Conclusion to Ruth — From Barley Fields to the Ends of the Earth
- Pr Enos Mwakalindile
- Dec 9, 2025
- 7 min read
From an empty road and a bitter name to a baby in Naomi’s arms and a line that runs to David and beyond, Ruth teaches us how God writes world‑shaping grace into ordinary, vulnerable lives.
1.0 Looking Back — The Road We Have Walked
By now you have walked slowly through Ruth’s four short chapters and listened to their music:
Ruth 1 led us from famine and funeral in Moab to a hard homecoming in Bethlehem. We watched Naomi bury husband and sons, rename herself “Bitter,” and yet find Ruth clinging to her with a vow of fierce hesed. The chapter ended with emptiness honestly named, yet with the faint light of “the beginning of barley harvest.”
Ruth 2 took us into the fields, where Ruth’s “chance” chanced upon Boaz’s land. There we saw ordinary providence at work: a Moabite widow gleaning, a worthy man noticing, blessing, and protecting, and Naomi’s bitter theology beginning to thaw as she recognized that God’s kindness had not forsaken “the living or the dead.”
Ruth 3 drew us to the threshing floor at midnight, where Naomi crafted a daring plan, Ruth stepped into vulnerability with courage, and Boaz responded with integrity and promise. In the dark, under the language of wings and cloak, a human redeemer pledged himself to act, prefiguring the deeper shelter of God.
Ruth 4 brought us to the city gate, where legal sandals changed feet, blessings flowed, and public redemption was enacted. Ruth became Boaz’s wife, the LORD granted conception, Naomi held Obed the “restorer of life,” and a genealogy stretched from Perez to David, hinting already at the coming Christ.
Taken together, Ruth’s story traces a movement from emptiness to fullness, exile to home, anonymity to remembered name, widowhood and barrenness to multi‑generational fruitfulness. It begins with three graves in Moab and ends with a baby whose line will shape the destiny of Israel and the nations.
2.0 Ruth in the Larger Drama of Scripture
Ruth is not an isolated short story. It is a carefully placed chapter in the Bible’s five‑act drama of creation, Israel, Jesus, the church, and new creation.
2.1 Within Israel’s Story
Within the Old Testament, Ruth sits “in the days when the judges ruled” and looks forward to the rise of the monarchy.
From Judges, we have learned how dark those days could be: cycles of idolatry, violence, and civil war. Ruth shows what faithfulness can look like in such a time: one family embodying covenant love while the nation frays.
Toward Samuel, Ruth functions as a bridge: the genealogy at the end leads to David. Before we meet the shepherd boy who will slay Goliath, we meet the Moabite widow and Bethlehem landowner whose hesed made his existence possible.
2.2 Toward Jesus and the Nations
From the New Testament vantage point, Ruth’s significance widens again.
Matthew 1 names Ruth in Jesus’ genealogy. The foreigner gleaning behind reapers becomes an ancestress of the world’s Redeemer.
Like Tamar, Rahab, and Bathsheba, Ruth stands in the Messiah’s family tree as a reminder that God delights to work through the unexpected, the marginalized, and the morally complicated.
The field of Boaz becomes part of the wider landscape in which Bethlehem, the “house of bread,” will one day host the birth of the Bread of Life. The wings under which Ruth found refuge anticipate the day when Jesus longs to gather Jerusalem’s children “as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.”
2.3 A Foretaste of New Creation
In miniature, Ruth gives us a foretaste of new creation:
Land is restored rather than permanently lost.
A widow and a foreigner are not cast aside but welcomed, honored, and secured.
A bitter heart is gently healed into blessing.
A family that seemed finished receives a future.
These are small pictures of the larger renewal promised in the prophets and fulfilled in Christ—a world where tears are wiped away, where the outsider is brought near, where names are written into the Lamb’s book of life.
3.0 What Ruth Teaches Us for Discipleship Today
Ruth’s story is ancient, but its wisdom is surprisingly contemporary. As you close this study, consider five enduring lessons.
3.1 Embrace Hesed — Loyal Love that Costs
Ruth teaches us that true love is not primarily a feeling but a durable, self‑giving commitment:
She clings to Naomi when every social and economic calculation says she should turn back.
Boaz uses his power not to exploit but to shelter and bless.
For disciples of Jesus, hesed looks like:
Sticking with family, church, or friends through hardship.
Bearing cost for the sake of the vulnerable—financially, emotionally, practically.
Keeping promises even when circumstances change.
3.2 Trust God’s Quiet Providence
Ruth’s pages hold no spectacular miracles, yet God’s fingerprints are everywhere:
A rumor of bread reaches Naomi in Moab.
Ruth just happens to land in Boaz’s field.
The nearer redeemer happens to pass by the gate when Boaz sits down.
Our lives, too, are full of such “coincidences.” Ruth encourages us to:
Take our daily decisions seriously, knowing God often guides through ordinary steps.
Look back and name the “Boaz fields” where grace met us.
Trust that even in seasons of apparent silence, God has not stopped weaving his purposes.
3.3 Use Power Like Boaz
Boaz stands as a model for anyone with influence, wealth, or authority.
He:
Notices the outsider at the edges of his field.
Creates practical safeguards against harassment.
Shares his table and resources generously.
Bears economic and genealogical cost to secure someone else’s future.
In a world marked by abuse of power, Ruth calls Christian leaders and communities to:
Make churches, homes, and workplaces safe for the vulnerable.
Design policies and practices that reflect God’s concern for the poor and the outsider.
Ask regularly, “Who is at the edges of my field, and how can I extend hesed there?”
3.4 Welcome the Outsider into God’s Family
Ruth’s Moabite identity is never erased, yet it does not keep her at the margins. She is welcomed, honored, and woven into Israel’s central story.
For the church, this raises searching questions:
Who are the “Ruths” in our context—migrants, ethnic minorities, those from difficult pasts?
Do our communities treat them as projects, threats, or as potential co‑heirs of grace and even models of hesed?
Are we willing, like Boaz and the elders, to bless and publicly own those whom God is bringing in from the edges?
3.5 Live for Generations You Will Never See
Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz do not live to meet David, let alone Jesus. Yet their faithfulness shapes generations.
Likewise, we are called to:
Plant seeds of faith, justice, and mercy that may bear fruit long after we are gone.
See parenting, mentoring, teaching, and quiet service as investments in a future we may glimpse only from heaven.
Rest in the reality that God’s story is longer than our lifetimes—and our part, however small, matters.
4.0 Suggested Next Steps After Ruth
Having completed this chapter‑by‑chapter journey, you might consider:
Re‑reading Ruth in One Sitting — Now that you’ve studied it slowly, read it straight through again. Notice how the themes knit together.
Tracing the Thread into Samuel and the Gospels — Read 1 Samuel 16–17 (David’s anointing and battle with Goliath) and Matthew 1–2. Ask how Ruth’s story prepares you to appreciate David and Jesus in new ways.
Studying Other “Hesed Stories” — Look at narratives like Joseph and his brothers (Gen 45–50), the Good Samaritan (Luke 10), or the early church in Acts 2–4 as further windows into God‑shaped loyalty and generosity.
Writing Your Own “Ruth Map” — Sketch or journal how your life story has moved through seasons of famine, gleaning, hidden providence, and tasted redemption. Where might God still be at work?
5.0 Reflection Questions for Finishing the Journey
Looking back over Ruth 1–4, which scene or chapter has stayed most with you, and why?
How has Naomi’s journey—from “call me Bitter” to holding Obed—reshaped the way you understand lament, complaint, and the possibility of restored joy?
Where do you sense God inviting you to practice Ruth‑like or Boaz‑like hesed in concrete ways in the coming weeks?
In what areas of your life do you need to trust God’s hidden providence more deeply, even when you cannot yet see the “Obed” that may come from your faithfulness?
How does knowing that Ruth’s faithfulness echoes into the story of Jesus encourage you about the potential long‑term impact of your own obedience?
6.0 Final Prayer and Benediction
God of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz,
We thank you for this journeythrough famine and harvest,through foreign fields and Bethlehem’s gate,through midnight whispers and daylight vows.
Thank you for showing usthat you are not only the God of parted seasand thunder on the mountain,but also the God of barley dust on tired feet,of gleaners at the edge of a field,of widows who cling and landowners who notice.
We bring before you our own stories:our losses and returns,our bitter names and hidden hopes,our Ruth‑like risks and Boaz‑like responsibilities.
Where we feel like Naomi—heavy with disappointment—let the memory of Obed in her armsremind us that you can still bringunexpected fullness from long seasons of emptiness.
Where we feel like Ruth—on the margins, unsure where we belong—let your Spirit assure usthat in Christ we are welcomed, named, and woveninto the family line of your people.
Where we feel like Boaz—aware of our fields, influence, and resources—teach us to use them not to build our own kingdomsbut to secure the future of others,especially the vulnerable and unseen.
Lord Jesus, Son of David and descendant of Ruth,thank you for becoming our Redeemer,for bearing the cost we could not bear,for writing our names into your story.
Holy Spirit,send us out from this studyas people of hesed and hope.Help us to notice the “Ruths” around us,to create “fields” of safety and generosity,and to trust your quiet providencein every ordinary day.
And now,may the God under whose wings Ruth took refugebe your shelter and your song.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,the love of God,and the fellowship of the Holy Spiritbe with you as you go from these pagesinto the fields of your own life,
until the day when every story of loss and returnis gathered into the great feastof the Lamb in the new creation.
Amen.
7.0 Further Reading
(For continued study on Ruth and its themes, see the works engaged throughout this commentary.)
BibleProject. “Book of Ruth.” In BibleProject Study Notes. BibleProject, 2023.
Block, Daniel I. Judges, Ruth. New American Commentary 6. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1999.
Lau, Peter H. W. Identity and Ethics in the Book of Ruth: A Social Identity Approach. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 416. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2010.
Nielsen, Kirsten. Ruth: A Commentary. Old Testament Library. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1997.
Sakenfeld, Katharine Doob. Ruth. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Louisville: John Knox, 1999.
Webb, Barry G. Judges and Ruth: God in Chaos. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015.
Wright, N. T. How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels. New York: HarperOne, 2012.
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