When I think about transitions, I think about the turns that happen in the short book of Ruth, and in our own lives. The book of Ruth begins and ends in Bethlehem. It moves from famine to plenty, from emptiness to fullness, from outsider to insider, from public day scenes to private night scenes, from despair to hope, from barrenness to fruitfulness, from affliction to blessing, and from death to new life in the birth of Ruth and Boaz’s child, Obed, who becomes King David’s grandfather. His birth also looks forward to David’s greater son, Jesus, and the blessings his incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection bring to the world.
The book of Ruth is set in the days of the judges when “Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” (Judges 21:25). These were also days of famine in the little town of Bethlehem (literally, House of Bread). And because of the famine, a man named Elimelech went with his wife Naomi and two sons to live in the enemy country of Moab. This geographical transition did not go well for this little family. Elimelech died. His two sons who had married Moabite women also died. Widowed, Naomi and her daughters-in-law were left to figure out how to survive on their own, in a time and a place where living without family or community support was impossible.
But another change was imminent. In Ruth 1:6 we read, “When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them,” she decided to return to Bethlehem. This news precipitated another geographical transition; it also signalled Naomi’s return to home, family, and friends. This move marked the beginning of Naomi’s personal journey away from enemy territory, famine, death, and anger towards home, food, hope, life, and renewed trust in God.
Ruth
On their trek towards Bethlehem, Ruth the Moabite said, “No!” to Naomi’s demand that she return to her people and to her gods: “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.” Instead, she chose a different path, which had its own challenges: “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” (1:16, 17).
As a vulnerable foreigner, Ruth’s gleaning in Boaz’s fields provided food and engendered hope for the future, but Ruth was warned to stay close to the other women in Boaz’s fields to prevent sexual abuse (2:15–16, 21–23). After a relative refused to exercise his rights and marry Ruth the Moabite, faithful Boaz accepted Ruth’s offer of marriage. It was at this point in the story that Ruth transitioned to enter into full acceptance in the family and community.
Ruth’s beautiful story of transition from a Moabite outsider to a Bethlehemite insider was influenced by her own decisions and the decisions of others. Indeed, the narrator wants us to recognize that Ruth models for God’s people what it really means to live a life of loyal, steadfast, faithful love, concepts that are wrapped up in the Hebrew word Hesed, which is often simply translated in English as covenant faithfulness.
Naomi
But what about Naomi’s transitions? Naomi’s move back to Bethlehem did not resolve all her problems. She directed anger and bitterness toward God: "Call me no longer Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty; why call me Naomi when the Lord has dealt harshly with me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?" (1:21-22)
Naomi's life journey was not over, however. Ruth continued to care for her amid her mother-in-law’s ongoing brokenness and despair. Naomi’s friends encouraged her to recognize that the Lord had been working behind the scenes in her life. Indeed, the Almighty had provided her a grandson who would be “a restorer of life and a nourisher of [Naomi’s] old age” and a “daughter-in-law [Ruth] who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons.” In the final touching scene of the story, we witness Naomi’s embrace of divine and human love as she takes baby Obed in her arms and cares for him (4:14–16). Naomi’s husband and sons were not restored to her, but she was able to move on and see herself and her circumstances and her God in a very different light.
This book overflows with transitions and with theological insights. God acts directly on behalf of people only twice in this book: first God comes to the aid of his people, providing food for those who are suffering famine; and second, God enables the barren woman Ruth to conceive a child (1:6, 4:13). Simultaneously, we see God acting indirectly, answering prayers, rewarding faithfulness, bringing life where there is death, hope where there is despair, fullness where there is emptiness, and inclusion where there is exclusion.
We see God’s providence in moments such as when Ruth just happens to find herself gleaning in Boaz’s field (2:3), in Boaz’s perfectly timed arrival (2:4), and the coincidental appearance of Naomi’s relative at the Bethlehem town gate (4:1). Boaz prays that the Lord will richly reward Ruth (2:12) and then answers his own petition as he offers Ruth food, protection, and the sort of security marriage brought for widows (chs 2–4). As Lawson Younger notes, in Judges we see “covenant, custom, and institutions gone awry” while in Ruth we see “things go as they should, people make the right decisions, and Yahweh is anything but lost” (Younger, Judges/Ruth, Zondervan, 2002, 392).
While we see God working things together for good throughout the book of Ruth, the story also reminds us that the reasons for human suffering are often hidden. Naomi believed that God was the cause of her personal suffering during her unwanted life transitions. Indeed, she drew a straight line between natural and personal disasters and covenant breaking (1:20–21). But as Job, Ecclesiastes, and Jesus teach, the line between suffering and sin and the transitions they engender cannot be neatly drawn or easily explained. Jesus taught that neither the man born blind nor his parents were responsible for his suffering (John 9:1–12).
The theology of divine and human cooperation that this story enacts reminds us that God works through ordinary people to bring healing to our broken, needy world. Renowned hymnist Francis Ridley Havergal expressed this idea:
Take my hands, and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love,
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee. (1876)
This story calls us to imitate Naomi’s faithful and loving family members and friends, and care for the staggering numbers of suffering Naomis in our world.
