Ruth

One of my (new) favorite books of the Bible: Ruth. I've been told the story of Ruth many times as a kid, but I never really understood it/gave it much thought. Maybe it was because there was a slight language barrier between the person telling me (Chinese church and Asian adults with heavy Chinese accents..) and/or I just didn't care... but recently I've been reading through Ruth and it was as if I had never read it or heard it before.

I encourage you to take a look at it as well, but I'm going to summarize it anyway. Basically it starts off about a woman named Naomi and her husband and two sons. They had to leave Judah and move to the land of the Moabites because of a famine. However, her husband dies. Then, her two sons marry Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. But eventually, her sons die as well and Naomi is left alone with her two daughter-in-laws. With nothing left, Naomi decides to return to her homeland of Judah alone. Orpah and Ruth try to convince her to bring them with her, but Naomi insists that they return to their own families and Orpah eventually gives in. Ruth, however, is adamant about staying with Naomi. So Naomi lets her stay and they both return to Judah together. When they reach Judah, Ruth went out into the fields to glean wheat behind the harvesters. Turns out, the field she worked in belonged to Boaz. Boaz showed her extreme kindness. He even elevated her to the status of one of his servant girls because he has heard about her and what she's done for Naomi. When Ruth returned to Naomi that night, she told Naomi all that had happened and Naomi told her that Boaz is their kinsman-redeemer. In chapter 3, Naomi gives Ruth really specific (and kind of strange..) instructions on how to approach Boaz. Boaz offers to be their kinsman-redeemer, even though there may be someone closer to their family than he is. Later on, Boaz gathers 10 elders and asks if the first kinsman-redeemer would like to 'redeem' Naomi's family, but he doesn't. So Boaz is able to redeem her family. In the end, Boaz marries Ruth. And eventually, Ruth becomes the great (x2309843) grandmother of Jesus!

Wow ok, sorry that was kind of long. There is so much in this short book, and so I'm probably only touching the surface of it all, but this is what I got from it when I read it. First, what stood out to me was the contrast between Naomi and Ruth and their reactions to what is going on in their lives. Both of them has led hard lives, no doubt about it. Both of them lost their husbands and are widows. When Naomi and Ruth return to Judah, Naomi tells her people who recognize her, to call her "Mara" which means "bitter" because "the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me." I don't know about you, but it seems to me as if Naomi is kind of dwelling on how awful her situation was. But Ruth, Ruth showed Naomi an incredible amount of sacrificial love, in spite of her circumstances. When she was widowed, she could have returned home to her family, to the Moabites, to everything that may have been familiar to her. But instead, she begs of Naomi, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." (1:16-17). I mean, if we think about it, Ruth's situation in life was hard. It seemed like everything was against her-- not only would she have been treated poorly because she was a widow, she could have been harmed because she was a foreigner. What stands out to me is that Ruth actually took refuge in God, rather than becoming bitter at Him! In 2:11, Boaz says to her, "I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband-- how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 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" This is crazy to me. Naomi was familiar with the God of Israel, after all she wasn't a pagan. She was from Judah! But Ruth was the one who trusted God, and she was from Moab, which is a land averse to the God of Israel, pagans. Because she trusted God, and took refuge under His wings, God rewarded her way beyond what she could have ever imagined. Boaz comes and redeems and restores Naomi's family by marrying Ruth and through marrying Ruth, God rewards them further because eventually, she becomes the great (x2309843)-grandmother of Jesus, and what an honor that is!

The second thing that stands out to me is "kinsman-redeemer". I don't think I've ever heard of this phrase before, and honestly, it sounded kind of silly to me at first. But basically, a kinsman-redeemer is the closest related male of a family who comes in and restores a family in poverty. For Naomi, her kinsman-redeemer was Boaz. A kinsman-redeemer would restore the family by getting all the property and marrying the widow, who in this case was Ruth. A kinsman-redeemer is kind of like Jesus. Jesus comes in and restores our lives because no matter how much we have, we are in poverty. In fact, not only are we in poverty, but we are in sin... and Jesus comes and restores us to who we were originally created to be!

There's so much more to this book that I don't have time to write/think about, like unconditional love, God's sovereignty, etc etc. But, I think one thing I took from reading this is that even when things get tough, when I feel like I'm being pulled into a rip tide of injustice, when everything and everyone is against me, to trust God and to take refuge under His wings. Because He has a bigger plan for me than I could ever imagine and if I just let Him take control, then He will restore me and make me new. I guess that's also my prayer for this summer. When little middle schoolers prefer wandering off on their own, when my teammates and I don't get along, when I get my finger slammed in a door... I need to remember that God has everything under control, and to trust Him, because who knows what He has in store for me throughout this summer!

Wah, no more time! Have to head back to the dorms now. I hope that wasn't thoroughly confusing... maybe I will add a part two. Who knows. But I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!

Later!