Read: Ruth 1 and 4
But Ruth said, Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. (Ruth 1:16 ESV)
Then the women said to Naomi, Blessed be the Lord , who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! (Ruth 4:14 ESV)
A famine had struck the land of the Jews during the period of time called the Time of the Judges. Naomi travelled to the land of Moab where disaster struck her family. Her husband and sons all died leaving her with two daughters-in-law, one of which left soon after. Eventually the famine ended and Naomi set her sights on her homeland, traveling in the company of her daughter-in-law Ruth, who had refused to abandon her. Upon reaching her homeland she changed her name to Mara, which meant "bitter."
There was a custom in those days called the Kinsman Redeemer. The Redeemer would intervene on behalf of the family in the case of tragedy. Naomi's redeemer was a man named Boaz. Boaz, as redeemer purchased Naomi's late husband's inheritance, also gaining Ruth as his wife. Boaz is what theologians call a "type" of Christ. His actions as Kinsman Redeemer were prophetic foreshadowing of the Great Redeemer to be born out of Boaz's own lineage.
Jesus stepped into history in the midst of tragedy. Circumstance, sin, and suffering have done their part to derail mankind, often of our own volition. Jesus came to secure our eternal inheritance, to rescue us from the foreign wanderings of our own failures, and to make us his bride. Boaz was a beacon of hope to Ruth and Naomi. Jesus is the Hope of the World.