The Book of Ruth, as the genealogy at the end of chapter 4 shows, was written long after its events took place, no doubt to celebrate David the King. Boaz, as Naomi predicted, moved quickly. He gathered witnesses from the elders, called the closer relative over, and told him he planned to “redeem” Elimelech’s land unless the other man wished to. He did. It would be a good purchase for his family, because there were no heirs for Elemilech and the land would stay with him, even after the Day of Jubilee. Then Boaz sprung something else on the man. With the land comes Ruth, to produce up an heir for her dead husband. The man did not want another wife. So Boaz married Ruth, just as an ancestor of his had married Rahab. Soon Obed was born, named by the women of Bethlehem. Then Jesse and then David were born, so that Ruth was David’s great grandmother. And in God’s plan she became an ancestor of Jesus Christ; she is named in Matthew 1. Ruth shows that faith, not birth, is the mark of a true Israelite. God cares for the lowly, even Naomi and Ruth. The whole story took place in no more than three months, but as for so many saints, those few days of trial revealed the faith that was in them. Finally, God counts Boaz, not Ruth’s dead husband, as the father of Obed and hence of David and Christ.
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Bill Edgar has been the pastor of the Broomall Reformed Presbyterian Church since 1981 and a teacher of mathematics at East High School in West Chester, Pennsylvania since 1980. He was graduated from Swarthmore College in 1968, attended the Reformed Presbyterian Theological...
