Ruth 4 Devotional

A Lap No Longer Empty

“Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a kinsman-redeemer. May his name become famous in Israel.”Ruth 4:14 (BSB)

Boaz settles the matter at the city gate before ten elders. The nearer relative is glad to buy Elimelech's land, until he learns that marrying Ruth comes with it, and he backs away to protect his own inheritance (4:4-6). Boaz takes on the cost willingly, buying the land and taking Ruth as his wife so that the dead man's name will not disappear (4:9-10). Then the LORD enables Ruth to conceive, and she gives birth to a son (4:13).

The final scene belongs to Naomi. The women who heard her call herself bitter now praise the LORD, who has not left her without a redeemer (4:14), and she holds the child on her lap (4:16). The boy, Obed, becomes the grandfather of King David (4:17), and Matthew names Boaz and Ruth, a woman from Moab, in the family line of Jesus (Matthew 1:5). Through famine, funerals, and a field found seemingly by chance, God was building toward a King. The losses you cannot explain are not the whole of your story either.

To think about: What part of your story do you need to trust God is still writing toward something good?