Ruth 3: God Provides Faithful Love Series

Ruth 3: God Provides FAITHFUL LOVE

Ruth is a love story.

Ruth, a widow in a strange land, goes into a field at harvest time, to gather grain left by the reapers. The owner of the field, who is considerably older, treats her with kindness, inviting her to share his lunch, and telling his workers to leave grain on the ground for her to pick up. In the night, they share an intimate conversation, and they conspire to arrange their own marriage. Soon after the marriage, Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, is holding a baby named Obed. Obed becomes the father of Jesse, the father of David, king of Israel.

The Hallmark Channel—or maybe Disney—should buy the script. But maybe they would mess it up, for the love in the story makes no sense without God.

There IS romantic love in this story—this story of a man and a woman, separated by age and social status. Ruth finds herself drawn to such a righteous, caring man—a man of stature in the community, kind and generous. Boaz is surprised to find a much younger woman interested in him, and he recognizes, in this poor foreigner, noble character and strength.

Yet the love in the story is much more than romantic love. It is FAITHFUL LOVE, a love that reflects the love of God for his people.

The Hebrew language has a word that is hard to say, and even harder to translate. The word is “hesed” (chesed or hesedh—a hard, gutteral h and soft d).

“Hesed” is used 246 times in the Old Testament! The NIV often translates it as “love” or “kindness.” Other translations use “steadfast love,” but the translation depends on the context.

The word “hesed” first appears in the book of Ruth in Ruth 1:8, “Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the LORD show you kindness (hesed), as you have shown kindness (hesed) to your dead husbands and to me.’” The NIV translates “hesed” as kindness, although Naomi is also talking about love and faithfulness. Hard to translate.

“Hesed” is a word of relationship, and it implies making and keeping commitments.

For example, in Genesis 47:29-30, we read, “When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, ‘If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness (hesed) and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.’ ‘I will do as you say,’ he said.” As a faithful son, Joseph made and kept a promise to his father; that is “hesed.”

Another example is what Jonathan said to David in 1 Samuel 20:14-15, “Show me unfailing kindness (hesed) like the LORD’s kindness (hesed) as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, and do not ever cut off your kindness (hesed) from my family—not even when the LORD has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.” As his closest friend, Jonathan asked David to keep his promise of friendship, even after he was dead.

Jonathan recognized that human “hesed” is based on the “hesed” of God, as he said, “Show me hesed like the Lord’s hesed.”

Psalm 36:5-6 describes hesed as an attribute of God’s character: “Your love (hesed), LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep.” In the poetry of the psalm, “hesed” is parallel to faithfulness, just as righteousness is parallel to justice. Thus love is a rather wimpy translation, for “hesed,” implies faithful commitment.

Deuteronomy 7:9 connects hesed with the covenant God makes with his people: “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love (hesed) to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.” God’s “hesed” is a commitment of forever-love!

And God shows “hesed” for Ruth and Naomi. Naomi we can understand, for she is an Israelite, one of God’s chosen people. But Ruth? Ruth was included in the covenant by grace, through faith. God provided the faith for her to say, “Your people will be my people, and your God my God.” Through grace, she and God were bound to each other by “hesed.”

Last week, we saw one way God showed “hesed” to Ruth and Naomi. God provided compassionate justice, by making provision for gleaning in the field. God’s “hesed” was specifically expressed through a person—a man named Boaz, who lived his life in “hesed” with God: “[Naomi said to Ruth], ‘Blessed be the man who took notice of you!’ Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. ‘The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,’ she said. ‘The LORD bless him! Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. ‘He [God] has not stopped showing his kindness (hesed) to the living and the dead.’” (Ruth 2:19-20)