If so, this makes
Orpah’s departure understandable. If so, this makes Ruth’s clinging to
Naomi even more remarkable, while providing a glimpse into what lay behind the
language of the rest of her statement to Naomi, in which she says “Wherever you
die, I will die---and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me
severely if I do not keep my promise! Only death will be able to separate
me from you!” (1:17) So against all probability, while Naomi thinks of
the return to the promised land as an exile, Ruth looks forward to the end of
exile and a joining together with the people of exodus in the land of the covenant
God’s promise.
With all of this
under consideration---Naomi’s trepidation in returning to the land, combined
with the knowledge of the famine and subjugation that was in effect when she
left with her husband, it is with a touch of apparent irony that “they arrived
in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest” (1:22b).
Immediately, in her land of exodus---which is the place of the Creator God’s
mission for her---“Ruth went and gathered grain in the fields behind the
harvesters” (2:3a).
This gathering, as
the reader comes to find out, took place in “the field belonging to Boaz, who
was from the clan of Elimelech” (2:3c). When Boaz speaks to Ruth, he
treats her quite well, embodying the grace and kindness to resident foreigners
that was demanded of Israel in the law of their God---because they too had been
foreigners in Egypt. Though the author does not speak of this, it
underlies the story and the treatment, and serves as a reminder of the constant
overt and subtle recalling of exodus by the various Biblical authors.
Soon after, as Ruth
gives Naomi a report of the day’s activities, as well as the favorable
treatment from Boaz, “Naomi said to her, ‘This man is a close relative of ours;
he is our guardian’.” (2:20b) Later on, Ruth goes back to Boaz, proposing
marriage and reminding him that he is “a guardian of the family’s interests”
(3:9b). The Hebrew word used here for “guardian” is “go’el,” which is
used as both “kinsman” and “redeemer.” This means that this is
“deliverer” language, thus presenting Boaz in the mold of Moses, which places
the story squarely in the center of the exile, exodus, and rescuing motif that
is much of the sum and substance of the Scriptural message.
As a guardian or a
redeemer or a deliverer, Boaz agrees to Ruth’s proposal, and tells her that he
will do what is necessary to become her and the family’s redeemer. Before
sending her away so that he can go and attend to this business, “he measured
out about sixty pounds of barley into the shawl and put it on her shoulders”
(3:15). In this additional, favorable treatment by this redeemer (the one
that was going to complete Ruth’s exodus and bring the family’s exile to an
end), it could be said that Boaz went far beyond what either Ruth or Naomi
would have asked or thought (Ephesians 3:20).
As Boaz completes the
transaction that will see him redeeming the estate of his kinsmen Elimelech, he
says, “I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, as my wife to
raise up a descendant who will inherit his property so the name of the deceased
might not disappear from among his relatives and from his village”
(4:10a). In so doing, Boaz rescues the name of Elimelech from
exile. Almost immediately, the story of Ruth moves along to the fact that
“The Lord enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to a son… They named him
Obed. Now he became the father of Jesse---David’s father!”
(4:13b,17b)
The marriage and the
coming of a child marks the preservation of an inheritance within the
land. Because this is couched within the language of redemption (4:4-6),
and because redemption is equated with exodus, all of these things serve as a
reminder to both the witnesses and the later reader of this history, of the
Creator God’s faithful, saving, covenant action on behalf of His people.
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