Chapter 09 “The Faith of a Foreign Woman”
Ruth
Right after the second world war, a 20 year old Dutch woman said goodbye to her family and friends in Holland and along with her infant son got on a boat and sailed to North America.
After weeks of grueling travel, including a train trip from New York to Vancouver, BC, this young woman started a new life in a strange country, with a language she could barely speak, with a husband she barely knew.
Despite having three more children, all sons, the marriage was miserable and failing. It was a difficult and lonely life for this young foreigner. After 15 years, she and her husband divorced and she was forced out of her home to find a place to live for her and her four young boys.
She remembered her early years in church and her family’s faith and began to cry out to God for help. And help He did. Some kind person pointed out a house for rent which she was able to acquire. Her new landlords started taking her and her boys to church. Eventually all of them made commitments to Christ and were baptized.
Becoming part of a loving church turned things around for this family. All the boys became followers of Jesus, married wonderful, godly women, raised families of their own, and had successful careers. God was faithful to this woman and provided for her needs until her death. She found joy in her family and in reaching out to others in their need.
And if you haven’t figured it out yet, her youngest son is your pastor.
In the lower story, my mom’s life was not an easy one and she was far from perfect. But from an upper story perspective, it was the exact circumstances God used to transform a long history of ungodly generations into a new history of generations that would love, follow and serve Him.
Naomi and Ruth’s Story
There was a woman in the Bible named Naomi. She was married to a good man named Elimelek. They had two sons and lived in town we’ve all heard of, Bethlehem. This was during the time of the Judges.
Because of a severe famine, the family decided to move to a foreign country called Moab, a sworn enemy of God’s people. Shortly after they arrive, Elimelek dies. Eventually Naomi’s two sons marry Moabite women: Orpah and Ruth. But several years later, more tragedy hits: both sons die.
From a lower story perspective, Naomi has lost all hope. Life is too hard and God has brought affliction and misery upon her. So when she learns that the famine is over back in her homeland, she decides to return to Bethlehem.
Her daughters-in-law start the journey with her, but Naomi tells them they would be much better off staying in their own country, where they can find a couple of nice Moabite boys and remarry. Orpah reluctantly and tearfully agrees, but Ruth refuses to return. She says one of the most beautiful declarations of love and loyalty ever recorded:
“Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”
(1:16-17).
A remarkable declaration considering this is a foreign woman from a nation hated by the Israelites, and a young widow at that, heading for a life of poverty with her widowed mother-in-law in an unknown land.
This is nothing but a recipe for sadness and struggle.
Yet Ruth was willing to turn from the god she worshipped and the people she knew to begin a new life where she would not be welcome…all because of her deep love for Naomi.
When they arrive in Bethlehem, Naomi shares her lower story with the shocked townsfolk:
“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” (1:20-21)
Have you ever felt hopeless like this? That God has made life miserable for you and you could see no way forward? Find no joy?
Well, it just so happens that they arrived during harvest and according to the OT law, Ruth was able to glean grain from the scraps left over by the harvesters. But Ruth was taking an enormous risk. A single woman from an enemy nation, working alone, made her a target for harassment, or worse.
As it turns out, of all the fields around Bethlehem, Ruth has chosen one that is owned by a wealthy relative of the father-in-law she never knew, Elimelek. This relative is named Boaz, and when he discovers she is the Moabite widow who accompanied Naomi back to Bethlehem, he showers her with kindness. He invites her to glean all she wants and to drink from the workers water jars and he warns his men not to touch her.
Ruth is stunned. And when she tells Naomi her good news, some of the bitterness starts to lift and she catches a glimpse of hope in one of those rare moments where God’s upper story meets with our lower story.
So Naomi instructs Ruth to get all spruced up and head over to Boaz’s threshing floor and wait for the right time to make her move.
After he lies down to sleep in his grain pile, she sneaks up, uncovers his feet and lies down at the foot of his sleeping place. This was a respectful, non-seductive way of declaring her availability and interest in marriage.
When Boaz wakes up, startled that someone is lying there, she recites her rehearsed speech:
“I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.” (3:9)
The guardian-redeemer or kinsmen redeemer was a male relative who according to Levitical law (Lev. 25:47-55), was responsible to act on behalf of a deceased relative by marrying his widow and buying his land so that his posterity may continue.
So, how does Boaz react to this surprising request? He says:
“The Lord bless you, my daughter,” This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character.
Although it is true that I am a guardian-redeemer of our family, there is another who is more closely related than I. Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to do his duty as your guardian-redeemer, good; let him redeem you. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it. Lie here until morning.” (3:10-13)
What would cause Boaz to take on this duty of guardian-redeemer? Randy Frazee suggests it’s because Boaz knew what it was like to be an outsider, a foreigner. Do you know who Boaz’s mother was? Acc to Mt. 1, his mother was Rahab. Yes, Rahab the Caananite prostitute that we talked about a couple of weeks ago, who hid Joshua’s spies and was spared death when Jericho was destroyed. Boaz has it in his heart to reach out to someone else who stands on the outside looking in.
Do you? do I? Ever thought about what it’s like to be a foreigner? a newcomer to Canada? to Edmonton? to our church? Perhaps we should think about what it’s like…
Well, Boaz and Ruth get married, have a little boy together, who later inherits all his deceased father’s land and carries on the family’s name.
And Naomi gets to hold a bouncing baby grandson on her lap. The one who was bitter, now returns to the original meaning of her name, which is “pleasant, sweet, beautiful”.
From her lower story perspective, life was hopeless and over. But from God’s upper story perspective, there was a plan developing. She was holding in her lap the grandson named Obed, who would grow up to himself have a son named Jesse, who would grow up to have a son named…David.
And then twenty eight generations later, a little boy would be born in this same Bethlehem Who would be named… Jesus.
This Jesus is the ultimate guardian-redeemer, Who would redeem all who want His help, His love and His forgiveness. All outsiders who want a place in God’s family and belong to one Lord and Savior, no matter who you are or what you’ve done, Jesus buys you back to Himself by His own blood.
More and more God’s story is foreshadowing the coming Messiah Who would sacrifice Himself once for all so that we could enjoy a restored relationship with the Heavenly Father.
So no matter how hopeless your life seems now, from a lower story perspective, just remember that if we love God and align our lives with His word and His purposes, then we know how this ends: the truth of Romans 8:28 “…that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Prayer and Worship…