A Story of Redemption: Ruth

Adapted from Sermon from Mountain View Christian Church on May 15, 2016

You know what I find perhaps most interesting about the story of Ruth is how much of it centers on Ruth and Boaz and their love story. Now, I am a sucker for a romantic plotline as much as the next person, but in reality, the love story on display here is so much larger and that is the love story between God and His people. If you work through the metanarrative of the Bible we can see clearly that God desires to be in relationship with His people and He has a plan in action, He is using imperfect people to achieve His perfect purposes. Everything he is doing has a purpose, everything is part of a plan that will bring us back into relationship with Him. Ultimately, it was Jesus and His work on the cross is what brought us back into relationship with God; that is what His work on the cross that redeemed us. But in fact, we can see God’s redemptive work woven into every part of Scripture. A redemption is a release affected by a payment of a ransom, the action of regaining possession of something in exchange for a payment, clearing a debt, or the act of saving. That is what the story of Ruth and Boaz shows us-- God desires to redeem his people.

The book of Ruth opens with the descriptor “in the times of the judges” which tells us a lot even initially. Throughout the book of Judges, we are told repeatedly it was during this time that each person did as they saw fitting which essentially means lawlessness. Once again, we see a faithful God contrasted against his unfaithful people. It was during this time when Naomi and Elimelech left the city of Bethelehem with their sons to live in a foreign land where there was food. While there Elimelech dies leaving Naomi with just her sons. Some time after they marry Moabite women, they too die, leaving all three women alone to fend for themselves. Naomi decided to return home now that the famine is over and both her daughter in laws try come with her. However, she cautioned them that she does not know what the future holds for she has no more sons. Orpah decides to stay while Ruth chooses an uncertain future, uttering her famous words of “your people shall be my people.”

Naomi and Ruth arrive at the beginning of the barley harvest and Ruth is sent out to glean from the corner of fields. We need to understand the situation here… Naomi and Ruth are poor and have no protector, so Ruth resorts to gleaning or basically gathering up the leftovers from the corners of the fields where the men’s knives wouldn’t gather the grains or oats. Interestingly enough, this was a law put in place among the Hebrews for the provision for the poor, yet another example of God’s faithfulness. In time Ruth comes to the field of Boaz who actually sees her and upon learning who she is tells her that she can exclusively glean in his field, with his women and under his protection. When they eat he makes sure she eats her full so she will have energy for her work. He instructs his workers to leave behind extra for her, that would not have been part of the normal gleaning process. He tells her he does this because of her faithfulness to her mother-in-law that the Lord is repaying her in this way.

Ruth works for some time in Boaz’s field until the day Naomi suggests that she would be settled and offers Boaz as an option for his can legally redeem their line through levirate marriage. Ruth is prompted to join Boaz after a night of merry making and lay at his uncovered feet. When Boaz asks who is at his feet, she says “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” This echoes their initial meeting when Boaz said “The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.” Ruth uses similar language to Boaz to suggest that he is the fulfillment of Ruth’s coming under the Lord’s wings. Boaz’s power to redeem her gives him the ability to fulfill this blessing. Boaz’s redemption of Ruth would justify her trust in the Lord.

It is perhaps here where we see the greatest contrast between this story and the story of Judah and Tamar. While Judah failed to live up to his responsibilities to Tamar, Boaz does not hesitate. He acts honorably and knowing that there is actually one closer relative, acts decisively to make sure that whether he redeems Naomi’s land or the other man does that, Naomi and Ruth will be taken care of. Ultimately, the other man is unwilling to redeem the land and marry Ruth so it is left to Boaz who fulfills his promises and their son Obed continued on the line of Judah.

In this story, we see Boaz as a redeemer in two ways. Firstly, he redeems his dead relative’s land,marries his widow and protects her and provides for her. But he is a redeemer is a more relational aspect as well. The way that Ruth seems to see his redemption of her as an act of love by the Lord gives us that framework for God’s redemptive work among us—it allows us to see that God desires to redeem his people. Here God’s redemptive work plays out in the continuing of Judah’s line but we will see throughout the metanarrative that just as Boaz paid a price for Naomi’s land, so too would God pay a price to buy us or redeem us from our lives of sin. But that is also set again the concept of relationship. We aren’t redeemed out of obligation or out of sin into nothingness. We are redeemed because of God’s great love for us, for us to come out of sin and into relationship that through faith in Jesus Christ allows us to spend eternity with the Creator of the universe. Ruth and Boaz’s faithfulness and relationship show us the beauty and depth of God’s redemptive work, his desire to redeem us.

Consider Titus 2:11-14 which says "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works."

Redemption is a legal transaction, but it is also incredibly beautiful inside the context of relationship. God desires to redeem his people from death, ungodliness, and lawlessness into purity and into his eternal possession. In a way that is so amazing, he has knit that truth into the story of Ruth and Boaz showing us in a way that we can understand that He is working, ever behind the scenes, to redeem His people.

From this passage, we learn that redemption is woven into the very fabric of God’s interaction with humanity. In Genesis, we see that we were created in His image to be in relationship with Him forever. Yet, because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, humankind was plunged into sin and human kind was separated from God. Even from the very beginning we see that God desires for us to be back in relationship with him. He pleads with Cain to overcome the sin crouching at his door, He sends prophets and judges to help his people turn from sin, He sends them into exile and delivers them out of slavery. He never stops trying to redeem his people and we see that most clearly in the person of Jesus, His own son come to pay the price for our sin and redeem us from sin and death and into eternal life.

Additionally, there are often both immediate results and future promises involved in redemption. In the case of both Tamar and Ruth the immediate result was the redemption of their inheritance and the continuance of their husband’s line, a line which would include King David, though he was not the first king of Israel, would one who would teach his people then and us now so much about God. However, the much larger promise was the Messiah that would come from the redeemed line himself, who would deliver His people in the ultimate act of redemption. Ruth and Boaz’s story shows us both an immediate redemption into relationship but also the groundwork for that ultimate redemption wrought on the cross. Perhaps, we can even look forward to a final redemption when Satan is finally banished from this world and God has established the new heavens and new earth. Take some time to consider both the immediate results and future promises of that fact that you have been redeemed and that God continues to work redemption in your life.

Finally, redemption doesn’t always look pretty from our perspective, but it is most gloriously beautiful from God’s. We see the line of Judah preserved once again in this story, just as we did in Tamar’s story. We see Boaz model for us what God’s redemption of us will look like in the person of Jesus. In that, the story of Ruth and Boaz is beautiful and righteous and in some ways contrasts with Tamar’s story which involved broken promises and deception. Yet, in both cases redemption occurs and the line of Judah is continued. Redemption is sometimes beautiful and sometimes it is messy, but it always accomplishes God’s purposes. In the story of Judah and Tamar, we learned that God uses imperfect people to achieve his perfect purposes. That point isn't less true here but we can now fit it into even a large framework of what it means for God to be about His redemptive work. Consider what things God has done in your life that seemed messy and out of control from your perspective but you are now able to see His perfect timing. Remember God desires to redeem his people and He sets about doing it often with imperfect people and in His own timing.