Life was bleak for Naomi. Her husband and her sons were dead. She found herself in a foreign land with only one friend, her daughter-in-law Ruth. But as she returned to her hometown of Bethlehem, a ray of hope broke through the dark clouds of providence. It was the barley harvest, and she wasn’t alone.
This collection of poems by John Piper is a perfect compliment to his recent release, A Sweet and Bitter Providence. In Ruth: Under the Wings of God, Piper creatively portrays the story of God’s care for Naomi and the love affair between Ruth and Boaz through the eyes of their son. An aged Obed narrates the account to his eight-year-old grandson David, the future king of Israel.
“The story starts with God, as all
True stories do. As I recall,
Almost a hundred years ago
God stopped the rain and broke the flow
Of blessing in the fruitful land
Of Ephratha. By his command
There was a famine from the shores
Of Lebanon south to the doors
Of Hebron and beyond. And none
Could stay his hand or make undone
The deed of God. he had his aims,
And one of these was Ruth. God names
Whom he will have and moves the earth
To bring them to himself. By birth
She was a Moabite, outside
The Law, and Israel, the bride
Of God, cut off from sacrifice
And priest and covenant. No price
Paid to her gods of wood and stone
Could ever cleanse her heart, atone
For sin, or satisfy the just
And holy claims of God. Sheer dust
Upon the scales, all this, to weigh
Against idolatry each day.
And yet God had a plan to bring
her out of darkness, make her cling
To him, and give her royal seed.”
(Excerpt from Ruth: Under the Wings of God pp15-17).
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