Last week, we were introduced to Ruth and Naomi. When you think of Ruth, what are some words that immediately come to mind? Kind. Compassionate. Sacrificing. Loving. Committed. Devoted.
Let’s do a quick recap of Ruth Chapter 1.
Naomi had left Bethlehem with her husband and two sons and had moved to Moab, a pagan territory. Over the course of ten years, her husband and both sons die. She’s left widowed and childless, except for her daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth. Both were Moabites, natural-born enemies of the Jews.
Naomi and her husband and sons had fled Bethlehem mainly because of the famine that was occurring there. But now, ten years later, she gets word that God is blessing His people with food, and she wants to return…not for God, but for the food. After some convincing, Orpah leaves Naomi and Ruth and returns to her mother’s house. But Ruth is committed. She pledges her commitment to both Naomi and God and joins her mother-in-law in going to Bethlehem.
Towards the end of chapter 1 of Ruth, Naomi changed her name to those who knew her before. She now wants to be called “Mara” because she’s angry, she’s bitter, and resentful because, in her words, “God has turned against me and made my life so hard” (Ruth 1:21b CEV)
They just so happen to arrive in Bethlehem as the barley harvest is beginning.
Leviticus 23 is a passage in which God sets aside time for specific events at which people are to worship Him.
“The Lord told Moses 2 to say to the community of Israel:
I have chosen certain times for you to come together and worship me.
3 You have six days when you can do your work, but the seventh day of each week is holy because it belongs to me. No matter where you live, you must rest on the Sabbath and come together for worship. This law will never change.” (Leviticus 23:1 CEV)
He will go on to introduce the festivals the Jews are to observe. He gives them the when’s, the where’s and how’s of each. Passover, Feast of First Fruits, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles, as well as harvest time. This is what God says about harvest time. Leviticus 23:22 NKJV “‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the LORD your God.’ ”
The idea was that those who weren’t able to own land (widows, orphans, foreigners, etc.) would have access to work and gather food for themselves and their families. This wasn’t a handout. This wasn’t an easy, ‘just come by and pick up a sack of groceries’ deal. The phrase used to describe this act was “gleaning”. Gleaning means to “collect gradually and bit by bit”. Whoever was doing the gleaning had to work for what they got. The more they worked, the more they had to take home.
Chapter 2 introduces us to Boaz.
Ruth 2:1 NIV “Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.
2 And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”
Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” 3 So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.
4 Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you!”
“The Lord bless you!” they answered.”
A few things we learn about Boaz in these verses. He’s a relative of Naomi by marriage; he was of the same clan as Elimelek. He’s a man of standing, meaning he’s wealthy, influential, and of some prominence. He greets his workers with “The Lord be with you” indicating he’s a godly man. And his workers respond, “The Lord bless you” which suggests that Boaz had a respectful and endearing relationship with those who worked for him.
Boaz is going to make a difference in Ruth’s life. In fact, he’s going to radically change her circumstances. Boaz has a good understanding of radical changes. Matthew 1:5 informs us that Boaz was fathered by Salmon and his mother was Rahab. Remember Rahab, the prostitute? The prostitute who was a Gentile, but hid and assisted two Jewish spies. The Gentile prostitute whose life was spared because she showed faith in God. The Gentile prostitute who shows faith in God and is the first recorded Gentile convert.[i] That’s who Boaz called “mom”. Boaz has grown up learning and witnessing grace and mercy.
Ruth and Naomi are going to be recipients of that grace and mercy. Their circumstances are going to change. Ruth asks Naomi for permission to go out and glean; she’s asking to work hard, sweat, and exert effort to provide for them. Ruth is willing to work hard and honestly for what she gathers. She has every reason to be bitter, but she’s not. She’s lost her husband, her brother-in-law. She has no one to provide for her. Her sister-in-law, Orpah, left to return to home. Ruth, on the other hand, voluntarily left her hometown, her mother and father, and any other relatives she would have had to come live in a foreign land with a bitter old woman, her mother-in-law. Ruth now feels responsible for providing for Naomi and she’s willing to do it.
Can you imagine how it was for Ruth to live with someone so bitter that they changed their name to reflect their attitude? I don’t suppose Naomi/Mara spent her time with Ruth smiling and laughing at good memories. I can’t see her noticing God’s blessings in her life, but more so, I envision her as a sourpuss. It’s easy to imagine Ruth trying endlessly to cheer Naomi up. The new believer in God is trying to demonstrate the goodness of God to a member born into the family of God.
Ruth is going to show Naomi how to be “blessable” by God. Despite her circumstances, Ruth is going to trust God. She will live by faith and be willing to accept His grace. She’s going to exhibit humbleness, thankfulness, and obedience. And God is going to bless her in ways she could have never imagined. Because “Ruth was willing for God to have His way in her life” He “began His gracious work”[ii] with her. A byproduct of that is Naomi will return to God.
There’s a lesson to be learned here from Ruth. Her life and her circumstances were not ideal. Things most likely had not turned out the way she had planned. She’s taken some hard hits. Her social status has gone from a married woman in her hometown to a widowed woman in a foreign land inhabited by people who don’t like her kind. She’s lost just about all she could lose, but she stays committed to God. She has faith. She asks to go to work, expecting that someone will find favor with her, show grace to her, and exhibit kindness. What she didn’t do was sit around and expect to be catered to. She didn’t wallow in self-pity or mourning. She didn’t make demands. She didn’t “name and claim it”. She didn’t cry out, “Why me?!” She didn’t go out to be pitied or to gather charity. Ruth found contentment in her current circumstances because Ruth also saw God in her current circumstances. Even when she didn’t see God working, she trusted that He was.
How many of us could the same be said of? Despite the unappealing circumstances that life brings, do we stay committed to God? Do we trust Him even when we can’t see Him working through those circumstances?
Warren W. Wiersbe said this. “God’s providential working in our lives is both a delight and a mystery. God is constantly working with us (Mark 16:20), in us (Phil. 2:12-13), and for us (Rom. 8:28) and accomplishing His gracious purposes. We pray, we seek His will, and we make decisions (and sometimes make mistakes) but it is God who orders events and guides His willing children.”
Ruth was willing. She had been willing to make changes, uproot, sacrifice, and remain in obedience to God. There were so many steps that had been taken to get her where she was at this very moment. It took Elimelech’s disobedience to take his family to Moab. It took the defiance of Mahlon marrying a woman outside his faith. It took God blessing the people of Bethlehem to cause Naomi to want to go back home. It took love and kindness to prompt Orpah and Ruth to go back with Naomi. It took Naomi’s insistence and Orpah’s agreement to leave it to just Ruth and Naomi. It took stubbornness and commitment from Ruth to give it all up to remain with Naomi. It took determination and faith for Ruth, a widowed, foreign woman to go out and search for a landowner to show grace to her. Every step that had been taken was used by God to fulfill His purpose.
Ruth was “at the lowest rung of the social ladder.”[iii] But grace and favor are about to come down that ladder and reach for her.
Ruth 2:5 ESV “5 Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” 6 And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, “She is the young Moabite woman, who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. 7 She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.’ So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.”
Ruth catches the attention of Boaz, and he asks about her. What he is told about her is factual and indicates that there has been some discussion about her. She’s a Moabite. She came back with her mother-in-law. She had asked permission to glean. She’s a hard worker. Boaz doesn’t ask any other questions about her because he’s heard about her. He knows her story. He knows her circumstances. But he doesn’t look at her as a Moabite, a widow, or the bottom of the social ladder. Instead, he sees Ruth as someone in need of grace.
Ruth 2:8 ESV “8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. 9 Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.” 10 Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” 11 But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. 12 The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” 13 Then she said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.”
Boaz is required by law to leave enough of the harvest for the less fortunate to glean from. But Boaz does so much more than that. He approaches her directly and offers her so much more than just the leftovers from the harvest.
Don’t overlook how he addresses her the first time they meet. He calls her “my daughter”. The term “was used as a general address of kindness by one with authority or by an older person to a younger woman.”[iv] He knows Ruth is a Gentile woman from enemy territory, but he doesn’t treat her as such. He instructs her to stay close to the young women who work for him. This provides companionship for her. He tells her that his men HAVE ALREADY BEEN TOLD NOT TO TOUCH HER. This provides protection for her. He welcomes her to drink from his vessels when she is thirsty. This provides refreshment and rest for her.
Ruth is bewildered. She’s humbled. She doesn’t understand his grace and his generosity. “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” (Ruth 2:10)
Ruth had come from a territory that didn’t know God’s grace. She lived with her mother-in-law who was too bitter and too hardened to receive God’s grace. For most likely the first time in her life, Ruth not only sees but now experiences God’s grace through this man named Boaz.
Ruth’s head must be spinning at this time. She came out this morning just to gather some grains to nourish her mother-in-law and herself. There was no strategy. No research. No looking up Yelp reviews to see who had the best harvest. Look back to verse 3. “She happened to be in the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from Elimelech’s family.” (Ruth 2:3 CSB) “Ruth happened to come to Boaz’s field because God is gracious and sovereign even when he is silent. As the proverb (16:9) says, “A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”[v]
Ruth didn’t know it. Boaz didn’t know it. Naomi didn’t know it. But this was the providence of God that had taken the disobedience of Elimelek, the unlawfulness of marrying outside the Jewish faith, the deaths of three husbands, the return to Bethlehem, the need for food, the access to food at just the right time, in just the right place that led up to a meeting between two people God already had plans for.
We so often think that we’ve messed up so much that God has little to work with. Or we zero in on all that’s gone wrong in our lives, and we feel as Naomi did – bitter and hardened. We may look at the lives of other people and wonder why our own life isn’t as good. Why is life so much harder for us than it is for others? It is sometimes those hiccups, those tragedies, those disappointments, or those losses that we encounter that put us right where God wants us when He wants us there, and who He wants us to meet.
Job 42:2 AMP “I know that You can do all things, And that no thought or purpose of Yours can be restrained.” In other words, God’s going to do what God wants to do when God wants to do it and how God wants to do it. He doesn’t need our suggestions. He doesn’t need us to remind Him of what time it is or what day it is. He simply wants us to have solid, unwavering faith in Him that whatever He has planned is what’s for our good.
God’s going to do what God wants to do when God wants to do it and how God wants to do it.
Ruth began her day intent on finding a field in which she could glean a little for her and Naomi to eat from. What she didn’t expect was to be treated with dignity, kindness, and hospitality.
Ruth 2:14 HCSB “14 At mealtime Boaz told her, “Come over here and have some bread and dip it in the vinegar sauce.” So she sat beside the harvesters, and he offered her roasted grain. She ate and was satisfied and had some left over.
15 When she got up to gather grain, Boaz ordered his young men, “Let her even gather grain among the bundles, and don’t humiliate her. 16 Pull out some stalks from the bundles for her and leave them for her to gather. Don’t rebuke her.” 17 So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening. She beat out what she had gathered, and it was about 26 quarts[e] of barley. 18 She picked up the grain and went into the town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. Then she brought out what she had left over from her meal and gave it to her.
19 Then her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you gather barley today, and where did you work? May the Lord bless the man who noticed you.”
Did you hear what Naomi said? “May the Lord bless the man who noticed you.”
Naomi calls on the Lord to bless someone who blessed her and Ruth. Naomi would have grown up around these fields. She would have been familiar with the gleaning process and the expectations of the amount one would get from a day of gleaning. What Ruth brought home far exceeded any expectations Naomi would have had. She would have realized that the Lord had a hand in this bounty and knew that someone had found favor in Ruth. And don’t miss the fact that Naomi returned to her homeland because of the food. It’s through the provision of food that Naomi returns to God.
Ruth 2:19b HCSB “Ruth told her mother-in-law about the men she had worked with and said, “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz.”
20 Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, who has not forsaken his kindness to the living or the dead.” Naomi continued, “The man is a close relative. He is one of our family redeemers.”
21 Ruth the Moabitess said, “He also told me, ‘Stay with my young men until they have finished all of my harvest.’”
22 So Naomi said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “My daughter, it is good for you to work with his female servants, so that nothing will happen to you in another field.” 23 Ruth stayed close to Boaz’s female servants and gathered grain until the barley and the wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.”
The wheels are starting to turn in Naomi’s mind. She considers the fact that Boaz is a relative of her husband and, in fact, calls him a “family redeemer”. Naomi starts thinking like a matchmaker. She embraces the idea of Ruth entering a relationship with a new man.
Naomi had begun the day with only her permission for Ruth to glean. There was no promise to pray for her. There was no gratitude, no encouragement. Just simply, “go ahead”. But before the day is through, however, Naomi is calling on the Lord for blessings. There is a renewed hope in her. “Naomi had hope because of who Boaz was.” “But she also had hope because of what Boaz did.” “When Ruth shared with Naomi what Boaz had said, Naomi’s hope grew even stronger”.[vi]
“Should not we who believe in Jesus Christ rejoice in hope? When you consider who He is, what He has done for us, and what He says to us in His Word, there is no reason for us to feel hopeless.” “No matter how you may feel today, no matter how difficult your circumstances may be, you can rejoice in hope if you will focus your faith on Jesus Christ.”[vii]
Romans 12:12 tells us “Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.” We can rejoice if we have confident hope. Not a “shallow hope-so feeling”[viii], but a confident hope! Ruth had a confident hope that her commitment to God would provide what she needed; she had no clue how far and how much God was going to do.
That is the same God that you and I pray to. Malachi 3:6 NLT ““I am the LORD, and I do not change.” What He does for Ruth is possible for you and I. The way that He reverses Naomi’s bitterness and depression is also possible for you and I. The blessings that will change these two women’s lives are coming from the same gracious God that you and I have come here to worship. God doesn’t change. That’s what we’re supposed to do.
Are you in a position to blessed by God? Is your attitude full of confident hope or are you dogpaddling in a sea of hope so’s? Is your faith in Him dependent on circumstances and your expectations or is your faith in Him set in concrete because of Who He is? Our circumstances don’t define God.
“We often don’t realize that where God puts us is the very place we need to be to receive what He wants to give us.” Priscilla Shirer
[i] https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-terms/who-are-gentiles-biblical-examples-and-importance.html
[ii] Be Committed by Warren W. Wiersbe
[iii] Be Committed by Warren W. Wiersbe
[iv] https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/58444/why-does-boaz-keep-calling-ruth-my-daughter
[v] https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/ruth-under-the-wings-of-god
[vi] Be Committed by Warren W. Wiersbe
[vii] Be Committed by Warren W. Wiersbe
[viii] Be Committed by Warren W. Wiersbe
Beacons of Light 