For some reason there
is a change of heart on Naomi’s behalf, as she “said to her two
daughters-in-law, ‘Listen to me! Each of you should return to your
mother’s home! May the Lord show you the same kind of devotion that you
have shown to your deceased husbands and to me! May the Lord enable each
of you to find security in the home of a new husband!’” (1:8-9a) Clearly,
making this statement was difficult for Naomi, as she then “kissed them goodbye
and they wept loudly” (1:9b). However, both were determined to return
with Naomi, saying “No! We will return with you to your people”
(1:10). Naomi speaks again, and this time is far more persistent, causing
Orpah to accede to her wishes and demands, as she kissed her goodbye,
presumably returning to her mother’s home as directed. However, as we
know, “Ruth clung tightly to her” (1:14b). Naomi protested Ruth’s
actions, but upon her doing so, Ruth famously and stubbornly declared “Stop
urging me to abandon you! For wherever you go, I will go. Wherever
you live, I will live. Your people will become my people, and your God
will become my God” (1:16). Ruth’s dogged determination to be a part of
the exodus people won out and Naomi relented, so they returned together to
Judah, and more specifically, to Bethlehem.
When they did return,
Naomi uses the language of exile and exodus, but seemingly in reverse, as she
says, “I left here full, but the Lord has caused me to return empty-handed”
(1:21a). It is possible that her bitterness (thus, the name change to Mara,
or “bitter”) here had overwhelmed her, as she adds that “the Lord has opposed
me, and the Sovereign One has caused me to suffer” (1:21b). Apparently,
she has forgotten that she left with her husband and children in a time of
famine, and at a time that we can presume that Israel was in subjugation. It is
possible that she saw their departure to Moab as an exodus, and had begun to
think of Moab as home. This might very well be the reason why she was so
insistent that Orpah and Ruth stay in Moab, which in her own mind, had become a
place of fullness. Based on Ruth’s response to Naomi’s land and Naomi’s
God, it seems reasonable to believe that Naomi attempted to paint a
not-so-flattering picture of that land and of the Lord, with tales of famine and
oppression and death and judgment, in an attempt to convince Orpah and Ruth of
the futility of going with her, and the benefits of staying there in
Moab. Correspondingly, if her departure was an exodus, then she is now
viewing her return home to Bethlehem in Judah as exile. If so, this makes
Orpah’s departure understandable. If so, this makes Ruth’s clinging to
Naomi even more remarkable, while giving us a glimpse into what lay behind the
language of the rest of her statement to Naomi, in which she says, “Wherever
you die, I will die---and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me
severely if I do not keep my promise! Only death will be able to separate
me from you!” (1:17) So against all probability, while Naomi thinks of
the return to the promised land as an exile, Ruth looks forward to the end of
exile, and a joining together with the people of exodus, in the land of the
Lord’s promise.
With all of this
under consideration---Naomi’s trepidation in returning to the land, combined
with the knowledge of the famine and subjugation that was in effect when she
left with her husband, it is with a touch of apparent irony that “they arrived
in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest” (1:22b).
Immediately, in her land of exodus---which is the place of God’s mission for
her---“Ruth went and gathered grain in the fields behind the harvesters”
(2:3a). This gathering, as we come to find out, took place in “the field
belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech” (2:3c). When Boaz
speaks to Ruth, he treats her quite well, embodying the grace and kindness to
resident foreigners that was demanded of Israel in the law of their
God---because they too had been foreigners in Egypt. Though the author
does not speak of this, it underlies the story and the treatment, and we are
reminded of the constant overt and subtle recalling of exodus by the Biblical
authors.
Soon after, as Ruth
gives Naomi a report of the day’s activities, as well as the favorable
treatment from Boaz, “Naomi said to her, ‘This man is a close relative of ours;
he is our guardian’.” (2:20b) Later on, Ruth goes back to Boaz, proposing
marriage and reminding him that he is “a guardian of the family’s interests”
(3:9b). The Hebrew word used here for “guardian” is “go’el,” which is used
as both “kinsman” and “redeemer.” This means that this is “deliverer”
language, thus presenting Boaz in the mold of Moses, which places the story
squarely in the center of the exile, exodus, and rescuing motif that is much of
the sum and substance of the Scriptural message. As a guardian, or a
redeemer, or a deliverer, Boaz agrees to Ruth’s proposal, and tells her that he
will do what is necessary to become her and the family’s redeemer. Before
sending her away so that he can go and attend to this business, “he measured
out about sixty pounds of barley into the shawl and put it on her shoulders”
(3:15). In this additional, favorable treatment by this redeemer (the one
that was going to complete Ruth’s exodus and bring the family’s exile to an end),
it could be said that Boaz went far beyond what either Ruth or Naomi would have
asked or thought (Ephesians 3:20).
As Boaz completes the
transaction that will see him redeeming the estate of his kinsmen Elimelech, he
says, “I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, as my wife to
raise up a descendant who will inherit his property so the name of the deceased
might not disappear from among his relatives and from his village”
(4:10a). In so doing, Boaz rescues the name of Elimelech from
exile. Almost immediately, we find ourselves reading about Ruth that “The
Lord enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to a son… They named him
Obed. Now he became the father of Jesse---David’s father!”
(4:13b,17b) The marriage and the coming of a child marks the preservation
of an inheritance within the land. Because this is couched within the
language of redemption (4:4-6), and because redemption is equated with exodus,
all of these things serve as a reminder to both the witnesses and the later
reader of this history, of God’s faithful, saving, covenant action on behalf of
His people.
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