May 6

OT – Ruth 2:1-4:22
There is a lot going on in the back story of this scripture.
#1 When Naomi came back to Israel with Ruth, her kinsmen should have taken her in immediately. That they didn’t , that she had property to dispose of (Ruth, apparently) and that they didn’t settle that up was a huge breach. However, remember that this story took place during the time of the Judges, “when there was no king in Israel”.
#2 That Boaz knew Ruth’s story, even though he ‘asked’ his foreman, indicated a high level of interest in her, personally. She was a foreigner, a Moabite, a sworn enemy of the Israelites. He was a wealthy, successful, apparently much older man. Why he would notice her, allow her to be on his property, even protect her virtue by hustling her out before the dawn broke after the wild threshing party, is really quite astonishing.
#3 That the elders would approve of Boaz taking Ruth for his wife and redeeming the land of Naomi is also quite astonishing. But even more so, that the baby that was born to the union was HIS son, not Mahlon’s.
All this to say, Ruth must have been one awesome young woman. She left her home to keep her vow to Naomi, traveling to her enemy’s land. She is obedient, kind, frugal, and shares. Clearly, she must have been attractive and knew how to dress herself up well. That she was named in the geneolagy of Jesus was amazing. That she was named when she such a woman makes it all the more incredible.

Proverbs 14:26-27
He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress.
What does that mean in our day and time? In the time of Proverbs, just a few centuries after Judges, it meant that secure physically. Boaz had a secure fortress. He was able to say to Ruth, stay in my fields and no man will harm you. Clearly, it wasn’t just the presence of armed guards that kept the men away from Ruth. It was the man, Boaz, himself.
Remember back to the Levite’s concubine, that wretched story. The fortress was secure, all right, but not the folk who belonged there.
We have alarm systems, people own pit bulls, we double, triple lock our doors. But that doesn’t seem to make us secure. People still are afraid. Of people, not of the Lord.
But it is the second part of the proverb that is intriguing to me. The security is for the children to find refuge. Do our children find refuge in our homes? Too much?
When they are hurting emotionally or even physically, is your home the place they want to come to?
I remember the first time I had the flu after I moved out of my parents’ house when I was 20. I wanted to come home, crawl up on my parents’ bed and eat tomato soup and ritz crackers and drink ginger ale. That was my very first response. Go home.
I hope my children have the same sense of home as I did.

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Blessings to you and yours.