Preaching the gospel from Ruth

Five Festal Garments: Christian Reflections on the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther Barry Webb Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester, 2000, pp. 192.

The book of Ruth is an unlikely love story, but it is also much more. Gordon Cheng speaks to Dr Barry Webb, Research Fellow at Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia, and author of Five Festal Garments: Christian Reflections on the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther about preaching through Ruth, aliens and outsiders, the law, redeemers and the greatest rescuer of all.

 

Gordon Cheng: What's the book of Ruth about?

Barry Webb: At the broadest level, it's about an outsider becoming an insider. Ruth is an outsider—a Moabitess—and therefore excluded from the people of God (Deut 23:3). She cannot be welcomed into Israel. But the book of Ruth is the story of how the impossible can happen. It's also a powerful comment about what it means to keep the law, and how one might distinguish between the ‘greater’ and ‘lesser’ matters of the law. As well as saying who is excluded and why, the law says you must love the foreigner, the poor, the widow and the marginalized. That is who Ruth is—a poor, foreign, marginalized widow. The book of Ruth begins with Naomi in Moab because of famine. While she is there, Ruth comes into Naomi's family by marriage: one of Naomi's sons marries her. Both Naomi's husband and sons die. Then Naomi hears that the famine is over. She comes back to Israel like the prodigal son of Luke 15. She gives her two daughters-in-law the choice to stay in Moab—in fact, she encourages them to go back, but Ruth won't. Naomi doesn't expect Ruth to be treated well in Israel, but it turns out that she is. Boaz, a wealthy man, acts properly towards her, recognizing that she is a needy alien. He provides her with food as she gleans in his fields. This relationship develops into love, and eventually Boaz marries her. So, in a sense, he is a redeemer—someone who rescues and saves—a go'el, to use the Hebrew word. The go'el in Old Testament law was normally a relative. Boaz is obviously not a blood relative of Ruth. But Boaz has acted towards Ruth as if she were part of the extended family. He treats her according to the generosity the law requires. In addition, Ruth ends up in the family of King David, the great king of Israel (Ruth 4:18-22). She also turns up in the genealogy of Christ (Matt 1:5)! According to the letter of the law, Ruth should have been excluded, but she ends up in the family of the Lord Jesus.

GC: So did Boaz keep or break the law?

BW: I'm always challenged by this issue because in our evangelical part of church, we insist on keeping to the word of Scripture. I can imagine myself saying to Boaz, “You can't do this” and him responding, “But I love her”, and then me insisting, “Well, you can't”. But I might be like the New Testament Pharisees—focusing on the minutiae of the law while ignoring the intention—mercy and generosity. Israel ended up falling into idolatry and immorality on the plains of Moab; that was the reason for the laws about the Moabites. But the law was never intended to exclude someone who embraced the God of Israel. In those circumstances, the law is not absolute. What is absolute is practising justice and mercy. So Boaz keeps the law better than we might. In essence, that is what Ruth is about—what it means to welcome an outsider and (in so doing) to keep the law.

GC: Please say a bit more about the idea of a ‘redeemer’ or ‘go'el’.

BW: The word is taken from a verb which means to ‘rescue’ or ‘redeem’. In the Law of Moses, a go'el is a close relative who is meant to help you in trouble. If you couldn't pay your debts, you would sell yourself to a master and pay back what you could by working for him. The master had obligations to behave in a certain way towards you and to treat you well as an Israelite. But you would be totally bound to him. However, a relative could then come along, repay the debt and rescue you—buy you out of slavery. He could also rescue land—especially land sold to a foreigner. So a go'el is a ransomer who rescues someone out of poverty or great need. In the book of Ruth, when Ruth goes out and gathers grain in Boaz's fields, Naomi hears about this and says (to paraphrase) “Hey, he is a go'el” (Ruth 2:20). Naomi's hopes begin to rise: here is a relative who may help her in her poverty. But then he goes beyond what Naomi expects by rescuing Ruth as well. The idea of a go'el also existed outside of Israel: it basically meant to buy a slave and set him free, or to buy a house or piece of property and restore the house or land to the former owner. When Israel was in slavery in Egypt, Yahweh¹ came to them, saved them and freed them. Israel regarded Yahweh as their great rescuer or redeemer. But Yahweh was different from other redeemers: he didn't pay Pharaoh any money for them. However, at the same time, he is like a go'el in treating them as his relatives—his family, his people—and exerting his power to save them. So there is a significant connection between the way Yahweh acts towards Israel and the way the Law of Moses speaks of what it means to be a go'el. Yahweh is the great go'el, even in the book of Ruth. It isn't just a delightful love story. There are a lot of seeming coincidences hinting at divine intervention. God, through Boaz, rescues Naomi and Ruth; he is their redeemer. Behind the human activity lies the work of Yahweh, the great rescuer.

GC: I find Naomi a fascinating character. She seems to trust God, yet at other times her words and actions seem wrong. On her return, she even says, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara [meaning ‘bitter’], for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me” (Ruth 1:20).

BW: Yes, we get glimpses in Naomi's words of what's going on in her mind. We could even call the book of Ruth the book of Naomi: it begins with Naomi going away and coming back to Israel, and it ends with Naomi with a grandchild in her lap. It's the story of what happened to her even more than it's the story of Ruth and Boaz. We mustn't be too hard on Naomi; there was a famine in the land and her husband went away; she probably didn't have much choice. But she is at fault for underestimating the goodness of God: she says, “I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty” (Ruth 1:21). She doesn't blame her husband, nor does she seek to explain or justify herself, and that is admirable in one way. But it is not strictly correct that she has come back empty. She has Ruth. She almost doesn't acknowledge Ruth's presence; she treats her more as a liability. She comes back bitter that the Lord treated her this way. She sees herself as someone punished by God—brought back in a state of humiliation. She doesn't have any real hope of being treated well. It's not until she hears of Boaz that her hopes begin to rise. She recognizes that he has treated Ruth with kindness; she realizes he is a go'el and, at that point, the lights come on for her, and she starts to see a future for herself again. By the end of the book, Ruth has her baby with Boaz. She places the baby in Naomi's lap, and the women of Bethlehem, who may well have been critical of Naomi, end up blessing her and reminding her of God's goodness:

Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him. (Ruth 4:14-15)

There's a surprising thing about this blessing: when the women say to Naomi that the Lord has not left her “without a redeemer”, we think of Boaz, but they seem to be speaking about the baby. They remind Naomi that this redeemer will be “a nourisher of your old age”, which is what you'd expect a son to do—care for his aged mother. But what of Ruth? In the end, it is the women of Bethlehem who have to tell Naomi that Ruth is a valuable person. It has to be pointed out to her that she (Naomi) is full, not empty. She is an object of mercy who has underestimated God's goodness. There is a gentle rebuke in this blessing and, at the same time, a kind of rescue of Ruth from her mother-in law's self-absorbed neglect of her. The way the genealogy in Ruth 4:18-22 is alluded to in Matthew 1 is the link between Yahweh the redeemer of Israel, Boaz the redeemer of Ruth, and Christ the redeemer of us all. It is interesting that the baby in Mary's lap is our redeemer. Mary was rescued not just from the shame of unwanted pregnancy through her son, but from sin and death. And he is God's rescuer for all of us!

GC: More than once it has been suggested or commented that Ruth seduced Boaz. Are those comments fair?

BW: We shouldn't feel the need to make Bible characters better than they are, or to think that because God blesses them, they must be good people. We've already seen that Naomi isn't perfect. Lying at Boaz's feet is a form of begging. It may also be an invitation to sex. But notice also that the writer of the book is very careful to tell us that nothing happened—that she arose “before one could recognize another” (Ruth 3:14)—in other words, before they could have sex. Ruth asks Boaz to spread “the corner of your garment over me” (Ruth 3:9, NIV). There may be some customary act involved here: she is not necessarily saying “Have sex with me”, but “Give me your protection”. Boaz says, “I will protect you, but don't let it be known”. So she gets up before anyone could be “known” (Ruth 3:14). Boaz is afraid of a scandal; his warning shows that. There's a suggestion that there was a dangerous and perhaps improper thing going on. Possibly Naomi used Ruth for her own ends. I don't think we need to see this as totally guileless—certainly not on Naomi's part. Whether Naomi and Ruth were right to do what they did, God in his goodness blessed them anyway. It's a lovely thing that God blesses us in spite of ourselves, for he is a gracious redeemer.

GC: Barry, what suggestions do you have for preaching the book of Ruth?

BW: You must do more than just tell a love story. It is that, and everyone's heart will be warmed by it, but you have an obligation to show people the broader purposes of God. This is a book in which it is relatively easy to do that because you have the genealogy at the end that connects you to David and hence to Christ. There is also the go'el/redeemer theme. But I would also say don't try to get there too quickly. Let people feel Naomi's bitterness, her despair, her emptiness. People have to feel that before they can really appreciate the wonder of God's kindness, shown in the way he comes to her aid. So don't rush too quickly out of the book of Ruth and into the New Testament. We need to feel what it's like to be an ‘alien’, or to be a man who is not quite sure he's doing the right thing even though he knows the law of God. These are the background things that enable the mercy of God to shine in all its glory.

GC: In terms of how you preach it, can you preach it a bit at a time or should you preach it all at once?

BW: There is a sense in which narratives (stories), whether true or fictional, mean what they do as wholes, not as parts. There is a danger, as we preach, of cutting up the story into pieces in a way that obscures the big, central issues. We need to have a strong sense of the major themes in the book, and then we can decide how we'll preach from it. However, you can preach Ruth in parts. Chapter 1, for example, is about going away full and coming back empty. In a sense, this is what the whole Bible is about: it's about the human race, who were full, going away and suffering loss, pain and death, and about God's unexpected work of salvation in bringing back his empty ones by his mercy. But the people listening won't see why this is a proper use of chapter 1 until they reach the genealogy at the end. That's okay; it's okay to leave people in suspense as long as you have that end in mind. Chapters 2 and 3 should be preached together because they are parallel sets of events. Chapter 4 is a kind of due process that must be undergone as far as the story is concerned: there is a matter to be discussed at the city gates, the elders must decide, and if Boaz is to act rightly, he must honour the law and not set it aside. At the last moment, there is a complication that must be dealt with—a closer potential go'el whose rights must be respected. As the story unfolds, God is shown to be bigger than his law, but the law he has given is upheld rather than disregarded.

GC: You've said we need to be aware of the themes when we preach; can you say a little more about those themes and how to draw them together?

BW: The book of Ruth, in Jewish tradition, is read at the Feast of Tabernacles. This shows a profound understanding of the book because the Feast of Tabernacles was about God's provision for Israel as they wandered in the wilderness. He gave them food (manna), water and, finally, a fruitful land. The Jews celebrate God's provision at the Feast of Tabernacles and, in connection with it, read Ruth, which is all about God's provision for his people in giving them a redeemer. But the festival also commemorates the giving of the law to Israel, and shows what it means to truly keep the law. It is a warning not to become legalists, but to try and understand the heart and purpose of the law, and its place in Israel's everyday life. So in a wonderful way, the Jewish reading of Ruth brings together the law and God's redeeming grace. What Christians understand and want not only Jews, but all people, to know is the sequel—the Lord Jesus, who perfectly kept the law and showed God's mercy to all of us.

Endnote

¹ ‘Yahweh’ is Israel's personal name for God, first revealed in Exodus 3:14 and normally written as ‘Lord' (with capital letters) in our English translations.