The Book of Ruth is a sweet little love story. It is also, much to my surprise, only four chapters long, so we can cover it in a single go. This gets me to my stated goal for the end of the summer five months ahead of schedule, but what the heck. It's fun to be making progress!
Ruth is the daughter-in-law of an Israelite woman who is living among the Moabites. After both of their husbands die, they return to the mother-in-law's home town.
With a little prompting and encouragement from the two women, a relative by marriage named Boaz happens to fall in love, more or less, with Ruth. He is then able to engineer the purchase of the mother-in-law's inherited land, and that sort of gives him the legal right to marry Ruth. It's a loose interpretation of the laws of Moses, but what the heck. They all live happily ever after, and Ruth and her new husband ultimately become the great-grandparents of David, a Very Important Figure that I imagine we will be hearing a lot more about soon enough.
It's a nice little tale, and it has some elements of interest to it. It is another story with a strong literary sense, and it is the first Biblical tale I recall that features the experience of everyday women.
At the same time, it's a little puzzling as to what real relevance it has in a Bible. Nothing really makes it a religious story, or one likely to inspire devotion or faith, or set an example of right practice. It's puzzling to me. I guess you could say the same thing about the Book of Judges, too, but Ruth is so short that you really notice its lack of any overtly divine message.
Any thoughts out there in Bloggerville? Why is Ruth in the Bible? If this was Bible Book Survivor, would you vote it off the island?
