A Resting-Place for Ruth

"Who are you, my daughter?" Naomi said when Ruth arrived home. Perhaps it was the darkness that prompted the question, but Naomi also wanted to know whether Ruth was still the same unattached widow or on with prospects of marriage before her. Ruth quickly told her mother-in-law of all that had passed between her and Boaz. She also presented the generous gift of barley that Boaz had told her to give to Naomi.

Wisely, Naomi urged Ruth to sit at home quietly that day instead of going out to glean in the fields. She assured Ruth: "The man will have no rest unless he has brought the matter to an end today." -RUTH 3:16, 17. 

Naomi was quite right about Boaz. He went to the city gate, where the city elders usually met, and waited until the man who was a closer relative passed by. In front of witnesses, Boaz offered the man the opportunity to act as repurchaser by marrying Ruth. However, the man refused, claiming that doing so would ruin his own inheritance. Then, before the witnesses at the city gate, Boaz stated that he would act as the repurchaser, buying up the estate of Naomi's dead husband, Elimelech, and marrying Ruth, the widow of Elimelech's son Mahlon. Boaz declared his hope that doing so would "cause the name of the dead man to rise upon is inheritance." (Ruth 4:1-10) Boaz truly was an upright unselfish man. 

Next time: A Resting-Place for Ruth -Conclusion

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