Ruth is such a wonderful book. Especially coming off the disaster piece that is the end of Judges. This is a beautiful story and a much-needed palette-cleanser. Choosing what to focus on was challenging because I love so much of this story (ask me about the feet thing sometime).
What I’ve settled on is the other would-be redeemer’s name from the beginning of chapter 4. I guess what I really mean is the total LACK of a name for the other would-be redeemer from the beginning of chapter 4. The NET Bible literally translates his name as “John Doe”.
Now, the explanation is actually quite long, and involved, requiring a lot of historical digging and genealogies with a good understaffing of Greek grammar.
nah, jk. As The Rock would say, “It doesn’t matter what your name is!” Because it doesn’t matter! His name doesn’t matter! Boaz certainly knew it. The author of the book certainly knew it. Why was it left out of the story? No one knows for sure, maybe because they didn’t want to make him look bad in the story, maybe because he decided not to carry on the name of Mahlon, so the author decided not to carry on his name, but leave it lost to the dustbin of history. It’s difficult to say for sure, but at the end of the day it just doesn’t matter what his name is.
Here’s the thing: YOU CAN’T THWART GOD’S PLAN! If you decide not to do the right thing, if you decide that you don’t want to be the one to step into the call of God, then God will raise up someone else. And you’ll miss it! Don’t miss it! Don’t allow yourself to be old what’s-his-name because you were scared or had doubts or it was messy or it didn’t fit your pre-existing plan.
You want to see God show up big? YOU show up big! Meet Him there and watch what happens!