This story opens with three funerals and ends with a wedding. It begins in isolation and destitution and ends with a crowd of people pronouncing blessing. It begins in a strange land and ends in the land of God’s promise. It begins with bitterness and anger at God and ends with acknowledgement of God’s great mercy and love. Many glorious things have difficult beginnings.

The path to Ruth and Boaz’s wedding was not straightforward, but God removed all the obstacles. The blessing of a son was not only for Ruth and Boaz, but for Naomi too. In Hebrew tradition, once a relative fulfilled their role of marrying a widow in the family, any sons born would be seen legally as belonging both to the new husband and also the deceased one. So the family line of Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, had been barren and dead but with the birth of Ruth’s son, it was revived once more.

Even more, this child, Obed, would be an ancestor of both King David and of Jesus. God had used the faith of this Moabite woman to maintain the family line through which he would bring forth the saviour of the world.

The grieving, bitter and angry Naomi that we met at the start of this book could probably never have imagined that things would have turned out this way. When we are in despair, or in dark places, or struggling and suffering, it can be hard to imagine that there will ever be an end to it. Yet the Lord sent Ruth to be a blessing to Naomi, and he sent Boaz to be a blessing to Ruth, and between them they became a part of the greatest blessing that mankind has ever received – Jesus Christ.

Even when our faith is at a low ebb, and all seems dark and desperate, the Lord knows all and sees all. Even though Naomi could barely help herself, the Lord helped her. Give thanks to the Lord – his mercies are new every morning.

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NEWBOLD BAPTIST CHURCH