Eucharistic meditation

Ruth 2:10: Why have I found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me, Since I am a foreigner?

As Toby pointed out last week, the book of Ruth appears in the “writings” section of the Hebrew Bible, right after Proverbs. If you were reading the Old Testament in the order of the Hebrew Bible, you would end with Proverbs 31’s description of the “excellent woman,” and then start reading the story of the “excellent woman,” Ruth.

But the story of Ruth complicates things.

Ruth is an excellent woman, but here in chapter 2, she describes herself as using a word familiar to readers of Proverbs – she is the “strange woman,” a phrase that can mean “adulteress.”

Yet, Boaz, son of Rahab, takes this “strange woman” under his care. He speaks kindly to her; he offers her a permanent place among his maidens, making her a member of his own house; he brings her near at mealtime and shares bread and sour wine with her; he sends her off with an ephah of barley for her mother-in-law.

This is clearly good news for Ruth, the strange woman who becomes part of the household of Boaz. But it also shows something about Boaz himself. One of the basic demands of kings in the Bible is to protect the weak, care for the fatherless, and ensure that widows received their due. Boaz is acting as a true king.

In Proverbs, Solomon tells his son that kings rule by embracing the wise woman. But Boaz shows the deeper wisdom of the gospel when he discerns the excellence of the strange woman. Boaz enacts the deeper royal wisdom by anticipating the generosity of his greater descendant Jesus, who was notorious for sharing meals tax gatherers, sinners, and strange women.