-Thirty Seven- Ruth and Boaz

Ruth and Boaz

Today’s Reading: Ruth 3:9-11

Focal Verse: Ruth 3:10a

Then he said, “Blessed are you of the LORD, my daughter!”

It is the holiday season as I am writing this and though there is joy and parties and celebrating all around, there is also sadness. Sadness for the widower spending his first Christmas without his wife of many years. Sadness for the parents of the child who no longer sees a reason to live. Sadness for the wife whose husband has left her. The holidays are a time of heightened joy for some and heightened despair for others.

Naomi was in a foreign land when both her husband and her two sons died. She felt bitter, alone, and without hope. But Ruth, her son’s young widow, follows Naomi to a land that is foreign to her. She could have sought a new husband in her country, from her own people, but accompanies Naomi home instead.

Once in her new land, again she could have sought a young husband, but instead works hard gathering food for Naomi and herself.

In enters Boaz….A godly, older man who is a relative of the family. Naomi sees a way to repay Ruth for her kindness and sends her to Boaz with the message you read in today’s reading.

What grace! Ruth, who lost her young husband, gains a godly husband to care for her. Boaz, who never knew the joy of marriage, gains a young, virtuous wife. And then, Naomi, who had not only lost her husband and her two sons, and her hope as well gained the following:



So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; and when he went in to her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a close relative; and may his name be famous in Israel! And may he be to you a restorer of life and nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has born him.” Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her bosom, and became a nurse to him. Also the neighbor women gave him a name, saying, “There is a son born to Naomi.” And they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Ruth 4:13-17

What seemed like loss of all hope became joy to all. Oh, the unmatchless grace of the God of Hope!

Is there something that has happened in your life to make you lose hope? Place it in God’s compassionate hands.