3) Finding Grace

Last week, we began Ruth chapter 2 where a Moabite widow under the curse of the law went out one morning looking for grace. And God guided her steps into the field of the one man in Bethlehem who could give this woman with no lineage an eternal lineage.

5 Then said Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers, Whose damsel is this?

You spend your whole life in a little hamlet like Bethlehem, and it becomes pretty obvious when a newcomer shows up in town. So Boaz asks the overseer in charge of the reaping (as well as the feeding and paying of the workers) Whose damsel is this?

The word damsel means a servant or a child still at home. It isn’t a word for someone known to be a widow. So Boaz obviously does not immediately realize that this is the woman who recently returned to town with Naomi.

The typical ways of answering it would be, “She’s the daughter of So-and-So”, which would mean she’s still single, or “She’s the wife of So-and-So.” Every woman was expected to be under some man’s protection; later, upon hearing that she has no protector, he calls her my daughter, and then every instruction that follows is designed for her protection, which Boaz immediately assumes.

Now look at the answer in verse 6:

And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, It is the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab:

The servant uses the same word for damsel that Boaz just did – perhaps he is actually unaware of her marital status. Perhaps he is being careful not to correct his boss.

In just a few verses, we’ll see that Boaz had heard of this woman, as (no doubt) everyone in Bethlehem had. But now he’ll get to meet her.

The overseer says that she comes out of the country of Moab. Although Moab was only about 30 miles to the east, it would have been a journey of several days back then. It was separated from them by the Jordan River, and it was considered “enemy territory”. The only trade route passing near Bethlehem would have been the north-south route from Egypt to Asia Minor, and they would have not likely seen Moabites traveling on it. So anyone in Bethlehem would have had a natural curiosity about a Moabite woman coming to live among them. Some might have even considered her to be exotic.

In verse 7, the overseer continues telling Boaz about her:

And she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves: so she came, and hath continued even from the morning until now, that she tarried a little in the house.

He says, “She just showed up today asking permission to glean in your fields, and she’s been going at it from morning till now, and only took a short break in the house” which would have been a tent set up in the field for workers to take an occasional water break from the hot Middle-Eastern sun.

He says from morning until now. The text does not tell us just when now is, but it’s apparently before the midday lunch which we see later in verse 14.

The point he’s making is that she’s no slacker. She works hard, she’s focused, she doesn’t cause trouble, she’s persistent. Like the Proverbs 31 woman, she worketh willingly with her hands... and eateth not the bread of idleness. In fact, King Solomon may very well have been thinking about his legendary great-grandmother Ruth when he wrote those words.

8 Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens:

Boaz calls her my daughter – the same as Naomi does. In fact, throughout the book, he never calls her anything other than my daughter. It’s an endearing term. This, along with his statement in 3:10, indicates that he is closer to Naomi’s age than Ruth’s – he is old enough to be her father.

Now if Hollywood were making the book of Ruth into a movie, they would be turning this into a romance novel. Boaz would not be her father’s age, he would be young and handsome – exactly the kind of fellow that Ruth 3:10 says she is not looking for. They would be turning this into a “boy meets girl” kind of love story.

Well, it’s a love story, all right, but not the kind that most people reading it imagine. Ruth is not seeking a handsome guy and a beautiful life for herself. Everything she does throughout this book, she does for Naomi. It’s her love for Naomi, declared in 1:16-17, that motivates her every action, from going forth to glean this morning, all the way to bearing a child that will inherit Elimelech’s estate, save the family farm, and care for Naomi in her old age. She doesn’t end up marrying Boaz because he’s young or handsome or rich or anything like that. The sole reason she marries him is because, old as he is, he’s the only Kinsman Redeemer able and willing to provide an heir for Naomi. And Naomi’s past child bearing age, so if she’s going to have an heir at all, it’s up to Ruth to pull this off for her.