Love Carried from Household to Household

We leave Abraham’s household with a promise that reaches beyond his remaining years. The love with which our story began continues through the lives of those who follow him. There would be Isaac, and then Jacob, children and grandchildren, marriages, departures, and households established beyond his sight. In time, the family would become a people. They would endure bondage in Egypt, experience deliverance, and make the long journey toward the land their ancestors had been promised.

Within those generations were people who knew only their own portion of the road. They tended their animals, prepared meals, raised children, and buried those they loved. They heard the promises handed down to them and wondered what those promises would mean for their families. The story that began before time was unfolding within lives measured in seasons, harvests, and years.

Now let us draw closer to a house in Bethlehem. Elimelech and Naomi lived there with their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. We can imagine the ordinary concerns of their household, the work of providing for one another and the hopes that accompanied their sons’ growing years. Then famine came, and the question of what lay ahead became as immediate as the next meal.

The family left for Moab, where there was food. Whatever hopes or misgivings traveled with them, they went together. The account does not tell us how long they expected to stay. It tells us that Elimelech died there, leaving Naomi with her sons. The young men married women of Moab, Orpah and Ruth, and for a time the household continued. Then both sons died as well.

Naomi had left Bethlehem with her husband and children. Now she faced returning without them. The love story we are following brings us into this sorrow, too, where familiar voices are missing and the future a family expected has become impossible to recover. We need to remain with her long enough to feel something of what returning would mean.

When Naomi heard that the Lord had provided food for His people, she prepared to go home. She urged her daughters-in-law to return to their mothers’ houses, where they might marry again and find a settled life. Orpah eventually turned back after a tearful farewell, but Ruth would not leave her. She committed herself to Naomi’s road, Naomi’s people, and Naomi’s God. Whatever lay ahead, Naomi would not make the journey alone.

Together they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. Naomi spoke of having gone away full and returned empty. Beside her stood Ruth, far from the home she had known, ready to begin the daily work of finding food for them both.

Ruth went into the fields to gather what the harvesters left behind. She began in a field belonging to Boaz, a relative of Elimelech. When he noticed her and asked who she was, he learned that she was the young woman who had returned from Moab with Naomi. He had heard how she had cared for her mother-in-law and left her own parents and country to live among a people she had not previously known.

Boaz told Ruth to remain near his women workers. She could drink from the water his men had drawn, and he had instructed them to leave her unharmed. At mealtime, he invited her to come closer and eat some bread, dipping it in the wine vinegar. He passed her roasted grain, and she ate until she was satisfied, with some left over.

Before she returned to work, Boaz made further provision for her. His workers were to let her gather among the sheaves and leave grain where she could find it without being rebuked. That evening, she carried what she had gathered back to Naomi, along with the food she had saved from her meal.

For a moment, let us stay with them as Naomi sees what Ruth has brought. There is food enough to draw a question from her: where had Ruth worked, and who had taken notice of her? Ruth named Boaz, and Naomi recognized the connection. He belonged to their family. He was one of their redeemers.

The days of harvest continued, and Ruth remained near Boaz’s workers while living with Naomi. In time, Naomi began to consider how Ruth might find a home where she would be cared for. Boaz would be winnowing barley at the threshing floor that night, and Naomi gave Ruth instructions about going to him after the work and the meal were finished.

When Boaz woke during the night and discovered someone lying at his feet, he asked who she was. Ruth gave her name and asked him to spread the corner of his garment over her, because he was a family redeemer. She had come with a request that reached into the future of their household.

Boaz listened and answered kindly. There was another relative with a nearer claim, and that matter had to be settled first. If the man would redeem, he must be given the opportunity; if he would not, Boaz would. Before daylight, Ruth returned to Naomi carrying barley he had given her. Naomi listened to what had happened and told her to wait. She understood that Boaz would attend to the matter that day.

At the town gate, before the elders, Boaz spoke with the nearer relative about the property belonging to Elimelech’s household and about Ruth, the widow of his son. When that man declined to redeem, Boaz accepted the responsibility. He would acquire the family property and take Ruth as his wife, preserving the dead man’s name within his inheritance.

In time, Ruth bore a son. The women of Bethlehem gathered around Naomi, blessing the Lord and speaking of the child’s place in her life. Naomi took him into her arms and cared for him. Here we are again, close enough to see a household receiving a child, while the reach of his life remains beyond anything those gathered around him can know.

His name was Obed. He would become the father of Jesse, and Jesse would become the father of David.

Through Obed and Jesse, we follow the family into David’s life. The child Naomi held belongs within a story that will carry us, generations later, to another threshing floor, this one belonging to Araunah the Jebusite. Much would happen before that day. Jesse’s son would become king, and his life would hold faithfulness and failure, victories and grief. Now suffering had followed his census of the people, and he came under instruction to build an altar so that the plague might be stopped.

Araunah offered him the threshing floor, oxen for the sacrifice, and implements that could supply the wood. David insisted on paying. He would not offer to the Lord something that had cost him nothing. He bought the threshing floor and the oxen, built the altar, and offered sacrifices. The Lord answered, and the plague was stopped.

Later, Solomon would build the house of the Lord at the place his father had prepared, on the threshing floor of Ornan—Araunah—the Jebusite. The ground where grain had once been gathered would become a place to which generations came to worship.

We have passed through centuries, but we are still within the love story that began before any of these people drew breath. Along the way, we have seen it unfolding close enough to touch: in a welcome offered to Abram, in Ruth’s decision to stay, in food carried home to Naomi, and in the care of a redeemer who attended to what he had promised. Those living these moments could not see all that lay ahead. They had one another, the promises entrusted to them, and the next step before them.