True Love
Selections from Ruth 1 and 4
Rev. Randy Quinn

During Bible Study this week, I somewhat jokingly said I should just read the entire story of Ruth for you today.  For those who haven’t read it in some time, you might enjoy the opportunity to hear it again.  For those who have never read it, you might find it a delightful story of the power of love to transform life.

And while I think it is worth doing, I decided instead to recommend it for your afternoon reading today – it shouldn’t take most of you more than 20 minutes to do.

For now, I’ll tell some of the story using a few selections from the book along with my own re-interpretation of it for the world in which we now live.

And let me say first off, that I think the name of the book should be changed from “Ruth” to “Naomi” because the story itself is about how Naomi’s life is changed because of Ruth’s love and commitment.

The story begins with an introduction to Naomi, whose name might be captured in the English nickname her husband may have called her:  Sweety (maybe, he called her Honey).  Naomi means sweetness or pleasant.  She and her husband moved to Moab.  It would be like moving from Lawrence to Manhattan – or maybe Manhattan to Lawrence if you are from the opposite side of the state divide.

Read Ruth 1:1-5.

Naomi decides to return to her home town and encourages her surviving daughters-in-law to go to their respective home towns.  But Ruth insists that her family is Naomi’s family, that her home is Naomi’s home (Ruth 1:16-17).  Her love for her mother-in-law will not allow her to abandon her.

In January, 2004, my cousin died in Iraq, leaving his young wife and a three-year old daughter behind.  It’s a tribute to my aunt Sharon that Pat’s wife feels more at home with her than with her own family.  Maybe it’s because both Sharon and Jamie miss Pat; they share a common bond of love with him, after all.

Their lives will never be the same, but at least they have a future.  And Sharon continues to be a part of her granddaughter Brisa’s life.

But in the days of Ruth and Naomi, the life of a widow was almost always one without hope.  It was a harsh life in the best of circumstances – especially if there were no children.  The Law of Moses made specific considerations for widows and orphans so they wouldn’t be destitute, but there is also ample evidence in the scriptures that those laws weren’t always honored – I think of the widow Elisha helped, for instance, or the railing by some of the prophets (see 2 King 4:1 and Ezekiel 22:7).

In trying to persuade her daughters-in-law to return to Moab, Naomi refers to one of those laws, the law that requires the husband’s brother to take in his widow and if there is no brother, then it is the father-in-law who is to care for and provide for the widow (Deut. 25:5-10).

The law is described in a variety of places, but generally, the inheritance of the dead man goes with the widow and to any subsequent children she may have – not to the family who takes the role of caring for the widow.  This was to prevent someone from killing a relative, taking their land, and allowing for a larger estate to be handed on to their own children.

Naomi knows there are no male relatives to whom she can turn.  What little property her husband still had would not provide enough for the two of them, and no one would want to tend the land for what little benefit there would be.

So they were left to fend for themselves.  It is so bleak, in fact, that Naomi tells people to call her Mara instead of Naomi – since Mara means “bitter.”  Her life experience went from “sweetness” to “bitterness.”

Read Ruth 1:20-21.

But God had not forsaken her, nor had her daughter-in-law, Ruth.

The built-in safety net of the Law of Moses was still there to protect her.  The safety net may have been ripped in places, but it was still there.  Besides the law that required family members to include widows into their home, there were also laws that allowed the poor to survive without the benefit of a home or a farm or a job.  The most familiar of those are the gleaning laws (Deut. 24:29-22).

For those who are not familiar with the law, it recognizes that farmers will miss some of the crops as they harvest.  Some will not be quite ripe enough, some will be harder to reach.  Even today, with the best of equipment, not every fruit or vegetable or tassel of grain is gathered in.  There is always a small portion left in the field.

The gleaning laws forbade the farmer from returning to the same field and harvesting it again.  He was to leave whatever was missed for the poor.

Naomi was fortunate because she still had Ruth on her side.  And Ruth was a hard worker.  She became one of the numerous gleaners in the rich barley harvest that year.  The yields were so high, that some of the farmers knew they could not store all of their grain.  So they left even more in the fields than normal.

God had not abandoned them.  There would be plenty to eat.  Ruth was able to glean enough for herself as well as her mother-in-law.

One of the farmers, a man by the name of Boaz, came and watched the gleaners as they worked.  Maybe he was looking for people he might want to hire the next year; maybe he came to ensure his own hired hands weren’t taking advantage of the gleaners.  He came to watch (Ruth 2:4).

And Boaz noticed Ruth (Ruth 2:5).  Now, I’m sure there were some who wondered what right this foreigner had to work in their fields, but Boaz seemed to notice her for other reasons.  You can read the story yourself, but it almost seems as though Boaz wonders why such a beautiful young woman is gleaning.  What family chose to leave her to fend for herself?

The truth of the story is that she was a foreigner.  And Naomi’s family didn’t want Naomi because she had allowed her sons to marry foreign women.  Taking care of Naomi would obligate them to also feed her foreign daughter-in-law, Ruth.

It was the equivalent of a K-Stater marrying a Jayhawk.  Family tensions would simply be too high for some families to live with.  J

OK, so it’s more like a man who works for the INS dealing with a son who marries an illegal alien – and then has to deport his daughter-in-law and grandchildren when his son dies.  The next of kin was in a bind, and it was easy to ignore his responsibilities rather than live with the consequences.

Ruth raised too many questions for some people, but not for Boaz.  He was willing to care for her and provide for her – and for her mother-in-law, Naomi.

Boaz inquires about her family.  He finds the kinsman who has neglected his responsibility to his family and asks if he can be the man who provides for Naomi and Ruth.

Read Ruth 4:1-17

“A son has been born [not to Ruth but] to Naomi” (Ruth 4:17).

She is no longer Mara, no longer bitter.  She is now Naomi; she is now someone’s sweet grandmother.

Because of Ruth, Naomi’s story is changed.  Because of Boaz, Naomi’s future is different.

In much the same way, our story has been changed because of the numerous men and women who have served our country.  We are free because of their willingness to sacrifice their time and talent, their energy and their dreams set aside for the sake of us all.

The story of Ruth is really about Naomi and her plight.  But the hero of the story is Ruth who makes a commitment to her mother-in-law, and Boaz who uses the rule of law to provide for both Ruth and Naomi.

It’s a love story I encourage you to read today.  It’s about the love of a woman and her mother-in-law as well as the love of a rich man and a peasant girl.  The love they have binds them together and is the real beginning of the story of King David.

For their story, for God’s love revealed in their love, I give thanks today.

Amen.