground during harvest, they were also to leave alone (Leviticus 19:9). Israeli farmers were not allowed to go back over their land a second time to find any lost grapes, sheaves, or olives. Again, remember God is the landowner and He is concerned for those who had fallen on hard times.
All three of these background facts play an important part in today’s story – look for them.
Keep your Bibles open to Ruth chapter 2 for the next few moments. Let’s dig in by looking at the two major characters in our story.
1) Ruth
Let’s look at Ruth for a moment. Almost every time Ruth is mentioned in the book of Ruth, we are told she is from Moab. Five times Ruth is called a “Moabite” in the story and each and every time it does this, it’s telling us she’s outsider. She’s not “from around here.” Let’s move past her nationality for a moment.
I want you to look carefully at Ruth because there’s a lot to like about her.
1.1 Ruth’s Work Ethic
Notice her Ruth’s work ethic, will you? The first thing we hear from Ruth is this, she says, “I’m going to work.” Ruth takes the initiative to find work in verse 2, “I’m going to the fields.” Remember she arrived when the barley harvest was happening (Ruth 1:22). This harvest may not have been but a few days long. Some may have wanted to rest up a bit from the long, daunting trip – but not Ruth. Ruth says, “Daylight is burning! I’m going to work.” Notice in verse 7, the workers tell Boaz the boss, she’s worked from morning until now with only a short rest. Then in verse 17 goes on to say that she gleaned until evening. Plus, before she quit for the day, she beat out what she gleaned, measured it, and took it home to Naomi. There is a lot to admire in Ruth. Ruth has taken on the care of Naomi just as she promised.
1.2 Her Cautious Courage
The second thing we notice is Ruth’s cautious courage. Ruth is cautious in her approach.. She doesn’t demand a handout but she seeks to scrape enough together for her Naomi and her. Remember, she’s from Moab, she’s poor, and she’s not certain of surroundings. Yes, she asks permission of the field workers in verse 7 to work behind them. Remember the ancient laws of Israel to leave the edges of the field for the poor? Ruth asks if she can do this. She’s cautious, she doesn’t presume, and she isn’t pushy. Ruth knows that she’s dependent on the landowner’s kindness and good character.
Remember at this point in the story, she’s doesn’t know the identity of the landowner. But, she doesn’t allow any of this to be obstacle for her - she cautiously takes initiative. She is like another foreign woman who came to Jesus years later and said, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs” (Mark 7:28b). Jesus was amazed at this woman’s great faith.
There’s a remarkable balance to Ruth’s actions here. Pay careful attention to how she navigates this. Again, she isn’t pushy; she asks.
1.3 Elimelech’s Family
Verse 1 gives us an important to detail to the story. We’re told that the landowner is Boaz and he was part of Ruth’s dead husband’s family. Now, Boaz doesn’t know who Ruth is. He’ll ask one of his field hands, “Who is that girl following you guys in the field?” in verse 5. Later on, Naomi looks over all the vast amount of food Ruth has brought home. She says, “Who’s field did you work in today? Who let you bring all this food home?” in verse 19. When Ruth said it was Boaz, Naomi says in effect, “Look her girl, he is a close relative of our family. He’s one of our redeemers.”
1.4 Naomi’s Plan
This is where Ruth’s courage really kicks in. Naomi hatches a plan; she becomes a matchmaker. Ruth’s about to get a makeover and Naomi starts with Ruth’s clothes. Ruth’s been a widow and she was wearing her drab widow’s clothes, garments of mourning. And she’s also been in the field gleaning and working, and her clothes are dusty and dirty. Naomi says, “Get rid of those old clothes. She tells Ruth to go put your best dress on and find the best perfume you have (Ruth 3:3-4).
Boaz is celebrating the harvest with the workers. They eat and drink and instead of sleeping in their homes, he sleeps on the threshing floor (Ruth 3:5-7). With the family connection in mind, Naomi cooks up this plan over in chapter 3 where she tells Ruth to uncover Boaz’s feet while he sleeps. It’s a risky move – girls don’t do this kind of thing in ancient Israel. All this sounds strange and I wouldn’t recommend this to find your future mate. Yet, Naomi’s aim is clear: to win for Ruth a godly husband and a secure future, and preserve the family line. The hope is to keep the family name and family inheritance in the family. She’s cautiously courageous to lay at Boaz’s feet in the middle of the night. He wakes up to discover Ruth at his feet and she’s both cautious and courageous when she says to him, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer” (Ruth 3:9b). Again, it’s hard to exaggerate how aggressive this move is on her part. In the morning, Boaz says to his workers who were there, “Don’t tell anyone she was here” (Ruth 3:14).
1.5 Ruth and Proverbs 31
Did you know that the book of Ruth wasn’t always placed next to Judges in your Bibles. In ancient times, the rabbis placed the book by the book of Proverbs. So that you would read about the Proverbs 31 woman and then turn directly into the book of Ruth. Ruth, the outsider from Moab, was seen as the excellent wife Proverbs 31 fame.
2) Boaz
Turn your attention away from Ruth to Boaz for a moment. As soon as we turn the page into chapter 2, we meet Boaz whom the Bible says is “a worthy man.” It means he is a person of status in the local Bethlehem community. He was a mighty man of wealth. Boaz was a solid citizen, a man of influence and a man of great integrity in the community.
2.1 Godliness
In verse 1 tells us that Boaz is a worthy and wealthy man, verse 4 tells us he is a godly man. Why else would the story-teller pause to record the way Boaz greeted his servants? “And he said to the reapers, ‘The LORD be with you!’ And they answered, ‘The LORD bless you’” (Ruth 2:4b). Boaz didn’t merely say, “Hello,” but he greeted his workers with God’s name. And they greeted him back by taking God’s name. They both blessed one another. If you want to know a business person’s Christianity, don’t watch for their religion on Sunday. Instead, follow them into the office and around for the week. Look to see if God has trickled down into the details of his life.
Speaking of the goodness of Boaz, he cared for penniless Ruth. Once he figured out why she was in his field and who she was, he said to her, “Don’t go anywhere else but here to my field. We will take care of you. I’ve told the young men to leave you alone. When you are thirsty, we will provide you drink” (Ruth 3:8-9). Boaz knows she could be hurt; she could even be raped. He warns his men not to touch her. He didn’t even want her out gleaning on the edges because the poor she might encounter on the edges of the field might abuse her. So he says, “I want you to stay with my working women so you can harvest, and then you can just take it home for yourself.”
Boaz was a good man; he was godly man. He shows care for the needy and the vulnerable. He is a model of a man, a godly man. He provided food and drink for Ruth while she worked (Ruth 3:14). Plus, he made sure she had extra to bring home to her mother-in-law (Ruth 3:15-16). There’s a lot to admire in Boaz.
2.2 Looking Good
Why did Boaz show Ruth such kindness? Of course, the story shifts and there’s a mutual love interest in time. But, it’s interesting that the book of Ruth never comments on the looks of Ruth. Not one time do we hear if Ruth was beautiful. We are told Esther is beautiful and Joseph of Genesis is beautiful. Yet, nowhere are we told Ruth is beautiful. She may have been Ms. Moab for all we know!
2.3 Makeover
A woman wrote a column in the paper many years ago describing her self-image. Listen to her reflect on her beauty: “More than 40 years of looking at myself in a mirror has left me like so many women I know, almost totally ignorant of what I really look like. In the mirror, I do not see reality. I see a composite of memories, wishes, half-truths, and old photos of myself.” Then she goes on and explains that she decides she doesn’t like the way she’s looking as she’s getting older. She’s obviously in her 40s as she wrote this, so she goes and gets an eleven hour makeover to recapture some of her beauty. After she has the makeover, she walks back into her home. Her seven-year-old daughter takes one look at her and screams and runs away; the young girl cries for another 20 minutes. She said, “I thought I looked kind of good, but now I don’t look like Mommy.”
2.4 Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places
Back to Boaz and Ruth… Never once are we told that Ruth was beautiful or if she was homely. Ruth asks Boaz, “Why have you shown me such incredible kindness? Why have I found favor in your eyes?” in verse 10. Study Boaz’s answer for a moment: “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before” (Ruth 2:11b). Boaz is attracted to Ruth for her character. Boaz says, “I’ve heard how your treated your mother-in-law. Your incredible kindness to her. Everyone is talking about your sacrificial love you’ve shown her.”
Learn a lesson in love from Boaz here: looks come and looks go but character remains. External beauty, attractiveness is always temporary. Your looks are always going away. But internal beauty can get stronger and stronger not only in all of this life but throughout all of eternity. No doubt, Boaz could have married just about any single woman in town. Perhaps he was Bethlehem’s most eligible bachelor. He would have been a prize catch for the any of the Bethlehem ladies. But Boaz fell in love with Ruth for her character.
2.5 The Boy Who See Inside You
George MacDonald wrote a fairy tale, The Princess and Curdie where Curdie is a little miner boy, and he meets an ancient fairy queen, and this fairy queen sends him on a quest. It’s a dangerous quest, and in order to get him ready for the quest, she gives him a special power. She has him put his hands in a fire of rose petals, and it burns him. It’s very painful, but when it’s done, he discovers when he takes somebody’s hand he can discern through the outward appearance and detect what’s really in the persons’ heart. At one point, he takes a hold of the hand of a horrible monster, and he feels the hand of a little girl. At another point, he takes the hand of a regal-looking king or a beautiful woman, and he perceives a vulture.
External beauty, attractiveness are always temporary. But internal beauty can get stronger and stronger not only in all of this life but throughout all of eternity. Too many of you singles screen out potential mates by their looks. Is he cute? Is she beautiful? What about her character? What about his character?
Ruth has shown remarkable resolve in staying with Naomi. She has been unbelievably loyal too. Boaz noticed all of this. It’s as if he took her hand and saw what was inside of her.
Conclusion - Coming Home
I love the fact that Naomi came home to Bethlehem, don’t you? The story isn’t over but her life has changed drastically. She’s home again. Wouldn’t you love to come home too?
A group of six college students were traveling from New York to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. As their bus passed through New Jersey, a man dressed in a plain, ill-fitting suit got on and sat down in from of them. He never moved, never spoke, only sitting there, staring out the window. The students eventually introduced themselves and as they talked they learned his story. His name was Vingo and he had been in a New York prison for the past four years and was now on his way home. One of the students asked him, “Are you married?” “I don’t know,” he replied strangely. “You don’t know?” the young lady asked. For the past four years he had had no contact with his wife and children. When he first went into prison, he had wrote his wife and only told her that he was going away for a long time. If she couldn't stand it, she could forget him and marry someone else. As far as he knew, she had done just that. He told the students how the week before, when he was sure his parole was coming up, he had written her and asked for forgiveness. He told her the whole story and expressed his desire to come home. There was a big oak tree on their place near the highway near Brunswick, just outside of Jacksonville. He had asked her, that if she would take him back, to hang a white handkerchief on the tree. If she did, he would get off the bus. If there was not one there, he would know that she did not want him, and he would go on his way. By this time, the bus was about twenty miles from his home. The students found themselves caught up in the man’s anticipation. They were all looking out the window of the bus, waiting for a view of that oak tree. The closer they got, the quieter they got. As the bus drew near his home, suddenly the students were up out of their seats screaming, shouting, crying, and dancing in the aisle. Why? Because there was not just one handkerchief, but the tree was covered in hundreds of handkerchiefs blowing in the wind like a banner saying, “Come on home.” Everyone was dancing except Vingo. He sat there in stunned silence looking at that oak tree.
In Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven and yes, you can come home! God is waiting and will forgive of all sin at the cross. His blood will cleanse from all unrighteousness!
