Ruth: From Mara to Messiah | Ruth 4:9-17 | Mothers of Jesus
In this message, we look at the incredible narrative of the Book of Ruth. It’s a story we know, but often miss its whole point: securing the lineage of the Messiah. We start at the end, with the birth of Obed, the grandfather of King David, and work backward to understand the journey of faith and providence that made it possible.
When we first meet Naomi, she is consumed by grief and insists on being called Mara, which means "bitterness." Her situation—and that of her daughter-in-law, Ruth, a foreign widow—is utterly hopeless. Yet, through the loyal commitment of Ruth and the faithful, legal, and costly love of Boaz, the Kinsman-Redeemer, God completely reverses their circumstances.
Discover how God uses the seemingly insignificant and the painfully bitter details of life to carry out His most valuable possession: the salvation found in Jesus Christ.
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Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon from First Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota. Each week, we dig into God's word, trusting that the Holy spirit will continue the good work of sanctification in us.
Like a lot of young men, in my pre-teen years, I was obsessed with baseball cards. It was an obsession. I love to go through all of the price guides and look at what my cards were worth with my friends. I should say, worth, because now they're not worth anything. But we would go back and look at cards and their values from the '60s and '70s. And I always remember we were most obsessed with the Mickey Mantle Tops Rookey card because it was worth so much. I don't remember the exact price, but even in the late '80s, it was valued in the thousands. And I loved my subscription that I had to the Beckett Base Card Monthly magazine because it not only had the prices for all that stuff I was obsessing over, but really, it had really good stories about baseball and about the hobby of baseball card collecting in general. And it was interesting for me to read about eras of baseball from long before I was born. And through reading that magazine, I learned about the most valuable baseball card in history, the Honus Wagner tobacco card.
Now, In 1909, the Sweet Caperole Tobacco Company started adding inserts into their cigarette packages. Now, I'm guessing that most of the people who pulled those cards out of those packs probably to put them straight into the trash. What is this? I can just imagine a construction worker or a coal miner opening up his lunch bucket, opening up his cigarette pack, throwing it out. Little did they know that decades later, one of the greatest players of that era, Honest Wagner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, would have his card sell for more than a million dollars. Not only that, but I'm guessing that no one who pulled those cards out back then would have ever guessed that baseball cards would become the industry that it eventually became. Because from those cards, not only would there be multiple versions of baseball cards, but then football cards, hockey cards, basketball cards. Ultimately, it even spawns stuff like Magic: The Gathering cards and Pokémon cards. What a annoyed people because the sweet capital tobacco company was putting trash in their packs turned into something valuable. It even turned into something that was culture building.
So as we continue through our series on the women who are mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in the Book of Matthew, we look at the story of Ruth. Now, the Honest Wagner baseball card didn't seem like much, but time revealed that it had great value. Well, the story of Ruth is about time revealing greater value as well. When we meet Ruth, her story is one where she and her mother-in-law have been widowed. This would have been a significant concern because most likely these women would have been discarded by society. The situation that they were in was so hopeless that Ruth's mother-in-law said that her name should not be Naomi, but it should be Mara, a name that means bitterness. Now, you might not be too familiar with the story of Ruth. Instead of reading the whole book of Ruth this morning, I just read the conclusion of the story. As we progress today, we're going to be revisiting her story as we consider Ruth as one of the mothers of Jesus.
So this story, as we read here, takes place during the time of the Judges. This was a very turbulent time in scripture. And we see some significance here in the passage right away because we see a word that we suggest to Christmas or connect to Christmas right away, Bethlehem. But there's more to this name, Bethlehem, as we read it this morning, than just us being familiar with it because of the Christmas story. There's also some significant irony in how the story is told here, because Bethlehem means house of bread. But they have to leave because the famine is so bad. These people here are of the tribe of Judah. They are so desperate for food, they have to leave their home. They have to leave the house of bread and they have to go to the pagan land of Moab in order to survive.
And as with happen, as what happens when people leave one area and move to another, they stay put. This is expected. They've lived there for a while. What matters to you comes with you when you move, and then all of that expands while you're living there. It's hard to leave this new area. And one of the greatest reasons that they stay in this area is their family. Because we learn in verse 4 that the sons of Elimelech and Naomi marry Moabite women.
Now, the name of one of the women is Ruth. In verse 3, informs us that Elimelech dies. And then roughly a decade later, both of Naomi's sons die. We can't fully grasp to what degree she has lost everything. We can understand it, but for them, this is not just her losing the people that she loves. This is not just an emotional loss, I will miss my family. This is so much more than that. She has lost her security in this world. There is no one to care for her. Naomi has heard that the famine in Judah is over, and so she decides that her best opportunity for survival is to return to Judah because at least there she has some family. She has potentially someone who can provide her with a means of support so that she can survive.
This decision involves a lot of difficult decisions for more just Naomi. It involves more than her. So this daughter-in-law of hers, Orpa, returns to her family. She isn't going to stick with Naomi. She goes back to all of her old gods. But we see here an amazing thing because Ruth makes a different decision. She tells Naomi, Don't tell me to leave you. She says, I'm going to go where you go. The people of Naomi will be Ruth's people. Her God, Naomi's God, will be her God. She even says that she will die where Naomi dies and will be buried where Naomi is buried.
I want us to understand something here as we read that and as we think about this. When she makes that statement, it's more than thinking 40 or 50 years in the future, I'll die where you die. Remember the desperate situation of these women. When she says, I will die where you die, she might be meaning next week. They are in a terrible situation. This is more than just an oath of long-term commitment. It is an oath of absolute devotion to her. It's a significant commitment. But Ruth takes it even higher because she brings in the covenant name of God here. And so she is making more than a commitment. By bringing in the covenant name of God, she is making an oath. She says, May Yahweh do so to me, and more also, if anything but death departs me from you. And this is one of the most famous and most selfless commitments that we see in all of Scripture. And this sacrificial love leads to Ruth being a hero of the faith.
As the story continues, Naomi and Ruth make their way back to Bethlehem. People recognize Naomi there. They ask, Is this Naomi? She's consumed with grief, and she doesn't say, Yeah, it's me, Naomi. Life is hard. Look at what she says. She says, Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara. She no longer wants to be known by her name because Naomi means pleasant. But now she wishes to be known as Bitterness. She says it's because the Almighty has dealt with her bitterly. She went away full, and now she is coming back empty. Yeah, they left because of famine. They left because of hardship. But remember, she left full because she had a husband and she had sons. And now she has returned destitute. And she says that the Almighty has brought calamity on her. And then the first chapter of Ruth closes up with us being reminded of Ruth's presence with Naomi, and that they have come to Bethlehem at the time of the barley harvest.
In this state of helplessness, Ruth just didn't sit back and do nothing. She didn't sit idly by and hope that something Good would happen. In the Old Testament, there was a provision in the law that let those who were poor glean in the fields. So essentially, they were following along behind the harvesters, and they were picking up the leftover grain. Well, by the providence of God, she ends up in a field that belongs Boaz. Now, he is not just some random, wealthy landowner. He is from the same clan as Naomi's deceased husband. And so When he sees Ruth gleaning in the fields, he notices her, and he discovers her heart-breaking story, and he is moved by this story.
And Ruth is humbled when Boaz comes and speaks with her because she's an unknown, destitute widow, gleaning from the fields. On top of all, she's a Moabite. She's a Gentile. She is unclean. And yet this man is taking interest in her. We discover that Boaz is moved by the fact of her story, that she left everything to be faithful to Naomi. And in doing so, she has given her allegiance to the God of Israel. This is an amazing thing. And there's beautiful language here. As Boaz acknowledges that she has shown devotion to Naomi. This is about so much more than just leaving a forwarding address at the post office in Moab and moving to Bethlehem. Boaz, Boaz, expresses what she has done by her following Naomi. He says that she has taken refuge in Yahweh. She has taken refuge in the Lord. And now she is under the protection of his wings. This is unexpected. She's a Gentile. She's an outsider. She is unclean. But The kindness she has shown to Naomi in her confession of Yahweh has brought her into the protection of God and his people. And that is amazing by itself, but that's not where the story ends.
The story doesn't end with These two destitute women come back to Bethlehem and she gets married and they don't die because they don't have food. There's more to it than that. This is about God. This is about his sovereign mercy. It's about his working to bring about salvation, not just for Naomi and Ruth, because they don't have any money, but bringing about salvation for the whole people of God, bringing salvation from sin, death, and hell. It's about more than Boaz being a nice guy or even being a kind boss. Boaz is known as a kinsman redeemer. Now, a kinsman redeemer was the closest male relative who had a legal duty to act on behalf of a relative who was in trouble. So a kinsman redeemer would do things like pay off debts, they would buy back land, but they would also marry a childless widow in order to preserve the family line.
This is what Boaz does for Ruth, and he does it all by the book. In the story of Ruth, we find that he goes to the city gate. Now, that's where business was transacted. It was like going to the courthouse in that day. He goes through the process of legally redeeming Ruth. He buys the field that had belonged to Naomi's deceased husband. And by doing this, he legally takes Ruth as his wife to raise up children. Boaz loves Ruth. And he not only rescues her, but he restores Naomi, and he brings her out of hardship as well. By marrying Ruth, he brings prosperity to Ruth, but he also restores Naomi.
The redeeming love that Boaz exhibits here reverses that statement that we read at the beginning of Ruth. Back there in chapter one, she had called herself Mara. She had called herself Bitterness because God had dealt bitterly with her. But she is no longer empty. She is no longer bitter. Naomi is restored. And the celebration of this brings us to the passage that we read from this morning, where the women of Bethlehem come and they celebrate what has happened.
And these women confess the truth of what the Lord has done. He did not leave her without a redeemer. He has cared for her. He has provided for her. And notice how the women of Bethlehem speak of Ruth. They say that she is better to Naomi than seven sons. This foreign wife of her son was loyal to her even when she didn't have to be. Ruth decided to leave everything she knew and stay with Naomi. She likely could have stayed behind in Moab. She could have gone to her family. They would have probably helped her find another husband. But instead, she stood by Naomi. She went into the unknown and returned to Bethlehem. She was faithful when everyone else would have run away. Ruth was faithful.
But we're not remembering Ruth this morning because her loyalty made it so that Naomi wasn't destitute the rest of her life. We know Ruth as one of the mothers of Jesus because her kinsman redeemer, Boaz, was in the covenant line to the Messiah. They gave birth to a son, and Naomi cared for the child, and she named him Obed. Obed was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David.
While the whole story of Ruth is an amazing story, a beautiful love story, the big point of the story here is found in verse 17. The act of redeeming love love by Boaz was about more than just rescuing Naomi and Ruth from total poverty. It was about continuing the promise. That promise made all the way back in the garden. It was about preserving that line that would bring about the seed of the woman, the one who would come and crush the head of the serpent. The story that we see here today is a small part of the bigger story redemption. It points to us the way in which God rescues his people from sin, death, and hell. Boaz is more than just one of the contributors to the human DNA of Jesus. He prefigures and he points to Christ in how he rescues a poor Gentile widow. By his marrying her and redeeming her, she was brought into the family from outside died and secured the line to the savior. What Boaz did for Ruth, the Lord Jesus Christ does for us. We are destitute in our sin. We are hopeless. We are outsiders. We are unclean. We have no hope of our own. But in his mercy, the Lord Jesus Christ brings us to himself and he rescues us. He is our kinsman redeemer.
Boaz redeemed Ruth from poverty and gave her a new name. He gave her a place in Israel. But the Lord Jesus redeems us from our slavery to sin and he gives us a new name, and he brings us into the eternal Kingdom of God. He is the one who brings us under the shelter of the wings of Yahweh.
Take a moment here as we turn to the genealogy in Matthew. Look at this sentence here. In just one sentence of this genealogy, we have two very unlikely women. Two of our mothers of Jesus were looking at this advent. We have Rahab, the Gentile harlot of Jericho, and Ruth, the Gentile widow. Both women brought into the lineage of Christ by the sovereign and redeeming grace of God. Looking at Ruth, you never would have expected her to become a hero of the faith, but her confession of Yahweh, through her loyalty to Naomi, caused both women to go from bitterness to fullness. The more amazing part of the story is that they were not brought from emptyness to fullness in this earthly life, but they were brought from Mara to Messiah. From them came Jesus, the one who saved those women and us, that we might go from the bitterness of sin to the joy of salvation.
As I started out, I mentioned that Honest Wagner baseball card. No one ever would have expected that one of those cards, packed into a pack of cigarettes in 1909, would one day sell for over a million dollars. Ruth was a destitute, foreign widow, but God used her to bring about the most valuable possession we can ever have. Salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. So as we depart from here, may we be motivated by the story of Ruth, because it's the story of faithfulness, not only of Ruth, of God to his people. In the end, Ruth's deliverance did not come from her own strength. It didn't come from her cleverness, but from the powerful and loving action of Boaz, her kinsman redeemer. And so remember, your struggles, your bitter circumstances, they are never too small. They are never too insignificant for God to overcome. Put your faith in your kinsman redeemer and know and trust that you are eternally under the shelter of his wings. Let that truth guide you and bring you comfort. Amen.
Let us pray. Great and merciful God, we are blessed to know that you have rescued us, that you are our great kinsman redeemer. When we were bitter and destitute in our sin, you bought us back through your life, death, resurrection, and ascension. May we be content to know your joy. May we be joyful in that contentment that we might bring praise to you because you have redeemed us. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.
Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon. For more information about First Reformed Church, head to our Facebook page or website, edgertonfrc. Org.
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