Ruth is one of the most wonderfully written stories in all of Scripture. It is one of only two books in the entire Bible named after a woman, and the only book in the Old Testament named after someone who was not racially Jewish. It focuses on a female friendship between a young new convert, Ruth, and an older bitter woman, Naomi.

There is uncertainty surrounding both the author (possibly Samuel) and date of authorship (possibly 1000 BC), but there is no debate about who the hero of the story is. Throughout the book, God works not through His visible hand of miracle, but more subtly through His invisible hand of providence. God is mentioned twenty-three times, and twenty-one of those occurrences are by the characters acknowledging how God is working through the people and circumstances of their life to bring about His purposes. As a result the book moves from death to life, barrenness to fruitfulness, cursing to blessing, bitterness to worship, and loneliness to community. The love, mercy, and kindness of God shine forth in an otherwise tragic tale.

The story opens in one of the darkest seasons of Old Testament history when God’s people were living in sin during a famine. Naomi was a Jewish woman whose husband moved her to the godless town of Moab that was descended from incest in the days of Genesis. There, Naomi saw her sons marry Moabite women. She then experienced the death of her sons and her husband in Moab, leaving her destitute and alone. Although admittedly bitter against God, Naomi decides to leave Moab and return home to God’s people. One of her daughters-in-law, Orpah, stayed with her people and religion in Moab, at Naomi’s urging. But Naomi’s other daughter-in-law, Ruth, was determined to leave her people and religion to worship Naomi’s God and live with God’s people.

Ruth and Naomi then make the roughly fifty-mile journey from Moab to Bethlehem, a place pregnant with meaning, as it is where Jesus was later to be born as promised in Micah 5:2. There, Ruth spends her time at the equivalent of the food bank, trying to get enough food to keep herself and Naomi alive. To make matters worse, as a Moabite she was likely to face intense racism, and as a non-virgin she was likely to be mistreated and abused by men. Nonetheless, she is one of the godliest and most loyal, humble, and exemplary women in all of human history.

God providentially protects and provides for the two women; He brings into their life a godly man named Boaz, who repeatedly cares for both Ruth and Naomi as the means by which God extends them His grace. Boaz is presented as an incredibly godly man, spoken of in glowing terms by everyone in the book from his employees to the women. Boaz is also a wealthy, and successful man who falls in love with Ruth after investigating her relationship with God and her character, until he is certain that she is the woman of his dreams. After Ruth gets all dressed up and puts herself in Boaz’s way as Naomi instructed her, Boaz redeems Ruth, marries her, and cares for her and her mother-in-law. He is a type of Jesus who redeems these women and blesses them in every way, treating the poor, widowed, outcast, marginalized, and racially despised with redeeming love.

Throughout the book there are many prayers offered to God: for a husband for Ruth (1:8-9); blessing for Boaz (2:12,20); blessing for Ruth (3:10); for a child chosen by God for Kingdom purposes for Ruth, Boaz, and Naomi to enjoy (4:11-12); and that God would be blessed and honored through the birth of their child (4:14). By the closing of the short book, every single prayer is answered by God.

Ruth and Boaz have a love that rivals any love story in human history. God gives them a son named Obed. Obed becomes the grandfather of the great King David through whom, as 2 Samuel 7:1-17 promised, would come Jesus Christ. Ruth is mentioned again in only one place in the entire Bible. In Matthew 1, Ruth the foreigner is included with the unwed Mary and Tamar the prostitute as the only three women included in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Indeed, the inclusion of each woman reinforces the truth that Jesus Christ saves us by pure grace and blesses even the worst of people from the worst of families, as Boaz did Ruth.

While God is the hero of the story, Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz are wonderful mentors for us to learn from. Although Naomi was bitter about her life, she wisely chose to run to God and His people for her healing. Although Ruth was a new convert with no guarantee of safety or welcome, she ran to God and His people in faith that somehow God would providentially take care of her while she lived a life of holiness. Boaz stands above most other men in Scripture as an example for every man, particularly young men who aspire to prepare themselves to be godly business leaders, husbands, and fathers.

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