Entreat Me Not

As our church goes through the Bible in a year, we reached Ruth this week. This is such a beautiful story of love from multiple angles.

Elimelech loved his family. To feed them, he lacked trust in God’s ability to provide, so took his wife and sons to another country to sojourn. However you look at it, the thought was temporary, a short stay.

I can relate to that. My Dad loved his mother and moved to be near her, to help her. After a severe heart attack, the doctor’s did not give her much time here, and we wanted to be physically close. So we moved from California to Oklahoma, intending to be there a short while. That was in 1951. He moved away from Oklahoma in 1998. We started out as sojourners and stayed longer than Naomi did in Moab.

And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: (Ruth 1:16 KJV)

Our young people memorize scripture and repeat it before the congregation each Sunday evening. The above verse was quoted most often this evening, for it is most likely the best known of the entire book.

Some hear it and do not realize it was said to her mother-in-law. Love’s favorite verse, used often in weddings, goes beyond that between bride and groom to include the extended family.

God’s providence brought Ruth to Bethlehem, to Boaz, descendant of Judah, son of Salmon and Rahab. Now there’s another story – we picked that one up in Joshua!

Boaz? He’s the picture of our redeemer. He wasn’t first in line – there was another, closer candidate who answered "I will redeem it" when Boaz asked :

And I thought to advertise thee, saying, Buy it before the inhabitants, and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it: but if thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know: for there is none to redeem it beside thee; and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it. (Ruth 4:4 KJV)

“I will redeem it” was quickly taken back when that candidate realized what all was involved. Not only redeeming the land, taking care of Naomi, but it would be necessary to marry Ruth, raising children in her dead husband’s name – and inheritance. Too much to do, the first candidate backed out, proved insufficient.

So did the Law. Our redeemer fulfilled the requirements as Boaz did. Out of love and full knowledge of the results, Christ chose to redeem us.

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: (Galatians 3:13 KJV)

Awesome, isn’t it, how God tied Bethlehem and the Redeemer’s family together for century upon century?