PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Ruth 3-4
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age.” (Ruth 4:15)
Naomi returned home bitter, emptied of life and hope (Ruth 1:20-21).
Her husband and sons dead, she was essentially homeless and destitute.
Life for widows and orphans then was hard, and relied on charity.
But this story ends with overflowing hope, not empty despair.
This is the back story to Israel’s greatest king, David (Ruth 4:22).
And David is the back story to the coming messiah, Jesus the Son of David!
As Naomi’s story goes from empty to full, our story in Jesus does too.
“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.” (Colossians 2:9-10)
This story assures us that God has a ‘guardian redeemer’ for us.
Through Jesus, the promise to Naomi is also fulfilled for us.
God does renew our lives, and beyond old age guarantees eternal life!
I hang on to this hope when in the moment life seems empty or hard.
Jesus is the end of our story too… our cup overflows!
PRAYER
Lord, knowing you gives me a faith, hope and love that overflow from this life to the next. Sustain me through hard days until life is fully renewed in you!
“All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character.”
“For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.”
By their actions both Ruth and Boaz are honourable. At the city gate with the elders when the nearest relative declined to take the responsibility to continue Abimelech’s line by marrying Ruth – Boaz agrees and he is blessed by the elders – and so – Boaz and Ruth are in the line of Jesus ancestors. Their integrity is a testament of grace – both by Ruth in adopting her new homeland and God – and Boaz for honouring the provisions that God had put in place to preserve the line of Elimelech. An inspiring testament to integrity and grace!
The Lord works in miraculous ways. Naomi went from a full life to a life filled with sadness – from prosperity to poverty – living in the ‘promised land’ and then living in a foreign place among foreign people. Happiness to sadness. However she returned to the land where the people served the Lord and obeyed His law – coming full circle from sadness to joy – all things coming together through Boaz – their redeemer. I too have a Redeemer and He lives and because He lives, I too am alive and filled with joy and hope.
1 I will sing of my Redeemer
and his wondrous love to me;
on the cruel cross he suffered,
from the curse to set me free.
Sing, O sing of my Redeemer!
With his blood he purchased me;
on the cross he sealed my pardon,
paid the debt, and made me free.
2 I will tell the wondrous story,
how my lost estate to save,
in his boundless love and mercy,
he the ransom freely gave.
I will praise my dear Redeemer,
his triumphant power I’ll tell:
how the victory he gives me
over sin and death and hell.
3 I will sing of my Redeemer
and his heavenly love for me;
he from death to life has brought me,
Son of God, with him to be.
Sing, O sing of my Redeemer!
With his blood he purchased me;
on the cross he sealed my pardon,
paid the debt, and made me free.