Ruth 4:13-17 – “What ‘Counts’”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹³And Boaz took Ruth to be to him to wife and he came in to her and YHVH gave to her conception and she bore a son. ¹⁴And the women said to Naomi, “Praise be to YHVH, who has not caused to fail to you a kinsman-redeemer today. May his name be called in Israel, ¹⁵and he will be to you a restorer of soul and to supporting your old age, because your daughter-in-law, who loves you, has borne him, which she [is] a good to you from seven sons.” ¹⁶And Naomi took the child and she set him in her bosom and she became to him a nurse. ¹⁷And the women neighbors called to him a name saying, “A son has been borne to Naomi,” and they called his name Obed. He [was] the father of Jesse, the father of David.

I am coming to the end of this book and want to record some thoughts of what I see looking back on the entire book. Before I do that, though, there are some things in these five verses that I think bear noting.

I have lamented before that one of the perhaps unintentional and yet misguided perceptions we all seem to have is that following Christ means something big, some huge sacrifice, some “mission,” and that the commonplace, day-to-day lives that most of us live don’t really “count.” Granted there have been a few Apostle Pauls or Twelve Disciples or Mother Theresas, people called to some “great” mission. But the plain simple fact is that isn’t true of most, virtually all, people. The vast majority of God’s people will always be made up of us who simply live, who grow up, get married, raise children, work at a job or at home, who get haricuts and mow grass, who go to their children (and grandchildren’s) track meets, and simply “live.”

I believe it is gloriously liberating to realize that, from God’s perspective, all of that does “count.” When people’s plain all day everyday lives are lived in God’s presence, the fact is it is a beautiful thing. In Titus, Paul said it “adorns the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.” Read again verses 13-17 above or in your Bible. What are these verses about? Are they not about the plain, simple lives that people live every day? But are they not also singularly beautiful? And why? I would suggest to you that two things make these simple lives strikingly beautiful: God and love.

Even in the dark godless “Days of the Judges,” here before us is a community of people who hadn’t lost sight of the Lord. Everyone involved in these few verses – Boaz, Ruth, Naomi, and the neighbor women, and even back to the elders and the people gathered at the gate – sees the Lord above and through it all. “Praise be to the Lord who …” They are godly people. Dr. A. Thompson noted, “It is one of the grand aims of divine revelation to produce this state of mind [the habitual recognition of God]; and in the case of this people it evidently had produced it. Religion was an all-pervading life.… It penetrated everywhere, like the sunlight. God was beheld as the Cause of causes; His Hand was visible in every occurrence; He was a felt Presence.”

And the other thing that makes these verses beautiful is that there is so much love. Read the verses again and just notice how much love happens in just five verses! Boaz and Ruth get married and out of their love a child is conceived. The neighbor women lovingly praise the Lord on Naomi’s behalf and offer kind prayers for her new grandchild. They speak of the love they simply assume he will show his elderly grandmother, supporting her in her old age. They acknowledge Ruth’s love for Naomi and, contrary to typical Jewish exclusiveness, tell her that this Moabite girl is better to her than seven (Jewish!) sons. Then see the love of Naomi for this child. In reality he is no blood relation to Naomi at all. But she embraces him to her bosom as her own, becomes his official “nurse,” and loves him as her own. In his helpless infancy she serves him as his nurse then, in turn, in her helpless old age, he will be to her a “restorer of soul.”

So much love. So much family love. So much beautiful, simple, godly life. Would anyone not agree that the picture before us is exactly what redemption is all about? Is not redemption really about changing who we are at the very fundamental level of our everyday lives? Is it not to infuse us and all we do with love? Is it not to render us people who can be part of a community and there live a life of love, to be people who live consciously in the very presence of God, who see His divine hand in our every breath? Is not this, in this life, the great aim of redemption?

Let me offer some quotes from old writers, who lived before our modern day of disdaining faith in everyday lives:

Walter Baxendale (ca. 1878):

“Home is the most appropriate sphere for Christian usefulness. It is the place where true piety is ever tested, and false piety soonest put to the blush. It has the first claims upon the man of God, whatever his public position may be. And yet how often is this forgotten or ignored. … As master, or as servant, in the workshop and in the counting house, it is there his Christ-like character shines to best advantage; it is there, by the quiet influence which belongs to every life, the noblest testimony is borne for God. The household is hallowed, the home life consecrated, the private walks sanctified, the neighbourhood blessed by the sweet and gentle aroma of a holy and heavenly life.”

T.N. Toler (ca. 1848), speaking of Boaz’ praiseworthy and prompt attention to the promise he made to Ruth:

"Naomi, you see, had formed a correct judgment concerning Boaz. ‘The man will not rest, till he have finished the thing this day.’ To be able to place full confidence in those with whom we have to transact important affairs, to be fully satisfied respecting their integrity, ability, and energy, is a great blessing.”

When Jesus Himself wanted to illustrate faith and what it means, did He not speak about a man sowing seed, of a woman sweeping her house, of a man giving gifts to his children, a man caring for his sheep, another building a house, someone sewing a patch on a wineskin, a woman kneading yeast into a lump of dough, and so many other plain, simply all day every day kinds of lives?

Once again, I have particularly enjoyed the book of Ruth precisely for this reason – it is a simple little book about the simple all day everyday lives that godly people live; and it is a beautiful book because those people live those lives well. It’s really a book about my life and yours. All day everyday I should be a Naomi who sees the Lord in every detail of her life – even to the point of struggling with that faith when it seems He’s doing everything but blessing her. I should be a Ruth whose love makes her a faithful friend and whose faith moves her to make very good decisions even in very dark hours. I should be a Boaz who infuses his very work with love, kindness, diligence, manliness, and integrity. I should be like the elders and people and “neighbor women” who are quick to acknowledge the Lord’s blessings in others’ lives, to offer prayers of well-wishes, and simply to be “supportive” as others live their lives.

So much love. So much godliness. So much beautiful. And all that in the simple all day everyday lives of simple people. May this be our faith. And may we all be encouraged that our simple lives do “count” in the eyes of God – who wrote this very book for us!