This Book: What’s a Type? (Ruth 2 v19-23)

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The story of Ruth doesn’t begin with Ruth. It begins with a famine in the land. 

This story is not about Naomi's wisdom, or Boaz's strength and generosity, or Ruth's faithfulness. It is not a romance or a fable or a legend.  

So what is it? What is this story? And what does it have to say to us today?  

One strong thread running through these events is the thread of “what if?”” 

In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. Judges 21:25

These are the final words of the book of Judges, the time in which Ruth lived. 

What if (follow me on this) what if for some of the people of Israel, what "seemed right in their own eyes” was actually to do what God had told them to do? What if what “seemed right in their own eyes” was actually the Law that God had given them through Moses? What if some people read the Law, and actually got it? What if some of the people dared to imagine that Israel did have a king, and that king was Yahweh God? 

The book of Judges is filled with what happens when people ignore God's Law. What people do to each other when they start defining their own ethical boundaries according to what is most expedient.  

But what if?  

• What if there were people who obeyed a law that commands provision for people who are vulnerable? 

When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop... Leave them for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the LORD your God.  Leviticus 19 v9, Deuteronomy 24 v20

• What if people obeyed a law that commanded provision for widows with no family? 

When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother is to take her as his wife. And the first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. Deuteronomy 25 v5-6  

That may make us, in our culture, uncomfortable. But underlying it is God's concern for the vulnerable: that this woman with no son, no husband, no protection from a very, very harsh world, is kept in the embrace of a family, and her husband's name carries on.  

For a man to refuse to accept that responsibility was to expose himself to a profound shame in his community. He would, from then on, carry the label ‘barefoot,’ forfeiting trust and respect. 

Under the law of Moses, the line of inheritance of land and property went first to sons. If there were no sons, to the daughters. If there were no daughters, to brothers, and to other relatives.  

Naomi’s late husband Elimelech owned land. Before he took his family to Moab (as we understand it) he sold his land to his neighbour, Bob. They both understood that under the Law, in a maximum of 49 years (in the year of Jubilee) the land that Bob had bought would automatically return to Elimelech's family. Any time before the year of Jubilee, Elimelech could negotiate to redeem the land: to buy it back.  

For the 10 years that Elimelech’s family lived in Moab, neighbour Bob was farming the land, earning the profits. When Elimelech died, his sons inherited the land. His sons died, so the land went to the next in line, cousin Fred. When the year of Jubilee came around, the land would automatically return to cousin Fred, not to Naomi. 

Cousin Fred, under the Law, should and could have redeemed the land (pay neighbour Bob the balance of what was left in the deal), and then fold Naomi into his family. But it was a package deal. It wasn't just the land. There was Ruth.  

Cousin Fred wanted the land. He didn't want another wife. 

Naomi was stuck.  

So Boaz challenged cousin Fred: ‘Look, are you going to do the right thing or not?’ 

Cousin Fred said, ‘No, too complicated. You deal with it. I’ve got enough going on.’ He literally and figuratively ‘barefooted’ himself. So the role of kinsman-redeemer fell to Boaz as the next in the family line.  

He redeemed the land. He brought Naomi into his family. He married Ruth and gave her safety, security, and a home. That is how God's Law was intended to work. 

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There's a powerful, beautiful promise that God gives to the family of Israel before they enter into the promised land.  

There will be no poor among you, however, because the LORD will surely bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, if only you obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commandments I am giving you today. Deuteronomy 15 v4-5 

The book of Judges and the book of Ruth stand side by side: one as a bad example, one as a good example. They both ask the question, ‘What if?’  

What if people rejected God's Law?  

What if people actually lived by God's Law?  

What if? Then they both answer the question—this is what it would look like.  

And what do you know? It works.  

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In the New Testament, after Jesus' death and resurrection, Paul writes this:  

The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and foretold the gospel to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” Galatians 3 v8 

Centuries after Abraham’s life, this woman of Moab—the daughter of a nation specifically named by God as not being allowed to go into the tabernacle (Deuteronomy 23 v3–6)--this woman from Moab, of all places, is welcomed by God into his family. She becomes an ancestor of Israel's greatest king, David, who was absolutely allowed to go into the tabernacle. She became an ancestor of Christ himself.  

She belonged to those ‘nations.’ She was made righteous by faith in Yahweh God.  

We—Christ's Church—belong to those ‘nations.’ We are a people made righteous, brought home, redeemed by faith. 

Ruth's life is not a fable. Not a legend. 

But her life points us to the image of all nations on earth saying “Yes” to Yahweh God.  

Her hope is ours. Her faith is ours.  

With her, we know what it means to say,

I am your servant. Spread your wings over your servant. You are my redeemer. Ruth 3:9 

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There is a famine in our land. There is unmet hunger. Hunger for compassion, for empathy, for kindness. Hunger for people and institutions that we can respect and trust. Hunger for information that we can rely on. Hunger for justice, for mercy, for love, for hope. Hunger for wisdom.  

The book of Judges confronts us with some of the worst of who humans can be.  

The book of Ruth confronts us with some of the best of what humans can be: faithful, loving, wise, generous, humble.  

In these events we see what becomes possible when we, in whatever time, in whatever culture, live in faithfulness with God, and with each other, and when we follow God's Law.  

The power of this story is not that Ruth was beautiful, or that Boaz was rich and handsome, or that Naomi was clever.  

The power of this story is that it was lived by people who were wise enough to obey that Law. God doesn’t force it down our throats; he offers it to us. He offers us his wisdom. His peace, his hope.  

There is a famine in our land. People are lonely. People are skipping meals to pay the rent. People are being trafficked for profit. People are changing the rules as they see fit. People are doom-scrolling, looking for hope. People are thinking that the universe is big, and we are alone.  

There is a famine in our land. If we obey the voice of the Spirit—the teachings of Jesus—if we seek wisdom (offered to us for free by somebody who understands the world and understands us) and live by his principles, is it possible that “There need be no poor among us?” Or at least, fewer.

There was a famine in the land, and God was at work in Naomi and in Boaz and in Ruth. 

There is a famine in our land, and God is at work in us.