The Road to Bethlehem

One of the great joys in my ministry over the years has been leading tours to Israel. One of the places I go is called the Shepherds’ Field. About a mile east of Bethlehem, it is the location where the shepherds would have witnessed the angels announcing the birth of the Messiah (Luke 2:8–10).

When our big bus pulls up to the site’s overlook, a Bedouin shepherd usually brings out his flock of sheep, along with his children, who are young and very cute. People are filled with joy as they interact with the children and pet the sheep. When the shepherd asks the kids to pose for a picture with the sheep, they willingly accept.

I tend to walk around the area while everyone takes pictures. One particularly clear day,
I noticed a mountain range far into the distance in Jordan and asked our tour guide which one it was. When she told me they were the mountains of Moab about thirty miles away, my mind wandered to the book of Ruth.

The Kinsman Redeemer

The book of Ruth is really the story of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz, the kinsman redeemer. Naomi, whose name means “pleasant,” and her husband Elimelech, whose name means “my God is king,” left their home in Bethlehem with their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, because of a famine in the land. They went to the land of Moab, but this was during the time of the judges, when Moab was a hated enemy of Israel. 

Naomi’s husband died, and she was left with her two sons. The two sons married Moabite women, though it was forbidden by Jewish law. Eventually, the two sons also died, and Naomi was left with no husband, no sons, and only her two Moabite daughters-in-law. She explained that they needed to move on with their lives and remain in Moab while she traveled back to Bethlehem, as she had heard the famine was finally over. One daughter-in-law, Orpah, agreed to stay behind in Moab, but the other one, Ruth, refused to leave Naomi’s side. Her plea to stay with Naomi has become one of the most well-known verses in the Hebrew Scriptures. In Ruth1:16, she said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.”So, the two of them went from Moab back to Bethlehem.

Upon arriving in her hometown, Naomi sent Ruth to glean in the fields of Boaz, a wealthy relative of Elimelech to whom, through a series of divinely appointed circumstances, they appealed to be their go’el, their kinsman redeemer. [The kinsman redeemer, among other responsibilities, was the closest relative of the husband who died before his wife had children.] Boaz accepted their request and willingly took Ruth as his wife. Ruth eventually bore a son named Obed, who became the grandfather of King David. Whom did Boaz redeem? The case can be made he not only redeemed Ruth and, essentially, her dead husband Mahlon but also Naomi, who had the joy of caring for her grandson who would be to her “a restorer of life and a sustainer of [her] old age” (Ruth 4:15).

The announcement of the birth of the Messiah is found in Luke 2:10–11: “I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Bethlehem became the city of David because two grieving widows, Naomi and Ruth, were willing to trust God along an arduous and dangerous journey on the road to Bethlehem and were rewarded for their faithfulness. Just think what this same, unchanging God can do through your faithfulness!