This is an excerpt from The Bible Is for You**by Raechel Myers and Amanda Bible Williams.**I sometimes feel caught off guard by the harsh reality of living under a curse. A broken world in need of redemption means I shouldn't be surprised when I or the people I love suffer loss, injury, and danger. I know these hardships are happening in every corner of the globe, but when I receive a text that a dear friend is having a miscarriage or sit with a loved one whose anxiety I'm powerless to ease or read reports of devastating injustice happening in my own town—it feels personal. And yes, still somehow surprising.
Ruth lived in a broken world too. In fact, she lived during the darkest days of Israel's history—the time of the Judges. And it wasn't just her nation in turmoil—it was her personal life too. Her Israelite-born husband had died, and she lived now as a widow in a land far from Israel. Along with her mother-in-law, Naomi, Ruth was completely isolated and desolate.
"1 During the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons to stay in the territory of Moab for a while. 2 The man's name was Elimelech, and his wife's name was Naomi. The names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the fields of Moab and settled there. 3 Naomi's husband, Elimelech, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 Her sons took Moabite women as their wives: one was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth. After they lived in Moab about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was left without her two children and without her husband."
Ruth 1:1-5 CSB
In those days, if a man died, it was customary and honorable in Israel for his nearest brother, or kinsman, to take responsibility for the man's widow—to ensure her wellbeing, marry her, and continue his brother's bloodline through their marriage. This person was called a "kinsman redeemer." But Ruth had never met her husband's relatives. She wasn't even in Israel—she was a foreigner in Moab. Where would she begin?
Ruth and Naomi did eventually arrive in Israel, and they arrived hungry. Ruth gathered grain for the two of them on the outskirts of a field that belonged to a man named Boaz, who just so happened to be a relative of her late husband. By God's sovereignty, Ruth found herself in the backyard of her family's kinsman redeemer.
Boaz was honorable—he found many ways to care for Ruth, not the least of which was a proposal of marriage. Boaz married Ruth, and they had a son named Obed, who would be the father of Jesse, who would be the father of King David, Israel's great and mighty king. Ruth, the Moabite widow, became part of the very lineage of Christ!
As much as I love his heroic love, Boaz isn't the hero of this story. Jesus is our true and better kinsman redeemer who takes us who are far from God, "foreigners to the covenants of promise," and brings us in and gives us new life in him (Eph. 2:12). While Boaz was the kinsman redeemer for Ruth, making her part of a family again, Jesus is the Kinsman Redeemer who makes us his family, giving true, abundant, and eternal life to everyone who puts their trust in him.
"At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world."
Ephesians 2:12 CSB
What are the hardest parts of your story? What areas of life feel too far gone for anything good to happen? Where do you find yourself isolated or hungry for help? Remember Ruth and take heart. God's sovereignty rules the day. Trust him to work in seen and unseen ways, and rest in the joy of Jesus Christ, your eternal hope and your redeemer.