GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
RUTH 4:13
13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.
All of a sudden the story hurries along. After a leisurely stroll through Ruth’s courtship, we race in a single verse through the first nine or ten months of her marriage to Boaz to get to the birth of their son.
Here in the marriage bed of Ruth and Boaz we have a unique expression in the Bible, that “the LORD enabled her to conceive;” literally “the LORD gave to her conception.” There are a handful of other places in Scripture in which the Lord is shown to be more directly involved in the conception of a baby than we think of as usual. In Genesis 29:31, the Lord opens the womb of the unloved Leah, but soon after he also opens the womb of the barren Rachel (Genesis 30:22). The Lord remembered the prayer of Hannah shortly after Eli the high priest blessed her, “May the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him” and Hannah did indeed conceive a baby (1 Samuel 1:19-20).
In the case of the conception of Jesus Christ, God the Father sent his Son to the virgin Mary, using the Holy Spirit as the non-physical messenger (Matthew 1:20). The impregnation of Mary is described in very similar terms to the way the power of the Holy Spirit came upon many of the judges who were given special spiritual gifts in the form of extraordinary strength or extraordinary success in leadership. Mary is told by the angel, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). Consider that the Spirit of the LORD came upon Othniel (Judges 3:10), and also upon Gideon (Judges 6:34), Jephthah (Judges 11:29), Samson (14:6,19; 15:15), Saul (1 Samuel 10:10), David (1 Samuel 16:13) and others. So Mary had no physical union, certainly not with God (nor with her husband until after Jesus was born, Matthew 1:25), so the Son of God was placed in her womb by means of a miracle.
Here, the pregnancy of Ruth is seen as a special gift from God, fulfilling the levirate law in the way it was intended. The purpose of this marriage was originally to fulfill the duty of the kinsman-redeemer and to give to Naomi’s family an heir, and that is what the Lord accomplished. Throughout this little book, there is special attention given to the providence of God, who is constantly watching out for his people. Jesus encouraged us by saying: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29-31). Jesus was comforting his disciples as they were going out to face many trials as preachers of the gospel. Yet he watches over all his people, whether Old Testament believers like Ruth and Boaz, or New Testament believers like me and you.
The Lord watches over the way of the righteous (Psalm 1:6), and you are righteous through faith in Christ (Romans 1:17).
The Lord who watches over you will not be caught sleeping (Psalm 121:3-4), and he even watches over you when you are asleep or caught in a sin.
The Lord watches over all who love him (Psalm 145:20), and his love for you endures forever.
The Lord watches over even those who have no one to watch over them in life (Psalm 146:9).
The Lord watches over us directly himself (Psalm 121:5), but also through our loving parents and others. The good mother “watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all’” (Proverbs 31:27-29).
We are truly blessed when we see all of these things in our own lives; when we see God’s love for us in the love of the people who surround us.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota