3 Things We Can Learn from the Book of Ruth

This is an excerpt from God of the Ordinary Bible Study by Alistair Begg.

The book of Ruth must surely be one of the loveliest short stories ever written, telling an unforgettable tale of purity, faithfulness, innocence, loyalty, duty, and love. Yet it is set in dark times. 

Ruth’s story unfolds against this backdrop of strife and chaos. Here is a story of ordinary people in Bethlehem facing a variety of events from loss and dislocation to marriage and family life.  Through this story, we can learn that in both dark, difficult moments and simple, mundane life rhythms, God is faithful to protect His people and accomplish His purposes.  

1. Within the seemingly insignificant routines of ordinary people, we discover His loving hand at work. 

The book of Ruth is a correction to the belief that our lives must be extraordinary to be useful. Whether our circumstances are difficult, seemingly mundane, or somewhere in between, God is always working His purposes out—often in places we may regard as unlikely and in such a quiet fashion that we may wonder whether God is doing anything at all. We see this in the lives and relationships between Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz. 

The message of Ruth is not that the people who trust in God won’t ever experience the death of a loved one or endure that accompanying grief. Naomi had no husband, and both her boys were gone. Neither does it teach that people who trust in God always live in the lap of luxury. In fact, Ruth found herself looking for single seeds of grain in an unknown field, trying to eke out an existence. 

 Instead, Ruth’s message is that we’re able to say to our friends and neighbors that the glories and the tragedies, the joys and the sorrows, the pains and the disappointments in the events of both nations and family life do not ultimately find their meaning within the scope of human history or the framework of personal biography. Rather, they find their significance within the purposes of God, who has made Himself known as loving and holy, personal and infinite, Creator and Redeemer, Sustainer and Ruler.  

2. When real people meet the real God and commit their lives unreservedly to Him, they discover that He provides abundantly, beyond all they can ask or imagine. 

Having committed herself to Naomi and the God of Israel in Moab (1:16-17), Ruth could only have wondered at what that would entail. She could never have known how dramatic God’s provision would be as she threw herself fully into the menial task of picking grain up off the ground. 

Boaz had discovered who God is and knew he had been entrusted to make God known. So as Boaz took up the instruction of the Old Testament and put his hands and feet to it, not begrudgingly but graciously, Ruth discovered the heart of God in his hands. It was a wonderful display of God’s grace. 

Boaz’s invitation was gracious and exceedingly generous. Ruth had already been shown around by the boss. He’d given insider information to her, an outsider—where to reap and where to find water when she got thirsty. He had instructed his workers to help, not to harm her. And when she surely thought she’d found all the favor she could possibly receive in one day, he invited her to join them all in the evening meal—and to stay until she had eaten enough to fill her empty stomach, with a take-out container for later. 

3. God works through everyday circumstances to bring about His promise and purpose of full and final restoration. 

People in the period of the judges just before Ruth likely wondered, “Where are we to find God?” And the answer was in the strangest of places. In a quiet corner of Bethlehem, in the routine of agricultural life and the seemingly insignificant lives of Ruth the foreigner and Boaz the farmer, God’s plan of redemption was unfolding. 

Because Naomi couldn’t see what God was doing, she thought she was outside of His care. She hadn’t seen His provision in the famine that prompted her family to leave Bethlehem. Then, in Moab, she experienced loss after loss after loss. And on the other side of those dreadful realities, Naomi thought she had no purpose in the world (Ruth 1:11-13,20-21). It was just a short time later, likely no more than the span of nine to twelve months, her lap was full as she held this newborn baby—a clear gift of God’s restoration and promise. God had been working through it all.