The book of Ruth is one of my favorites, and it’s a little book so you can read it in just a few minutes. There are some things I love and some things that are pretty confusing. Have you ever traded sandals to confirm a legal arrangement, and if some strange woman slept at my feet all night a proposal is not what I would be offering. But we live in very different times so I should not expect that some of those things would or even should make sense to me. Let’s face it the Bible was not written with 21 century customs or ideas in mind it was written with customs and ideas of that time in mind.

There are however some things that make perfect sense. Things like compassion, concern, love, devotion, earning a good name, respect, and morality. I find that quite funny because the story of Ruth is being told during the period of Judges. Now that is funny because the book of Judges is not known for having these attributes. You read the book of Judges and the Israelites are being less that proper towards one another and God.

One of the main things that I find when I read the book of Ruth that is most interesting to me is not the above mentioned things or the fact that Boaz is a kinsmen redeemer (although important) but the way Ruth and the other less than fortunate people are taken care of. What we see is a group of people living in accordance with the way God told them to live. Leviticus 23:22 says in a very paraphrased way “you don’t need all the grain from the field when it is harvest time so leave some for the poor and strangers. Do it because I am your God.”  What we have here is a group of people living God’s way and getting God’s results in the midst of the majority of the nation acting in disobedience. What that says to me is “do not conform to the pattern of this world.”

I’m just going to stop there and let you draw your own conclusions.

Just a thought,

Mike