This post is the fourth and final part of a presentation I had the opportunity to give on Ruth 1 at a women’s Bible study at my church. If you’d like to catch up, this link will take you to Part 1. The last post left Naomi destitute, but, despite her best efforts, not alone! After trying to send her daughters-in-law home before her journey back to Bethlehem, Ruth has pledged to remain with her. This post brings the series to an end, focusing on their return to Bethlehem in last few verses of the chapter.
As we saw at the end of the last post, Naomi’s despair has not lifted in Ruth’s enduring company on their journey. But despite her hardship and attitude, we still see many indications that God has not forgotten her, and is working for her good.
Chapter 1, verse 19 tells us that “The whole town stirred” when Ruth, a widow, a woman, an immigrant, a poverty-stricken outcast, came into Bethlehem. And this is where we see another whisper of the coming redemption through Christ. Matthew borrowed this same phrase in Matthew 21:10 to describe Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem days before his crucifixion— “the whole town was stirred.” For Matthew’s audience, it was a clear indication that Jesus was the fulfillment of the same promises given to Naomi and Ruth, fulfilled through the line of David. Through Matthews words, we can connect Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection with promises made to Abraham, and with the story of Naomi and Ruth. We see that God’s redeeming love and covenant-keeping faithfulness was in action even then to bring about the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant through Christ—generations before Jesus’ birth. Not only that, but we are given a beautiful picture of Christ’s work on the cross here in dual use of this phrase.
Ruth had every reason to expect that she would be met with suspicion and disdain and mistreatment. And yet (spoiler alert!) she was instead lifted up to be part of the royal lineage of the coming king, and the Messiah. This is the gospel, isn’t it? We, like Ruth, have every reason to expect and even deserve judgement and wrath for sin, when we cling to Yahweh we are instead met with favor. Why is this? Because Jesus, who had every reason not just to expect, but deserved glory and honor for ever and ever, willingly suffered and took the wrath that we deserved. Jesus, God incarnate, a sinless man with impeccable lineage, rode into the city with honor, and an ecstatic, hopeful greeting— “the whole town was stirred.” And within days he was dead, murdered on a cross.
But we see that poor Naomi was still unaware of God’s hand over her life. When she arrived back in Bethlehem she told her old friends that she was “empty,” and “bitter.” She identified herself by her distance from God, and did not seem to have any faith left that God could or would save her.
Maybe this is your story. Maybe you feel so far from God that you cannot imagine that he would come to redeem and restore you. Do you believe that God could still love you, despite your own sin and distance from God?
If you’re struggling to believe that God could love you because of sin, this book is for you. Watch what the narrator does when Naomi tries to name herself according to her sin: The narrator does not let us believe her words. He ignores Naomi’s attempt to take “Mara” as her identity, but persists in calling her Naomi. He calls her by her given name. The narrator knows more of the story than Naomi, and he knew, even though she didn’t, that God was intending to restore her, keep her, and fill her.
So at the end of Chapter 1, Naomi and Ruth at last come to Bethlehem, the last verse in the chapter tells us, at the time of harvest. It’s as if the narrator is foreshadowing what was to come. They came when there was an abundance in store for Bethlehem. Naomi’s physical redemption, the filling of her empty belly, was there, ripe and rippling in the fields—a hopeful hint that the filling was about to begin. First her belly, next her womb, and finally the throne of Israel.
This sign to Naomi and Ruth should give us hope, too. Let me speak clearly here: If you feel that you are too far from God. If you feel that your suffering is a sign of God’s unfaithfulness or even hatred for you, if you think you have sinned too much to be loved by God, take hope. Because Naomi’s redeemer is our redeemer. Have you lost the battle against anger at your spouse or children? Does your singleness or infertility feel like a curse from an unloving God? Have you been enslaved to sexual sin and feel irredeemable? Have you experienced so much hurt at the hand of others that you want to distance yourself from a God who seems to be unjust? Do you wonder if you even want to be redeemed? Friend:Take hope, and believe.
Naomi’s Redeemer, who called her by name, is our redeemer. The fulfillment that Ruth foreshadowed came to earth to redeem sinners just like you, just like me. From where we stand in history, we have seen God’s faithfulness to fulfill his promises through the birth, life, death, resurrection of Jesus Christ, and his ascension to his throne in heaven. Our hope is not in an unnamed or unfulfilled promise, but in Jesus, at whose name every knee will bow when he returns. And in Christ, no emptiness or weakness or rebellion in our own life can drive us far enough away that Christ cannot or will not redeem us. As Romans 5:8 says “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly…God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”[1]
You may not see God’s goodness, or his faithfulness, or his steadfast love right now. But take hope.
Paul says in Romans 8:24 that it is in this hope that we were saved:[2]The hope for our redemption—the adoption as sons, and the redemption of our bodies. The hope that “all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”[3]As someone said, “the one who is writing your story loves you.”[4]
I’m reminded of this every time I celebrate my two living children’s birthdays, both in March. It was not a given that I would have children to laugh and play in my home—it still isn’t. I will never know my two children lost in miscarriage here on earth, and my living children are one breath away from death, as are all of us. Not only that, but I know that not all stories of loss or unmet desire go hand in hand with answered prayers on earth. Some of us will never see the answers to our prayers before heaven, and it is good and right to mourn that. But when we do get to heaven, we will see clearly that God’s way was the way of blessing—somehow, someway—after all. In my case, my living children are simultaneous reminders to me of both the pain of loss, and of God’s goodness and love amidst the brokenness of this world. The blessing of life and the sorrow of death mingle together, and I am convinced of the hope we have in Christ even in sorrow, even if we do not see the relief we hope for on earth. We can trust God in our pain.
Paul says in Romans 8:32 that “if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”[5]
Did you hear that? He did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all.
Let’s close with Romans 8:35–39. Here, as if in answer to Naomi’s doubts, and our own, about the faithfulness and love of God, Paul encourages God’s family that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross purchased an unbreakable bond with God the Creator, and an impermeable love.His words remind us that our Redeemer will keep us. The author of Ruth 1 meant to show us that God is a covenant-keeping God. This side of the cross we can see that Jesus died to redeem us, and no one can snatch us out of us hand. He will love his children no matter what. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine or nakedness, or danger, or sword? …No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[6]
Let’s rest here for a moment. Read this once more, slowly. I’d encourage you to pause for a few seconds between each phrase, resting and praying that confidence and joy in God’s redemption through Christ, as we’ve seen here in Ruth 1, would soak into your souls.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine or nakedness, or danger, or sword?… No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[7]
[1]Rom 5:6–8
[2]Rom 8:24
[3]8:28
[4]Perhaps Nancy Guthrie?
[5]8:32
[6]Rom 8:35–39
[7]Rom 8:35–39
