6 April 2020, Chronological Bible Reading, Ruth 1 to 4.
My wife, Lori, and I are reading through the Bible in chronological order, which is the order in which the events happened. Her blog on this can be found here. This is not intended to be a lesson or a sermon. It is my thoughts and notes as I read through the text and as I sometimes look things up. Today we read Ruth 1 to 4.
Ruth 1
Elimelech left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife Naomi and sons Mahlon and Chilion because of a famine. Elimelech died, and the sons took Moabite wives. They lived in the land for about ten years before Mahlon and Chilion both died. Naomi began to return to Bethlehem and her daughters-in-law wanted to return with her. She tried to convince them to return to their own families, and Orpah returned to her family, but Ruth insisted on going to Judah with Naomi, saying, “…Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God….” So Naomi returned to Jerusalem with Ruth.
Ruth 2
Ruth asked Naomi for permission to go to the field and glean after one in whose sight she might find favor. She happened upon the field belonging to Boaz, who related to Elimelech. Boaz was a nice man who treated poor people well. He told her to not glean from another field, but to stay at his field and glean after his maidservants reaped. When she asked why he was being so kind to a foreigner, he replied that he had heard of everything she had done for her mother-in-law after the death of her (Ruth’s) husband, and he blessed her, that her efforts be rewarded by God. Boaz had his servants be kind to her and to leave her grain from what they had reaped.
She gave to Naomi, her mother-in-law, and told her about Boaz. Naomi told Ruth it is good to glean his field, so that others would not fall upon her elsewhere. So she stayed close Boaz’s maids to glean until the end of the harvest of barley and wheat, while she lived with her mother-in-law.
Ruth 3
Naomi told Ruth to get all gussied up and that when Boaz finished threshing and laid down, she was to uncover his feet and lay across them. She was to lay in a position in which Eastern servants often slept in the same place with their master (across his feet); and custom allowed them the benefit of sharing part of the covering their master used. Since she was clothed, there was no indecency. She did as suggested. Once Boaz realized who she was, he offered to be her kinsman redeemer, if the man who was a closer relative chose to not do so. He gave her six measures of barley into his cloak and she took it to Naomi, who told her to wait as Boaz would get the matter settled that day.
Ruth 4
Boaz confronted the closer kinsman with the elders and explained that Naomi had decided to sell the inheritance of Elimelech, and that Boaz would redeem if the closer kinsman chose to not exercise his right and responsibility to do so. But Boaz also told him he would would have to acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of the deceased, and raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance. The closer relative gave Boaz permission and right to redeem the land and marry Ruth, saying he could not redeem it himself or he would jeopardize his own inheritance. So Boaz married Ruth and the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. They named him Obed, who would become the father of Jesse, the father of King David.
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