The Heart of Boaz, the Tenacity of Ruth (Part 1)

The story of Ruth and Boaz is most captivating.

I am sold. Boaz is my main man! And Ruth, well, what more can be said of her? A power couple, I think. If you hang with me for a minute, you’ll get to see why………….

Few men are known or remembered for the women they marry. Not many are known for their marital choice. It is normally the other way round - a woman will be known for the man she marries. But in this story, we get to meet a powerful man, who if it were not for his choice of a woman, we would probably know very little about. But before I rave about Boaz, let’s go back a little bit and give his story some context.

So there’s a man named Elimelek. He has a wife, Naomi (beautiful name), and two sons, and they all live in Bethlehem. In the passing of time, drought hits their land, and this pushes the small family of four to move to the land of Moab. The couple’s sons are still bachelors when the family migrates to Moab. And it is here, in Moab, that the two sons find themselves two lovely local (Moabite) women.

During the 10 years of living in Moab, tragedy strikes the family. All three men die. We do not know the causes of the deaths, or whether they all died around the same time. All we know is that first died the father, and the two sons followed. The sons leave no children behind. And that’s the tragedy of life - a woman is left without a husband. Her deceased sons leave her with two young wives.

The matriarch makes a difficult decision – she is going to go back home, and face the world she had left behind. She and her husband with their two sons left their home with the hope of finding a better life in exile – in Moab. But here she is, coming back with no husband or son. In a sense, she is coming back poorer than when she left. I think one of the reasons why I admire Naomi is her tenacity to face life head-on. Whatever the town will say when she gets back, she will face it. Be it, scorn, pity, shame or even sympathy, she’ll face it.

On the way back with her two daughters-in-law, she says to them: “Listen girls, I’ve got nothing to give you. You married my sons, but they’re both dead now. And look at you, you’re still young and have lives ahead of you. There are no prospects for me that I’ll get married again, but that doesn’t apply to you. Now go back home to Moab, to your families, you might get lucky and find men who would marry you”. She is, in today’s context, giving them her blessing to move on with their lives. She’s a very realistic and kind woman, this Naomi. I love her.

One of them, Orpah, accepts this blessing. She turns back and goes home and we hear nothing about her again. The other, Ruth, makes a bold move – “not a chance, I’m not going back. Let’s not argue about this, I’m going with you. Husband or not, I’m going with you. Foreign as your country might be, I’m sticking by my decision”, and it is here that she utters those famous words – “where you go, I will go. Where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God”. {I pause and take this in - wow}. Now I love Ruth.

Naomi can’t counter such staunchness and determination from her daughter-in-law. Ruth knows what she wants.

Anyway, they arrive back in Bethlehem with very little in terms of possessions, and it is here that we get to meet our man.

Boaz, it is said, was a man of means – he was rich. He owned land and had workers tilling his land. Our first experience of Boaz is when he arrives at the field. He is a powerful man – rich, with authority. He arrives to oversee how the workers are doing, and he impresses me with how he interacts with his workers. He greets the harvesters, “The LORD be with you!” he says to them. “The LORD bless you”, they respond.  (Such beautiful exchanges!!!).This was probably a normal way of greeting in those times, but it somehow gives me an impression of a man who is powerful, yet full of humility and grace.

It so happens that on this particular day, Ruth had gone to harvest some left-over grains from Boaz’s field so that she could feed herself and her widowed mother-in-law. For one or another reason, Boaz notices her. I’ve read some review that believes that this might have been love at first sight. I don’t know and I’m not sure what about her he saw, but she stood out. Maybe it was because she was all alone, picking up grains left behind by the harvesters. Whatever the reason, he noticed her.

And note that he noticed her before he knew anything about her.

He asks about her, who she is and so forth. They tell him of her little history – she is a young widow who refused to let her widowed mother-in-law come back from exile alone. She is a woman who left her home, her place of birth, and followed her mother-in-law to a foreign land, thereby embracing a new life and people, and to serve a foreign God.

I think this is where he really sits up and takes a closer look.  For most men, this would probably have been where it all stopped.  A turn-off, if you will. “Nah, she’s got a history”. Perhaps she might have even appeared to be a little intimidating to other men. “What woman leaves her people, where she has prospects of remarriage, but goes to a foreign land with her widowed mother-in-law? Nah, she’s too attached to her mother-in-law”

No, not Boaz. Boaz is, in fact, impressed with Ruth and develops compassion for this lady. So enthralled by her history, and humanity that he goes to her and they have their first recorded encounter. And thus begins a love-story that will change the course of Christian history…..

My next post will show why I admire Boaz……