March 4, 2023 - Ruth 1-4

I love the story of Ruth and Boaz. It is full of inferences regarding God’s gracious provisions and the gospel. Bereaved of her husband, Ruth would not leave her mother-in-law, Naomi, who was also widowed. Orpah (the other daughter-in-law) returned to Moab. Not Ruth! She clung to Naomi and declared to her, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you” (1:16-17). Ruth would not leave Naomi. God will not leave us, his people (see Deuteronomy 31:8; Hebrews 13:5).

Ruth, a Moabitess, was accepted by and provided for by Boaz. She was astonished: “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” (2:10). God has always accepted the foreigner into the number of his people. For us: “Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13).

God provided the kinsman redeemer, Boaz, to marry Ruth and to raise up a son to be of Mahlon’s line in order to redeem the family name and to receive the family inheritance. Naomi said to Ruth, “"My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?” (3:1) And, so, Ruth and Boaz were married, and “the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel!’” (4:14). God has not left us without a Redeemer “who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession” (Titus 2:14).

Thee, Savior, at my greatest need,

I trust my faithful friend to prove:

Now o’er thy meanest servants spread

The skirt of thy redeeming love;

Under the wings of mercy take,

And save me for thy merit's sake.–Charles Wesley (1792)