EMBRACING RESPONSIBILITIES

8/26/2012

1.     NAOMI: UNSELFISH COUNSELOR (RUTH 3:1-4)

·         Naomi notices that Ruth is very modest and is not making any claim upon Boaz at all.

·         She also notices the obvious, that Boaz is in love with Ruth.

·         And so Naomi asks Ruth if she should seek rest for her, which is of course, the marriage.

·         You remember that Naomi urged each of her daughters-in-law to stay in the land of Moab and find rest in her husband's house.

Naomi’s “… meaning is, to seek out for an husband for her, that she might have an house of her own to rest in, and an husband to provide her; that so she might be free from such toil and labour she had been lately exercised in, and enjoy much ease and comfort, and all outward happiness and prosperity in a marriage state with a good husband. This interrogation carries in it the force of a strong affirmation, may suggest that she judged it to be her duty, and that she was determined to seek out such a rest for her…”.

John Gill’s Commentary on Ruth

2.     RUTH: OBEDIENT RISK TAKER (RUTH 3:5-9)

·         Remember, under the Mosaic Law, Ruth is not only entitled to and has a right to claim Boaz as her kinsman-redeemer, but she must claim him to bring it about.

3.     BOAZ: COMPASSIONATE PROTECTOR (RUTH 3:10-18)

3A. ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY (RUTH 3:10-13a)

10 Then he said, "May you be blessed of the LORD, my daughter. You have shown your last kindness to be better than the first by not going after young men, whether poor or rich. 11 And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you whatever you ask, for all my people in the city know that you are a woman of excellence. 12 And now it is true I am a close relative; however, there is a relative closer than I. 13 Remain this night, and when morning comes, if he will redeem you, good; let him redeem you.

NASB

4.     BOAZ: FAMILY REDEEMER (RUTH 4:1-12)

4A. ACTING WITH INTEGRITY (RUTH 4:1-4a)

1 Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there, and behold, the close relative of whom Boaz spoke was passing by, so he said, "Turn aside, friend, sit down here." And he turned aside and sat down. 2 And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, "Sit down here." So they sat down. 3 Then he said to the closest relative, "Naomi, who has come back from the land of Moab, has to sell the piece of land which belonged to our brother Elimelech. 4 So I thought to inform you, saying, 'Buy it before those who are sitting here, and before the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it; but if not, tell me that I may know; for there is no one but you to redeem it, and I am after you.'"

NASB

·         In this chapter we will see the work of Boaz. He has had to stand aside with his arms folded, but now he is free to move because Ruth has claimed him as her kinsman-redeemer.

4B. EMBRACING A SECURE FUTURE (RUTH 4:9-10, 13, 17)

9 Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, "You are witnesses today that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and Mahlon. 10 Moreover, I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, to be my wife in order to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance, so that the name of the deceased may not be cut off from his brothers or from the court of his birth place; you are witnesses today."

NASB

13 So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her. And the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son

NASB

17 And the neighbor women gave him a name, saying, "A son has been born to Naomi!" So they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

NASB

5.     OBED: DAVIDIC ANCESTOR (RUTH 4:13-22)

Matthew 1:5-6

5 and to Salmon was born Boaz by Rahab; and to Boaz was born Obed by Ruth; and to Obed, Jesse; 6 and to Jesse was born David the king.

NASB

What are the special lessons of this book?

(1) The lesson on the levirate marriage, that is where a man after marriage dies without children the closest male kin under the Mosaic law takes the widow as his wife with the view to raise up seed in the name of the dead husband and who inherited his part of the land.

(2) The second lesson is the messianic picture. All through the history of Israel is an ever increasing prophetic light pointing to the coming of Christ and especially showing that among the ancestors of Christ were Gentile women, as Rahab the harlot and Ruth the Moabitess.

(3) The third lesson is to note how famine and pestilence cause shifting of population. It was a famine that took Abraham to Egypt and the whole family of Jacob.

(4) The fourth special lesson is the exquisite gem of Ruth's reply to Naomi. It is poetic, pathetic, manifesting a high order of faith and steadfastness. I will give it in its poetic form: Insist not on me forsaking thee, To return from following after thee; For whither thou goest, I will go, And wheresoever thou lodgest, I will lodge, Thy people is my people, And thy God my God. Wheresoever thou diest, I will die And there will I be buried. So may Jehovah do to me, And still more, If aught but death part me and thee.

(5) The fifth special lesson is the significance of names. "Elimelech" means, God is King, "Naomi" means, God is sweetness; and these names were bestowed as expressions of faith of their parents. You will see in the book that Naomi refers to the meaning of her name, on her return from Moab, when she says, "Call me no more Naomi, meaning sweetness, but Marah, meaning bitterness." meaning the opposite of sweetness, which shows how pessimistic she had become; that instead of God being sweet to her he had become bitterness to her. It is like the pessimistic passage in the book of Job in the culmination of his affliction and in one of the Psalms.

B. H. Carroll on Ruth