.
Ruth was only young and very poor, and she had her dead husband's mother to care for!
They had left the country of Moab to come to Bethlehem.
The women had no food to eat, and there was no special feeding services for the poor.
Ruth went to a stranger's farm where the workers were harvesting barley.
She was allowed to pick up any barley that fell.
She took this back to her poor little house to feed the mother-in-law, Naomi.

A wonderful blessing happened in the end to Ruth.
The rich owner of that farm finally took Ruth to be his bride,
and she went with him to his house.
He was her "kinsman" a distant relative of Ruth's dead husband.
The mother-in-law was cared for too by the kind farmer, whose name was Boaz.
Ruth's story is very beautiful.
God even named a book in the Bible after her,
you will find her story in the Old Testament.

That kind farmer is a picture of the Lord Jesus.
We are poor people, like Ruth.
We are poor in the spirit matters of God.
The Lord Jesus is like Boaz, He takes us up and gives us His protection.
He became our "kinsman".
Jesus is God but He became a man so that He could save us and die for our sin.
He has promised that He will come again and take His saved ones to His Father's house;
where He has a place ready for them.

The book of Ruth is not a long book, about five pages long.
It is a beautiful story, a love story.
A whole book is named after this poor young woman.
Ruth had no way of knowing God in her childhood,
she was a Moabitess, from a pagan place.
Boaz was the son of Rahab who was once a  woman who sold her body for money in wicked Jericho (Joshua 2;1).
God shows His wonderful love and grace in their history.

The "Son of David" who came from that family line was Jesus Himself.

It is fitting that God's Grace should be shown in having Jesus, the Kinsman Redeemer, come from such a family.
This shows God's mercy and compassion for us all.
Grace is God's undeserved mercy shown to those who ask for forgiveness.
Repent is changing our minds about our lives and actions.

*Read the book of Ruth when you have time.
*Read also the family record of Jesus found in Matthew chapter one,
looking at verses five and six, where you will see the people mentioned above.

In your Bible the word "begat" might appear.
That means they were the parent of that person.

(Matthew 5:3).