My church small group has been studying it, and I’ve been working on an online study to release this summer (if that interests you, I have something to say to you at the end of this email).
This book carries the name of Ruth, the young Moabite woman who ends up marrying Boaz and being injected into the lineage of David and Jesus. But after spending a couple months studying the text, I’m convinced that this is really Naomi’s Story.
Let me give you a quick rundown…
This story takes place sometime toward the end of the period of the Judges. It centers on one family and their struggle to survive. Life was not easy, because in Chapter 1, Naomi and her family (husband and 2 children) were driven out of the community of Bethlehem by famine.
They crossed the Jordan River and settled in the land of Moab. There they were able to find work and make a living for themselves. They lived there for quite a while, more than a decade. Her boys married local girls and her family started to grow. But two tragedies turned her world upside down.
First her husband died. Then both of her boys died, leaving widows and no children.
Cut of from any means of support, Naomi had no recourse but to return to Bethlehem where her in-laws lived. She had to hope that they would show her some charity and support her because the only other option was starving to death.
Naomi told her daughters-in-law to go home to their parents and try again. They were young enough that they could remarry and make lives for themselves. Orpah followed Naomi’s advice, but Ruth clung to her and pledged her allegiance to Naomi, her people and her God.
So the two women returned Bethlehem, and quickly became the gossip of the town. “Have you seen Naomi? Isn’t it just terrible what happened to her? I can’t believe her bad luck! She must have done something terrible to bring this onto her family.”
We’re told that the time of year was the beginning of the barley harvest, so it was spring time. In order to provide for their needs. Ruth went out go glean in the fields after the harvesters. Her plan was to gather enough food that they could eat.
Gleaning was something God told His people to allow. They weren’t to be particularly efficient in their harvesting practices. The goal was to leave grain or fruit behind so the foreigner in the land (who had no land to harvest) could come and gather food to meet their needs.
So Ruth happened upon the field of one Boaz. He was a wealthy man in the community, upright and honorable. When he saw her gleaning in his fields, he asked around and was told she had asked permission to glean and had been at it all day long.
Boaz knew her story. He knew that she had bound herself to the unfortunate Naomi. He knew that she didn’t have to do that, and that her labor was providing for Naomi. So he told her to stick with his crews and he would keep her safe. Further he told his harvesters to do a particularly bad job of picking up the barley, so there would be plenty for Ruth to gather.
At the end of the first day, Ruth processed her cleanings and took home the equivalent of a 5-gallon bucket of grain. When she told Naomi about it, Naomi’s main response was “He’s a kinsman and a redeemer”.
Property ownership in those days was different than today. To begin with God declared that HE owned the land and was letting His people use it. It was bound to a family and could never permanently leave them. If they sold it, it was more like a lease until the next Year of Jubilee. Then all land reverted back to the family. So every 50 years, land ownership reset.
In the mean time, if a family sold its land, it was possible for a near relative to redeem it for them, They had to be a near relative and they had to pay the value of the land (relative to the Year of Jubilee). In this way the land would return to the family.
Clearly Naomi and her husband had sold their land when they left for Moab. So returning, they didn’t have control of it. But Naomi recognized that Boaz was a man who could do something about that.
In Ruth chapter three, Ruth went to Boaz and quietly asked him to redeem Naomi and restore her family. Boaz agreed, but admitted there was a complication. He didn’t have the first right to redeem them. Someone else had a prior claim. Someone else was a closer relative.
The next day Boaz met with the “closer relative” and put the matter before him. The other man was on board to pay the price until he learned it was a “two-fer”. He would also have to marry Ruth so that Naomi’s family would continue on. The other man balked at this because he had his own inheritance to worry about. So he passed.
This opened the door for Boaz to step in and become the redeemer. He redeemed the property, married Ruth she became pregnant and bore a son. The land was redeemed, an heir was provided, Naomi was provided for.
Of course, Ruth’s great grandson was David, the King of Israel.
This book is a book of Redemption. That is the over-arching theme and the picture that is so carefully painted for us. The word “redeem” or its variants occur more than 20 times throughout the book.
This book introduces us to a mechanism of redemption that we in a 21st century world would otherwise not know about. A near relative had the right to pay a price and buy back that which had been lost. This is a picture of that Jesus did for us. He became human (a near relative) and paid the price (of our sin) that we could not pay. In this way, He redeemed back to God all who would come to Him in faith.
As we look at the book of Ruth, I really think it’s Naomi’s Story for several reasons.
Naomi was the one who was redeemed. She was the person who needed redemption. At any time, Ruth had the option to marry and start a family. Just like her sister in law Orpah, she could have gone back to Moab and married, or married a young man in Bethlehem. Ruth’s future was not really in jeopardy. Naomi’s was.
Further, Naomi goes on a wild emotional rollercoaster ride. At the end of Chapter 1, as she returns to Bethlehem with Ruth in tow, she laments “the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me”.
Later on, as she saw the situation with Boaz develop, she comes around a little and dares to hope, “May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!”
Finally, at the end of the story, Naomi sits and holds her grandson on her lap while the women of Bethlehem (the same ones who gossiped about her return) sang praises about her son and God’s goodness to her.
It’s my opinion that Naomi told the story over and over to everyone who would listen, and that’s what put it into the oral history until later someone write it down. The story shouts of Naomi’s experience and her perspective.
But the book is the book of Ruth. I think it should be called “Naomi’s Story”.
If you thought this summary was interesting, get ready for something awesome!
I’m planning to release an email study of Ruth here shortly. It will be similar to the email study of 1 Timothy that over 100 people took back in February. Only instead of a New Testament epistle, this study will focus on a book of the Old Testament.
There will be a free study plan as well as an upgraded Video Course that you can purchase. It all depends on what would work best for you.
I’m excited about this for several reasons.
- I want to teach you about techniques for studying the Old Testament. It’s slightly different from studying an epistle in the New Testament.
- Naomi’s Story has such a clear focus on redemption that it massively informs our understanding of Jesus.
- It’s critical for your Bible Study skills to continually practice. This will give you another opportunity to put into use what you’ve learned.
If you know I’m talking to you and about you now, here’s what you can do to take the next step. Click the link below and to to my Ruth Study Interest page and enter your email address.
The added benefit will be how encouraged I’ll be to see the interest. I can’t wait to put this study out there for you. I think it will be super enlightening and helpful to your understanding of salvation and what Jesus did for you.
Again, just click this link and fill in your email address and I’ll get you on the list and we’ll get you on the list to get all the updates for the study of “Naomi’s Story”.
Dennis
