Matthew 1:5b-6a
…and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David…
Ruth’s story is one of the better known stories of a woman in the Bible, and Ruth is regularly held up as a model of faithfulness…with good reason. But in case we’ve forgotten some of the details, let’s recall her story once again.
Between the conquest of the land and the time that Israel becomes a nation, the twelve tribes descended from the twelve sons of Jacob form a loose confederation, running their own affairs for the most part but banding together in times of trouble. Throughout this period – as, in many ways, throughout the biblical witness – the people repeat a predictable pattern: beginning in right relationship to the Lord, sinning and falling away, and then being drawn back by some manner of crisis or hardship. The Judges – in many ways like tribal chieftains – are those persons (mostly men but including at least one woman) who provide leadership during times of crisis, exercising military or judicial authority over the loose confederation of tribes until the crisis had passed.
The story of Ruth (told in the book with her name) takes place during this period. When famine strikes the land, a man of the tribe of Judah named Elimelech takes his wife Naomi and his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, to live in Moab, a country on the other side of the Dead Sea from the territory of Judah. While there, however, Elimelech dies. Naomi and her sons stay, and eventually the two boys marry Moabite women named Orpah and Ruth. Ten years go by, and then Mahlon and Chilion die as well.
By this time, the famine is past, and Naomi plans to return to her home. But she urges her daughters-in-law to stay in Moab, because she knows that they have no particularly bright future back in Judah. When they protest out of loyalty that they want to stay with Naomi, she reminds them that she has no more sons to give them as husbands and therefore she can offer them no security or future. At this, Orpah relents and turns to stay with her family in Moab, but Ruth insists on following Naomi: with words that are both moving and beautiful:
‘Do not press me to leave you
or to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people,
and your God my God.
Where you die, I will die—
there will I be buried.
May the Lord do thus and so to me,
and more as well,
if even death parts me from you!
And this, of course, is why we esteem Ruth so highly, because of her great steadfastness and loyalty. (These words have become popular at weddings. On one level I understand why a bride and groom might want to say such beautiful words to each other…but on another level, of course, they are said to her mother-in-law. :))
In any event, Ruth follows Naomi into an uncertain future. But the Lord rewards Ruth with safety, security, and a future when she is wed is Boaz, a wealthy man who is related to Naomi through Elimilech and who is impressed by Ruth’s steadfastness. And Boaz and Ruth bear a son named Obed, and in time Obed bears a son he names Jesse, who in time bears several sons, the youngest of which is named David, the one who becomes king over all Israel.
Ruth’s story is actually a far more interesting and colorful one than I’ve been able to summarize, but you can always read it for yourself. 🙂 What I want to point out is that relations between Israel and Moab, while occasionally tranquil, as in this scene, are nevertheless often quite stormy. Yet first the historians of Israel and later Matthew remember and celebrate that the great-grandmother of King David — and ancestor to Jesus — was a Moabite, a foreigner from a tribe that was often at enmity with Israel, yet who was remembered for her loyalty. And so while Jesus comes to be Emanuel – “God with us” – for the people of Israel, yet from the very beginning of the story Matthew signals that Jesus’ ancestry already contains “foreigners” from Jericho and Moab because, ultimately, no one is a foreigner or enemy to God.
Post image: “Naomi Entreating Ruth and Orpah to Return to the Land of Moab” by William Blake, 1795.
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