I love the story of Ruth. If for no other reason, I love it because it tells part of the story of the line of David, which ultimately is the line of Christ. The story itself is a story of mercy and redemption, much like the story of Christ. Boaz showed mercy on these widows and took care of them when they needed it most. While these women needed to do their part, by being faithful and doing what was required of them, Boaz redeemed them and blessed their lives. This is very much what our lives in Christ is like. We must do our part to be faithful in all we do, but in the end, Christ is faithful and takes care of us in all we do.
2013 Day 131 – Ruth, Proverbs 23:1-18
11 Saturday May 2013
Posted in Daily Reading
Daily Devotion 
The whole book of Ruth in one day!? What!? No can do. 🙂 This will take me a few days, and I will fall further behind in the reading. Just a warning. I’ll catch up later 🙂
Ha! No worries!
I think one of the the things I love about Ruth so much is how incredibly unconventional she is. We have this idea that women should fit into some blue print, that we are supposed to follow set of rules regarding our appearance our actions etc… But Ruth, and every other single story of women in the Bible, buck that idea all together. What we do see, however, is a woman who is faithful to her mother-in-law, who serves her mother-in-law. Those actions make her faithful to God. And she does things that the current church would consider sinful. She seduced the man! It doesn’t seem manipulative, but there was an active seduction taking place. The discussion among rabbi’s as to what “she uncovered his feet” really means? Yeah. They can go at that for hours apparently. But the point is, the Bible doesn’t condemn her for her actions. She is praised. She is the direct line of Jesus. Obviously, I’m not saying we all need to go out and seduce men :), but I am saying that faithfulness to God is always more important than following some cultural norm or prescribed notion. That goes for both for men and women.
And I have great respect for Boaz. She’s “uncovered his feet”, and he’s ready to get hitched, but he maintains his integrity. He shows great respect for her relative. He takes a chance that he might not be able to marry her, but he does the right thing. A great reminder to me today specifically :).