Thanks to the study from Everyday Faith and author Bejamin Galan
In the story of Ruth, there is loss and suffering, but there is also joy and love,
commitment and hope, and God's power and tenderness in the midst of it all.
It's a story of transformation from death and degradation and disorientation
to fulfillment and love and loyalty.
To start out we need to know the context that this was written in.
There was no king, nobody in charge, everyone did what they wanted to
or what they thought was okay.
It included a tragic cycle of people repenting when they felt like they did something bad
and then going back to doing what got them there in the first place.
There was famine going on, as well, and with no king (normally the person
who would be in charge of providing security and food for everone),
they had to fend for themselves.
During this time, Naomi's husband died, and then 10 years later her two sons did as well.
So being a woman with no husband,
and no sons either to take care of her,
she was on a level where she couldn't even eat with servants.
She was basically a beggar.
So like the story of Job (he lost everything, but being a man in that time,
he was able to take care of himself) she was destitute.
Because she was a wife, she had left her own homeland to start her life with her husband.
So she was even in a place that didn't accept her as their own.
Her daughters-in-law (Ruth and Orpah) were in the same predicament.
Orpah decided to go back to where she was from.
Ruth decided to join Naomi on her journey back to her homeland.
"Your people will be my people, your God my god, wherever you go I will go." (Ruth 1:16-17)
This was a very courageous decision because she didn't know if she would even be
accepted to the land Naomi was from.
But she loved her mother in law and was loyal and committed to her.
During this transition, Naomi changed her name to Mara because Naomi meant "pleasant", but
with eveything that had happened to her she renamed herself "bitter".
There was food in Naomi's homeland (Bethlehem) so she decided to go back.
Ruth was taking a huge chance going with her because she was a foreigner, female, barren and widowed.
But she took it upon herself to care for her mother-in-law.
Naomi/Mara had a relative there on her husbands side who was a man with a good heart and was respected, had his own land, and she felt he would be safe to go to.
The people of Bethlehem knew their connection, and knew that the field Ruth was getting her
grain from was Boaz's plot of land. (Boaz is the family member I talked about.)
The words that are used in Ruth 2 mean that he was known as a worthy man, a man of standing, mighty,
strong, able, powerful, wealthy. He was well-known for his good heart and his leadership.
Socially, Ruth and Boaz were from two completely different ends of the status pole.
His servants loved him because he was gracious and caring.
He noticed that Ruth was gathering wheat because he knew everyone that worked for him.
He let her continue to do say, be protected by the men who worked there,
and share in the water that was provided for the servants as well.
He knew that her social worth was less than a servants, but because of what he did (because he knew
that she would be an easy target for abuse and violence), he made her part of his household.
He brought her to his table to share in his meals.
He actually told his servants to leave extra stalks of wheat and grain behind them for her to take.
Because of this she was able to take enough for herself, and also prepare wheat and grain
ahead of time to take to Naomi/Mara so she wouldn't have to prepare it herself.
Ruth's care and loyalty to her softened Naomi's grief and bitterness.
Boaz had heard about what Ruth was doing for Naomi, and his heart was compassionate towards her.
The way she treated her mother-in-law made Boaz intrigued and softened towards her.
In those times, marriage was an economic thing instead of about love and romance.
Boaz had nothing to gain economically, so there was nothing about Ruth's social status that would
have contributed in that way.
That's another reason it's amazing what he did for her and how he treated her.
It was all about how he saw her commitment to Naomi/Mara.
They were a spiritual match.
She was from Moab, a Moabite, and they usually were one of Isreals worst enemies, but she
acted and behaved like an Isrealite.
Like Boaz.
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