Ruth and the Promise of Redemption
For Meditation
From Rick Hutton
When I was in 5th grade, I received a failing grade for the marking period in my bible class at the Christian school I attended. I hadn’t memorized the bible verses for the quizzes we took and so I earned an F. Needless to say, my parents were not happy with my efforts for that marking period and so in the next marking period I was determined to do better. I worked and studied hard so that I would get not just a better grade, but an A. My thinking was that I had to do better, I had to prove myself, show that the F was a fluke. I was working to redeem myself.
In our series, Pointing to the Promise, we’ve been looking at stories from the Old Testament that point not to our redemption of anything, but to the Ultimate Story of God’s redemption of all things. In each of the stories we’ve looked at, and many others, there are signs pointing to the fact that through Jesus all of creation has been redeemed and will be made new.
The story of Ruth is another story in which God shows his redemptive work both in Ruth and Naomi’s lives, as well as his redemptive work for the world. We can see it in Ruth’s simple acts of love and loyalty, in Boaz’ integrity and faithfulness in taking the role of kinsman-redeemer, and we see it in Ruth’s son Obed, who becomes the grandfather of King David, from whose family line Jesus is born.
In the moment, these small acts didn’t appear to be anything that would alter the history of the world, but God worked through these small things to bring about the ultimate redemption through Jesus. God worked through the small things to do something huge!
Where have you seen God use something small in your, or someone else’s, life that turned into a much greater blessing? Let’s all remember that God works even in the smallest acts in order to accomplish his greater purpose, and he includes people like you and me in his work through even our smallest acts.
Ruth 4:13-17
13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14 The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”
16 Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.