Naomi and Ruth

Last week I wrote about Ruth's love for her mother-in-law Naomi.  The love was mutual.  Both of their husbands had died leaving them destitute and alone in the land of Moab.  The two women struck out to make a very long journey and to return to Naomi's home country of Israel, to the city of Bethlehem.  They arrived at the beginning of the harvest season.  But with all of the male heirs dead, there was no one to lay claim to the land that had been allotted to Naomi's husband.

They had nothing.  Just what they had on and what they could carry.  It had been ten years since Naomi, her husband and two sons had gone to Moab to escape the famine in Israel.  Her sons and husband had died.  All Naomi and Ruth had was each other.

Naomi had to find a kinsman to help them, because all wealth and property and power was in the hands of men.  According to Jewish law, the kinsman would have to redeem them by buying back all of the land and producing a heir in Naomi's husband and son's name.  There were two men who qualified.

One of the men, Boaz, sees Ruth and...Shazam!!  That is where the love story begins.  You should go read the book of Ruth.  I't's very short.  Three and a half pages.  It is one of my favorite books.


In Ruth 4:4b Boaz says to the other man, " If you will redeem it, redeem it; but if you will not redeem it, tell me, that I may know: for there is none to redeem it beside you; and I am after you.  And he (the other man) said, I will redeem it."

Then Boaz tells him in verse 5, "What day you buy the field of the hand of Naomi, you must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance."

"I can't," the man said.  "You buy it."   So Boaz said to all the elders and all the people standing around, "You are my witnesses…I have purchased Ruth to be my wife."

And their first born Obed was the father of Jesse who was the father of David.  The king.  Amazing how things that look so bad can turn out so good when God is involved.