Mountain Roads - Pt 2

So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and 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 redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. (Ruth 4:13-17 ESV).

We return to the end of Ruth today as we began this little journey yesterday. The story of Ruth is a series of setbacks. In the first chapter Naomi and her husband and two sons were forced to leave their homeland in Judah on account of famine. Then Naomi's husband dies. Her sons marry Moabite women and for ten years the women prove to be barren. And then her sons die leaving two widows in the house of Naomi. Even though Ruth cleaves to Naomi, chapter 1 ends with Naomi's bitter complaint: "I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty. Then (chapter 2) Boaz appears on the scene as a possible husband for Ruth. She is hopeful but filled with great suspense and uncertainty about how all this might work out. After the midnight rendezvous in chapter 3, Boaz goes to the city gate where the official business was done. The nearer kinsman comes by, and Boaz lays the situation before him. Naomi is giving up what little property she has, and the duty of the nearer kinsman is to buy it so that the inheritance stays in the family. To our dismay the kinsman says at the end of verse 4, "I will redeem it." We don't want him to redeem it. We want Boaz to do it. So again there seems to be a setback. Just when we are about to say, "O no! Stop the story! Don't let this other fellow take Ruth!" Boaz says to the nearer kinsman, "You know, don't you, that Naomi has a daughter-in-law. So when you do the part of the kinsman redeemer, you must also take her as your wife and raise up offspring in the name of her husband Mahlon?" Then, to our great relief, the kinsman says in verse 6 he can't do it. But there is a cloud overhead. Ruth is barren. So even now the suspense is not over. Life is one curve after another. And we never know what's coming. But the point of the story is that the best is yet to come. No matter where you are, if you love God, the best is yet to come. The cloud over the head of Ruth and Boaz is big with mercy, and breaks with blessing on their head: "So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; and he went in to her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son" (v. 13). But notice how the focus in verses 14–17 is not on Ruth at all, nor on Boaz. The focus is on Naomi and the child. The story began with Naomi's loss. It ends with Naomi's gain. It began with death and ends with birth. And if we could just learn to wait and trust in God, all our complaints against God would prove untrue.