Week 8

5/4/2025

Spring 2025

 

Ruth is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. In the midst of the increasing turmoil throughout Judges is a short but powerful story that shows God is already establishing and preserving the family lineage that will lead to King David and, much more significantly, King Jesus. Though the end of Judges repeats the line: “In those days there was no king in Israel,” (Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25), Ruth shows us God’s behind-the-scenes work to graciously provide the king that Israel needs, even before they demand an ungodly king. Furthermore, God fills Naomi with joy while He fulfills His greater purposes.[1] In contrast to Judges’ moral and spiritual decay (Judges 2:18-19), horrible mistreatment of women (Judges 19:22-30), and hopeless oppression by foreign enemies, Ruth demonstrates God at work in and through Boaz, Ruth, and Naomi.

To understand the story of Ruth, first consider three fundamental ancient Israeli concepts: gleaning, laws, levirate marriage, and the kinsman redeemer. First, gleaning laws were mosaic law provisions for the impoverished, destitute, and foreigners in the land (Lev 19:9-10; 23:22; Deut 10:18; 24:19-22). Landowners were not to reap their fields to the edge of their property or gather the leftover grains from a harvest. Additionally, they did not strip everything from their vineyards or gather grapes that had fallen to the ground. If they forgot to retrieve a bundle of grain, they were not to return for it. All of these measures ensured that the impoverished, destitute, and foreigners could come into their fields to glean from their crops.[2] The basis for these laws is remembrance of Israel’s slavery in Egypt. Though the book of Judges may give us the impression that the entire nation of Israel had abandoned God, in Ruth, Boaz is a man who obediently follows these gleaning laws. He went beyond them by intentionally dropping more gleanings on the ground and providing water and protection for her and Naomi. He even told her the field from which she should harvest grain for herself rather than simply gleaning the leftovers from the harvesters (2:8-9, 14-15; 3:17)!

Second, levirate marriage (Deut 25:5-10) was God-ordained protection for Israelite widows. To prevent a childless widow from losing her family inheritance/land, becoming destitute, and selling herself into slavery, the next of kin to her deceased husband would marry the widow so that she could bear children to carry on the family lineage and preserve land/inheritance. In Deuteronomy, this is the brother’s duty. If he refused his duty, the elders of the town would speak to him. If he still refused their counsel, the woman would remove his sandal from his foot and spit in his face as an act of public dishonoring for not fulfilling his duty. However, in Ruth’s unique situation, any relative can assume the duty.[3]

Third, the kinsman redeemer was the next of kin (closest relative) responsible for land redemption (Lev 25:23-34; Lev 25:47-55; cf. Num 35:12, 19-27; Job 19:25; Prov 23:11; Jer 32:6-12). When an Israelite became impoverished and no longer able to afford/possess his land, his next of kin was responsible for purchasing the land, so that the impoverished relative’s possession would remain within the family. The kinsman redeemer paid the impoverished relative’s debt (who may have sold themselves into slavery/indentured servitude to survive), recovered any land the impoverished may have sold to pay the debt, defended family members from lawsuits, and avenged any unjust killing of his kin.[4] Once again, the basis for these redemption laws was remembrance of their Egyptian bondage.

Knowing the cultural background is essential to understanding the conflict and gracious resolution in the book of Ruth. Famine had driven Naomi and her family to Moab, where her sons married two Moabite women (a symptom of the religious syncretism during the time of Judges’ apostasy). Naomi is destitute. Her husband and two sons have both died, so Naomi, now widowed, alone in a foreign land, and seemingly too old to marry into another family with a patriarchal husband to care for her, decides to return to post-famine Judah where there are gleaning laws to care for the fatherless and widowed. Naomi’s two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth cannot receive the standard levirate marriage protection since both brothers (their husbands) are dead. But they can remarry at their young age, so Naomi, having no way to provide for them, instructs them to return to their Moabite families to seek remarriage.[5] Orpah (understandably) takes Naomi’s advice, but Ruth clings[6] to her. Ruth has no tangible reason to cling to Naomi, who can provide no security for her. By clinging to Naomi, she takes on her destitution.

Naomi, despairingly thinking that Yahweh is against her, refuses to be called Naomi, meaning pleasant. Instead, she requests to be called Mara, meaning bitter (Ruth 1:20-21). This story mourns for Naomi until the narrator introduces Boaz as a potential redeemer since he is a distant relative through her late husband. After Ruth begins gleaning from Boaz’s field, he observes Ruth’s kindness to her mother-in-law, esteeming her to be an honorable woman. Thus, he anticipates Yahweh treating her kindly and wants to reciprocate his kindness to her (Ruth 2:11-13).[7] Naomi’s closest relative does not function as the kinsman redeemer, but Boaz, under no real obligation from the law, steps in as the kinsman redeemer to Naomi and marries Ruth through levirate marriage because he understands the spirit of the law, not just the minimum requirements. Naomi progresses from being bitter and empty to thankful and full.

This is a story of chesed, the Hebrew word often translated as [God’s] enduring, steadfast love (cf. Psalm 136). God provided Naomi with a daughter-in-law who embodies chesed and Proverbs 31 wisdom. Ruth showed chesed to Naomi by clinging to her. Boaz showed chesed to Ruth by going above and beyond the minimum requirements for gleaning laws and willingly marrying Ruth through levirate marriage, redeeming Naomi from her state of bitterness. Reciprocal chesed between people is the theme of Ruth.

However, just as Ruth attributes her bitter circumstances to God being against her (Ruth 1:20), God redeems Naomi and brings her joy (Ruth 4:14-15). God’s providential hand guides this narrative of chesed. But much more than taking care of Naomi’s needs, God was actively answering the shocking spiritual decay of a kingless Israel, for the book ends with the eager anticipation that King David is just around the corner (Ruth 4:17-22), progressing God’s overall plan of redemption by establishing the messianic family through a despised Moabite and her destitute mother-in-law. God does not fulfill His greater redemptive plans for a fallen world at the expense of shepherding His people —He fills them with chesed while doing so.

 

Sources

Block, Daniel I. Judges, Ruth. The New American Commentary: An Exegetical and Theological Guide of Holy Scripture. B & H Publishing Group, 1999.

 

Merrill, Eugene H., Mark Rooker, Michael A. Grisanti, and Edwin Yamauchi. The World and the Word: An Introduction to the Old Testament. B&H Publishing.

 

Richards, E. Randolph and Richard James. Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes: Patronage, Honor, and Shame in the Biblical World. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2020.

 

 

[1] In our Old Testament arrangement of books, Ruth immediately follows Judges because the story is contemporary with Judges. This placement, as noted above, shows that God was already working to establish His king through Ruth and Boaz’s marriage. The Hebrew canon of Scripture (the Tanak) places Ruth immediately after the book of Proverbs. As Proverbs 31:10-31 closes the book with a depiction of the woman of wisdom, Ruth immediately follows to show that Ruth is a Proverbs 31 woman.

 

[2] Israelites “tithed” far more than ten percent. When you account for all laws dealing with offerings and these gleaning laws, they could have been tithing closer to 27% of their possessions.

 

[3] Levirate marriage is the context for the Sadducees’ question to Jesus about marriage and the resurrection in Matthew 22:23-28.

 

[4] No wonder God is so often referred to as our redeemer. He pays off our sin debt with the blood of His Son, frees us from slavery to sin and Satan, defends us before accusers and the accuser, and justly avenges His people.

[5] Israelites wouldn’t have jumped at the opportunity to care for Moabite women in their midst, given their rocky history with Moab; cf. Num 22:1-8; 25:1-5; Deut 23:3-6; Judges 3:12-30.

 

[6] The Hebrew word for “cling” is davak/דָּבַק, meaning to stick, cleave, cling like glue. It’s the same word used of husbands and wives in Gen 2:24 and the command to serve Yahweh and hold fast to him in Deut 10:20. Moses also says that the devoted (herem) things shall not stick to their hands in Deuteronomy 13:17. When Ruth clings to Naomi, it is a bond of steadfast, loving, loyalty.

 

[7] Stories are powerful. Even secular stories, when properly told, can instill virtues deeply within both children and adults. This idea of reciprocal kindness is also the message of the original Disney Snow White story. This is also the wisdom of Proverb's message of sowing righteousness and reaping blessing (remember that Ruth represents the archetypal Proverbs 31 woman). The recent failed attempt at a live-action remake of Snow White “updated for modern audiences” entirely missed the point of the original movie, portraying a Snow White devoid of classical virtue and a story devoid of meaningful, formative lessons in reciprocal kindness. Classic stories of virtue are often lacking from much of our contemporary entertainment, for they have replaced virtuous characters with propagandizing to specific socio-political causes, believing activism to be virtuous in itself.