Valentine’s Day is one of those rare holidays that is almost universally celebrated, yet no country actually gives their people time off from work or school to celebrate. That doesn’t stop most people from sending flowers, candy, or those obnoxious, over-sized bears to their sweethearts at work, and if your school was anything like mine, your teacher also threw a party for your class (where you got to distribute sweet Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Valentines cards).
Great love stories are hardly every born on this day, however. In fact, many of them start where the main characters least expect it, such as after a devastating life event or two people who come from very different worlds (i.e. Romeo and Juliet). Sometimes these stories make it to the big screen; other times, they’re lost to history, known only to the two people who cherished those precious years together.
It’s a recent trend in Hollywood to look for Bible stories to adapt to the big screen, but one that is continually overlooked is that of Ruth. It’s a shame, because her life has all the makings of a blockbuster: tragic stories, fated love, prolonged (and unusual to us) courtship, and a happy ending. Truly, Ruth and Boaz’s love story is one for the ages, yet most of the world has never heard of it before.
The Background
The story begins at a sprint. Naomi and Elimelech and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, migrate to Moab in order to find food due to an ongoing famine in Israel. There, the two boys meet and marry Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah (not to be confused with the talk show host), but then all three men (Elimelech, Mahlon, and Chilion) tragically die ten years after their migration, leaving the three women (Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah), as widows. All of this happens in the first four verses of the book.
Naomi decides to return back to Israel and either (a) lean on what family she has left for support, or (b) enter a life of poverty and fade into oblivion. Demonstrating her own righteousness, she implores her two daughters-in-law to stay in Moab and build new lives for themselves. This is both understandable given their age and their status as Moabites – hated enemies of Israel.
Only one takes Naomi up on her offer: Orpah. Ruth decides to cast her lot in with Naomi, forsaking everything she knows to step completely into the unknown in a foreign country. Though not as heralded as Abraham, her journey throughout the book can be seen as Abraham-like, in that she displays untethered faith every step of the way.
Her statement of faith is worth repeating here, though you’ve most likely heard it at every wedding ceremony you’ve ever been to:
“Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.”
Naomi accepts her new traveling companion and returns to Israel, but fully believes her life is over. Her presence in the little village of Bethlehem sparks great joy, but she instructs the townspeople to call her “Mara” to reflect her agony. Naomi is convinced, by everything that has happened to her, that God has turned His back on her. Her friends don’t argue with this point, perhaps reflecting the same attitude that was prevalent in Job’s time as well.
The first chapter of Ruth closes with a bit of an odd couple. Though she departed looking for a better life with her husband and two sons, she returns with none of them and has picked up a young Moabitess widow that she is only somewhat still related to. Naomi was right to believe their future was bleak; neither of them had much of a future to look forward to.
An Unlikely Suitor
The Old Law allowed for people like Naomi and Ruth to “glean” from the fields of others in order to provide basic sustenance for themselves (Leviticus 19:9-10). Through the field of a wealthy “kinsman” of her late husband named Boaz – another distant relation, like Ruth – these two women are able to scrounge together enough food to stay alive, if nothing else.
Boaz himself is an anomaly. In a world where your entire identity centered around genealogy and family honor, Boaz is still single, and judging from his immense wealth, probably well above the marrying age, whatever that would be.
He also is a man of integrity; it’s mentioned that the first thing he notices about the young Moabitess is not her physical appearance, but her generosity (Ruth 2:10-12). According to the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31:20, this is exactly what he should have been interested in.
What happens next is an adorable little budding romance. Ruth gleans in the field, Boaz makes sure she is taken care of. He fills her pouch with extra food, orders commands to his servants not to touch her, lets her eat and drink at her pleasure. Boaz is definitely sending her all the right signals, but it seems that Ruth is more or less oblivious to them (isn’t it usually the other way around?).
The Courtship Begins
Fortunately for Ruth AND Boaz, Naomi sees exactly what’s happening. She instructs Ruth to clean herself up and stay with the other women harvesting in Boaz’s fields. She lies down at Boaz’s feet on the threshing floor, and it is there she makes an old-fashioned marriage proposal: “Spread your covering over your maid, for you are a close relative.” Not exactly the picturesque, down-on-one-knee scene that many envision today, but it gets the job done.
Boaz agrees (and commends her for her choice in spouse), but claims there’s a wrinkle in the arrangement. Someone else has claim to her first, he states, so they need to clear it up with him first. The exact choice he uses in the case of marrying Ruth is “redemption.” That’s precisely what Boaz meant to her – another shot at life.
…And Everyone Lived Happily Ever After
Boaz proves his prowess as a businessman in his shrewd negotiations with the rightful family redeemer. After meeting him in the gate, he frames the situation to the relative in one ingenious sequence, enabling him to have full, legal rights to redeem Ruth.
First, he informs the relative that Naomi wants to sell her land. Due to the fact that Jewish land allotments must stay within the family (Lev. 25), the nearest relative has the first right to buy the property, which he agrees to do.
There’s a catch, says Boaz. Whoever redeems the land must also marry Ruth, who is a “widow of the deceased.” Technically, this is called a “Levirate marriage” (nothing to do with the tribe of Levi) – where a woman is legally obligated to marry the next male in the family to keep the genealogy intact. It’s worth pointing out, however, that Levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5-10) is not technically connected with the passage of land (Leviticus 25:5-10), although it seems as if it was a full-fledged tradition by the time of Ruth. According to Boaz, and it would appear the tradition of the time, this is a package deal; the relative can’t receive the land without marrying Ruth alongside it.
At this, the relative balks. He claims he is unable to buy the land and marry Ruth because it would jeopardize his inheritance with his own offspring, so he declines both offers and relinquishes his claim to Ruth and the land. To solidify the transfer, the relative removes his sandal and gives it to Boaz (Ruth 4:7-10), who then states his intention to marry Ruth.
The story of Ruth ends on a much higher note than it begins. Whereas in the first chapter, she loses her husband, here she gains one. In the opening, she doesn’t have any kids, and now she has at east one named Obed, the grandfather of King David. In chapter one, Naomi wants to change her name to Mara because of her misery, yet in chapter four, she holds a child named Obed in her lap.
This is exactly what love should be. Not the mushy swept-off-your-feet type of love that is force-fed through love stories, but real, tangible love that is built off respect for each other and for God. Ruth could’ve taken the easy way out and stayed in Moab, but to do so would have relegated her to the most obscure footnotes of history. There’s nothing wrong with Orpah’s decision to stay, but by taking a leap of faith and hitching her wagon to Naomi’s star, Ruth secured herself all the greatest blessings of this life: husband, children, and a loving community.
Not to mention a place in the genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth.
