Blessed

Reflecting on the whole book of Ruth, I feel I have a better understanding of waiting on the Lord. The expectations that society and, perhaps, Ruth herself had for the rest of her life were not what God had in mind for her. As a widow, her patience and her faith guided her to the path she was on when she met Boaz. The blessings of the Lord were bestowed upon both her and her mother-in-law, as Naomi was able to nurse her own grandchild.

The most important verses to me were 11 and 12: “And all the people who were at the gate, and the elders, said, ‘We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel; and may you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring which the Lord will give you from this young woman” (NKJV). These verses highlight the blessings of those around them and how much Ruth and Boaz affected them. Those around them and the whole of Israel were blessed through their marriage, as Ruth bore to Boaz the child who would beget David.

I found that God uses the humble and uplifts them to be his servants. Further, the wedding guests blessed Ruth in v. 11 as “the woman who is coming to [Boaz’s] house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel.” To me this represented the importance of community in this chapter, as the place that Ruth left behind bid her to go into the next stage with good tidings and comfort that would follow her throughout her days. I pray that all my days be like that of Naomi’s blessing in v. 14, that I may say, “Blessed be the Lord who has not left [me] this day without a close relative.”

Alexandria Oguntula
Pepperdine University