The Bible Binge: There is a Redeemer (x 2) (Ruth 1:6-18) (Larger)

The Thirsty Trope

Water… water… How many of you grew up watching Looney Tunes on Saturday morning? One of the tropes quite frequently utilized by the cartoon writers is that of being in a desert without water. The "mirage" becomes part of the cartoon play, meant to make us laugh. Whether it's Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote, Daffy Duck, or Yosemite Sam, we empathize with the need for water in a hot and dry desert. We also empathize with the mirage. The cartoon writers use the mirage trope or idiom as a mechanism to make us laugh… for 5 minutes of hilarity. But we would not laugh if there wasn't something inside of us that resonates with the basic need for refreshment when there is no water to be found, especially in deep south Texas.

We've all experienced this. What is it that sustains your faith? What do you do to keep looking at Jesus? When the life is at its worst and your husband is oblivious? Worse… when your soul feels dry? Have you ever had those times in your life when God seemed distant? On the outside you are the warrior, the champion, the example to be followed, the testimony to good Christian living, and inside you are the prodigal, a wandering heart chasing mirages, and slowly finding yourself internally destitute and dry and cut off from Jesus.

The Bible Binge: Ruth

Today we’re in the book of Ruth as we continue our Bible Binge. By the way, if you don’t have a Bible Binge bookmark, we have plenty of them in the back. These bookmarks have daily Bible readings as a guide to reading through the Bible the rest of this year. If you want a place to start… start with Ruth. It’s an easy read. And follow along the Bible Binge to the end of the year.

The book of Ruth follows the book of Judges in our Bibles. And the story that makes up the Book of Ruth is during the period of the Judges. And as we make our way through the book, we find in these pages the story of a woman who is much like the thirsty trope of the Looney Tunes. Only this is no laughing matter. She has spent her life chasing mirages, and it has come up bitter and empty. Without hope, until the unexpected and unexplainable happens.

Famine: From Bethlehem to Moab

The book of Ruth is considered "adorable", a historic "love story." Choices of destiny. It also has all of the earmarks of a great novella: the tragedy, the dilemma, a champion who saves the day, and the boy gets the girl (or is it the other way around here?). Epic love born in adversity. Make no mistake. This is a great love story. There's a reason why Ruth is a favorite bed time story.

But also make no mistake: this is no typical love story and we must be careful not to impose a Western sense of touchy feely on to the text. There is judgment and heartache and self-righteousness and unbelief and epic unfaithfulness to the covenant.

This story isn’t simply about Boaz and Ruth and they live happily ever after. This story starts off with the camera on another woman, another wife. Her name is Naomi. Naomi and her husband lived during the time of the Judges in the Bible. They live in a small town called Bethlehem. And the time of the judges wasn’t a very good time. There's this rhythm of obedience and disobedience, faith and unbelief. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. There is a sense of anarchy and apostasy. Life in Canaan was not supposed to be this way. It was not supposed to be a time marked by idolatrous infidelity.

At the time of Naomi, there is famine. This famine has been caused by God because his people stopped believing in him. So Naomi and her husband, Elimilech, leave Israel and go to live in another country that has food. However, this country is Israel’s enemy. Moab. They not go to Moab for food, they stay. They build a home, build a life, put down their roots. They raise kids… two sons… the two sons get married, in Moab. That’s shocking. The author wastes no time in placing his original audience in the vise grip of the unfamiliar and shocking. And what unfolds in the four chapters doesn't let up with this sense of the unexpected, and in some cases, for the original audience, a bit of anger and angst.

What would we expect from a story that occurs in the time of the judges? The moment the author opens with this is the moment we should be on the edge of our seats. We read the book of judges and we read of an Israel struggling with a sense of identity. A people who have always had fits of covenantal unfaithfulness are increasingly playing the harlot. There's this rhythm of disobedience, judgment, and obedience throughout the book. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. There is a sense of anarchy and apostasy. Ruled by no one, even God. There is no king in Israel. There is no physical king in Israel and Israel is moving to a place where they will eventually attempt to unshackle themselves from their true king who brought them out of the land of Egypt. What happens in the book of Ruth exemplifies the spirit of the times of the judges (and we'll see more of that in a minute).

Life in Moab is good. That is, until Naomi’s husband dies. And then both sons die.

Elimilech chased a mirage. The grass wasn't greener on the other side. In fact, he would have best filled out a burial form before leaving Bethlehem because he's never coming back. Elimilech dies. The two sons take wives, live another ten years in Moab, and then they die.

As we consider Ruth, I want us to consider this very seemingly incidental comment by the author, but this is everything about the storyline in Ruth:

Ruth 1:5 “Naomi was left without her two children and without her husband.”

This is serious, serious stuff. In a foreign country living with foreign in-laws, Naomi has no husband and no sons. She has nothing. She is at rock bottom. The pain and anger and depression and bitterness (which comes up later) from losing a husband and two sons in a foreign country is something that resonates with all of us. She probably wonders "was it worth it?" when they left Bethlehem all those years ago. She is as low as she can go as an Israelite. Outside of the land with nothing to show for it. There’s no inheritance in Bethlehem to go back to. Elimilech had sold it all.

And in the verses that follow, we begin to learn the fullest extent of her dire condition. But we should not miss in these verses the direst of all details: "left without her two sons". If you're an Israelite, you're left to simply gape at the horror that Naomi is living.

This is the famine within the famine. No bread in Bethlehem. No fidelity in Elimilech. No sons for Naomi in Moab. These five verses are "ALL THINGS FAMINE". There is famine of bread. Famine of covenantal faithfulness. And there is a famine of "no covenantal heir". The covenantal dream for Naomi is dead. She is physically, emotionally, and spiritually bankrupt. There will be no heir, not only to carry out the terms of the covenant, but there will be no heir to embrace the God of the covenant on behalf of the family. There will be no representative to God's people on behalf of Elimilech. The legacy is dead. And it's not just that they will be forgotten. There will be no place for that family in the covenant in future generations. Their stake in all the blessings ever promised to Abraham in the night sky have vanished.

Naomi voices this terrible dilemma… the heart of the book of Ruth, talking to her daughters-in-law who are now widows:

Ruth 1:11–12 “Am I able to have any more sons who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband.

This is the horror of barrenness in the Old Covenant. This is why Sarah, and Rebekah, and Rachel and Manoah's wife, and Hannah are compelling stories in the Old Testament and a focal point of the storyline of the Bible. To be barren is to be excluded from a destiny of participation in the covenantal blessings promised to Abraham. You have no husband, you have no heir, you’re too old to have a husband, you’re too old to have an heir, you have no land, you have no inheritance, you have no destiny with God’s people.

But this is all setting up one of the great nativity stories of the Old Testament. God hears the cry of Naomi. There is grace. And this grace reveals itself in one of those daughters-in-law.

The Return

Naomi hears there is food in Bethlehem, the house of bread, so she decides to go back to Bethlehem. She's going back to the land of the covenant, but she does so with no allusions about the future and her place in the covenant. She is returning to throw herself at the mercy of God's covenanting kindness. She confesses: "Have I yet sons in my womb? I am too old to have a husband." No husband. No sons. And I'm out of time. I'm out of the covenant. It is beyond me to fix. It is an impossibility both for me and for you. You are foreigners. You won't be married in Israel. You will not participate in covenant. Your destiny is among the damned. And so is mine. The hand of the Lord is against me, the worst that could be said of any human any time anywhere, let alone an Israelite who once had been a partaker in Abraham's covenant. No husband. No sons. No heir. No destiny. The hand of the Lord is against me… I will have no son.

But when she returns, she isn't by herself. She has a daughter-in-law by the name of Ruth, a widow. And Ruth says she’ll go with Naomi.

Ruth 1:16 “Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.”

The widow Ruth clings to her only hope. Like Naomi, Ruth faces the impossibility of ever having a husband. But it’s not because she’s too old. She is a Moabite. No one in Israel is going to marry a Moabite. Unlike her husband, no good Israelite would marry an outcast, an enemy, an infidel. The Moabites are the result of the incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters. Ruth is barren. Her history drips with scandal. There would be no heir for Naomi, because there would be no marriage and no heir for Ruth.

Yet in an amazing display of true faith, on Ruth's lips is the grandest of the covenantal formulas of the Old Testament, the covenantal mantra that occurs dozens of times throughout the Old Testament. This statement is Israel's identity. From the very beginning, the covenant has been God’s promise: I will be your God and you will be my people.

God first said it to Abraham and then repeated it again and again: I will be your God and you will be my people. All of Israel's hopes and dreams were bound up in that statement. And here in Ruth it occurs on the lips of a foreigner, who in the face of the impossible, is embracing the core identity of what it means to be "God's people". In fact, she doesn’t simply state the covenantal formula… she personalizes it, she makes it her own: “Your people will be my people. And your God my God.”

There is a redeemer

God is at work. God's grace is on display. Ruth has been graced by God and is giving grace to Naomi. And God’s grace is at work through the rest of the story. Ruth does meet an Israelite who is willing to marry a Moabitess. There is a redeemer provided by God… someone who will redeem Ruth and the family inheritance. His name is Boaz, and Boaz is kind and compassionate and everything Ruth needs in a husband redeemer.

At the big town meeting where Boaz is securing the rights of Naomi and Ruth, Boaz says this:

Ruth 4:9-10 “I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, to perpetuate the deceased man’s name on his property, so that his name will not disappear among his relatives or from the gate of his hometown. You are witnesses today.”

I have acquired. This is the grand redemption. This is the stuff of greatness. Boaz acquires Ruth and guarantees that there will be a destiny. There will be a future for Ruth and Naomi’s inheritance after all.

That’s the Disney ending right? A great love story. The perfect match. For Ruth, a rags to riches story. She has her prince. Is that all there is? Is this the real story of what is happening?

In the west, it’s easy for us to focus on the story that captures our attention. We love the love story. And it’s easy to see the story of redemption in the actions of Boaz. But if we look really closely at what is happening in this story, the camera really pointed somewhere else, somewhere we don’t expect. There is another redeemer in this story. And this redeemer is as important as anything Boaz does for Ruth.

There’s another redeemer

From the marriage of Boaz and Ruth comes a child, a son. An heir is born. And here’s the scene as it is described in Ruth 4:

Ruth 4:13-15 “Ruth gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you without a family redeemer today. May his name become well known in Israel. He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age.

God has not left Ruth without a Redeemer… these women quite possibly singing a song here. But there’s also this: they aren’t singing about Boaz and they aren’t singing around Ruth. They are singing around Naomi and they are singing about the son, the son named Obed. Naomi has been the one who has been redeemed, Naomi is the one who is blessed, Naomi is the one who will be renewed and sustained. And Obed is her redeemer.

These women singing around Naomi take it one step further:

Ruth 4:16-17 “Naomi took the child, placed him on her lap, and became a mother to him. The neighbor women said, “A son has been born to Naomi.”

Whose son is it? It is Ruth’s son of course, but in the grand narrative of redemption, Naomi is the one who is acting like a mother, and is getting a son. This story ends with the newborn son on the lap of Naomi. That’s shocking. “There is a son born to Ruth?” Well, yes, but No.

Note the progression of the birth language here in chapter 4:

Verse 13: Ruth bore a son.

Verse 15: your daughter-in-law has given birth to him… a son.

Verse 17: A son has been born to Ruth?

“A son has been born to Ruth?” Is that what this says here in verse 17? No. Because there’s more going on that Ruth simply having a son. The author wants us to see the resolution of the book’s grand dilemma… Naomi had no husband, no sons, no heirs.

So he writes this:

Verse 17: “A son has been born to Naomi.”

Ruth gives birth to a son, but a son has been born to Naomi. In chapters 3 and 4 of Ruth, Boaz steps forward as the kinsman-redeemer, but Obed is identified as the one to redeem Naomi. It is Obed whose name will be proclaimed from one end of Israel to another. It is Obed who will bring life restoration. Boaz is a redeemer used by God to bring the real Redeemer onto the scene. Between the two of them, Boaz and Obed will secure covenant participation for Naomi. There is no more hopelessness. Naomi has been redeemed. Naomi has been restored to full covenantal participation through Boaz and Obed.

There is a son born to Naomi. The book of Ruth isn’t simply a fairy tale love story about Boaz and Ruth. This is the story of a Nativity Birth. Boaz, who is in the line of Tamar, and Ruth, who is in the line of Lot’s daughters, and Obed, the miracle son, have been used by God to bring about Naomi’s redemption and restoration. What provision. What grace. What hope. In chapter 1, Naomi returns completely broken and empty. No husband. No son. No heir. And here in chapter 4, where we would expect a Christmas card picture of the mother Ruth with her child, it is not Ruth the author wants us to see, but Naomi who has been provided a son. The utterly impossible has been accomplished by divine grace through a kinsman redeemer and a foreigner who speaks gospel with her lips: Your God will be my God, and your people my people.

There in the lap of Naomi in Ruth 4, lies a son… who is her redeemer. We’re used to thinking of Boaz as the redeemer and he is, but Obed here in the song of the women is the one who is redeeming Naomi. Why? Because it is through Obed that she and her posterity will enjoy all the benefits of being God’s covenant people. It is through Obed King David will be born. Kings and thrones are on her lap as the women sing.

And there is no mistaking the child on her lap being called a redeemer… and where that is pointing. It is from that son’s family line that will come another Son and another Heir who will establish a kingdom whose rule and reign is forever. Obed foreshadows the One who will end all famine, all barrenness. This Son and Heir will not only redeem his mother Mary, but will be Bethlehem’s Emmanuel redeeming His people from their sins. This One signified by Obed will realize the hopes and dreams of Naomi and Ruth, redeeming a people for Himself and securing an inheritance for them in His salvation and life.

Hope for our Mirage

What is it that gives us hope when it feels like we have been cut off from Jesus? When our soul is dry, when our life is a mess, when there is bitterness and a lack of hope?

Come and sit with these women and gaze at Naomi and Obed and what they anticipate. This is our hope. This is where our eyes must be. We must place our gaze on the offspring of Obed, the Son, the Heir of all things. When life seems impossible, when salvation seems out of reach, when we find we’ve been chasing a mirage: Our hopes and our dreams must be found in the Bread of Life who gives us water to drink and bread to eat. The dwelling place of God is in Jesus. He dwells with us. We are his people. He is our God.

The story of Ruth and Boaz and Naomi and Obed ends this way: there is a Son. There is an Heir. There is a hope. His name is Jesus.

Let’s Pray.

The Table

Are you parched and thirsty? Are you feeling bitter and forsaken? This Table is for you. Bethlehem is the house of bread. Bethlehem is the home for the Bread of Life. Our redeemer meets us here and feeds us with His life. From his broken body and shed blood. The Bread of Life, the New Obed who redeems his people and gives them life and sustains them. He is here for you and for me. Right now. This moment was anticipated by Obed and Naomi and the women singing their song.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26

May the Lord bless you and protect you;

may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.