The story of Ruth and Naomi is told in the Book of Ruth, which has been for a long time one of my favorite books of the Bible, and a book of real significance, a significance I fear is often overlooked. So it is my pleasure to talk to you about it today.
The Book of Ruth begins with the story of the family of Naomi and Elimilech, who leave their ancestral home of Bethlehem during a time of drought and famine, and settle in the area controlled by the Moabite tribal group. Now in Moab they set down real roots. Their sons Mahlon and Chilion married Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah respectively. But eventually tragedy struck the Elimilech family. Elimilech himself died, and eventually Mahlon and Chilion also died, leaving Naomi alone with her daughters in law without any familial support system at a time when it was very difficult for women to survive without such a support system. So Naomi, broken and dejected, decided to return home to Bethlehem where she could, perhaps, find aid from family members. Ruth and Orpah tried to persuade Naomi to let them go with her, but Naomi refused. She said in essence, "my family system cannot be your support, and I cannot produce a new family for you. So you go back to your own people, and your own gods." Orpah reluctantly agreed to stay in Moab, but Ruth would hear none of it. She insisted on staying with Naomi and finally Naomi relented and let Ruth return to Bethlehem with her.
Now once in Bethlehem they must have found the support system they sought, because they seemed to find a place to live. We are told at one point that there was some family holdings of Elimilech, and that is likely where they took up residence. To boot, Ruth found work gleaning in the fields of a relative of Naomi's named Boaz. Gleaning was the practice of picking up the crops that were dropped during harvest. In Leviticus, the Hebrews were commanded to leave whatever they dropped while harvesting crops for the poor, and that is how Ruth and Naomi survived. Now Boaz took a liking to Ruth, inspired by her willingness to work so hard for a woman she wasn't even related to by blood. He showed her kindness and conspired with his workers to make sure she got more than what she and Naomi needed. And they survived like this for about a season.
Naomi detected in Boaz's kindness to Ruth a possible attraction, and so she told Ruth to lay at Boaz's feet and ask him to 'spread his cloak over him', which would be a sign that he would be willing to redeem or marry her. So one night Boaz was half passed out from drinking in one of his barns, and Ruth laid by his feet. When he woke up she asked him to lay his cloak over her. He was deeply moved by Ruth's willingness to choose a mate not based on what was best for her, but what was best for Naomi. That inspired Boaz and he said that he would indeed marry her, but that there was a relative more closely related to Mahlon who had first rights to her and the Elimilech family holdings. So he met with this relative and kind of played a trick on him. He said to him in essence "Hey, you are entitled to the property of Elimilech's family, but I have to warn you, if you accept it you will also have to marry the wife of Mahlon, Ruth." The man detected in Boaz's words a warning and passed on his rights, leaving Boaz free to marry Ruth, which he did. And they had grandchildren for Naomi that brought her great joy. One of those grandchildren was Obed, who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David. And so Ruth is the matron of the Davidic Dynasty.
Now when talking about the historical significance of the book, I want to go back to a particular passage towards the beginning that I think embodies most of what is really important. When Ruth is trying to convince Naomi to let her go with her to Bethlehem she says to her "where you go, I will go. You're people will be my people, you're God will be my God, and where you are buried I will be buried. May God deal with me, be it ever so severely if anything other than death separates you from me."
You see there is a tradition in the Bible, a tradition of exclusivism and particularism. It is the idea that God had a special relationship with the Israelites and that His grace was for them alone, and it is an idea that permeates scripture. But there is another tradition, a tradition of universalism (little "u" not big "U"), a tradition that says that God's purposes are world wide in scope. That picture of Ruth INSISTING that she become one with Naomi's people and God is a perfect illustration of that tradition. Those who held to universalism believed that God's special relationship with Israel was meant to draw other nations to them and thus also to worship of Yahweh.
Another important aspect of Ruth illustrated in that moment is the theme of friendship. This is the first time in the Bible that a human friendship is elevated to the same level as, say, the parent/child or spousal relationship. There are Biblical friendships before this point, to be sure, but here we see friendship as the very embodiment of Divine Love, and this is the first time that happens. We are told that Ruth CLINGS to Naomi, in language very similar to how Genesis talks about the husband/wife relationship. That theme then repeats in the story of Jonathon and David and Esther and Mordecai and on into the New Testament.
There is also this sense in Ruth that God is not a particular actor within the story but the background for the story as a whole. There is no individual point in which God comes in. There is no theophany to move the story along, no miracle that gets people out of their problems and no prophet to reveal God's will. This is a simple, human story of people just trying to be the best people they can be. But the writer sees in that human drama a Revelation of the Divine as clear as any other. And that motif is repeated in Esther, in 1 Maccabees, in Judith, in Nehemiah and elsewhere.
And finally there is a circumstantial historical significance to the book. For in the Book of 1 Samuel we are told that King David is able to survive the onslaught of Saul in part because he can hide among the Canaanite tribes, most notably the Moabite tribe. Now it is entirely possible that his ability to connect with these Canaanites was due to Moabite ancestry. And so David's entire dynasty may have been established, in part, because of his connection to Ruth. It may be for that reason more than any other that the story teller is able to see behind this everyday human experience, the very hand of Providence. Thank you.
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