During the period of the judges, there is a wonderful story of providence and marriage, yet the union of Boaz and Ruth is not the most important part of their story.
When the judges ruled, the Israelites experienced spiritual upheaval. According to the book of Judges, the people imitated the idol worship of the dispossessed Canaanites. In response to such high-handed rebellion, the Lord would raise up an adversary to judge them. When the people turned from wickedness and called upon the Lord, he then raised up a judge to deliver them. The problem, however, is that after their deliverance, the people were still drawn back into rebellion.
The story of Ruth and Boaz takes place in the context of the book of Judges (Ruth 1:1). Amidst the cycle of rebellion there is a story of providence and hope.
The beginning of Ruth’s story is that there is a famine in the promised land. An Israelite named Naomi, from Bethlehem, traveled to Moab with her husband and sons. During the years that followed, her sons married Moabite women, and her husband and sons died, leaving Naomi and her widowed daughters-in-law.
Ruth insisted on returning to the promised land with her mother-in-law (Ruth 1:16–17). Living in her new home in Bethlehem, Ruth was prepared to work hard. She gleaned in a field that “happened” to belong to Boaz—a man in Naomi’s extended family. As events unfolded, Boaz treated Ruth with protection, respect, provision, and hospitality (Ruth 2–3).
Naomi knew that if Ruth married Boaz, their future would be secure. Boaz would be fulfilling his role as a “kinsman redeemer,” someone who could act to bring redemption or restoration to a situation of distress and loss. A public scene at the city gate led to witnesses confirming the role that Boaz would fulfill (Ruth 4:1–12). Boaz married Ruth, they conceived a son named Obed, and Naomi experienced the familial restoration that her loss (at the beginning of the book) had put in jeopardy.
The story of Ruth does not end with the narration of Boaz and Ruth’s son, however. The last part of the book is a genealogy. There are genealogies elsewhere in the Bible, but they occur either at the beginning of books (like in 1 Chronicles and Matthew) or they occur between narratives (like in Genesis or Luke). The book of Ruth is the only place in the whole Bible that ends with a genealogy.
A genealogical ending, therefore, is the surprising climax of the book. Let’s track the line of descent. When we look at Ruth 4:18–22, we see these names:
Perez fathered Hezron
Hezron fathered Ram
Ram fathered Amminadab
Amminadab fathered Nahshon
Nahshon fathered Salmon
Salmon fathered Boaz
Boaz fathered Obed
Obed fathered Jesse
Jesse fathered David
There are ten names mentioned, from Perez to David. Notice that the name Boaz doesn’t occur until almost the end of the list. Most of the names are the ancestors of Boaz. Names like Perez and Hezron remind us of Genesis 46, where we’re told that Jacob’s son Judah had a son named Perez who had Hezron. These ancestors of Boaz mean that he is a descendant of Judah.
Once the genealogy in Ruth 4 gets to Boaz’s name, we see just a few names left: Boaz fathers Obed, Obed fathers Jesse, and Jesse fathers David.
Ending with David matters for the reader because we know that David becomes the first Israelite king from Judah’s tribe (1 Sam. 16; 2 Sam. 5). During the period of the judges, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes (Judg. 21:25). But during the period of the judges, God was providentially preparing a king.
While the book is primarily about the meeting and marriage of Boaz and Ruth, the reason why we need to know this story is revealed in the final verse (Ruth 4:22). The last word in the book of Ruth is David.
The name David reveals that the story in Ruth was not just God’s provision for a Bethlehem family. The story of Ruth was about God’s provision for a leaderless and spiritually wayward people, and they didn’t even know it yet. Behind the scenes God was working. And because the line of David takes us to the Messiah (Matt. 1:1–17), the last word in Ruth reminds us that God was keeping promises, in particular an ancient promise to raise up a king from Judah’s tribe who would deliver God’s people and crush the serpent.