R is for RUTH

Don't you just adore a good love story. Something that puts 'Gone with the Wind' well into second place. A real tear jerker. One of those 'happy ever after' tales that just leaves you with that good feeling in the pit of your stomach and a smile on your face. Ruth's story is just like that. I think it's my favourite story in the whole of the Bible, so much so in fact, that a few years ago we made a video about it in school with some of the children and when we watched it the other day, apart from the fact that we all look older now, we were pleasantly surprised with our efforts. But more than that, I think we began to remember just how more it is than just an extraordinary love story. So, first, for all of you who have forgotten or never knew, here's a quick review.

Elimelech, Naomi and their two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, leave Bethlehem and go to live in Moab, because of a famine. Nothing too strange there. While they are there, dad dies and leaves Naomi a widow but her two sons marry a couple of girls from Moab, called Ruth and Orpah and they almost live happily ever after, except that both of the boys die, leaving their mum in a strange country with two daughters in law whom she hardly knows and a culture and religion very different to the one she left in Bethlehem. Like any sensible person, the distraught Naomi decided to go back home, since she has no longer any reason to stay there and after trying to persuade her relatives by marriage to stay in their own country, get married again and get on with their lives, she realises that Ruth is determined to accompany her mother in law back to Bethlehem and live with her there.

Obviously they need money to live and it just happens that they arrive back at harvest time and Ruth goes to work in the fields. It just seems too much of a coincidence but the field she ends up working in belongs to a guy called Boaz who just happens to be a relative of Elimelech, her father in law. Anyway, to cut a long story short, he falls in love with her, makes sure she gets plenty of food and drink and generally takes a real interest in her well being. Naomi realises what's happening and before Ruth has time to draw breath, has everything set up for the romance to blossom even further. It's almost a bit like Valentine's Day because in effect, Ruth just about asks Boaz if she can be his wife. He's obviously keen but because of some ancient rules, he can only marry her if he is the closest relative, which, unfortunately, he isn't! Anyway he gets around that problem by talking to the relative and in a strange custom a sandal is exchanged in much the same way as we would shake hands on a deal nowadays.

Some time after that, Boaz and Ruth marry, they have a son whom they call Obed and they all live happily ever after. But here's the catch. It's not a story at all, it's not even a fictional account of some true life events. It is in fact true. When I was young I often wondered why the Bible needed to have such a lovely story apart from the obvious pleasure it brought to its readers. Then I began to delve more deeply, knowing like everything else, it was there for a reason. The answer comes in the family tree, for Ruth's son, Obed, was the grandfather of David,the second King of Israel and the great Psalm writer and of course, Jesus, in human terms, is a direct descendant of that great King and born in the very town where Ruth and Boaz lived so many years before. The angel tells it all to the young Mary when he says 'The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; his kingdom will never end.' And of course it never will for the God who had his hand on uniting a rich man from Bethlehem with a young widow from Moab, wasn't just thinking about a King who would rule Israel for a few years but of a King who would rule the world for ever and restore the broken relationship with his ultimate creation. And that is the ultimate love story!