Thursday, March 26

Scripture: But Ruth said, “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.” (Ruth 1:16).

Observation: The Book of Ruth is a bridge between two major sections of the Bible: the post-wilderness conquest of the Promised Land in Joshua and the confusion and chaos in Judges, and the creation of a United Kingdom of Israel under the reigns of Saul and David. In between these sections is the powerful short story of Ruth, her mother-in-law Naomi, and their redeemer, Boaz. Naomi is an Israelite and Ruth a Moabite. They had both married Israelite men of the tribe of Judah, and both became widows. Neither woman had a child who could provide for them (Naomi’s two sons died, and Ruth lost her husband before they became parents), sending Naomi and Ruth into poverty with no means of income, so they migrate to Bethlehem in Judah in hope that the good people of Bethlehem will provide them with some sort of safety set for their basic needs. All their hopes are fulfilled and then some. The farmers of Bethlehem allow Ruth to harvest the gleanings of their fields for free. Ruth meets Boaz, a relative of her deceased husband, and Boaz allows Ruth to harvest as much food as she wants from his crops. Naomi encourages Ruth to flirt (yes, flirt) with Boaz. Boaz is delighted because he is an older man, and Ruth, a younger woman, is taking interest in him. Boaz announces to the city elders that he wants to redeem the property that technically still belongs to Naomi’s deceased husband. Redemption means to buy back. Boaz would be acquiring Naomi’s husband’s property as his own, both the farmland and Ruth, and the payment would be made to Naomi. It’s a win-win-win. Boaz gains the farmland and a woman he loves; Ruth gains a husband she loves and salvation from poverty; and Naomi, too, is lifted out of poverty and gains a new family. And like a cherry on top, we learn at the end of the book that Boaz and Ruth are David’s grandparents. Ruth has a fairy tale ending. The happy ending is a direct result of Ruth’s leap of hope at the beginning of the book. When Naomi wanted to send Ruth home to Ruth’s Moabite family so that Ruth could find a new husband, Ruth cast her fate with Naomi, saying, “Where you go, I will go.” This leap of hope was the first domino to fall in a long cascade of events that led to King David and ultimately to Ruth’s descendant, Joseph, adopted father of Jesus.

Application: Ruth takes a leap of hope by deciding to follow Naomi to Naomi’s hometown of Bethlehem. Ruth had never been there; she had lived her entire life up to this point in Moab. Ruth had no idea what awaited her in Bethlehem. The phrase “leap of hope” might sound strange. We’re used to the phrase “leap of faith.” But Ruth’s leap is one of hope. Hope is expectancy, and expectancy is believing better things are waiting for you even though it’s impossible to know exactly what these better things are and when they will find you. Hope is believing there is always a next thing after the worst thing even though you can’t be sure what the next thing is or when you will see it. Another synonym for hope is grit, and grit is the perseverance to keep pushing through the hard with the expectancy that the hard will expire and you will be stronger on the other side. It was impossible for Ruth to be certain that better times were waiting for her in Bethlehem, which is why her hope is a leap, a nosedive into the unknown. But it was worth it. Leaps of hope are always worth it. One day, Ruth’s grandchild by adoption, Jesus, will show us that death itself is a leap of hope, a worst thing to push through giving way to the next thing on the other side.

Prayer:

Nosedives into the unknown are scary, but they’re also thrilling, aren’t they? It’s a matter of perspective, isn’t it? When I leap into that which I can’t be certain of or sure about or control or guarantee or predict, I might choose to see the unknown as a threat, a boogeyman waiting to grab me, or as an opportunity, an open door to better times. If betting on people is a leap of faith (because people are for having faith in, and it’s usually worth it, and in Your case it’s always worth), then nosediving into the unknown is a leap of hope: I can’t be sure what I’m getting into or why I feel Your hand pushing me off the diving board, but I choose (Lord help me here) to believe in Your unwavering availability with me through the hard times and Your solid presence waiting for me to arrive at the end of the hard times and Your unrelenting peace motivating me to keep pushing and gritting and fighting and the awesome surprising truth that You are the God of the Next Thing after the Worst Thing. And so: give extra peace and sensitivity to Your presence to everyone going through something; for spouses enduring gloom when marriage feels gloomy and parents worried sick about sick kids and breadwinners wondering where in the world the bread will come from and the elderly and the sick and the bone-tired having to choose between groceries and gas and cancer patients and all patients and for patience in the hard. Onward we go: amen.