Ruth
Ruth Chapters 1 and 2 Read it here
Ruth brings welcome relief from the dark and disturbing end of Judges with a love story—not only a story of romantic love but also of love between friends, between family and love of God.
Unlike most of the stories of the era, it’s not about a judge, but about a somewhat unremarkable family that lived in the “days when the judges ruled.”
Where Judges ended with stories of the worst part of those days, Ruth presents the best of the era.
The story starts with a couple, Elimelek and Naomi, who, along with their two sons, are refugees in Moab during a time of famine.
While they are there, Elimelek dies and the two sons marry Moabite women.
In time, the two sons die.
Naomi learns that the famine has subsided and prepares to return home. She urges her daughters-in-law to return to their own families in hopes of being able to marry again.
One, Orpah, reluctantly leaves her, but the other, Ruth, decides to return. This leads to the best-known quotation from the book, “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.”
While we often hear that quoted at weddings, it’s original use was as a statement of deep friendship. In a sense, Ruth is grafting herself into Naomi’s family in her own right, not just as a daughter-in-law.
Once back in Naomi’s hometown of Bethlehem, Ruth goes out to glean grain…to pick remnants after the harvest. She goes to the field of Boaz, a relative of Naomi who is one of the heads of the family. He sees and befriends her.
In complimenting her faithfulness to Naomi, he says, “May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
Boaz also provides refuge for Ruth, inviting her to work with the women he employs to harvest grain.