Ruth: The Woman Who Had

It's Woman's History Month! In recognition of that, here are some reflections of one of the great women in the Bible, Ruth. To read her full story, read the book named after her in the Old Testament.

Ruth is a hero.

It is hard to recognize her as one often times. After all, she was a foreigner. Many commentators still say that it was because of her husband’s unfaithfulness in marrying a Hebrew woman that caused his demise. We don’t know how long they were married, but she didn’t provide him with offspring, a wife’s solemn duty. 

Later, back in Israel, many experts in reading the original text recognize that she slept with Boaz as a way to convince him to marry her. On top of all that, she was a beggar, reaping what was not hers.

And yet, so many times in her story, she made choices that glorified God. There are so many places within her story that if she had not, the ancestral line of Jesus would have been broken. 

      1.      If she had not gone with her mother-in-law to a foreign land. If she had done what Naomi had first encouraged her to do…to move back home with her own parents to be remarried. Later in her story, Boaz speaks of her youth and ability to find a young suiter. Remarriage surely was not out of the question. But instead, we find her traveling to a foreign land that culturally disdained such intercultural marriages.

      

      2.      If she had not gone out to the fields. Upon reaching Israel, Naomi quickly finds women to comfort her, and we find her sitting and grieving her many losses. Ruth knows no one, and yet she does not sit and grieve with the only person she knows. Rather, she gets up and gets busy. She goes out and gets working at the most readily available job there is. It is not an easy job. Nor is it safe for a young woman. Boaz quickly recognizes this, and asks his workers to protect Ruth from the many people who would do her harm as she picks the grain that has fallen by chance as the workers harvest the field.

      

      3.      If she had not pursued Boaz. Boaz recognizes that Ruth makes a sacrifice in asking to be his wife. He thanks her for not choosing the young men she could so easily catch.  She does not choose Boaz based on his youth, or his charm. In fact, up to this point we do not hear one conversation between the two of them. Naomi chose Boaz because it will mean an heir to her family, but we never hear Ruth expressing this as a high value. And yet, she loves her mother-in-law enough to sacrifice what she may desire in a husband, for this old man.

She had. 

To this day we remember Ruth, who God used to keep his promise to Abraham. 

The grandmother of the greatest king Israel would ever have until the Messiah. 

The only foreign woman who would have a book in the Bible carry her name. 

One of only four woman who would be mentioned in Jesus’ royal lineage in Matthew. 

She was not royalty like Esther.

 Just a foreign, poor, powerless woman.

 A humble start to a great legend.