A Divine romance

Be nice to your mother-in-law, the rewards may indeed be rich.

Mother-in-laws generally suffer from a bad press. As long as I can remember, they were so often the subject of jokes – usually bad ones – that I grew up fully expecting to inherit a monster along with a bride. I believe the time has come to bring a little balance to that perspective by restoring the honour of the role, and it was in studying the Book of Ruth that I saw it in a whole new light – where loyalty to a mother-in-law changed the world forever!

As an incurable romantic, I love this little book which has made an impact on the world out of all proportion to its brevity. It is the remarkable record of how a young Gentile widow became the ancestor of the Jewish Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ, and teaches us that we too can make a profound impact on our world with a faith like hers that is totally committed to serving the God of Israel.

The background to her story was the exile of Naomi and Ruth’s late father-in-law Elimelech, along with their two sons, due to a famine. The irony was that they lived in Bethlehem (meaning House of Bread) in Judah, where they should have had plenty to eat. But famine in the Bible is generally a sign of divine punishment, and there is no indication in the text that the family had prayed or sought God over why they were being so judged. We know that repentance would have brought about a positive result. But they went of to Moab, on the far side of the Dead Sea, to seek for greener grass, as it were. Things didn’t go too well. Naomi’s husband died and, to add to her deep distress, so did her two sons who had married Moabite women Ruthand Orpah.

From pleasure to pain

Naomi means ‘pleasure’ but, after suffering such bitter loss, she asked to be called Mara instead, which means ‘bitter’. Anyway, she had had enough and duly packed her bags and set out for home back in Bethlehem. Sounds a bit familiar, doesn’t it? They had set out for a far country, where things went from bad to worse, until they came to their senses and decided to return to the Father’s house, where food was plentiful.

But Naomi tried to persuade her two daughters-in-law to stay and get remarried, possibly because she judged they would have had less chance in Judah, where the men would have been disinclined to marry outside their clan. But Ruth clings to her mother-in-law, determined to honour her and her people, and follow her to the Promised Land. She had evidently acquired Naomi’s faith and chosen to shelter under the wings of the God of Israel, humbly choosing the better way. “Wherever you go, I go.” Like Abraham, she didn’t know where she was going but recognised in Naomi the true path to God, and would be ‘richly rewarded’ (2.12) beyond her wildest dreams for her great faith. The Bible says: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2.9, Isaiah 64.4)

How amazing: even though a Gentile, she would become an essential part of the genealogy of the Jewish Messiah, the Son of God ! Her love, her loyalty and her kindness for her Jewish mother-in-law was richly rewarded indeed – apparently loyalty and love are almost the same word in Hebrew.

Here’s another thought: she had left her father and mother and homeland for the kingdom of God. And what does Jesus say about this? Matthew 19.29… “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”

Ruth … or wrath?

By inviting Christ into our lives, we too shelter under the wings of the God of Israel, the One who, in Jesus, is the way, the truth and the life. We go where they go! Even today, if you stand up for the Jews and honour them, you invite ridicule, perhaps even death threats – certainly demonic attack – for doing so. Just ask former Labour Friends of Israel chair Joan Ryan MP, who received death threats and the most appalling abuse after resigning from the party over anti-Semitism along with several others. Dutchwoman Corrie ten Boom was sent to a concentration camp for protecting the Jews from the Nazis and had to watch her sister being murdered there.

It’s costly, for sure, but the church needs to recover her love for the Jews, or we are going nowhere – there will be no revival! If we fail to bless the seed of Abraham, we will certainly not be ‘richly rewarded’ by revival. We will actually come under a curse. Ruth was then persuaded to lay at the feet of Boaz as he rested after threshing the barley. This was regarded at the time as a sort of unspoken proposal – by warming a man’s feet, you were making the fairly bold suggestion that you wouldn’t mind being married to him!

New ownership

It also very much brings to mind two occasions of great devotion for Jesus recorded in the New Testament – the prostitute who wet our Lord’s feet with her tears, not to mention expensive perfume (Luke 7.38 & 44), and Mary who sat at the Lord’s feet refusing to be distracted by the household chores (Luke 10.38-42).

Boaz, for his part, already impressed by Ruth’s kindness, is now also fattered by her attention as there were plenty of younger men available, in his view. Clearly, she was still a beautiful young woman! But he does the right thing by frst offering her hand to his older brother, who qualifed as a closer kinsman but could see that Boaz was smitten and gave his consent in the customary way by taking of his sandal and giving it to his younger sibling.

Following Jesus is not a cakewalk. We have to give up ownership of our life and hand it over to Jesus, taking up his cross – and in losing it, we save it. (Mark 8.35) Ruth lost her life back in Moab, but she gained so much more, even becoming the great-grandmother of the great King David and the ancestor of our Messiah. (Matthew 10.37-39)

Indeed, she also gained a husband of high standing, Boaz, through whom she gave birth to Obed. Boaz was her kinsman-redeemer, a relative who, through marriage, enabled her to reinherit property to which her ofspring would be entitled in the year of jubilee (every 50 years), when land ownership had to be returned to the original family. As kinsman-redeemer, Boaz also prefgured the way Jesus became our redeemer by purchasing our redemption through his body on the cross, where his blood paid the price for our sins.

Party, anyone?

Back to the comparison with the Prodigal Son parable, notice that when they frst returned to Bethlehem – the Father’s ‘house of bread’ from which they had been driven away by famine – there was plenty to eat. The Father had prepared a feast – the barley harvest was beginning just as they arrived! (1.22)

Notice too how Ruth was prepared to pick up the leftover grain. And yet, because of her commitment to Naomi along with her kindness and loyalty, they had all they needed to eat – and more! We also recall how the Canaanite woman was prepared to eat the crumbs that fell from the Master’s table, and how she was commended for her great faith despite Jesus’ emphasis that he had come for the lost sheep of Israel! (Matthew 15.21-28). But he honoured the faith of this Gentile woman, who was greatly rewarded with the healing of her suffering daughter.

Yes, the Lord sees us while we are still far of, and comes running out to meet us (Luke 15), and even throws a party for us. He promises that if anyone is hungry (John 6.35) or thirsty (John 7.37), he will meet their need, as he did with Ruth, who also had plenty to drink (2.9). Boaz would even give her ‘anything she asked’ (3.11), a promised Jesus also made (John 16.23) to those wholly committed to him.

And in answer to the prayers of the elders, her ofspring helped to build up the house of Israel and indeed ‘became famous in Bethlehem’ (4.11)! And all this through a daughter-in-law who was better to Naomi than seven sons! (4.15).

A marvellous legacy

It is an amazing story, how God chose this gentle, kind and humble Moabitess to be part of his royal line. And yet it’s hardly the sort of lineage we would choose! God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55.8); in his economy, the frst shall be last, and the last frst. The proud are humbled, and the humble are exalted. Boaz was actually the son of Rahab, the prostitute, who hid the spies in Jericho’s wall and was the frst Gentile in the land of Canaan to embrace the God of Israel. Boaz was also the descendant of Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, and is also descended from Tamar who had ofspring after she was raped.

No wonder Jesus became known as the ‘friend of sinners’. Yet he loves us too much to leave us as we are, raising us up to be so much more than our human frailty would have allowed. You too can change your world by following Jesus, the Jew, and honouring and blessing his people!