“And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.” (Ruth 2:2)
The Law made provision for the poor. When harvesting their crops, beating the olive trees and gathering their grapes, they were not to completely harvest everything. They were to leave the corners without reaping, nor were they to glean completely nor return to glean again. Anything that wasn’t picked up first was left for the poor to gather. (Leviticus 19:9; 23:22; Deuteronomy 24:19-21) And that was what Ruth was going to do. She was going to follow the workers so that she could gather anything they missed.
The book of Ruth in the Bible is about two women, an old Hebrew widow, Naomi with her Moabite daughter in law, Ruth. They were not wealthy. They had no resources. In those days women were illiterate. They didn’t attend the synagogue to be educated. They stayed home and took care of the home and any children they might have. There were no occupations for women. Even the gleaning of the fields was done by men. Now there may have been poor women gleaning after the workers to help provide for their families. Ruth was probably not the only woman gleaning after the workers.
And as God’s providence happened, Ruth ended up in the field of Boaz, Naomi’s kinsman. Naomi recognizes Boaz as a kinsman-redeemer. In the law a kinsman-redeemer was a male relative who had the responsibility to care for a relative who was in trouble, need or danger. Sometimes the poor relative would sell himself, sometimes with his family as slaves to survive. (Leviticus 25:39-41) But a kinsman-redeemer could hire the relative as a hired servant who would be freed after three years. Or the kinsman-redeemer could buy the poor relative’s land which would be returned at the Jubilee. (Leviticus 25:40,41) As it happened, Boaz as the kinsman-redeemer married Ruth.
The analogy is obvious. Jesus is the kinsman-redeemer of the poor in spirit and needy of salvation Jew represented by Naomi and the grafted in church which is represented by Ruth who was grafted into Naomi’s family by marriage. And as Boaz married Ruth, Jesus marries the church, who had been an idol worshipper, who abandoned the ways of her fathers and who clung to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The parallel of the life of Ruth and the redeemed sinner is beautiful.
Ruth was a Moabitess, from a culture of idol worship and human sacrifice. She was married to one of Naomi’s son who died. Ruth clings to Naomi after her husband’s death and believes in Naomi’s God. Isn’t this our story. We were idol worshippers, worshipping ourselves, worshipping the world, dead in sin and enemies of God. “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” (Romans 5:10) To God, all sin is the same. God hates all of it. There is no big or small sin. It’s all death. Paul writes about us, “ And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” (Ephesians 2:1-3) But God in His love and mercy sent the divine kinsman to redeem us. He paid the ransom due by His death on the cross. “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.” (1Peter 1:18-21)
The story of Ruth is our story. Her redemption by Naomi’s kinsman-redeemer is the story of our redemption by our Redeemer, Jesus. It was God’s grace as we gleaned the leftovers of peace, love and life that we didn’t have, hungered for and sought that drew the Kinsman-Redeemer Who made us His. We are the church and the bride of the Kinsman-Redeemer, Jesus.
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