In contrast to the wild antics of Samson, Ruth shows us another side of Israel's life and faith at the time of the judges. The story begins with a flat statement, "There was a famine in the land." So Elimelek takes his wife, Naomi, and her two sons to Moab, where they hope to find enough food and a way of making a living. They stay there for several years, long enough for the two sons to marry Moabite women.

Disaster strikes. First Naomi's husband and then her two sons die. She and her daughters-in-law are left without protection, provision, or a way to carry on the family name. This is a new kind of famine, one of deep emptiness and profound helplessness (notice the parallel to the barrenness theme that began the Samson story). Rootless and alone, Naomi is determined to return home to make a life for herself back in Bethlehem.

Spurred by affection and politeness, Ruth and her sister-in-law Orpah walk along with Naomi on the road that leads back to Israel. They love their mother-in-law so much they are ready to go back to this foreign land with Naomi. Knowing the difficulties that lie ahead, Naomi advises them to go back home. Orpah takes the advice, but Ruth refuses to leave Naomi. In a moving speech Ruth commits herself to Naomi and to a new and unknown future with Naomi's people and Naomi's God.

Returning to Bethlehem, Naomi tells the villagers, "Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty." But God is about to fill that emptiness in an unexpected way, through people's faithfulness to God's law.

At the heart of the story is a custom that seems odd to us but that is embedded in God's Old Testament law. A widow without a son had the right to marry her husband's brother (provided he was available for marriage), so that through the brother of her original husband she might have a son to carry on his name (Deuteronomy 25:5-7). Sometimes called Levirate marriage, this arrangement also provided the widow a place in this patriarchal society.

Needing to provide for themselves, Naomi encourages Ruth to go out into the fields to glean behind the harvesters. Here we encounter another of God's laws and see how it functioned in that society. Poor people who had no land or crops were allowed, according to God's law, to glean food the harvesters had left behind. This was one of the "social safety nets" provided by God's law in that agrarian society.

"As it turned out," the Bible tells us, Ruth ends up gleaning the field belonging to Boaz, a relative of Naomi's husband, Elimelek. He's a "man of standing," a leading landowner in the community. Somehow (clearly Boaz is attracted to this young woman) Boaz takes special notice of Ruth. "Who does the young woman belong to?" he asks. Discovering that she's a relative through marriage, Boaz makes a special effort to make her feel welcome and to provide for her.

It isn't long before Naomi puts two and two together, realizing that Boaz represents a great opportunity for the future for Ruth. He's a possible "kinsman redeemer," a relative responsible for marrying Ruth to carry on the family name. She gives careful instructions to Ruth on how she might gain Boaz's attention and make clear her openness to a marriage proposal.

Ruth does as Naomi suggests, lying down at Boaz's feet after he has retired for the evening. Startled, Boaz asks who she is. Ruth identifies herself and reminds Boaz of his "kinsman redeemer" status. Boaz blesses Ruth and, clearly enamored of Ruth and aware of his responsibility toward her, he pursues his role as kinsman redeemer. But there's a catch: another man in the community is a closer relative with first right of refusal.

Boaz takes the matter to what in that day functioned as the court---the elders sitting at the city gates. He presents the case before them, and the closer relative decides not to make his claim upon Ruth, leaving her free to marry Boaz.

In a storybook ending, Boaz marries Ruth with the blessing of the entire community, and with the smiling Naomi looking on. Ruth conceives and gives birth to a son, Obed. The story comes to a close with these words: "He was the father of Jesse, the father of David."

It's fascinating that the people of Bethlehem, in celebrating Ruth's marriage to Boaz, say, "May your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah." This refers to an obscure story (Gen. 38) in which another foreign woman became a mother of Abraham's descendants.

Carrying on the heritage of Abraham's faith by joining herself to God's people, Ruth is now blessed with a son, Obed, the father of David, the great ancestor of the greatest Son, Jesus Christ. Ruth, along with Tamar, Rahab, and Bathsheba, is one of the few women mentioned in Jesus' genealogy in Matthew 1. Note also the resolution of the emptiness theme in that Naomi can now cradle a grandson in her own loving arms.