“Well, here we go into Moab. What are we doing in Moab? This is not home. Famine, famine, famine. When will Israel return to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!” So the family of Elimelech goes out of the promised land. The sons of Elimelech and Naomi marry foreign women, then, of all things, all of the men of the family die! This certainly was not the goal Naomi envisioned for her life, a good Israelite woman. Then the unexpected, Ruth will not leave Naomi. “Where you go I will go…” Ruth 1:15-18. Poor, no means of support, they pick up the leftovers in a rich man’s field. “Call me Mara, that’s my name.” Naomi is bitter about life, what she expected to happen but didn’t, her sons, all of it.
Then, Boaz, the rich man owns the fields of grain, and he is the “near kinsman,” “close relative,” “kinsman-redeemer,” “redeemer.” Ruth 2:20. Depending on the translation you use, this term may be watered down, mistranslated, or a wonderfully awkward set of terms for GOEL (goh-ail). The GOEL was the “make it right” person in the clan. In the case of a wrongful death, the closest relative of the dead person became the pursuing executioner. In the case of a widow with no children, the closest relative was the man to marry her, take care of her, and have children in the name of the deceased husband, a custom strange to our culture, but well known and quite a humiliation for the one who refused to help her. Boaz could “redeem” Ruth and make everything right, even better than it was! Yet one more unknown remains, one more obstacle to redemption and a new and true love. As you will read tomorrow, unless you peeked or already know, the greatest surprise and blessings are yet to come.
Bent and twisted, how horrible a life, she made her way through the crowds, daily doing whatever she could to exist. Life had not turned out the way she envisioned. No one wakes up one day and says, “Say, a life of demon possession, constant pain, deformity and disability, that’s for me!” How she must have prayed, suffered, waited and wondered, “Why me!” Then on the Sabbath, wonderful day of worship, she still hobbles to the synagogue. Why? What had God done but leave her so deformed and possessed? What blessing should she expect? Yet, what a marvelous, moving, scene, she still comes, she still worships, she still knows that life with the God of promise, serving him, is the only life, there is no other. Then Jesus sees her. Life will never be the same, thanks to the God of heaven and earth!
Life does not always turn out the way we thought it would. Sometimes it is better, sometimes much worse. We never set out in a day to be famine stricken, bereft of family, bent and tortured, or just plain old blue and disappointed. Life is not what we think it will be. Yet there is one constant: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the God of freedom from Egypt, the God of the promised land; that God who truly is our Redeemer in the midst of broken dreams and lives that didn’t turn out the way we thought they should. 2 Cor. 4:16-5:7.
Question: How will your faithfulness handle the unexpected things of this day? How prepared are you to remain constant until the blessing comes?