Not all the epic tales in the Old Testament are filled with action and adventure. Not all tales talk about lions, giants and whales. Today we are going to look at an epic love story, and it fits our Starship Enterprise setting because it involves people who boldly go to lands they had never gone to before. This Epic Tale is the story of Ruth. One of only two books in the Bible named after women.
Once again, to understand the story of Ruth we need to understand the back story. The tale begins when a drought hit the land of Israel. A good Jewish family left their home and country and traveled to a new and strange land in search of food. Elimelech and his wife Naomi, and their two sons, left Bethlehem and traveled to the land of Moab. Today, Moab is part of Jordan on the east side of the Jordan River.
Once they arrived in Moab, things went from bad to worse. First Elimelech died and left Naomi a widow. Her sons both married Moabite women but neither one of them had children. After living in Moab for 10 years, both of Naomi’s sons died. So over the past 10 years, Naomi lost her home in Israel, she lost her husband, her sons both got married and never had children, so when her sons died she had no heir and the burden of caring for two daughters-in-law. She has lost everything.
Perhaps you have been in Naomi’s situation where things have gone from bad to worse. You lose a job, then maybe a home. You lose relationships, your health suffers. Or maybe all of this happens and you find yourself alone living a life you never wanted. If you haven’t actually been there, you might have felt like you have. We all face moments of feeling lost and alone. We all face dark days when nothing seems to be going the way we thought it would or wanted it to. We often end up feeling bitter towards the world and toward God.
Naomi was bitter. In fact, she changed her name from Naomi which means pleasant, to Mara which means bitter. Naomi once had a pleasant life but now she feels that God has made it bitter. She thinks God has let her down, so she changes her name.
“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” Ruth 1:20-21
Naomi feels empty and alone. She wonders why the Lord hasn’t protected her and provided for her. She has gone from pleasant to bitter. I know what you are thinking, this hardly seems like a love story, but this is actually where the love begins.
As Naomi plans to return to Israel, hoping that one of her relatives might take her in and care for her, she tells her daughters in law to stay in Moab and return to their families.
Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”
But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!” Ruth 1:8-13
In the Jewish tradition, it was the responsibility of a younger brother to take in the widow of an older brother and make her part of his family. The goal was for the two of them to have a son that could be considered an heir of the older brother. But Naomi has no more sons and she is too old to have another child and even if she did, her daughters-in-law would have to wait too long for that son to care for them. Naomi sent her daughters-in-law back home so someone in their own family would take care of them. One daughter-in-law went, she returned to her family, but one daughter-in-law stayed. Ruth refuses to go, and this begins the epic story of love.
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 even death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. Ruth 1:16-18
Maybe you've heard this read at a wedding. Where you go, I will go. Where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God. Ruth was giving up everything she had to go with Naomi. She saw how lost and alone Naomi was and refused to leave her. Her love would not let her forsake Naomi.
Does this kind of love sound familiar? It should, because this is the love that God has for us. God saw how lost and alone we were and how we needed someone to be with us and care for us. God loved us so much that He came in the person of Jesus to be with us in this world. Jesus came to go where we go and to stay where we stay. The love of Ruth reflects the love of God seen in Jesus because Jesus left His home in heaven to walk with us. Jesus gave up all He knew and all He had to walk with us. Jesus saw us lost in sin and came to provide for us a way out. And the only reason Jesus did all this is because of His epic love for you and me.
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
The story of Ruth is an epic love story because it points us to the love of Jesus. Ruth loved Naomi completely and unconditionally and walked with her through the bitter times of her life. Her love brought Naomi comfort and peace, but the epic love of this story isn’t done yet.
Naomi and Ruth travel back to Bethlehem where Naomi had some distant relatives. Her hope was that one of them would show them compassion and take them in.
Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”
Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. Ruth 2:1-3a
One of God’s commands to His people was to not harvest the fields to the very edge. They were to leave produce and grain along the fringes and whatever fell to the ground was to be for the poor and hungry. This is called gleaning. So Naomi sent Ruth out to glean so that they would both have food. It was the love of God that directed Ruth to the field of one of Naomi’s relatives. Once again, God’s love was not letting Naomi down.
As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek. Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you!”
“The Lord bless you!” they answered.
Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?”
The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”
So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.” Ruth 2:3b-9
Boas learned that Ruth was gleaning to provide food for herself and Naomi and he told her to stay in his fields and that he would not only provide food and water for her, but he would protect her as well. Boaz was so moved by the love Ruth showed to her mother-in-law who came from a different land and culture that he extended his love to her. Through Boaz, God’s love was poured out to both Naomi and Ruth.
Ruth returned to Naomi with armloads of food and told her all that had happened and that the field she was in and the man who helped her was Boaz.
Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said. “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.” Ruth 2:19b-20
Naomi suddenly understood that God had not forgotten her. She said, the Lord has blessed me. God had not left her alone but sent Ruth directly to one of the family members who could take them in. A guardian redeemer was an influential person in a family who could help a family member in a time of distress. Guardian redeemers could buy back land that had been taken. They could buy back family members who might have been enslaved due to outstanding debts. They could seek justice for family members who were injured or killed, and in Naomi and Ruth’s case, they could provide an heir for a widow when a husband died and there was no brother to take her in. Families could have several guardian redeemers but it was the responsibility of the closest one to care for the family member in need.
God sent Ruth to one of Naomi’s guardian redeemers and Naomi saw this as an act of God. When Naomi said, He has not stopped showing His kindness to the living and the dead, she wasn’t talking about Boaz, she was talking about God. Naomi now realized that God had not forgotten her. Once she was dead, but now she was alive. Once she was empty with no husband, no son, and no future, but God had not forgotten her. God directed Ruth to a relative who could protect and provide for them.
This is an epic story of love because not once but twice, when Naomi felt lost, alone and forgotten by God, God provided for her. First God provided Ruth to go with her, and then God provided Boaz to give them a new life. This is what we need to learn from this epic love story. God’s love is there for us in times of need AND God’s love is there for us always.
During those bitter times when nothing seems to be going well and we feel completely forgotten and forsaken by God and the world, we need to remember that God’s love is there for us AND it will always be there for us. God’s love doesn’t lead us just part of the way and some of the time. God’s love is always there and always will be there. Even when we are the ones who have turned away, God’s love is still there.
If you feel like you are all alone, let me assure you that you aren’t. God is right there. That is the message we hear in Psalm 139.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you. Psalm 139:7-12
For Naomi, the darkness of bitterness didn’t keep God away. God sent Ruth to go with her and God sent Ruth to the field of Boaz. God’s love was actively at work both protecting and providing for Naomi. God directed them to a man who could bring them back into the family, and that is exactly what Boaz did.
After a long day of threshing barley, Boaz fell asleep on the threshing floor. Ruth went and slept at his feet. When Boaz woke up and saw Ruth there, he knew she was asking him to take both her and Naomi into his home and family. Boaz was again so moved by Ruth’s love for Naomi that he agreed to be their guardian redeemer, but he first had to get permission from the guardian redeemer who was a closer relative to Naomi.
Boaz got permission to redeem Ruth and the epic love story ends as they all should end with everyone living happily ever after.
So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”
Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. Ruth 4:13-17a
When Ruth had a son, it gave Naomi a son as well. For Naomi and her husband and brothers' name to live on, they needed a son. Ruth and Boaz gave them that son. In many ways that son was as much Naomi’s as it was Ruth’s. Naomi went from being full to empty to full again because God’s love was with her.
As I was talking about this story with Jeff last week, he said something that I had never thought of. He mentioned how eager Boaz was to care for Ruth and Naomi. Boaz heard about Ruth’s dedication and loyalty and immediately began to provide them both with food and protection. His love for Ruth grew when she came seeking his help and Boaz went out of his way to accept the position of guardian redeemer. He didn’t marry her out of duty or obligation. He was eager to marry her because he loved her.
Once again, this is a reflection of God’s love for us. God doesn’t forgive us out of duty or obligation. God doesn’t walk with us just because He promised to and now He can’t go back on that promise. God eagerly and passionately wants to save us. God will not be content until He finds us. Jesus is the good shepherd who will leave the 99 sheep to go out and find the one that is lost. God is relentless in His love and eager to save. Not only is God’s love there for us in times of need and always will be, but God is eager to love us.
God is passionate about you right now. God can not love you any more than He does right now. If you are feeling bitter about life, know that God is eager to love you. If you are feeling weighed down by sin or guilt or shame, God is eager to love you. If you are living in darkness and despair and see no light, God is eager to love you. And if you are feeling loved by God right now, God is eager for you to know more of His love. Both Ruth and Boaz point us to the love of Jesus. This book is an epic story of God’s love for us. But it doesn’t end there. There is one final act of love to come.
The child of Ruth and Boaz was Obed and Obed was the father of Jesse. Remember Jesse? We talked about him last week. He was the man who had 8 sons, the youngest being David who Samuel anointed King of Israel. It is only the epic love of God that turns a hopeless situation like the one Naomi and Ruth were in into a story that gives us the greatest King of Israel. And don’t forget that it is from the line of David that Jesus came into the world. So what was once dead and dark - Naomi and Ruth’s life in Moab, literally becomes life and light.
This is an epic love story that can take place in your life because Jesus still turns darkness to light, and God is eager to redeem you and bring you life and life eternal.
Next Steps
Epic Tales - Ruth
Read the Book of Ruth. Name all the ways Naomi was “full” when she left Bethlehem and “empty” when she returned.
● Have there been times you have felt this empty?
Ruth was the beginning of God showing His epic love to Naomi.
● How does Ruth reflect the love of Christ?
● What does Ruth say and do that point us to Jesus?
● What decisions and actions can you take that would help others experience God’s love and see Jesus?
Returning to Bethlehem, Naomi still felt bitter.
● Why was she not able to see God’s love in Ruth?
● What keeps you from seeing God’s love in your life?
Trace the ways we can see God at work when Naomi and Ruth return to Bethlehem. What does this tell us about God’s love?
Have there been times God has loved and directed you even when you were bitter and unbelieving?
Boaz was one of Naomi’s guardian-redeemers. He brought Naomi back into the family and gave her a future by giving her a grandson. He also welcomed Ruth, a Moabite, into the family of God.
● How does Boaz point us to the work of Jesus?
● How does Jesus bring us back into the family of God?
● How does Jesus give us a future?
● How does Jesus open the family of God to all nations and people?
How do we see the eagerness of Boaz in the story? What does this tell you about the love and passion God has for you?
What does Ruth in the line of David (and the lineage of Jesus) tell us about God’s love and desire for all to be saved?
