(1) The document provides an overview and summary of the biblical book of Ruth. (2) It discusses the time period and location of the story, which takes place in Bethlehem and Moab during the time of the Judges. (3) The story is about a Moabite woman named Ruth who follows her mother-in-law Naomi back to Bethlehem after both of their husbands have died, and how Ruth finds protection and a new marriage through obeying God's laws on gleaning and redemption.

1. The book of RUTH – FNG – Friday Sept. 7, 2012
Intro to the book
This month we are in the book of Ruth and I hope you had a chance to read it,
because it really is a little oasis after a book like Judges. In fact we are told that
the events depicted in the book of Ruth took place during the time of the Judges.
I have failed to track down any scholarly estimate of the historical time frame that
we are looking at here, but working back from Saul’s coronation as king around
1050 BC I would guestimate that the events in the book of Ruth take place
probably somewhere in the 1100’s BC, maybe even early 1200’s BC.
(show map) Geographically we are looking at two locations: Bethlehem in Judah
where the family originates from and where Naomi and Ruth later return, and the
country of Moab where the family lives for some 10 years. We are not told of a
specific place in Moab, so they could have lived anywhere in this SE corner of
the Dead Sea.
More recently the book of Ruth has gained a bit of fame for some 21 st century AD
marriage advice that has been circulating on the internet. You may have seen
this, but if you haven’t, here it is: “To all the girls who are in a hurry and want to
have a boyfriend or get married, a piece of Biblical advice: Ruth patiently waited
for her mate Boaz. While you are waiting on YOUR Boaz, don’t settle for any of
his relatives: Broke-az, Po-az, Lyin-az, Cheatin-az, Dumb-az, Drunk-az, Cheap-
az, Lockedup-az, Goodfornothin-az, Lazy-az and especially his third cousin
Beatinyo-az. Wait on your Boaz and make sure he respects Yoaz.”
Ruth – A story of restoration
If you have read the previous book, the book of Judges, you may have wondered
if there was any point in continuing. The book is a testament to the horror people
can inflict on one another when each man does as he sees fit. The book ends
with a story bearing such uncanny resemblance to Sodom and Gomorrah, except
this time there was no angels to blind the crazed masses. This time they actually
got to carry through with their evil intentions. And all this happened among those
who were supposed to be God’s chosen people! You could certainly be forgiven
if you felt that the time was ripe for God to make a repeat of the Sodom and
Gomorrah inferno. After all, if the people who were supposed to testify of God
were behaving so badly, what hope was there for the rest of the world?!
But, as my father-in-law used to say: read on, it could get worse. Except in this
case you turn the page and you come to a heartwarming story of Naomi, Ruth
and Boaz. And right off the bat we are told that this too took place during the time
of the judges. This helps us to realize that while there were a lot of people
behaving badly during this period of time, there were also decent people living in
the land. So maybe we should hold off on the fire and brimstone for just now.

2. God is barely mentioned in the book of Ruth, but there is still a good deal we can
learn about God from this book. The story of Ruth is primarily a story of
restoration, and ever since the fall of Lucifer and then Adam and Eve, God has
been in the business of restoration. What brings about the restoration in the book
of Ruth may even surprise you. Remember all those mind numbing rules and
regulations that you read in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy? It is
those rules that bring about restoration in the book of Ruth! It is even more
compelling when you juxtaposition the two books right next to each other. In the
book of Judges we see the destruction that intrinsically comes from failing to
follow God’s laws while in the book of Ruth we see the restoration that
intrinsically comes from following God’s laws.
The scene is set up for us in the first chapter of Ruth. A fella by the name of
Elimelek tries to escape the famine and so he takes his wife Naomi and two sons
Mahlon and Kilion and moves from Bethlehem to somewhere in Moab. Elimelek
dies in Moab, but the family continues to set down roots there as Mahlon and
Kilion marry local women: Orpah and Ruth. Unfortunately, both Mahlon and
Kilion also died and so the three ladies are left widowed. Now you have to
understand that back in those days you couldn’t just fill out a form and get your
deceased husband’s Social Security payments. There was no Social Security
and women were regarded more or less as property and if you did not have a
man to provide for you, you were in a seriously tough spot. If your husband died
an adult son could and usually did fulfill the role of the provider, but Naomi was
now in real trouble. Her husband died, both her sons died and she was in a
foreign country with no relatives close by to offer any kind of assistance. Hearing
that the famine had passed in Judah, Naomi made the only sensible choice open
to her – to return to her place of origin in the hopes that she will be able to get
some assistance from extended family.
Orpah and Ruth, while in a similar situation, are in their homeland close to their
immediate family. They are also young and could fully expect to be able to
remarry and start again. All of this background is playing out in the conversation
between Naomi, Orpah and Ruth. It is also this background that makes it all the
more remarkable that Ruth chose to follow Naomi to Bethlehem, since this would
take her away from her own safety net of her family and Naomi had no
guarantees that she would be able to get any assistance from her family.
And so Naomi returns to Bethlehem and declares: “Don’t call me Naomi,” she
told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I
went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. (Ruth 1:20,21a)
Naomi feels like everything in her life is gone, her life is bitter because she left
Bethlehem full and has now returned empty, in other words, Naomi has hit rock
bottom.

3. The first order of business is being able to survive. There was no food pantry,
food stamps or a Meijer to go and get your groceries from. But there was a
provision that enabled those who had fallen on hard times to be able to put food
on the table. We find it in Leviticus 9:9, 10: “When you reap the harvest of your
land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your
harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that
have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God.”
Boaz evidently respected this law because there were a number of people
gleaning behind the harvesters in his fields and Ruth was also able to take
advantage of this provision to feed both herself and her mother-in-law. Boaz took
interest in the people who were working and gleaning in his fields. In such a
warm and fuzzy story as this one you may find his admonition to Ruth to stay
with his workers so she wouldn’t be harmed somewhere else a bit out of place.
Do not forget – this is all happening in the time of Judges so the horrors of our
previous book were very much a reality for them.
What happens next is a bit unorthodox to say the least with Ruth showing up at
the threshing floor next to Boaz in the middle of the night. Once again, Boaz is
respecting the law and does not take advantage of Ruth, even going to some
lengths so that there is not even an appearance of impropriety. But it is in this
bizarre meeting that Ruth invokes the guardian-redeemer provision.
There are two ways this worked in Israel. The foundation of the Israelite economy
was that the land was an inheritance from God and each tribe and each clan
within the tribe had land that was allotted to them. They were not able to buy it
and sell it in the way that we do today. At the year of Jubilee all land was
returned to the original owner whose inheritance the land was. The only thing you
could do is essentially rent the land, buying the use of the land for however many
years there were left until the next year of the Jubilee. Trouble is, the year of
Jubilee only rolled around every 50 years. But there was a provision for this. “If
one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells some of their property, their
nearest relative is to come and redeem what they have sold.” (Leviticus 25:25).
Should you be able to gather sufficient funds, you could redeem the land
yourself, but this was not an option for Naomi or Ruth, who were barely putting
food on the table and were essentially part of Elimelek’s property.
There is also another provision, which Naomi had already alluded to in chapter 1.
“If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow
must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and
marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. The first son she bears
shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted
out from Israel.” (Deuteronomy 25:5,6). And of course, this has implications in
keeping the inheritance within the family. So in invoking the guardian-redeemer
rules, this is what Naomi and Ruth were referring to.

4. Boaz once again follows the law, in giving the opportunity to the closest relative
to redeem the land from Naomi – which would have essentially increased his
own estate. Not surprisingly the man is eager until he finds out that a Moabites
by the name of Ruth comes as part of the property. This could seriously confuse
the man’s own inheritance and so he declines. “Then Boaz announced to the
elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from
Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. I have also acquired Ruth
the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the
dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family
or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!” (Ruth 4:9,10)
The story ends with these words: “So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife.
When he made love to her, the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth
to a son. The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not
left you without a guardian-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 in her arms and cared for him. The women living there
said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of
Jesse, the father of David.” (Ruth 4:13-17)
Naomi, the woman who left full and returned bitter and empty, once again had a
life full of meaning, purpose and joy. Her life, and that of Ruth, was restored
because of a good man who decided to follow God’s laws. And this is what we
can learn about God in the book of Ruth. God did not give all those laws to keep
people under His thumb and grind them into a miserable, joyless existence. He
gave them laws that when applied can renew and restore. Last month in the book
of Judges we saw how failing to follow God’s laws brought nothing but terror and
destruction. This month in the book of Ruth we get to see how following God’s
laws can renew and restore. Where there was death, now there was new life.
And what a privilege – to be a direct ancestor to king David, and by extension, an
earthly ancestor to Christ Himself!
God longs to restore and renew our lives. He longs to bring new life that will
spring from this place of death and despair. What we can learn from the book of
Ruth is that if we follow God’s law, it will bring about restoration and renewal.
Sometimes the law may seem like an imposition, maybe even absurd in its
demands. But the results are undeniable. Looking at the book of Judges and the
book of Ruth side by side we can examine the evidence for ourselves and see
what works and what doesn’t. We can see the final results of each path. And
there is no doubt in my mind that in the book of Ruth God and His law come out
on top.