“So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. He had sexual relations with her, Adonai enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. Then the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be Adonai, who today has provided you a redeemer! May his name be renowned in Israel.'”-Ruth 4:14
I wanna point out something utterly fascinating…
After Boaz and Ruth had their first child, notice the women said to Naomi “Blessed be YAHWEH, who today has provided you a redeemer!”.
Did you catch that?
The women are saying that Boaz and Ruth’s first child is the redeemer?!
“Wait a minute! I thought Boaz was the redeemer?”
That’s what you’re thinking, right?
I understand your confusion but there’s a deeper spiritual truth being communicated here…
And it connects to verse 17:
“The women who were her neighbors gave it a name; they said, ‘A son has been born to Naomi,‘ and called it ‘Oved. He was the father of Yishai the father of David.”
There are 2 amazing things about this passage.
FIRST, notice the female neighbors took it upon themselves to provide a name for the baby.
This is unprecedented in all of Scripture.
Normally no one but the father or mother named their own child.
SECOND, notice how the women proclaim this new born child to be Naomi’s son and NOT Boaz and Ruth’s child?!?!?!
This is really strange and mysterious but serves to underscore why the book of Ruth is so fascinating.
See, the neighbors realized the child born to Ruth signified something much greater than returning the land back to the clan and restoring Elimelech’s family line.
They didn’t know exactly why this child was special but they sensed something profound and amazing had occurred.
And they were right.
Because Obed went on to become the grandfather of the great King David.
And of course, we all know that Yeshua sprang from David’s line.
I can’t help but be reminded of this prophetic verse from Isaiah even thought it’s not referring to the birth of Obed.
“For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given:
and the government shall
be upon his shoulder:
and his name shall
be called Wonderful Counsellor,
The mighty God,
The everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace”
-Isaiah 9:6
Incidentally, there are more than quite a few Bible scholars out there who will point to verse 14 and say this is evidence this passage is corrupt.
They totally miss all of the spiritual significance contained in these verses and say the text has to be corrupt because it’s Boaz who is called the redeemer up until this point.
They just don’t have the mental flexibility to see that BOTH Boaz and the child are redeemers per God’s providence.
Of course, if you’ve read Ruth with me from the very beginning, and I mean really read and understood it, you shouldn’t have this problem and be able to see how all of this weaves nicely together at the end of Ruth.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Salmon the father of Boaz,
whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed,
whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse,
and Jesse the father of King David.”
-Matthew 1:5-6
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