March 10, 2021: Day 4 – Ruth 4

It seems like Boaz is a pretty good guy.  He follows through on his promise today to make Ruth an honest woman by marrying her.  There is a bit of an elaborate process to make that happen, and a bit like Naomi he is somewhat underhanded by setting up the marriage.  He is supposed to go to the next of kin of Ruth to see if he would like to marry her and he does and sets up a crowd of witnesses to be sure that they see what they agree to.  He begins by speaking about a tract of land and of course the next of kin wants it, but when Boaz adds a Moabite woman (Ruth) to the deal the person balks and says no thank you.  

In the end Boaz gets both the land and the woman, which was his intention all along.  The land we heard nothing about previously, I’m wondering if he made it up so that he could then add Ruth to the deal which would be a deal breaker for the next of kin.  Boaz marries Ruth and they end up being the great grandparents of King David, you know, the guy who wrote the Psalms.  

I find myself often surprised by events that take place which then have repercussions on the trajectory of my own life.  I can think of decisions that I made in certain stages of my life as a pastor that send me in a certain direction and I wonder what would have happened if I had made a different decision.  I can say with gladness that I do not regret decisions that I have made but I often wonder what if.  God is able to lead us forward in the direction that is God’s choosing whether we make decisions that are of His will or not.  Here, it seems like Boaz makes a decision which leads to a kingdom moment for him and his family.  What decisions do you face which might lead to kingdom moments for you?