In the long genealogical record of Jesus at the beginning of Matthew, we find mention of a simple, wonderful woman named Ruth. After Boaz is named, whose mother was Rahab, some sort of prostitute, we find his son Obed, whose mother was Ruth from the morally tainted tribe of Moab. Strange people to find in the family tree of the Son of God, don’t you think?
The world into which these characters were born was a truly wicked and broken place. The great victories of General Joshua, rooting out evil corruption and conquering the Promised Land, had been followed by a stark period of decline to the point where, by the time of the Judges and our sweet, little story today, the faith of the Hebrew people was extremely weak and their conduct very sinful. This was a time of darkness and great faithlessness in Judah.
It is also important to remember the position of the Moabites at this moment in Jewish history. The Moabites, as we are told in Genesis 19, were the result of an incestuous coupling between Lot and his daughters. They began badly and got worse. The Moabites were such a wicked people, as a matter of fact, Deuteronomy 23:3 says: "No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even down to the tenth generation." The Hebrew people were not to associate with them and regularly went to war against them. Hebrew women were not to marry Moabite men. Yet our Ruth, even though she was a Moabite woman, was not only recognized and blessed by God for her virtue but she was honored to be included in the very genealogy of Christ himself! God blesses who he wishes to bless!
Another background detail which must be understood is the absolutely destitute status of a widowed woman in the ancient world. In a world where no Social Security, welfare, or any other benevolent programs would come to their rescue, family connections meant everything. A woman without children was thought to be cursed by God and a woman without either children or a husband was in an even more desperate situation. So we can only imagine the social position of a Moabite woman, with no children and no husband living in enemy territory!
How even more wonderful it is then to see the glorious truths God reveals to us through her story. Simple Ruth challenges us in all sorts of wonderful, godly ways. It is interesting to note that in the Hebrew Bible, Ruth follows immediately after the book of Proverbs. And since the very last chapter of the book of Proverbs is focused around the theme of a godly woman, a godly wife of good character, some ancient Jewish scholars saw the story of Ruth as a perfect example of what had just been discussed in the book of Proverbs. I agree.
Much as I would love to read the entire book of Ruth to you this morning, it is too long for even me to chance reading in just one sermon. I hope you’ll do so later. While we’ll look closely at a couple passages, I will only summarize the story for us now.
During the dark and evil period of the judges in the history of Israel, a Jewish man named Elimelech and his wife Naomi and two sons moved to the land of the Moabites to escape famine in Judah. The two sons married Moabite women named Orpah and Ruth. Unfortunately for everyone, Elimelech and both his sons died and left all three women as widows. Naomi, hearing the famine had ended in Judah, decided there was nothing holding her in Moabite country and made plans to return to Judah. After some tears and a soul-searching discussion, Orpah decided to stay home and Ruth determined to stay with Naomi, her mother in law.
When the two women returned to Bethlehem in Judah, they were poor, unprotected and completely vulnerable. Humble Ruth looked at their situation and decided she would go glean the stray grains fallen in the fields behind the harvesters to keep the two from starving. As she was doing this, she was noticed by a wealthy and powerful landowner named Boaz. After being told about humble Ruth and her situation, Boaz blessed the beautiful Ruth and instructed his harvesters to treat her well as a reward for the type of person Ruth obviously was.
But Boaz, as God arranged things, was actually a close relative of Naomi’s and, thereby, a relative now of Ruth’s, Naomi encouraged Ruth to present herself to Boaz as a prospective wife. Ruth obeyed, using strange, humiliating local customs, property law and in accordance with Levitical law, which said the “kinsman” of a dead relative could (and should!) marry that relative’s widow and have children by her in order that the dead relative’s line should continue.
Boaz, apparently an older man, was now even more impressed with Ruth since he felt she could have had a much younger man if she wished. Even though he was impressed with her, however, he insisted that the full letter of the Levitical law be fulfilled and the position of “kinsman-redeemer” be offered to one who was an even closer relative than he himself was.
But after this closer relative declined to redeem Ruth and marry her, Boaz stepped forward and publicly announced to the community he would redeem Ruth. They were married and the previously childless Ruth was blessed with a son to continue the family line. Both Ruth and Naomi are now restored in the community – Naomi finally has her grandson! And in a final dramatic flourish, that son became the grand-father of a little boy named David who grew up to become very important in Jewish history and the family line of Jesus! What a story!
For the next several weeks, as we prayerfully consider the character qualities of six Biblical figures, as we attempt to glean from greatness, I think there are three absolutely godly character qualities modeled in Ruth’s story we would all do well to ponder and apply.
Determination
The first stunning quality is exemplified in the first chapter, verses 8 - 18 where Naomi, understanding the desperate condition she herself is in, tries to convince her two Moabite daughters-in-law to remain in Moab. I believe Naomi loved her two girls so much she couldn’t stand to see them suffer in the way she knew she was about to suffer. Eventually, Orpah decided to return to her gods and her people and remain in Moab. Ruth, on the other hand, chose another route: ‘Look,” said Naomi, ‘‘your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” But Ruth replied, ‘‘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.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
Naomi stopped trying to turn Ruth back because she realized Ruth was determined to go with her. That is the first quality of Ruth in this story I find so attractive: determination. Ruth made a decision and she stuck to it. She decided Naomi’s way and Naomi’s God was the way to go and she was going to go in that direction regardless of the cost she had to pay. How much easier it would have been for her to stay near her people where she would have had a much better chance at finding another husband and another life. But she didn’t do that; she recognized something better than the Moabite way and she went for it with both fists!
What kind of determination do we have this morning to go God’s way? Do we allow the well-intentioned prodding of others to deter us from God’s path for us or do we say, like Ruth in this story, “where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay!” Do we allow the “rational” and the “reasonable” to prevent us from experiencing God’s best for our lives? Or do we grab on to God with both fists and determine to follow Him no matter what? Ruth was determined!
Bob Welch told the story years ago of his son in a baseball game who was supposedly hit by a pitch and given a free walk to first base. His boy turned to the umpire and said, “But sir, the ball didn’t hit me.” The umpire argued with the boy for a moment, but the boy was determined to do the right thing. Finally the umpire said, “Alright, play ball.” On the very next pitch, the boy rapped a hard double into center field off a blistering fast ball. A man sitting on the bleachers next to Bob Welch, not knowing the boy was Bob’s son, spit out a mouthful of sunflowers seeds and very excitedly said, “Man, you just gotta love that kid!” Yes indeed!
How fully determined are we to go God’s way? Ruth was determined.
Loyalty
Another intriguing quality is the loyalty all three of the main characters display. When Naomi tried to dissuade Ruth from coming back to Judah with her, Orpah kissed Naomi good-bye. But Ruth didn’t; Ruth remained loyal to her older mother-in-law. And Naomi, upon her return to Judah with a Moabite woman in tow, certainly must have had to deal with pressure to disassociate herself, as a good Jewess, from this tainted Moabite woman. But she didn’t; she remained loyal to this girl that had been loyal to her. And Boaz, the knight in shining armor of the story, even though it appears obvious he loved Ruth, still remained loyal to the Levitical laws under which they all lived and risked losing this girl he loved because of that loyalty. And Boaz again, instead of showing any shame or hesitation about marrying this tainted Moabite widow, expressed his loyalty and his love for her by apparently making his marriage as public as possible. Over and over again in this story, we see loyalty in the face of terrible pressure.
What a convicting message in a selfish and disloyal time. What is loyalty anyway? I suspect our culture is fast losing all comprehension of what the word “loyalty” even means. I believe God stands above our culture this morning and asks how loyal we are to anything! How loyal are we to our employers or employees? How about our neighbors or political leaders? How loyal are we to our community and country? And how about our deeper loyalties?
How loyal are we to God? How loyal are we in our marriages or other relationships? How loyal are we to our friends? How loyal are we to our children? What sacrifices will we make to see our children and grandchildren grow up as men and women of God in this crazy culture? How loyal are we to our churches, pastors, leaders and missionaries? How much damage is done to the church of Jesus Christ by the frequent disloyalty of its members? The story of Ruth establishes a beautiful standard of loyalty we would all do well to ponder.
Hard-Working
A third and final outstanding characteristic of Ruth is found in several places. In addition to her determination and loyalty, our sweet Ruth was also a hard-worker. When Boaz was first discussing with his headman who this new woman in his field was, we see a very interesting and complimentary comment about Ruth. Look at verse 6 of chapter 2: “The foreman replied, ‘‘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.”
Because the Hebrew phrase used here varies depending on which Hebrew text is used in translation, some Bibles have a slightly different translation. The NRSV and the King James say that she worked steadily in the field from morning till now “without even” a break in the shelter. In any event, it is clear from this passage and others, Ruth was a very hard worker.
I find it also interesting to note that Ruth was not only hard-working, but she was hard working even though what she was doing could not be more humiliating. She had sunk from being a normal Moabite wife to the role of outcast beggar, the lowest of the low, picking up scraps and leftovers in a dangerous field. How could anyone possibly get excited about that kind of work? How could anyone want to work hard doing something like that? But Ruth did!
I believe God asks us this morning how our often menial work glorifies Him. Can our co-workers and superiors look at us and recognize we are Christians by our hard work? Or do we work hard only when we clearly see the great paycheck or “golden carrot” on the stick in front of us? Do we work hard even when our tasks are anonymous or humiliating? Do we work hard when circumstance forces us into a position we don’t prefer? God calls each of us to remember this morning that our hard work always matters. Our sweet Ruth was a worker.
As we leave this morning, as we go home and read this simple story of Ruth, I believe God is calling each of us through this text to new levels of determination and commitment to Him. I believe God is calling us to explore what it means to be loyal to Him, to our spouses and children, to our friends, to our churches, to our employers and our employees. And I believe God is calling each of us to sink our hands deeply into whatever work God has given each of us to do, whatever kind of work that might be – to do all things to the glory of God.
And we are to do all this because who knows what place God might have for us in His hall of heroes! Who knows what Boaz might await us along a road paved with determination, loyalty and hard work? May God apply these things to our lives as only He can do!
Amen.
