The Hidden Hand of God

Ruth

Ruth 1:1 HCSB

During the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons to live in the land of Moab for a while.

What begins as an account of a family simply trying to find food becomes an account of how God - though often hidden and difficult to discern - is at work.

Ruth is one of two biblical books named after women (the other one? = Esther). The three primary figures in this short story are Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz. Elimelech and the sons Naomi gave birth to occupy just a brief sentence or two - see Ruth 1:2-5.

The primary character of the account is not one of those three. The main character in this brief story is ‘ Yawheh,’

The Book of Ruth A. Names of God

…the personal, covenantal name of God, and its usage hints at a consciousness of his presence and activity in this community of faith…

A famine compelled Elimelech and his family to travel the 30 or som miles from Bethlehem to the land of Moab.

While in Moab Elimelech and both his sons - who grew up and married Moabite women - die.

Naomi now has two daughters-in-law. She encourages them to to what’s best of them - go home!

Ruth 1:6–7 HCSB

She and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave the land of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to His people’s need by providing them food. She left the place where she had been living, accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, and traveled along the road leading back to the land of Judah.

Orpah chooses to stay. Ruth, on the other hand:

Ruth 1:16–17 HCSB

But Ruth replied: Do not persuade me to leave you or go back and not follow you. For 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. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May Yahweh punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.

This passage is often quoted during marriage ceremonies, though it really has nothing to do with marriage!

In Ruth’s words we have a confession - a conversion story.

Moabites were descendants of Abraham’s nephew Lot. Lot’s wife died fleeing Sodom. Lot and his daughters were the only survivors. One at a time the daughters forced themselves on their father. Each daughter conceived a son. One was named ‘Ammon.’ The other was called ‘Moab.’

The Moabites took possession of land south of Jerusalem and east of the Dead Sea. As Israel travelled from Egypt to the Promised Land, Balak the king of Moab hired Balaam to ‘curse’ Israel which Balaam was unable to do.

However, soon after Balaam suggested that if the Moabites, who worshiped a lesser god named ‘Chemosh’ or ‘Baal’ used Moabite women to seduce Israelite men dissension would grow in the camp of Israel and perhaps those people living east of the Dead Sea would be rid of Israel for good.

Very likely this was the ‘faith’ in which Ruth and her sister were raised. Worshipers of Chemosh/Baal they married men who were worshipers of Yahwhe/Elohim.

Orpah turned back from folllowing Naomi back to Jerusalem. Ruth, however, chose to stay. Not only did she choose to stay, she expressed a clear and unmistakable faith in Yahweh (Ruth 1:16-17) … ‘your ‘elohom’ will be my ‘elohim.’

Upon their return to Bethlehem the focus on the story turns to Naomi and Boaz. Naomi invokes her right as mother in law to do what she can to provide for Ruth’s future.

Knowing that Ruth had been gleaning in the fields of Boaz, a near relative, in Ruth 3 we see Naomi’s plan unfold. In Ruth 4 we discover God’s plan -

Ruth 4:13–22 HCSB

Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he was intimate with her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. Then the women said to Naomi, “Praise 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. Indeed, your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” Naomi took the child, placed him on her lap, and took care of him. The neighbor women said, “A son has been born to Naomi,” and they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. Now this is the genealogy of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron. Hezron fathered Ram, who fathered Amminadab. Amminadab fathered Nahshon, who fathered Salmon. Salmon fathered Boaz, who fathered Obed. And Obed fathered Jesse, who fathered David.

REFLECT AND RESPOND

Ruth 1:16–17 HCSB

But Ruth replied: Do not persuade me to leave you or go back and not follow you. For 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. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May Yahweh punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.

It may not be obvious but it is important:

vs 16 - Ruth speaks: ‘Your God will be my God.’

vs 17 - Ruth speaks: “May Yahweh punish me…if anything but death separates you and me.”

God = elohim - which in Hebrew is a generic name for God. It can be used for other gods/idols as in Exodus 12:12 ““I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. I am Yahweh; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt.”

See also Deuteronomy 6:14 “Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you,”

Affirming the One True God

Ruth’s confession of faith indicates her heart attitude that indicates a clean break with her past, with the faith of her family and her people, the Moabites.

However the real clue in in Ruth 1:17 “Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May Yahweh punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”

Here Ruth speaks of God as ‘YAHWEH’ which is the name by which God made Himself known to Moses.

Exodus 20:2 HCSB

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.

Here Ruth claims a personal relationship not with Chemosh, but with YAHWEH whom she acknolwedges as the “Lord, her God.”