In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.

Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.

Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”

Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”

But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”

At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”

Ruth. Another woman named in Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew 1. In contrast to Rahab, she was never known as a woman of ill repute. But like Rahab, she was an outsider. She was a Moabite. A Gentile. An outsider though she married an Israelite.

Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, was already a widow when her son died, and now is without both of her sons. Not a good situation for an older woman in those days. There were no government programs to take care of people. Widows depended on family so she decides to return to her hometown of Bethlehem, where she has heard God has ended the famine. She encourages her daughter-in-laws to go back to their mother’s homes, where they may have hopes of finding new husbands and starting new families. While Orpah decides to go back, Ruth is adamant about staying with her mother-in-law. She has found a new family and a new faith through her late husband.

In many ways, the book of Ruth is just a story about life. Of love and loss. Of sorrow and bitterness. Of trying to make a go of it any way one can, taking on any job to put food on the table. But quietly, almost in the background, a thread runs through the story – God and a steadfast faith in him.

The book of Ruth contains no dreams, visions, or voices in the night. There are no angelic visitors, peals of thunder or clouds of smoke or fire. There is just the daily living of an obviously faithful people who served the Lord and followed his ways.

But it’s from this story of quiet lives of faith comes one of my favourite lines in scripture:

“This, then, is the family line of Perez:

Perez was the father of Hezron,

Hezron the father of Ram,

Ram the father of Amminadab,

Amminadab the father of Nahshon,

Nahshon the father of Salmon,

Salmon the father of Boaz,

Boaz the father of Obed,

Obed the father of Jesse,

and Jesse the father of David.

Because Ruth had proven herself to be a woman of faith, though an outsider, God quietly worked in and through her daily life. She found herself working in Boaz’s field. He just happened to be a relative of Naomi’s who could buy back the family land preserving it for future generations. He was a man of faith and acted with great kindness towards Ruth. He followed the Law when it came to dealing with their land and ultimately won the right to not just the land but to marrying Ruth.

We have no, “And God said…” in this story, but God was at work throughout the lives of Ruth and Boaz to bring them to this place in the every day matters of living.

We all don’t get visions or grand miracles, but if we open our eyes we can see there may be quieter miracles at work. God’s hand is all over our lives even if we don’t realize it. In this case, Ruth and Naomi were taken care of and the family line preserved with the birth of Obed. But surely the birth of a child a miracle!

Obed was probably an ordinary man of faith. But he was the father of Jesse – the Jesse of whom the Jesse tree is named! – and Jesse is the father of David. God’s plan for redemption of humanity has quietly kicked into higher gear in the ordinary manner of life.

Let us pray.

O Gracious and Holy God, we give thanks that you are always here with us. We give thanks that you are with us not just in the grand moments but in the quiet every day moments, like going to work or getting kids to school. We give you thanks that you are our redeemer and you take us in because of your great mercy and love. Amen.

Questions

Have you ever wondered if God is paying attention because you haven’t seen some grand miracle or breakthrough in your life?

Have you had times where things just happened to work out, when at one point, it really wasn’t looking good?

As you go about your day, take a moment now and then to consider how God is at work in and through you as you go to work, do the laundry, or talk to someone on the phone or on-line.