Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed. – Ruth 4:21

Today's Scripture Reading (May 2, 2025): Ruth 4

The story of Ruth finishes with a genealogy. As much as this genealogy is about the physical generations in Israel, it also speaks to the spiritual realities of the nation. I think there is a reason why the genealogy starts with Perez. Perez entered the world at a spiritually confused moment in Israel's history. Perez's father was Judah, but his mother was Tamar. And this is another story we didn't see flannel graphed in Sunday School when we were kids. Tamar was Judah's daughter-in-law. However, Tamar's husband, Er, had died. The Bible says that Er did evil in the sight of God. The law also specified that if your husband dies and you are without children, then the brother of the deceased husband would lie with his brother's widow so that she could get pregnant, and your brother's line would live on through you. Er had two brothers. The oldest was named Onan. Onan knew that if Tamar became pregnant, the child wouldn't be considered his because of this law. The child would belong to Er. I am not sure if the two brothers had fought frequently during their relationship, that can happen between brothers, but Onan didn't like that idea. So, he practiced an early form of birth control. Every time he slept with Tamar, he made sure that his semen spilled on the ground instead of inside of her. So, according to the biblical story, God killed Onan. The final brother, Shelah, was young, so Judah asked Tamar to wait until he was a little older. However, Judah was afraid to give Shelah to her, so he kept delaying the time when Shelah would sleep with Tamar. One day, Tamar dressed herself up as a prostitute and enticed Judah (Dad-in-law) to sleep with her. Judah fell into Tamar's trap, and the result of the union was Perez, this backward baby.

Sometimes, I wonder what Perez would have said if he had been asked how his parents met. There was brokenness just in the question. There is brokenness throughout this genealogy, even as we look at the life of Boaz. There is a traditional story in which Boaz loses his first wife and all of his children in some kind of tragedy, and he is left a broken shell of a man. Enter Ruth, maybe the one through whom God wanted to heal Boaz.

God is interested in your physical reality. He is interested in your relationships with your spouse, children, friends, and enemies. Still, God is also aware of the spiritual brokenness hiding inside us: The very real hurts that we have become so good at hiding. Because our spiritual brokenness is important to God, at some point, he breaks through to help us with what is broken if we let him. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Judges 9