Ruth - A breath of fresh air

The readings - Day 85 - Ruth (all four chapters)

Well we're finally out of the book of Judges. Sweet.

The relationship between Judges and Ruth is interesting to me. In Judges, we got a very macro-level view of the goings-on in Israel, and for the most part, they were appalling. Covenants broken, punishments doled out left, right and centre, and generally terrible people doing terrible things. There were glimmers of hope, etc, to be sure, but few and far between. I don't think anyone would try to argue that Judges is an optimistic book.

That's why reading Ruth immediately afterwards is such a refreshing experience. After the bloodshed, idolatry, treachery and violence of the nation as a whole, we get zoomed in to an intimate series of snapshots in the life of a single family. Make no mistake, there's still tragedy here, and not all is rosy, but the story as a whole just can't help but be uplifting.



Basically, a family from Judah leaves and heads to Moab (to the south-east across the Dead Sea). Dad (Elimelech), mom (Naomi) and two sons (Mahion and Chillion) try to ride out the Israeli famine in Moab, and the two kids find themselves local gals to marry - Orpah and Ruth. Now, for anyone who's been reading along so far, this should be setting off some kind of bells, what with the longstanding prohibition against inter-marriage, and some might say that the fact that Elimelech and his two sons end up dead by the end of verse five may be an indication that this still isn't the best idea for Israelites, but that's neither here nor there.

Naomi tries to send her two daughters-in-law home to their families to be cared for. She's an old-ish woman, with little to no chance of restarting a family, and doesn't want to burden (or, if we're being pragmatic, be burdened by) the two younger women who may still be able to find happiness, etc. After much prodding, Orpah says goodbye and heads home, but Ruth refuses to leave, finally convincing Naomi that she'll return to Judah with her.

Once home, Ruth avails herself of the progressive and charitable Israelite tradition of allowing the poor and foreign to come along behind harvesting servants and pick up what they can of the crop that remains. Doing so, she attracts the attention of Boaz, who just happens to be a close relative of her late father-in-law. Things progress nicely, she pulls a weird but successful stunt by just creeping into a room with Boaz and sleeping at his feet there, he pulls out a few stops, plays nice by the proper kinsman redeemer in the family, and wins the right to take over Naomi's stuff - including Ruth, who becomes part of the genealogical line tracing from Abraham to Jesus.

Not bad for a Moabite.

Not only does the book serve as a reminder that no matter how unmitigatedly crappy things are on a nation-wide level, God (who makes no direct appearance in this book whatsoever) can still be doing cool, redemptive things through His people on a personal, individual level - that level that God always seems to prefer to work, but it also gives a gentle reminder that there are bigger things happening. The book ends with a sort of flash-forward along the family tree of Boaz to point towards David.

Side note: Yes, this means that nobody alive at the time of the story could possibly have written the entirety of Ruth. Who cares? Not me.