February 11 - Ruth & Boaz

February 11 - Ruth & Boaz

The one thing we become aware of immediately regarding Boaz is his generosity. He saw her gleaning in the barley fields and asked about her. When he discovered who she was (Naomi's daughter-in-law), he gave her quite a bit of protection. The author of this book was telling a story, but some of his words are almost poetic.

"May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge." (Ruth 2:12)

Isn't that beautiful? He offered her gratitude for the sacrifices she had made for his kinswoman (he was a relative of Elimilech, Naomi's husband - Ruth 2:1). He then asked his workers to leave stalks for her to pick up which allows her to gather quite a bit and after the meal that he invited her to share with him, she had some leftovers that she could take back to Naomi.

Naomi discovers who the man is and tells Ruth that he is one of their kinsman-redeemers. We find in Deuteronomy 25:5-10 the responsibilities of the family when a husband dies. The closest relative is to take the wife into his home. He also purchases the land and in this way redeems it so that it does not leave the family.

In Ruth 4, we find that there is actually another man who would be a closer relative than Boaz. In a smooth political move, he brings the matter to a council of elders and invites the other relative to redeem the land from Naomi. Then, he lets this poor man know that not only will he be redeeming the land, but getting the dead man's widow - in this case, Ruth, who is of marrying age.

That scared the relative, who did not need to place his own estate in danger. I suspect there was a wife back home who didn't want the competition. Boaz knew exactly what he was doing and created a situation by which he legally redeemed the land, kept Naomi's (and Elimilech, as well) name on it and was able to marry Ruth.

Part of this redemption process meant that their first-born son would be pledged to Ruth's dead husband's family. In many cases, this was a difficult thing for the redeemer-kinsman to accept. Which is why in Ruth 4:17, the women bring Ruth's first child to Naomi and say "Naomi has a son."

But, because of his generosity and his love for his new wife and her mother-in-law, Boaz' name goes down in history as the father of Obed, whose son Jesse would father the greatest King of Israel, David.