The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/ruth/1.htm

I’ll start on bent knee and red-faced because I’ve made a mistake. You see, Ruth’s life paralleled the life of Gideon, so if we’re studying the Bible chronologically, we should have studied Ruth in the middle of the Book of Judges. Yes, we should have.

It wasn’t the Bible timeline that was wrong, it was me. So we’ll pretend that we are now studying about Ruth in between Gideon and Japhthah.

The Book of Ruth is just four short chapters, and I can read it in less than 30 minutes. Hollywood on the other hand, had made at least one movie that is about an hour and a half long, about Ruth. And that is because Hollywood is in the entertainment industry, not the church industry. Please study your Bible to learn about Ruth, don’t get your information from Hollywood.

Elimelech was from the tribe of Judah, But because of famine in the land, he moved his family to the land of Moab. Remember this time coincided with Gideon, who when we first met him, was hiding in the winepress to thresh the grain, because Midianites raided the land and stole the harvest. I suspect the “famine” that is spoken about in the Book of Ruth was actually man-made and not necessarily a bad crop year.

While they were in Moab, Elimelech died. And scripture says the two sons took Moabite wives, then they died. The bible doesn’t say why, and it appears as though they were young and died prematurely. I’m going to step away from my “non-theological” study for just a moment and break my own rules. While the Bible isn’t that detailed, it has been suggested that the men of the family protested the worshiping of false idols and especially the sacrifice of children, and actually died at the hands of the Moabites because of their protest. If this is true, then they died for a just cause.

All that was left was Elimelech’s wife, Naomi, and the daughters-in-laws that had married the sons, Ruth and Orpah (no, not Oprah, you don’t get a new car!). So Naomi decided she would return to Bethlehem, a widow. The girls followed Naomi, but she insisted that they turn back and return to Moab as there was nothing for them in Bethlehem, except famine. Orpah (no, not Oprah!) turned around and returned, but Ruth refused.

I’ve seen some good Christian homes where the relationship between a woman and her mother-in-law was perfectly healthy, and maybe it’s just a butt of jokes, but there is seldom mention of a good mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationship. But it is obvious that Ruth loved her mother-in-law Naomi, as she refused to turn back and was set on moving to Judah with Naomi. In fact, in Verses 16 and 17 are what I call a “love poem” from Ruth to Naomi. At the end, she says that nothing will come between them except death; pretty strong words, as strong as a marriage vow, huh?

And even moreso, what says a book within itself, Ruth says, “Your God will be my God”. What a testament to Elimelech and Naomi! Many people entering a foreign land are apprehensive about the culture, and politics, and perhaps doing something that would even go so far as to cost them their life. We’ve all heard about “Turkish” and “Russian” prisons, not to mention North Korea where you could probably be imprisoned and face death just for having the wrong look on your face.

But if Ruth, a Moabite who likely worshiped idols, was willing to start worshiping the God of Abraham, Elimelech and Naomi had to be faithful servant to God. In fact if the men were in fact killed for fighting the Moabite ways, that tells you they did not hide their faith, and they weren’t going to sit around and watch them sacrifice children without trying to stop the practice. This is a testament to Naomi’s character.

And the fact that Ruth was willing to give up her life, walk across a desert to be with Naomi, to remain faithful to her as a family member, to remain with her to care for her in her old age, says a lot about the character of Ruth as well. It is plain to see that the people in the Book of Ruth were chosen by God for this particular mission. He either chose them for their character, or He chose them and molded their character, but the term “God’s Will” is written all over this first short book of Ruth. As we will see, the Man Jesus, the Christ we follow, came through the lineage of Ruth.

So Naomi and Ruth travel by foot across the desert back to Bethlehem,

It was customary in those days to help the poor by allowing them to “glean” from the harvest. Grain was harvested by hand, and there were many factors, as there is today, that requires you to harvest quickly and gather as much as you can without totally clearing the field. And the grain that was left behind was left for the poor who would come in after harvest, and collect the remaining grain. That was one of the Mosaic Laws in place to help those impoverished. And fun fact for you city slickers, there once was an implement make the produced combines called “Gleaner”.

So Ruth asked Naomi about going out to glean some fields so they would have food to eat, and Naomi gave her blessing. And it wasn’t coincidence that Ruth ended up gleaning the fields of a man named Boaz, who was a close relative of Elimelech. And Ruth had to be beautiful because she also caught Boaz’s eye, so much that he asked his servant who she was. When Boaz found out it was a daughter-in-law to Elimelech, he went to Ruth and told her that she should not glean with the poor, but rather she should participate in the harvest with Boaz’s workers so she could collect even more grain. And he also invited her to have lunch with him.

In recent years, this custom has started to fade away, but at one time there was great attention placed on making sure the family name was carried on. As recent as WW2, the military would not draft the last man of the family for fear he would die in battle and the family name would be stopped. That said, it was customary during Biblical days, that if a woman was widowed, a close member of her family was to step in and take her as a wife so she could bear children under the family name and keep it alive.

I don’t believe this was Boaz’s intention, he was just be helpful and kind to a relative, but that was not in God’s plan. God is playing match-maker, making sure that Boaz and Ruth get together.

This entire story of Ruth is God’s Will playing out in real time. The faithfulness and character of Elimelech and his family were strong enough to attract Ruth. And Ruth wasn’t by chance, she was chosen by God for her character.

It was God’s Will that Naomi return to Bethlehem, and it was God’s Will that Ruth marry into the family, accept God as her own, and be dedicated to Naomi and go to Judah with her.

And it was God’s Will that Ruth would meet up with Boaz, as we shall see. And the whole story will lead us in a couple of generations to a man named David who will become one of the greatest Kings of Israel to ever live, and generations later, it will lead to a man named Joseph and a woman named Mary, that were chosen for an extremely important mission.

Yes, the Book of Ruth is short and sweet, but it is packed full of inspiring behaviors we should all aspire to include in our own character.