Lessons in Sacrifice: Ruth

by Megan Roegner

I’ve read Ruth more than any other book of the Bible. I’m a little bit embarrassed to admit I’ve read it so much because it’s romantic. Well, at least in my imagination it is…Ruth and Boaz cast fleeting looks at each other across the barley field; her heart skips a beat when Naomi tells her to meet him on threshing floor; Boaz is gripped with anxiety at the thought of another man being Ruth’s kinsman redeemer; and they live happily ever after. Sigh…

But that’s not why I’m writing about Ruth today. Last week, I wrote about how Mary’s role as a mother teaches us about sacrifice and joy. Throughout the Bible there is a motif of sacrificial love displayed through the parent-child relationship. Jesus is sacrificial love personified, and hundreds of years before His birth, we see that God is preparing His people for His arrival. There are many different levels of parent-child sacrifice shown in Ruth.

First is the sacrifice Ruth makes as a loving daughter to Naomi. The most famous verse in Ruth is the vow she gives Naomi: “For where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried” (1:22). What an incredible promise for Ruth to make! To leave her home and everything familiar out of devotion to a woman who could provide her little to no security must have taken tremendous courage and strength of character. Ruth must have had to make many smaller sacrifices after this: She must sacrifice her pride to become a beggar, gleaning in Boaz’s fields. When she is sent by Naomi to prostrate herself at Boaz’s feet on the threshing floor, some small part of her must have been willing to sacrifice her reputation.

Another level of sacrifice is the role of Boaz as the kinsman redeemer. A kinsman redeemer was needed to provide for a childless widow and give her late husband an heir; his biological son would be considered the legal son of the woman’s dead husband. Despite the glorious romance I envision, “redeeming” Ruth and Naomi is a sacrifice for Boaz because his future son and the land he was required to buy and tend would never be fully his.

When Ruth and Boaz do have a son, this seems to contain another level of sacrifice for Ruth as well as Boaz. This young, first-time mother has her baby, and her mother-in-law takes him over! “And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, ‘A son has been born to Naomi’” (4:17). OK, I’m exaggerating, and knowing Ruth’s selflessness, I’m sure she didn’t mind anyway. But as a new mother myself, I see this as a lesson on how a child does not just belong to his parents, he is also a valuable part of a community. When my son Samuel was a newborn, this was hard for me to comprehend. There were many family members and friends who claimed Samuel in one way or another as their own. It was easy for me to feel possessive, but I found that there was so much more to be gained when I was willing to “give” Samuel to those who loved him too. At his Baptism, it was an awe-inspiring comfort and blessing to see him surrounded by people who promised to help guide him and teach him in his faith.

This child of Ruth’s is named Obed, which means “one who serves.” Obed is the father of Jesse, who is the father of King David. The return for Boaz’s and Ruth’s sacrifice is being the great-grandparents of Israel’s greatest king. And, of course, it doesn’t end there since Jesus is of the lineage of David. The Book of Ruth truly foreshadows the Messiah in many ways. At the heart of it is the love between parents and children and the big and small sacrifices we sometimes are called to make in these relationships. The happy ending is that we gain much more than we are asked to give.