Ruth 4:13 - Meaning and Application

Here Ruth appears as a wife. Boaz took her, with the usual formal steps, into his house, and she became his wife (Ruth 4:13). No doubt the whole town joined in congratulating a good woman who was honored simply because she had shown good character. Orpah, who had gone back from Naomi to her own people and her gods, was likely never as well provided for as Ruth was. Anyone who leaves everything for Christ will find more than everything with him, rewarded a hundredfold even in this life.

Orpah later may have wished she had gone with Naomi too, but she, like the other kinsman, had stood in her own way. Boaz had prayed that this faithful new believer would receive a full reward from the God of Israel, under whose protection she had come to trust. Now he became the means of that kindness, an answer to his own prayer. He also helped make his own words true. She now had the servants she had worked beside and the fields where she had gathered grain. In this way God sometimes lifts the poor from the dust and sets them among princes (Psalm 113:7-8).

Here Ruth appears as a mother. The Lord gave her the ability to conceive, for the fruit of the womb is his gift (Psalm 127:3). He holds the keys to this matter. At times he makes a woman who has long been barren into a joyful mother of children (Psalm 113:9; Isaiah 54:1).

Here Ruth still appears as Naomi’s daughter-in-law, and she remained the same woman she had always been to Naomi. Naomi was not forgotten at all, but shared fully in these new joys. The good women who were there at the birth congratulated Naomi more than Boaz or Ruth, because she had arranged the match, and her husband’s family was being built up through it. Even in ordinary polite speech among the Israelites, there was a strong sense of devotion. Prayer to God went along with the child’s birth. It is a pity when such godly language is either dropped by Christians or turns into mere habit.

They said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has given you this grandson” (Ruth 4:14-15). They meant, first, that he would preserve the name of her family, and they hoped he would be well known, because his father was. Second, they hoped he would be dutiful and kind to her, because his mother was. If he took after her, he would be a comfort to his aged grandmother, a restorer of her life, and, if needed, someone who could support her in old age. It is a great comfort to older people to see their descendants growing up, likely by God’s blessing to help and support them in the years when strength fades and life brings less joy.

Notice that they said Ruth loved Naomi, and so was better to her than seven sons. God’s providence sometimes makes up for the loss of those relatives from whom we expected the most comfort by giving us help from those we expected the least. Love can be stronger than blood ties, and there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. So here a daughter-in-law was better than an own child. Wisdom and grace can do great things.

Now the child is named by the neighbors (Ruth 4:17). The good women wanted him called Obed, which means servant, either because of the mother’s lowly state and poverty, or because they hoped he would one day be very useful and serve his grandmother well. It is no shame, even for the well-born, to be servants of God, of their friends, and of their own generation. The motto of the princes of Wales is, “I serve.”

The child is also nursed by his grandmother, that is, dry-nursed after the mother had weaned him from the breast (Ruth 4:16). Naomi laid him in her bosom as a sign of tender affection and care. Grandmothers are often the most loving of all.

Ruth is also brought into the line of David and Christ, which was her greatest honor. The family line is traced here from Perez, through Boaz and Obed, to David, and so it leads toward the Messiah. For that reason, this is not an endless family record.