Don’t you love to look at a well-made scale model? If so, wait till you see the real wedding day!
In our last episode, I quoted just the first part of Ruth 4:13, “Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife.” No longer a Moabite in heart, she had abandoned her family’s gods and put herself under Jehovah’s wings. But the verse continues, in a way not surprising after the marriage: “the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son.” The women gathered round and said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a close relative [the word is “redeemer,” Heb, ga’al]; and may his name be famous in Israel! And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him” (vv 14-15). Better than seven sons—that’s quite something for Hebrew women to say! But notice, “the neighbor women gave him a name, saying, ‘There is a son born to Naomi.’ And they called his name Obed” (v 17). A son for Naomi? Remember what she told Ruth? You can’t wait for me to have a son. But here he is! Again, projected on the big screen, we see God’s mysterious work in history. If He couldn’t bring blessing through the Jews to the Gentiles when His own Son was born at Bethlehem, He would bring blessing through the Gentiles to the Jews, as taught in Romans 10 and 11. The name Obed? The consequences of the redeemed one’s love for the redeemer, it is translated both “service” and “worship.” The little book ends with a genealogy, but it doesn’t stop there. Yes, Ruth is the great-grandmother of David, but someday she, and we, will thrill to hear heaven’s anthem sung to David’s greater Son: “You are worthy…for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev 5:9).