The Rahab-Ruth Redemption Connection
My daily devotional reading told a story about limitless fresh starts. It was Rahab’s story.
There was a sentence just before the meditation questions that struck me and mad a great connection between Rahab and Ruth.
Perhaps Boaz’s compassion and affection for Ruth came in part from having a foreign mother who also left a pagan people for the one true God. — Holley Gerth in Do You Know You’re Already Amazing? (2016, pp. 89-90)
Wait…I never connected Rahab and Ruth before this sentence, but the redemptive similarities are real. Jericho and Moab were the enemies of God, as were their inhabitants. Both women were in the process of dealing with tough circumstances, and both offered themselves to God’s righteous cause through care of God’s covenant people. For Rahab, it was the spies. For Ruth, it was Naomi.
This is a marvelous piece of bible trivia.
What grabbed me further was Boaz as the connection between them. Yes, Boaz is more than the “husband type,” and his role as kinsman redeemer weighs more in the context of his mother Rahab’s risky sacrifice at Jericho. He was the righteous reaping of Rahab’s sown act of faith.
When Boaz claimed Ruth, he did so by right as the legitimate kinsman redeemer. We see him work to make his marriage to Ruth a reality. For him it was no burden, but the response to Ruth’s risky act of faith laying down at his feet symbolically asking him to cover her life.
Ruth was unaware of the significance of her loss. More than her dead husband and departure from Moabite living, Ruth did not know she missed the living God in her life. She vowed to follow Naomi because she loved her, not knowing she could know God or be redeemed.
Let’s step away from Rahab’s prostitution as the innkeeper and Ruth’s status as a low Moabite. Let’s consider the redemption work of God in their lives. Let’s look at how God used them in His bigger plan — Rahab, an agent of redemption. Ruth, a recipient of redemption through Rahab’s son Boaz. And then, let’s think about ourselves.
Do we have the scarlet cord? Or, do we have the right to redeem another?
The scarlet cord is fruit of industry that provided access for the Hebrew spies (read Joshua 2). Rahab made fabric on the roof, where she hid the two men.
The right to redeem makes us Rahab’s daughters, with the responsibility like her son Boaz to protect the life of a Ruth — a stranger to God and God’s ways.
God gave us years to get ourselves together. Now, He’s collecting on His varied investments in our lives. Meditate on the Rahab-Ruth Connection…and hear/see where the Lord needs you. It’ll be your faith speaking and acting. You’ll come alive like never before because of the role you’ll play in the redemptive process. You’re ready.
Now, go and do. SELAH.
Blogs I Follow
The Bereans' Commentary with Shaunta D. Scroggins, Ed.D. 