Is God's Favour Always Unfair?

Ruth 2:10, “At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”

For those who want to know the story of Ruth:

Naomi and her husband and her two sons were living in Bethlehem and from nowhere; hunger struck – no food, they tried to survive but it was impossible and so they decided to leave their nation to find food. They went to Moab where they found food. Their sons reached the stage where they should marry and they married women from Moab. One married Orpah and one married Ruth. Naomi’s husband died; God is good, sometimes he takes people while we need them. Maybe Naomi thought, I still have my two sons and I can manage. So maybe God said, “oh, you put your hope in your two sons” and maybe because of that, he removed them too.

Without a husband and children, Naomi wondered how she will survive without men to work for her and feed her so she decided to go back home to Bethlehem. Ruth and Orpah decided to go with her but Naomi advised them to go back to their families and remarry. The two ladies decided to go with her anyway. What a courage, to leave your country and follow an old lady and go to a country you don’t know. To follow a lady who doesn’t have a husband and to go to a country that the old lady left for a reason. We as human beings would think twice.

Naomi tried to encourage the two girls to return home but Ruth said that she had to come, “please let me”. The more that Naomi insisted for the girls not to go with her, the more that Orpah started to take think about going back...maybe she was afraid of the future wondering how she will take care of this old lady; better to find a husband to take care of her. So Orpah cried, hugged Naomi and said good bye. Was that cry a sincere cry or was it a cry of freedom? Many people today in the church are trying to follow Jesus just because others are doing it, maybe to give the impression to other they are a part of Jesus but in their heart they want to drink, party, just like those in the world but they don’t have the opportunity because maybe a Christian might see them and maybe someone in church will talk and judge so better not to. They fear human beings and they try to impress people more than the Lord.

Ruth said, “wherever you go, I’ll go, your people will be my people, where you die, I die”. When Jesus says, follow me, do you really follow him or will you be like Peter in the gospels and deny Jesus?

Naomi walked with Ruth back to Bethlehem which means house of the bread of God. In that Bethlehem which is the house of the bread; there is no food. It sounds strange. Food was there but the people didn’t open their eyes or didn’t try to push their hands deeper to find food. God gave to Israelites everything they wanted, heat, water, food and clothing in the desert. Here, now because of famine, Naomi could not feed herself or her daughter in law. Naomi advised Ruth, “there is no men here, you have to find food”. If someone tells you to find food and you have no money, where would you go? Police, neighbors, family? For Ruth, she thought, harvest is taking place, let me go there and she walked onto someone’s farm.

If you see a stranger on your farm, what will you do? You will ask yourself who is the person and why are they there. We have to present ourselves somewhere in order to be identified. People will only identify us when we walk near the farm (God’s work). God says there is a harvest but there are no workers.

Ruth went onto the farm and started to collect what remained behind from the wheat. How much do you think was left behind? To leave behind means you will lose so unlikely you will leave too much. Boaz walked in and he was told her identity is Ruth and he allowed her to work and told his workers to leave a handful of food behind...put it on the ground and go. When it was time for lunch, Ruth came and ate with the workers and she put aside a small portion of food to feed Naomi.

God’s favor is unfair: Ruth is coming from nowhere, she is a foreigner, they don’t know her and she met with harvesters who are not allowed to take without permission and suddenly Boaz lets her; give her the chance to collect food. How many times has God done such a thing in your life where you don’t have right to do something and God does something for you. E.g. you wake up and you are alive, you are thirsty and there is water, you go outside and the sun is shining. In other parts of the world, people are crying because their brothers are dead, they don’t have sun and they don’t have all the blessings and privileges that we have here in New Zealand…God is not fair. But, the more you are blessed, the more you need to bless others.