Most Unlikely Choices

     Having been in several beauty pageants and then, having had the experience of broadcasting a number of beauty pageants for a local radio station, I learned a lot.  Doing interviews with the contestants which we aired before the pageant gave me an opportunity to get to know the girls.  When it came time for the decision, I had my favorites in mind, but things did not always go the way I had imagined.  Each judge came to the contest with their own set of ideas as to what made up a winner.  Of course, they were guided by certain standards as laid out by the pageant committee, but ultimately, their life experiences played a part in how they evaluated each contestant.  Even watching the Miss America pageant over the years, I often was surprised by the person who captured the crown.  So is it any wonder that we, at times, stand back and say to ourselves, "Why did God choose to do things this way?"
     As I was reading in the Book of Ruth (one of my favorites), the author made it clear that Ruth was a foreigner.  She and her sister Orpah came from Moab.  Moab was a nation that worshipped the fish god Chemosh, and was started by the son of Lot and his oldest daughter.  Their incestuous relationship brought about a people that would later cause Israel problems even though they were related to Abraham.  Nevertheless,  Naomi and her husband Elimelech along with their sons went to this area during a famine.  During their stay, their sons married Moabite women; however, both Naomi's husband and her two sons died with no children to carry on the family name or inheritance.  Only Ruth returned to Naomi's community of Bethlehem with her refusing to leave her alone while her sister Orpah returned to Moab.
     Ruth was willing to leave behind her country and relatives to follow her mother-in-law and care for her needs.  She proclaimed her fidelity to her and to her God.  While she gleaned in the fields to find grain for their food, she met Boaz who would later become her kinsman/redeemer.  He was a relative of Naomi's and had heard about Ruth and her kindness towards Naomi.  Under his protection, Ruth worked the fields safely.  According to God's plan, Boaz took Ruth as his wife when another kinsman did not wish to marry her.  The result of their union was the birth of Obed who not only carried on
Elimelech's family name and inheritance, but would also be the father of Jesse who would later be the father of King David.  What is even more astounding is that through this lineage came Messiah.
     Here we see a Gentile woman coming from a pagan culture that came out of an immoral relationship between a father and daughter.  God chose Ruth to be the wife of Boaz and the mother of Obed.  This is really a foretaste of what the Lord would do in tearing down the wall of separation between the Jews and Gentiles.  Furthermore, when we look back further in the line of King David and our Lord Jesus Christ, we find another Gentile.  Rahab the Harlot who hid the spies in Jericho would become the wife of Salmon who would father Boaz (Matthew 1:4).  God's plans are amazing and at the same time puzzling.  Would we have chosen a prostitute or a foreign woman who worshipped a pagan god to be in the royal lineage of our Savior? Ah but God's ways are not our ways nor are His thoughts our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8).
     Through this action by God, we see that Gentiles would be part of the Lord's plan of salvation.  Not only this but we also see how wrong we can be when it comes to judging people or looking at situations we may face.  Our God is sovereign over all the affairs of men, and He chooses to do things  according to His good will and for His glory.  We are often left to ponder why this happened or that took place, but one day, we will see Him face to face.  We will understand His grand design that now we only see in a mirror darkly.  Until that day, let us rejoice that God's work of salvation began before the foundation of the world.  He chose us and called us by His name.  For that, we should be thankful, and marvel at His plan to include two unlikely women in the lineage of His Son.  Selah!