It’s easy to quickly pass over the story of Ruth. Her life story is only a couple pages muddled in the midst of the “boring” Old Testament stories of the Law, Judges, and Kings. For me, Ruth is more like a hidden gem tucked away in the middle of very poignant movements of God loving his people toward redemption. Ruth’s story is the knot that ties God’s orchestrated plan together. Not only that, she’s a displaced person, a foreigner, an outsider among a people she’s never known, a pilgrim. Nonetheless, God brings her into his flock and gives her a place within our Christian heritage.
Her Pilgrim Story
Ruth lived in the land of the Moab. She married into an Israelite family, Naomi and Elimelech’s, who fled Bethlehem in the midst of a famine in order to survive. Israel and Moab were not politically friendly, they were enemies. Yet, when we live as displaced people, we make our new place our home, so that is why Naomi and Elimelech’s two sons married locally.
Displacement can be forced upon us after, or in the midst, of tragedy. This household suddenly suffered a great loss. First Elimelech’s death then the death of Naomi’s two sons. Left only with two widowed
Why Did Ruth Go?
“Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. 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.”
Ruth 1: 16-17
The love of God compels us. (2 Corinthians 5:13-15) I do not know what Ruth’s relationship with her new family and new God looked like, but her own words tell us something of her love and devotion to Naomi and respect for her beliefs and faith. These emotions, even if apart from logic, were strong enough for her to take a leap of faith toward a future in which she had no assurances outside of her love of Naomi. She chose to become displaced. Perhaps she felt that the moment she married Naomi’s son her path could only move forward. Perhaps even in her loss, she believed healing would come from moving toward a new future rather than her past. As Ruth left Moab to follow Naomi into displacement, God took hold of her life and began unraveling a story of love, redemption, and a new beginning for all of us.
What Made Ruth’s Displacement Unique?
Loss: For those of us who’ve lost a loved one, we know the emptiness left behind. No more shared stories, no one who gets us as intimately as that person, no one to share the days’ events, no more space filled with companionship. The quietness of loss can eat at the soul and naturally we’d rather sit in our sorrow and reminisce the days of old, but for healing, we must find ways to move forward. H. Norman Wright, in Recovering from the Losses in Life says, “Your loss changes you […] Recovery means reinvesting in life, looking for new relationships and new dreams. A newfound source of joy is possible. But you could very well feel uncomfortable with whatever is new. […] Remember the source of your joy. It is the Lord.” Ruth had two choices. She could return to her family or follow Naomi to a foreign land. For some
Chosen displacement & companionship: When our family followed God to China, we chose to become displaced from America. Though political relationships are very different than when we first landed (better then), the two nations still operated in very different ways. This made our families quite anxious. We were assured of God’s leading us there, so we trusted that his presence would be with us while living abroad.
Sometimes we chose to move to unknown places out of faith, and God doesn’t abandon us. Once in Bethlehem, whatever Naomi suggested for Ruth to do, including gleaning from Boaz’s field and then pursuing him, she did. She trusted Naomi as a loving mother-in-law who loved God. Ruth’s faith grew out of trusting Naomi’s faith. Ruth relied on Naomi to keep her safe and guide her through the nuances of a foreign land. As we move through life, God protects us by placing people in our lives to guide us through unfamiliar territory, to help us grow. My family has seen this played out countless time as we’ve lived, in America and abroad. God always brings new friends and wise people in whom we can trust. In displacement God provides community.
Kinsman-Redeemer: By definition, this is a blood relative within Hebrew life who can redeem property, rescue or deliver, or make good on a bad family situation; like the loss of a spouse. God is Israel’s kinsman-redeemer and in the case of Ruth, Boaz becomes this helper. I won’t go into those parallels, but this role is, in fact, significant to Ruth’s displacement because she is a Moabite; outside of the Hebrew law. Yet, in her status as a foreigner, God does not neglect her, instead he moves to make a way for her to have a future–a new way to invest in life.
“The Lord bless him! Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He [God] has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man [Boaz] is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers.”
Ruth 2:20
In displacement, God makes a way to fulfill his purposes. Ruth’s story foreshadows the inclusiveness God has for the redemption of all peoples, nations, and tribes. God is ushering Ruth into a greater lineage because he does not abandon us in our new found place. In Jeremiah 29, after Israel were sent into Babylon he promises, “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Status: In displacement God also redeems that which has been lost. For Naomi and Ruth, they lost family, a home, community, and a place in society. The significance in this story is not that God allowed them to return to Bethlehem, provided food, shelter and a spouse for Ruth. The heart of the story is complete redemption for all people that would happen through the birth of a son. Not just any son, a most famous son; Obed, the father of Jesse, who would become the father of David, out of who our final kinsman-redeemer would be born—Jesus Christ. God wove a willingly displaced Ruth into the big picture of redemption to show the breadth of his love for all peoples. Through the life of one foreign woman’s chosen displacement after great loss, we too can find hope, new relationships, new dreams, and new life.
A foreigner who found a home and a place of status in the family of God. I believe we can identify with this feeling as followers of Jesus. We trust that though we wander on earth from place to place, our true place is in his family and he makes us sons and daughters, heirs to the kingdom.
“This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 3:6
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