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Commentary March 10-11 | Sermon Study Notes Text Commentary March 10-11 | Sermon Study Notes Text: Ruth 4:14-22 Context of the book / letter / Gospel: The story of redemption reaches its exciting conclusion as we learn the future of the son of Boaz and Ruth, and see the perpetuation of the Messianic line revealed by the narrator in the final verse. God’s faithfulness to His people and His undying love for them is fully revealed at the very end of the book. Main Idea of The Text: God used Ruth and Boaz to perpetuate the line of the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ. Exegetical Outline of The Text1 The Perpetuation of the Messiah I. A Joyful Filling – (Ruth 4:14-17) II. A Surprising Genealogy (Ruth 4:18-22) Verse by verse commentary: The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth. ”Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. – Ruth 4:14-17. The book of Ruth is filled to the brim with blessings for its characters and the nation of Israel. In these verses, Naomi takes center stage. She now sees the providence and faithful love—hesed—of Yahweh personified in the birth of her grandson, Obed. The women of Bethlehem celebrated the birth of Obed with a blessing for Naomi. They called Obed “her” son. For this one moment, Ruth steps out of the limelight and it is given to Naomi as the matriarch of her family. They predict that Boaz will care for his mother-in-law as 1 Outline taken from the Bible Knowledge Commentary. he cares for his wife and son.2 However, the kinsman-redeemer referred to in these verses is actually Obed, not Boaz.3 Obed perpetuates the family line as the son. Therefore, he becomes the kinsman-redeemer at birth. Then, the focus shifts back to Ruth. The women pronounce a blessing which makes Ruth better than seven sons. The idea of “seven sons” was considered the ultimate blessing to a Hebrew family (cf. 1 Sam. 2:5; Job 1:2).4 The CSB tells us that Naomi took the child, and raised her as her own. She was now comforted after the death of her husband and sons. Walvoord and Zuck note here as follows: “She the empty one, was now full. The bitter one was now blessed. Naomi had a son (actually a grandson but “son” in Heb. often means “descendant”). In time, God’s providential purpose became clear. The child became the grandfather of King David.”5 The New American Commentary exegetes the Hebrew as follows: The second episode of the final scene involves the women of Bethlehem, who, as in 1:19, function as a chorus in the drama. Their speech divides into three parts: (1) a blessing for Yahweh (v. 14a), (2) a prayer for the child (v. 14b), and (3) a declaration of confidence for Naomi (v. 15). 4:14a When the women of Bethlehem hear of the birth of the son to Boaz and Ruth, they respond with a spontaneous outburst of praise to Yahweh for his kindness to Naomi and a prayer for the young lad and his grandmother. This blessing must be interpreted against the backdrop of Naomi’s painful and bitter complaint about God in 1:20–21 for the grief she perceived him to have caused her. There is a recognition now that she whose life had been emptied by God has now experienced his filling. The form of the blessing uttered by the women differs from those encountered earlier, consisting simply of the passive verb bārûk followed by the name of Yahweh. In such contexts the word “blessed” functions as a virtual synonym for “praise.” In the Old Testament blessings represent expressions of a positive relationship. Yahweh blesses his people on the basis of relationship by conferring good on them; humans bless God by praising the good that is in him and that he expresses in conveying benefactions. 2 The Bible Knowledge Commentary. 3 Warren Wiersbe. 4The Bible Knowledge Commentary. 5 The Bible Knowledge Commentary. The present construction follows the pattern typical for this kind of blessing by introducing the grounds of the blessing with the conjunction ʾăšer, “who …” Here the women bless Yahweh because this day he has provided Naomi with a redeemer. The present negative form of the declaration translates literally “he has not stopped for you a gōʾēl,” that is, he has not prevented Naomi from having her gōʾēl. Although some scholars insist that Boaz is the gōʾēl the women have in mind, the adverb hayyôm, “this day,” and the reference to the child’s birth in v. 15 make it clear that the women look upon the child as Naomi’s gōʾēl. It is evident from the following invocation on behalf of the child, however, that they are not using the term gōʾēl in the technical legal sense employed earlier in the chapter. On the contrary, the birth of the child is not viewed as a solution to a longstanding legal problem but from a practical women’s perspective as the solution to Naomi’s insecurity. Although they do not use the word, they envision this lad providing for her the “rest/security” (mānôah/mĕnûhâ) that she had tried to procure for her daughter-in-law (cf. 1:9; 3:1). The women are not concerned about the restoration of hereditary land to the clan of Elimelech or raising up a name for Mahlon. They are interested only in the well-being of this widow. 4:14b The thought of the gōʾēl as Yahweh’s provision for Naomi’s well-being inspires a spontaneous blessing for the boy: literally, “And may his name be called in Israel!” But what does it mean to have someone’s name called in Israel? Since the locative designation “in Israel” occupies the place normally held by a personal name when the formula is used in a naming context, and since the actual naming will be recounted later (v. 17), this cannot refer to the naming of the lad (or Yahweh for that matter). How the idiom is interpreted depends upon whose name the women are referring to. Grammatically the antecedent of “his name” could be either Yahweh, who is the subject of the previous clause, or the gōʾēl two words prior. If one understands the reference to be to Yahweh’s name, then the idiom calls for the naming of Yahweh in celebration or supplication. Accordingly, the birth of this lad is seen as a demonstration that Yahweh is God in Israel. On the other hand, since the gōʾēl is the nearer antecedent, it is preferable to interpret this utterance as applying to the boy, in which case this declaration represents a passive version of the very same construction in v. 11. As we noted there, to call/mention a person’s name in a place means to “to keep the name/fame alive,” even after his death, and to perceive the person as living on in his descendants in the place named. In the previous context the men at the gate had applied the prayer to Boaz, with the desire that his name would live on in Bethlehem. But these women expand the scope of the gōʾēl’s fame beyond the walls of their town to the nation of Israel as a whole. 4:15 In v. 15 the women’s attention returns to the implications for Naomi of the birth of the gōʾēl. They recognize the boy’s significance for Naomi’s disposition in the present and her well-being in the future. The first expression, literally, “And he will become for you a restorer of life,” presents a stark contrast to the bitter comments the women had heard from Naomi’s lips when she first arrived back from Moab. They hereby express confidence that with the birth of this lad Naomi will find new hope for life—all is not lost—and her spirit will revive. The second expression looks into the more distant future: literally “and to sustain your grey hair.”79 Here the word šĕbâ, “grey hair,” is a euphemism for old age. The perceptiveness of the women to recognize in the birth of this child the guarantee of Naomi’s future well-being is remarkable! She who had been so concerned about the security of her daughter-in-law is now rewarded in kind. But the women’s last statement is the most remarkable of all. In the beginning Naomi had bitterly accused God of emptying her life by robbing her of her husband and her two sons. But now the women console her: she may have lost her sons, but she has gained a daughter-in-law. And what a daughter-in-law Ruth is! First, Ruth loves Naomi. In fact, in her action we observe one of the most dramatic demonstrations of the meaning of the Hebrew word for “love,” ʾāhēb. Whereas modern definitions of love tend to view the word as an emotional term, in the Old Testament love is fundamentally an expression of covenant commitment, the kind of devotion to which Ruth had given such eloquent verbal expression in 1:16–17.
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