A Snag in the Scheme

by: Michael Wilcock

You can’t miss the way these three people are getting personally involved. It’s not just their brains that are busy in carrying through the scheme for Ruth’s remarriage. Their hearts are in it too.

Then a snag arises. When your affairs become tangled up with the law, it’s amazing how soon they seem to be brought to a standstill. And here is a legal hitch in the marriage plans. According to the Law, the responsibility for Ruth lies with the next-of-kin, and Boaz is not in fact the very next-of-kin. There is a closer relative, who ought, strictly speaking, to be given the first chance to marry Ruth. Strictly speaking. According to the rules. If we go by the book; if we stick to the law. What a nuisance!

When our cherished plans are beginning to work out as we hoped they would, it’s hard not to be impatient over delays like this. How frustrating it must have been for these three! Couldn’t Boaz just have ignored the snag? Couldn’t he just have gone ahead and married Ruth? Would anyone have worried about his not sticking to the letter of the law?

It wouldn’t have been right. Doing the right thing is what always works out for the best in the end.