The biblical story of Ruth moves from a foreign land to the land of Israel, from a time of famine to a time of harvest, from the suffering of loss and emptiness to the joy of fullness and life. On the whole, Ruth is a story of provision. The name of God is invoked throughout the story, giving a clearly theological overtone to the narrative’s redemptive arc. Yet human characters take an active role in this redemption; humans and their relationships to one another are the context in which God’s character is revealed in this story (Hawkins & Stahlberg xiv). By using ordinary people as the literary vehicle to reveal God, the book of Ruth suggests that the nature of God’s purpose in the world entails actions that are achievable on an individual level even while these are interwoven with a grander plan that God alone can accomplish.

In the opening chapter of Ruth, Naomi suffers loss as a consequence of some uncertain combination of factors. Perhaps the condition of famine contributes to the deaths of Naomi’s husband and two sons. Perhaps her husband abandons his responsibility of neighborly love in his decision to flee with his family in the face of famine (Kates 51). Regardless of the immediate cause, Naomi complains of her suffering when she says,

Ruth 1:20 “Don’t call me Naomi,

          for the Almighty has made it very bitter for me.

21 I went full,

          but Yahweh brought me back empty;

   why do you call me ‘pleasant,’

          when Yahweh has borne witness against me

          and the Almighty has done me ill?”

Naomi observes that she has experienced loss and interprets her own suffering as Yahweh’s testimony to her guilt (Kates 52). But what kind of justice is this? If the reader expects that God’s judgment reflects the world’s moral order, then one question Naomi’s complaint might raise is, “Of what wrong is Naomi guilty that she deserves this suffering from God?” But how could Naomi, afflicted by famine and tied to her husband’s decision to flee, be responsible for any proposed cause for her suffering? If her physical and relational emptiness is judgment on Naomi, it would seem that Yahweh is a capricious judge, letting a vulnerable woman suffer the consequences of others’ neglect of goodness for the sake of meting out punishment.

However, if Naomi “is being tried like Job” rather than punished (Kates 53), then the question instead is, “Where is God’s justice for the vulnerable sufferer?” Enter: Ruth, Naomi’s daughter-in-law, whom Naomi instructs along with her other daughter-in-law, Orpah,

“Go back each of you to your mother’s house…The LORD grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband…Turn back my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, would you then wait until they were grown?” (Ruth 1:8-9, 12-13 NRSV)

Naomi imagines a possible future where her daughters-in-law remain with her, but it’s a future without hope of redeeming the loss of their husbands and potential offspring. Orpah accepts Naomi’s conclusion and returns “to her people and to her gods” (Ruth 1:15), yet Ruth responds with determination to follow Naomi back to Bethlehem, saying,

16 “Do not entreat me to abandon you,

          to turn back from following you,

For where you go, I go,

          and where you lodge, I lodge,

          your people are my people, and your God is my God.

17 Where you die, I die,

          and there I’ll be buried;

may Yahweh do thus to me and add thus

          if death separates me and you.” 

Where Naomi pushes away, Ruth leans in. She will not “turn back” as Naomi instructs, will not return to her own mother but will remain with her mother-in-law. Orpah returns to her old family and her old religious practices, but Ruth takes up Naomi’s. Judith Kates suggests that the lifeless future Naomi describes triggers in Ruth’s imagination the opposite possibility, that there could be life for them together. Ruth doesn’t presume to know how this would play out, yet she is willing to hope it is possible for the sake of her fierce loyalty to Naomi.

Even as Naomi entertains her own culpability and questions the justice of the God who has afflicted her and emptied her, Ruth’s commitment to Naomi opens up the possibility that this present circumstance is not the end of God’s justice for Naomi. The reader looks to the rest of the story asking: How will Yahweh act to relieve Naomi’s undeserved suffering?

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Not unlike Naomi, Virginia Davenport is a character in Label: Beauty who goes out full, being acclaimed and admired as a successful fashion model, but comes in empty, having been snubbed by her employer and designer Gloria. Just as the bereaved Naomi questions the idea of Yahweh who provides, Virginia begins to question the capacity of the fashion industry and her career there to give her a sense of purpose and fulfillment. The world of fashion in Label: Beauty is ruled by a capricious judge–a bad shepherd seeking her own benefit and in need of judgment for her neglect of others in their vulnerability and need. If there is to be justice for Virginia when she suffers for Gloria’s lack of kindness, from what quarter will it come? Likewise, what will be the source of Naomi’s redemption?

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Ellen Davis remarks that the only direct action of Yahweh narrated in the whole four chapters of Ruth comes at the very end, when Yahweh gives Ruth a pregnancy (Ruth 4:13). Ultimately it is Yahweh who redeems Naomi by granting her offspring as a tangible sign of grace (Davis 5). Yet it is through Ruth that the redeemer-child is born, and this is possible because of the choices Ruth and Boaz make to bring about the situation of the child’s birth. First, Ruth abandons her own people and gods to adopt Naomi’s fate as her own (Ruth 1:16-17). Then Ruth takes it upon herself to glean in Boaz’s field where she labors all day for Naomi’s sustenance (Ruth 2:7). Boaz commends Ruth’s selfless commitment to her mother-in-law and says,

Ruth 2:12 “May Yahweh requite your deed

   and may your recompense be complete with Yahweh God of Israel

       under whose wings you came to seek refuge.”

Boaz remarks that Ruth’s action toward Naomi merits kindness in return and calls on Yahweh to supply it. Yet Boaz will do more before Yahweh intervenes.

In Ruth 3, the young woman comes to Boaz and entreats him,

9 “…Now spread your corner over your handmaid,

          since you are a redeemer.”

Ruth invites Boaz to participate in redeeming Naomi and her family, and Boaz replies,

11 “And now my daughter, do not fear;

          all that you say, I will do for you,

     for the whole assembly of my people knows that you are a woman of valor.”

Inspired by Ruth’s acts of loyal-kindness toward Naomi, Boaz returns kindness to Ruth, himself fulfilling the hope he expresses in Ruth 2:12 that Yahweh will give Ruth full recompense for her good deeds. In the case of Ruth’s kindness toward Naomi and Boaz’s kindness toward Ruth, a human agent takes up the redemptive activity that is expected from Yahweh. The shape of the Ruth narrative illustrates how Yahweh provides through the participation of humans who are willing to act in accordance with God’s character and purpose.

The choices Naomi, Ruth and Boaz make are choices characterized by concern for and commitment to the “other,” not acts of self-interest, which shape the story and make way for Yahweh’s saving grace (Davis 6). When one promises to another, “All that you say, I will do” (Ruth 3:5, 11), they are “taking on the still-unmeasured burden of the other; each one accepting as wisdom the considered judgment of the other,” and in so doing they are participating in real covenant relationship (Davis 7). By taking on others’ burdens as their own, these characters embody for one another the love that God has for humanity and that is seen when the story culminates in Yahweh’s direct action.

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In Label: Beauty, no dancer dances the role of “God;” there is no voice from heaven speaking unmistakable truth. Instead, human characters embody covenant loyal-kindness to one another like Naomi, Ruth and Boaz. One of these characters in the ballet is Jean Godfrey, one of the less fashion-obsessed teenagers in the town who enjoys the hobby with her friends but also is frequently seen reading her Bible. Jean is the character who intervenes when Virginia questions her relationship with her career and her employer. Gloria fails to see Virginia as a human with genuine needs and is even the agent in obscuring her from view, literally covering her face and symbolizing her deeper feelings of emptiness. But Jean’s response to seeing Virginia’s vulnerability is to make herself vulnerable too, to take it upon herself to share what fills her in order to offer Virginia hope for a future full of life.

Though Naomi’s characterization of Yahweh at the beginning of the Ruth narrative compares Yahweh to the kind of judge that needs to be judged–the kind that doesn’t see human life in its vulnerability and need–Ruth’s action embodies the true nature of God’s justice, being in accordance with a steadfast commitment to love and provide. Similarly, Jean shows Virginia that the capricious human judge is not the sole arbiter of her experience. There is a God who sees her, loves her, and will provide for her even if all she sees at the present moment is the hand that has gone out against her.

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The story of Ruth is striking in that it tells of Yahweh’s provision through human partners, and ordinary humans at that. Davis suggests that “Naomi, Ruth and Boaz are people sort of like us–or better perhaps, people we might grow to resemble, if we should order our lives to that end” (4). These characters’ situation in life is ordinary and humble, yet they stand out because of their willingness to act with loyal-kindness, from a place of vulnerability in “complete trust and deference” to another, equally vulnerable person whose well-being they see as tied up in their own (Davis 7).

Seeing these relatable human characters play a part in God’s redemptive purpose, Ruth’s readers may be encouraged that their own acts of loyal-kindness contribute to healing and restoration on a scale both large and small. I hope that viewers of Label: Beauty will be thus encouraged as well.

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Unless otherwise marked, biblical quotations in this post are my own translation, developed with reference to Ellen Davis’s translation in “Who Are You, My Daughter?” Reading Ruth through Image and Text (Westminster John Knox Press, 2014).

Other secondary references:

Scrolls of Love: Ruth and the Song of Songs, edited by Peter S. Hawkins and Lesleigh Cushing Stahlberg (Fordham University Press, 2006).

“Transfigured Night: Midrashic Readings of the Book of Ruth” by Judith A. Kates, in Scrolls of Love.

“‘All that you say, I will do’: A sermon on the book of Ruth” by Ellen F. Davis, in Scrolls of Love.