Friday, November
9, 2018
Then the elders and all the people standing in the gate replied, “We are witnesses! May the Lord make this woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, from whom all the nation of Israel descended! May you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. And may the Lord give you descendants by this young woman who will be like those of our ancestor Perez, the son of Tamar and Judah.” So Boaz took Ruth into his home, and she became his wife. When he slept with her, the Lord enabled her to become pregnant, and she gave birth to a son. Then the women of the town said to Naomi, “Praise the Lord, who has now provided a redeemer for your family! May this child be famous in Israel. May he restore your youth and care for you in your old age. For he is the son of your daughter-in-law who loves you and has been better to you than seven sons!” Naomi took the baby and cuddled him to her breast. And she cared for him as if he were her own. The neighbor women said, “Now at last Naomi has a son again!” And they named him Obed. He became the father of Jesse and the grandfather of David. Ruth 4:11-17(NLT)
Naomi knew joy and sorrow. She had the joy of marriage and the birth of
two sons. She knew the hardship of
having to leave home and live in a foreign place because of hard times. She also knew the joy of having her sons get
married, welcoming two daughters-in-law into the family. Then Naomi came face-to-face with one of life’s
harsher turns; both her husband and two sons died. This sorrow was compounded by the laws of the
day; Naomi and the wives of her dead sons were reduced to begging. Life was harsh, and it was hard to fight
against the bitterness of it all.
And then there was the redeemer, Boaz!
The fact is, when your life is pushed up
against the wall of hard circumstances, you will turn in a lot of different
directions until something works out. To
Naomi’s credit, she turned to the covenant God made with Israel. She went back home with her daughter-in-law,
Ruth, to the land of her dead husband’s relatives. There, under Moses’ law[2]
she would find protection for the two of them.
But Naomi got so much more than protection. As it turned out, Boaz, a relative of her deceased
husband, became the kinsman-redeemer for this family, receiving Ruth, Naomi’s
daughter-in-law as his wife. This safeguard
was JHWH’s protection in two ways.
First, it ensured Naomi and Ruth would not have to wander and beg; they had
a safe home. Second, it protected the
family heritage.
And, in this case, what a heritage! A child is born, Obed … who would have a son,
Jesse. Jesse’s son, David, would tend
sheep, and then be a shepherd to Israel as King. Generations later, in a stable, on a cold
winter’s night, David’s lineage would receive gifts from other kings and nobles
while the angels sang to welcome Messiah, kinsman redeemer of humanity. And this is the One who would
make it possible for us to not wander and beg in our sin!
Of course, Naomi’s joy was simply wrapped
up in holding her little grandson, ten toes and fingers, diapers that needed
changing, feeding, burping, and the comfort of a living hope for the future. Naomi’s joy was heralded by the simple cry of
newborn Obed, whose name means servant of God.
I’m not sure Naomi could have envisioned
all that would come out of Obed’s life, or that her name would be more than
something to look up on Ancestry.com.
She was probably just happy to have a safe home and a new chance for her
life and Ruth’s. Things had turned for
the worse in that foreign land; now God had provided a blessing beyond her
dreams.
There seems to have been a lot of that
kind of thing in Naomi’s family. Mary,
Ruth’s great-granddaughter, many times removed, also was confused with the
struggle that came from an angel one night.
But, she also got to hold a newborn life; a child Who was destined to
become eternal life for a world confused in the darkness of sin.
For You Today
When life turns harsh it’s hard to look
down through the generations and leave it all to God. But that’s exactly what may be on your plate
today. So, remember the old proverb that
is an epitaph of Ruth’s love expressed to Naomi, as she invested her life with
her mother-in-law: It is better to light a candle
than curse the darkness.
Go to VIDEO
[2] Deuteronomy
25:5
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