Hope: Ruth
God Provides a Future
Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. November 7th, 2021
Naomi was a woman without a future. When the famine hit, she and her husband Elimelech left Bethlehem for greener pastures in Moab, a gentile region. There her two sons married Moabite women. Though they lived as strangers in Moab, things were well. Until Elimelech died. And then both of Naomi’s sons in law also passed away. She was left with two daughters in law, relatives by marriage, Orpah and Ruth.
When she heard that God had blessed Bethlehem with good harvests again, she set out to return. On her way back she stopped and told Ruth and Orpah to return to their mothers house, that God might bless them there as they had blessed her. Orpah obeys. Ruth refuses. Ruth famously says, “Where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God; where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you.” Well, who is going to say no to that?
So Naomi returns to Bethlehem with Ruth by her side. Two women without a future. Naomi tells the women of Bethlehem that her name is no longer “Naomi.” She wants to be called Mara. Mara means bitter. She is Bitter because “the Lord has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away fill, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has afflicted me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”
In those days a woman’s place in society was secured by the man to which they belonged. Without “belonging” to a man they had no standing. A young woman belonged to her father and his family. A married woman belonged to her husband and his family. A widow was in a very precarious situation. If no one in the broader family would take her in, she might have no one to protect or care for her. She might be left totally vulnerable. This is why the early Church put so much emphasis on caring for the orphan and the widow. Orphans and widows have no one to care for them. But the Church could be their family.
So this is Naomi’s sad state: her husband is dead as are her sons. All who remains with her is a foreigner, Ruth, whose situation is also precarious. Will she be accepted as a member of Israel? Can she find someone to take her in? Is there a future for Ruth and Naomi in Bethlehem? Or is there no future for them at all? Are they left to struggle to get by?
The was also a law in those days that allowed the resident alien and poor to glean the fields after the harvest. So Naomi sent Ruth to go out and glean for them that they might have something to eat. While she was out in the field a man by the name of Boaz noticed her. Remarkably he took Ruth under his wing, told her to follow the harvesters directly, to not to go any other field, and that he would do all he could to protect her and make sure she was well supplied. When Ruth went home with more than enough food and told Naomi what had happened, Naomi explained to Ruth that Boaz was a member of the family. He could be the one to take them in. He could be their kindred redeemer.
That is what brings us to today’s reading. Naomi sees the possibility of a future, but it relies on the goodwill of Boaz and the promptings of God. He tells Ruth to enter the threshing floor after he was well satisfied with food and drink. And while he’s asleep, lay down at his feet. And then, explain her situation and ask him to marry her. Remarkably, shockingly, Boaz agrees to that arrangement on the condition that a man with a greater right to redeem her allows for it. Which he does.
Ruth, and Naomi, who at first seemed to have no future, are now given a future. And a remarkable one. Because Ruth and Boaz don’t simply settle down. It’s not just that Naomi has a grandchild in her old age. But that child’s name is Obed. And Obed was the father of Jesse. And Jesse the father of King David. And, as Paul Harvey might say, now you know...the rest of the story.
Naomi and Ruth were women without a future, without a place. It would have been easy for them to give up. Naomi, at one point, sounds like she is there. But their persistence meets God’s providence. If Ruth had given up there would be no Obed. If there were no Obed there would be no David. No David there is no line that leads, ultimately to Jesus. In a very real sense, Jesus is born because Naomi and Ruth have hope. Hope in a future they cannot see. Hope in a future that seems to have been lost. A hope beyond hope. But it is granted to them.
Paul says we do not hope in what we see. Hope in what is seen is not hope. But we hope in what is unseen. That is what makes hope such a gift from God. It is our trust and reliance in God to give us the future that he has promised. Ruth and Naomi are two such people who practice that hope when all else seems lost. A hope God would have for each and every one of us no matter how dark the future might seem.