The story of Ruth is in the Bible because she and Boaz are Mary’s ancestors and hence are the “seed” that eventually yielded the Savior. But is there more than genealogy in that story? Much more!
What brought Ruth to my attention this morning. As I sat to study, I had no clue where to start, then trust came to mind. I wondered about the first use of that word in scripture, and that took me to symbolism about trees, but I did not want symbolism; I wanted application. I wanted to know the first usage of trust pertaining to a person. Ruth was that person, and what follows is the passage:
The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust. (Ruth 2:12)
One ancient word preceded this event of trusting the Lord God. The Law was that the poor were allowed to glean in the fields of the husbandman:
And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the Lord your God. (Lev 23:22)
What if God had not made that Law? Then, Ruth would never had met Boaz and Jesus would not have ever been born. God had a plan many years before Ruth and Boaz ever existed, and this was a Plan of God in implementation. Ruth and Boaz were planned to be the progenitors of the Savior.
Now for that archaic word — “hap.” Scripture says, “her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz” (Ruth 2:3).
She was a stranger in a foreign land, and by “happenstance” a righteous man had grace on her. By fate Ruth happened upon Boaz. It was not fate, but it was meant to be! When God proposed that Law, He knew that He would arrange a meeting between those two people. This encounter was more than by chance but was God selecting two people to seed the best crop ever. In fact, there was so much more going on in that field than growing grain. It was growing the plan for salvation. (More on that in part 2).
For now, the focus is on the English word, “trust.” In the Hebrew, trust is “hasa,” meaning to “take refuge” to “obtain hope” (BLB Institute 2021).
Ruth was not a Jew but trusted the Hebrew God. She said to the mother of her now dead husband, “Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace” (Ruth 2:2). It seems that Ruth was seeking a righteous man who would be graceful to her. It turns out by happenstance, that Boaz was the man who was most gracious to her. He was a prosperous man who grew good crops because God was gracious to him.
Ironically, although Ruth sought a graceful man, she received abundant grace! Just think on that; God planned for her to be the “field” in which Boaz would plant his seed to provide a harvest of grace; enough to feed the “Daily Bread” to all mankind!
Hundreds of years later, Jesus said, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). Ruth came to Boaz long before, and she would never hunger because she trusted God. Not only that but Boaz would not only feed her grain for bread but genetic “seed” for her to feed the world the “Bread” of Jesus.
The short word “hap” is so ironic. It was not by fate that Ruth was there, but because she trusted God to provide. She indicated that when she told Naomi that she was going to the field to find grace. It happened as she hoped it would, but God put the impetus in her to go to the field. Somehow, Ruth got it into her mind, although widowed and hungered, there was hope.
She found hope in a new world, not her own. God had called her to that specific field with a Plan in mind, and he picked her because she trusted the Lord God to provide.
By “coincidence,” it was the right man and a godly man who would bridge the breech left by the death of her husband. Boaz was by “coincidence” her dead husband’s relative, thus fulfilling another “useless” Law of God.
A ”Leverite Marriage” (yibbim in the Hebrew) comes
from scripture:
If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her. (Deut 25:5)
If a brother was not available, then a close ken would suffice. Naomi’s two sons had died. During those bad times, it would have been convenient as one daughter-in-law did, to let the Moabites care for Ruth. However, the Leverite Marriage would not be the law in Moab. Naomi would wisely take her to Judah from where she and her husband had migrated.
By “happenstance,” Naomi’s husband had prosperous relatives there (Ruth 2:1). Ruth found grace because she walked from Moab to Judah where grace was to be found. She had not obtained grace of her own doing but walked where grace was to be found. She found so much grace just because she walked, and it was enough to share to all mankind!
Why? Because she trusted the Lord God of Judah rather than the god of the Moabites!
To many, the Law is merely an obstruction, but two Laws of God led to grace for Ruth and to Jesus who had enough grace for all mankind. Boaz demonstrated grace in his field to a poor woman that he did not know and cared for her according to God’s Laws. With that said, the Law is not grace, but the Will of God, and is the avenue to find grace.
Fate (hap) turned out to be a great plan. Ruth knew the plan all along because she went trusting God to provide. The Moabites could have provided, as they did for her sister-in-law, but God wanted a “field” into which Boaz would plant his good seed.
Boaz did more than feed Ruth her daily bread which she would prepare herself, but provided the Bread of Life, enough to feed all the people of the world. God meant for Ruth and Boaz to be together to grow Grace, and thus it happened! Grace was called, “Jesus” and they grew Him.
Next, more about Ruth.
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