The following communion thoughts were written for a worship service in mid-December of 2008.
The account of Ruth is a beautiful story of loyalty and love – a daughter-in-law so devoted and faithful to Naomi that she would not abandon her after the legal connection between them had been broken by death. But understanding the book more fully requires a bit of background.
After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot and his daughters settled in a cave in the mountains beyond Zoar, where Lot's oldest daughter had a son by her own father. She named him Moab, which sounds like the Hebrew phrase “from father”; his descendants became the Moabite people.
After the exodus from Egypt, the Moabite king Balak tried to have Balaam curse the Israelites, but Balaam was unable to do so. However, the Israelites soon after succumbed to the temptation of immorality with the people of that land, and severe consequences followed. That was the background of the instruction in Deuteronomy 23:
No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even down to the tenth generation. For they did not come to meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim to pronounce a curse on you.
And that is the context in which we learn that a Moabite widow refuses to abandon her Israelite mother-in-law to poverty–or even starvation–after the death of the men of their family.
Later in the scroll of Ruth, we read that Boaz meets with another relative among the men at the town gate to negotiate a real-estate deal. Naomi must sell a piece of land that belonged to her late husband, and the other relative has first right of refusal. After the other man expresses interest, Boaz reminds him that when he acquires the property from Naomi, and from Ruth the Moabite, he acquires an obligation to Ruth. At this point the other man steps aside, clearing the way for Boaz to purchase the property, to marry Ruth, and (unknown to any of them at that time) to become the great-grandfather of David, the definitive king of Israel.
But why talk about Ruth and Boaz this morning, at this table?
Ruth and Boaz first meet when she goes to glean in his fields, hoping to find enough scraps of leftover grain to feed herself and Naomi. Boaz ensures that she is well-treated and gives her far more than scraps and leftovers. As Ruth tells Naomi of the day's events, Naomi recognizes Boaz as a go'el, the term used in Leviticus 25 to describe the role Boaz later fulfills in the city gate.
That Hebrew word is used throughout the Psalms and Isaiah, and in Job 19:25, when Job says:
I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.
A go'el is a redeemer, one who defends the helpless, who buys back that which was lost or forfeited.
In Isaiah 16 we find the concept, if not the word, when Isaiah writes:
“Hide the fugitives, do not betray the refugees. Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you; be their shelter from the destroyer.”
The oppressor will come to an end, and destruction will cease; the aggressor will vanish from the land. In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it—one from the house of David—one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness.
Reading this book at the spiritual level, you and I are Ruth, in abject poverty, outcasts, foreigners, with no inheritance. And yet we have a redeemer who cared for us, who gave us more than we deserved. The Son of David died for us to make us a royal priesthood, to give us an inheritance that can never spoil nor fade; he returned from death as proof of the life he gave that can never be destroyed.
The account of Jesus is a beautiful story of loyalty and love – a God so devoted and faithful to His children that He would not abandon them after the moral connection between them had been broken by sin.
And the hometown in which these events took place?
It's Bethlehem.
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