That Kind of Redeemer (Part II)

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The second chapter of Ruth immediately mentions a relative of Elimelech named Boaz.  He becomes more essential to the story later on. Since Naomi and Ruth arrived in Bethlehem in time for the spring grain harvest they thought they would take advantage of a Mosaic Law (Ernest, et al. 126-133, 318). This law states that during harvest time the poor may go out into the fields and glean (in this case) the leftover grain in the fields. Because of this law, harvesters were only allowed to glean their fields once so they were apt to leave stalks behind for the poor. The edges and corners of the fields where the sickle was not easily wielded were left for the poor as well (Vernon 88-120). This is a great example of God's reverence for the poor.

Ruth tells Naomi she is going to the fields to gather grain behind the harvesters and Naomi gives her the go ahead. "As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech" (The Teen Study Bible, Ruth 2.3). This is where Boaz comes into the picture. He arrives from Bethlehem (perhaps where he had some business) and greets the workers with, "The LORD be with you (The Teen Study Bible, Ruth 2.4)!" He just entered the story and already he looks like a stand up guy. The name Boaz means "strength" or "mighty man of law". He definitely proves to be both of these (Vernon 88-120). Boaz asks, "Whose young woman is that?" This beautiful woman caught Boaz's eye and he wants to know who she is. His foreman answers, "She is the Moabitess who came back from Moab with Naomi. She said, 'Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.' She went into the field and has worked steadily from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter" (The Teen Study Bible, Ruth 2.5-7). It almost sounds like this foreman is making an excuse (Vernon 88-120). "It's not our fault! She just came here and worked her butt off all day; even if she is a Moabite we can't do anything about it!"

But how wrong that foreman was to apologize. Boaz does not mind Ruth being in his fields at all, in fact, he would not have it any other way. "My daughter, listen to me. Don't go and glean in another field and don't go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the jars the men have filled (The Teen Study Bible, Ruth 2.8, 9).” Does he like her or does he like her? He makes sure she stays with him, he keeps her safe telling the men not to molest her, and he makes sure her needs are met (Ernest, et al. 126-133, 318).

At this, Ruth bows before him with her face in the dirt and says, "Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner (The Teen Study Bible, Ruth 2.10)?" Ruth had been warned about what would happen if she came along with Naomi and did not expect anyone treat her nice or receive any praise for anything. Israelites did not even let Moabites worship in their temples but Boaz shows concern for her wellbeing. Boaz even compliments her, "I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother in your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge (The Teen Study Bible, Ruth 2.11, 12).” He knows what a sacrifice she made for Naomi and for God and how hard that was for her. He makes sure she knows that he understands her. He loves her and he is going to prove it.

Ruth is blown away that someone she just met—someone of his status—could care for her so much. "May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord. . .You have given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servant girls" (The Teen Study Bible, Ruth 2.13). Boaz then invites her at mealtime to sit with his servants and dip bread in wine vinegar which was a special treat (Ernest, et al. 126-133, 318).

After Ruth is done eating the roasted grain that Boaz gave her, she continues gleaning. Boaz tells his workmen to let Ruth glean right where they are harvesting and when nobody is looking, to drop a sheave here and there for her to pick up. This shows that Boaz was not out to merely be nice to Ruth in front of her face. He is showing kindness to her behind her back when it will not benefit him. He is not out to impress her, Boaz loves Ruth.

At the end of that day, Ruth gleans a bushel of barley (Vernon 88-120). This is a fine day's wage for this widow. When Naomi sees Ruth lugging in that much barley she asks where on earth she had been gleaning. Ruth tells her that she gleaned in the field of some man named Boaz. "The LORD bless him!" Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. "He has not stopped showing kindness to the living and the dead." She adds, "That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers (The Teen Study Bible, Ruth 2.20)." This is where another law comes in.

This Mosaic Law is goel in Hebrew or "kinsman-redeemer". It is stated in Leviticus twenty-five of the Bible and it works in three ways. It works in relation to land, individuals, and widows. God gave the Israelites the Promised Land, but they could only have it as long as they were faithful to God. Israel was split up into twelve tribes and each tribe had a plot of land. Within those tribes there were families and each family had a small share of the land. Perhaps a family became poor and they had to mortgage their land to a rich neighbor. That neighbor could only take up to a fifty year mortgage because of the Year of Jubilee, when all mortgages are cancelled. When the mortgages were cancelled the land went back to its original owner, that is how land stayed in the family. Even so, it was a long time in between Jubilees not to have ones land. That is why if someone's land was mortgaged and a relative of that family moves close by, that relative can pay off the mortgage and restore the land to the family before the Year of Jubilee (Vernon 88-120).

This can also apply to individuals. If times got tough, a man could sell himself into slavery to feed his family until the Year of Jubilee. If the Year of Jubilee was 40 years away and a relative came by and saw his cousin in slavery, he could pay the price of his cousin's slavery. This is exactly what Jesus did for us, we were slaves to sin but he paid the price for our sins. This is redemption by love; it's only if we accept this love that we can be redeemed (Vernon 88-120).

In relation to widows, if a husband dies and leaves his wife childless the law states that man's brother (or his closest relative) can marry that widow and have a child with her. An example of this can be set up using a set of brothers. One of these brothers gets married and dies shortly after. Jacob's widow can claim one of his brothers if they are not already married. If the brother she claims turns her down she can take him before a court of judges. She then takes off his shoe and spits in his face. This was very offensive back then and that man is disgraced for leaving her a poor widow and not helping her raise a family (Vernon 88-120).

That Kind of Redeemer (Part I)

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It is not something one can entirely appreciate or grasp until it has been experienced. To be redeemed. That is why God tells us stories, to help us grasp things that we have not experienced--maybe in a hope that we might experience something like it.

The story of Ruth is full of surprises. She is the main character of the book of Ruth and she is someone who anyone would be proud to call family (if they knew her, that is). This is not only the story of a woman, but the story of a redeemer. That redemption requires love.

When one looks at the first verse of the book of Ruth, one can compare it to the first sentence of a newspaper article. The Holy Spirit was covering a story and it was trying to fit as much into the first sentence as possible. "In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man, from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab (The Teen Study Bible, Ruth 1.1). When did this story take place? It took place in the period of the judges around "twelfth century B. C." (Ernest et al. 126-133, 318). What happened? A man from Bethlehem in Judah went to Moab with his family to escape a famine. This was no ordinary famine. This was a famine sent by God to punish the people of Israel. The days of the judges were rather dark days because all the time God had to punish the Israelites and had to raise judges to deliver the people (Vernon 88-120).

In the Old Testament all the names have meaning. Bethlehem means house of bread and Judah means praise. Moab however, has quite a diverse meaning. In Psalm 108:9 David says, "Moab is my washbasin . . . (The Teen Study Bible, Psalms 108.9)" which can be likened to "Moab is my dumpster" (Vernon 88-120). So in the first verse of Ruth we see a family go from the "house of praise and bread" to a "dumpster". Running from God is not a good way to start off a story.

There are even more names in the second verse. "The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there (The Teen Study Bible, Ruth 1.2).” Elimelech's name means "my God and King" which is rather ironic given the circumstances; he is not acting like God is his king (Vernon 88-120). Naomi, his wife's name, means "pleasant" so it is safe to assume she is the kind of person you would want to be around, one can go as far as to pretend she has a bubbly and optimistic personality (Elizabeth 142-154). Moving on to the sons' names. Mahlon means "unhealthy and Kilion means "puny", Elimelech and Naomi had two sickly boys (Vernon 88-120).

In the next couple verses Naomi's husband dies and her two sons marry Moabite women (The Teen Study Bible, Ruth 1.3-5). One woman named Orpah marries Mahlon and the other woman Ruth marries Kilion. Naomi's family ran away from God and continued to sin; they broke the Mosaic Law by marrying Moabite women. The name Orpah means "fawn" or "deer" so she was probably an athletic person. The name Ruth means "beauty" and "personality". One might stop and wonder how two sickly men got such nice looking and athletic wives (Vernon 88-120).

The two sickly sons die leaving Ruth and Orpah as widows. In the sixth verse Naomi hears a rumor that God is done teaching the Israelites a lesson and has blessed them again so she packs her bags for the "House of Bread and Praise" (Ernest, et al. 126-133, 318). The three widows are on the road heading to the House of Bread and Praise when Naomi tells Ruth and Orpah to go back to their homes because she cares about them (which is a lot more than most mothers can say about their daughter-in- laws). Naomi explains to them that she has nothing back in Bethlehem in Judah (Vernon 88-120).

Moabites and Israelites did not usually get along because of several reasons. The Moabites worshiped the idol Chemosh, which was very sinful in the eyes of the Israelites since their God declared to be a jealous God. This, along with some political rivalry kept the Israelites speaking harshly of Moabites for centuries. If that was not bad enough, before the Israelites entered the Promised Land Moabite women would seduce Israelite soldiers and persuade them to worship Chemosh. This resulted in God sending down a plague killing the sinners and Israelites who turned their backs on Him. If Ruth and Orpah go with Naomi, they will live in poverty and never be able to marry again because they are Moabites (Ernest et al. 126-133, 318).

In the crossroads of the land of Dumpster there are three widows. Naomi tells her two daughter-in-laws, Athletic and Beautiful, to go back to their homes. In verse nine their response is to cling to their mother-in-law and weep. They tell her they want to go back with her to the House of Bread and Praise even though Naomi has warned them of the consequences. After much sobbing on Ruth and Orpah's part and much pleading on Naomi's part, Orpah decides to go back to her home and idol. Ruth is left in verse fourteen clinging to Naomi. Mrs. Pleasant tells her to go back to her people and idol just like Orpah did but Ruth replies, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me" (The Teen Study Bible, Ruth 1.16,17).

What Ruth is saying is so powerful. She says, "Where you go, I will go, and where you stay I will stay". This means Ruth is not just using Naomi as a passport into Palestine; she will identify herself with Naomi and stick with her. She then says, "Your people will be my people and your God my God". Ruth is choosing to leave behind her own people and identify herself with the people of God. Ruth is not only making a real choice for Naomi, but for God also. This is no story about religious tolerance; Ruth is choosing the God of the Israelites over her own. Ruth is choosing to repent from her ways and idol and cling to God and His people. "Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried." This had a lot more significance in Ruth's time than it did if it had been said today. The Israelites were not planning on going to Heaven; they were planning on being raised from the dead in the land they were buried in. That was the hope of Abraham to Jacob; that was why they were so scrupulous that they were all buried together. Ruth says that she accepts Israel’s hope and wants to be buried with Naomi (Vernon 88-120). How many daughter-in-laws want the first thing they see in the afterlife to be their mother-in-law? Not many.

Now Naomi is convinced that Ruth is not going to wimp out like Orpah, so she stops urging her to go back to Moab. When the two widows arrive in Bethlehem the whole town is stirring because of it. They are all wondering if this is the same woman who left with her family for Moab ten years ago. If she is, where is her family? Why on earth does she have this Moabite woman with her instead? When they ask, "Can this be Naomi?" she replies in verse twenty and twenty-one, "Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty (The Teen Study Bible, Ruth 1.20, 21)." Mara means "bitter" (Elizabeth 142-154). Naomi was telling everyone, "Do not call me pleasant, call me bitter. I have turned against God and I'm suffering the consequences!" She did go away "full". She went to Moab with a family, and she came back with the burden of having lost two children and a husband. Empty of the love of her family and the hope she had for her future with them, would cause most pleasant people to become bitter. At any rate, her pessimistic comment most likely rained on any reunion plans her neighbors were making for her.

No matter what Naomi tells people to call her, the Holy Spirit knows best because in verse twenty-two she is still called Naomi (Vernon 88-120). "So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning" (The Teen Study Bible, Ruth 1.22). Maybe Mrs. Pleasant will be making a comeback.

Introduction to Ruth

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I wrote an essay on Ruth for school and I am deciding to publish it.  I studied Ruth extensively
 for this paper and the paper turned out to be a bit longer than I expected.  Therefore, I am publishing this paper into the next four posts, dividing my essay into the four chapters that make up the book of Ruth in the Bible so it will be less overwhelming for my readers.

This essay is different from my usual writing style.  I usually write a lot looser for my blog but I had to be a bit formal in writing this paper.  It was required that this paper be written in MLA format and so I am keeping the citations and putting up the Bibliography at the end of each post as an attatchment for whoever wants to see or check my sources.

If anyone has any feedback on the essay please feel free to post a comment.  Whether you are being a grammar nazi or just want to give some positive (or negative) criticism.  I hope you enjoy, God bless!