There are countless seemingly inconsequential moments throughout history that, had it happen just a little different, the world would be a much different place.
Take Field Castor. The story goes that he wanted to play professional baseball, so he tried out for an American baseball team. The team said he wasn’t cut out for the game, so he went into politics.
Or Archduke Ferdinand, who an assassin was supposed to kill, but missed his opportunity, only for the Archduke’s driver to make a wrong turn, which brought the Archduke back to the assassin.
Then there’s the story of the last minute crew master replacement on the Titanic. The crew master forgot to turn over a key to the binocular’s locker to his replacement, so no one saw the iceberg coming.
A big one comes from the life of Adolf Hitler, who, as the story goes, at the age of six experienced horrible nightmares. A doctor recommended that he be placed in a mental institution, but his parents decided against it, because they didn’t want anyone to find out that he was being abused by his father.
How about one more that doesn’t end badly. Supposedly there was a butler in the country of Turkey who was serving the British Ambassador. The butler found out about the Allies’ plans for D-Day and presented them to the Germans only for the Germans to believe he was unreliable.
Small moments throughout history can cause monumental waves.
It’s one of these seemingly small moments that brings us to our final week in our summer Judges series, where we are going to be looking at the whole of the book of Ruth.
And as we open up to the book of Ruth, we need to understand where the book of Judges leaves off. As a whole the book of Judges shows us about a 400 year window of the nation of Israel. We see the denigration of the society to the point where sinfulness is active in all areas of life. Where God is sought for help at the beginning, but by the last sentence in the book, only man’s own desire is looked to. Because of this, Judges ends with a gut punch, where there is no hope to be found; Israel seems lost.
Yet, hope is not lost. We’ve talked about it before, when we read a verse, we must read that verse in the context of the other, at least, thirty verses that surround it. Ten verses around, ten verses before, and ten verses after. And our mantra when doing this is, “context is king.” Meaning that to understand a verse we must understand it’s context first. But it doesn’t stop with the thirty verses, we must understand the chapters that surround those verses, and the book that the verses are found in. But there’s an even bigger step to understand one verse, and that’s the placement of the book within Scripture. Ruth is one of those books.
Ruth is a book that really makes no sense, when you think about the flow of the Scriptures. The first seven books of the Bible tell the story from the creation of the universe to the creation of Israel, and it’s eventual establishment as a nation in the land of Canaan. Many different stories are told over a period of several thousand years. Skipping Ruth, the next eight biblical books continue the story of Israel; it’s movement from a theocracy to a monarchy, it’s split into two nations, it’s downfall, exile and eventual return to the land. Ruth sits as an anomaly of a story about an individual that could have easily been tacked onto Judges, or tacked onto the first book of Samuel. Yet it is purposefully left as a stand alone. Why? Well let’s walk through the book. Starting in chapter 1, verse 1.
“1 In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech (i-lem-a-leck) and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon (ma-lon) and Chilion (keel-le-on). They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. 3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, 5 and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.”
The book of Ruth takes place sometime during the time period of the book of Judges. And like the book of judges, the beginning of Ruth follows the last two stories about the Levites. Like the Levites, Elimelech, who’s name means “my God is king,” leaves the national boundaries that God had given him. And like the people in judges, his sons marry foreign women, who are not Israelites.
Following this, both Elimelech and his sons die, which would seem like divine judgment because he is in living in opposition to what God has commanded. The same opposition that we have become accustomed to throughout the book of Judges. But it’s at the death of the three male members of this household that things changed. Naomi, the wife, decides to go home and releases her daughter-in-laws to return to their people. Where one eventually leaves, Ruth decides to stay, saying this in verses 16-17 of chapter 1, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17 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.”
This is a monumental statement because Ruth isn’t just deciding to stay with Naomi, but rather, she is rejecting her whole culture and religion to embrace the nation of Israel and their God Yahweh. It’s also an oath, which usually doesn’t go over well in the book of Judges, yet with Ruth it’s not a sinful oath, but an oath of loyalty.
From here to the 18th verse of chapter 3, we get a love story. Ruth is sent out to the fields to gather the droppings from the harvest, a practice which allowed the poor in the community to survive by working for their food. And it just so happens that the man’s field she is working in is also related to her deceased husband. Boaz is his name and he is an older man. He is referred to as a worthy man, which is the same language spoken about Gideon by the Angel of the Lord in the book of Judges.
Boaz is obviously attracted to Ruth and so treats her really well, protecting her from any assaults by younger men and giving her extra provisions, though knowing full well she’s out of his league. But Naomi recognizes what’s going on and she instructs Ruth to pursue Boaz for marriage in a traditional way that would not taint their relationship with sin. This is why the same words that describe Boaz as worthy are used for Ruth as well (3:11).The whole thing is perfect, because Boaz is a relative, he is in a position called a kinsmen redeemer. This was a custom and law placed down by God to protect women and to continue family lines. A kinsmen redeemer would be the closest relative to the deceased man, who would then take on the widow to provide both a child for the linage of the deceased and financial stability.
Though Boaz is delighted at the proposition to marry Ruth, there is another closer relative that would be entitled. So from the beginning of chapter 4, Boaz seeks to have the other kinsmen release his position, so that Boaz may take it. And it happens. Boaz and Ruth are able to marry. And by verse 17 of chapter 4, not only are they married, but they bear a son named Obed, who’s name means, “servant of God.”
And so the last six verses end with connecting Obed to King David, ending the era of Judges, not on a sour note, but a hope for the dynasty of God’s chosen king. And in turn, looking back from this side of the cross, we see that servant of God, isn’t just pointing to David, but the eventual Messiah Jesus.
This is why the anomaly book of Ruth is placed where it is. It’s the work of the Holy Spirit who shapes the Scriptures to show us, that in the midst of the judges’ corruption, God is still working. That there are still people seeking God, and he uses them to bring about his good plans. Ruth is the furthest thing from a hero that the Israelite people would have thought they needed as Elimelech left Bethlehem. She was a foreigner and unworthy of covenant of God. Yet God used her, because she had forsaken the pagan ways of her culture. She sought to live under the covenant of Yahweh. She lived God’s righteousness, by honoring her mother-in-law. She lived purity in how she dealt with Boaz. And through it, God redeemed her, her family, and the whole world through the sacrifice of Jesus.
The book of Ruth stands in the middle of two eras of Israelite history, and at the center of her story, is that redemption of Israel and the world. Mary and Jospeh both come from the lineage of Ruth, the Moabite, non-Israelite woman, who made a commitment to Naomi and her God.
Because of that righteous act, we can stand today in the forgiveness and grace given through Jesus. We’ve talked a lot about how one sinful act can effect generations to come, well one righteous act, can break those curses.
God is calling his people to the path that Ruth took. The path of his righteousness, that leads through the cross of grace to the eternal life in Jesus. It’s the path that all must go to if they are to receive eternal life. And once on that that path every Christian must point others to it as well.
My challenge for you this week is this, whatever you’re going through, seek the path of Ruth, the path that leads through the cross and to Jesus into eternity. In your bulletins there is a small picture with a path and cross to which it leads. Place it somewhere where you will see it as times of trouble come. Maybe on a TV or computer, when you see the horrors of the world, seek God’s peace. Or maybe on your door frame as you go out, to remind you to seek Jesus’ path of righteousness as you interact with the world.
God is calling all people to the path that Ruth walked; a path that leads to the Savior, a path that leads to eternal life. Let us all be found on that path. Amen.
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