The rich farmers or business people could allow the poor to work for something that the wealthy person didn’t need. Because let’s face it, most of us even half way well off people have way more than we need. A car dealer could spare a used car for a person’s use if the person was willing to come and clean up the lot and other used cars.
A wealthy landlord could provide an apartment to live in if the person were willing to clean and vacuum the public areas of the building each day. Restaurants that had lots of leftover food each night could give that food to poor people who were willing to come in and put together meals and deliver them to other poor people. Things like that.
Of course it means that the prosperous people have to be willing to give out of the abundance they have, but it also would motivate people to do something of value to get it. And it wouldn’t just be money that people could throw away on things like cigarettes. Laziness, pride, and greed are the obstacles to this way of doing things as they are the obstacles to doing just about everything the Lord wants us to do. Notice Ruth had none of those qualities, and neither did Boaz.
Immediately Ruth, knowing this custom, asked to go out and do this gleaning, she worked very hard for it and it provided more than enough for her and Naomi. The way we do it today is just another way we have debilitated our society by doing things the human way rather than God’s way. The bible even says those who don’t work should not eat. Yes there may be people who are unable to work, but most of them can do something and when they absolutely can’t, the Bible still provides ways for them to be taken care of. That is one of the major roles of the church. But some of our ways are also enabling people to do nothing for themselves.
Now here’s an amazing part of the story that we often gloss over. Ruth didn’t know she was in Boaz’s field. The first verse talks about Boaz, but that’s for us. We know that she didn’t know it was Boaz’s field, or who Boaz even was as we see at the end of the passage when Naomi surprisingly exclaimed who he was.
Had she not stumbled upon that field and gotten noticed by Boaz, I’m sure God could have found another way to continue the line that would lead to Jesus being born in Bethlehem, but how did Ruth know which particular field to glean in? Did God give her a vision, or some other kind of specific directive to go to that specific field? It seems not.
I think we have a great lesson here on following God’s will. Often we wait for specific instruction from God and most of the time we don’t get it do we. However, if we are committed to doing God’s will in every situation even if we don’t know exactly what it is, and when we do what we do know from His Word, we will often experience these coincidences that God is of course completely in control of.
Often we don’t even know we did God’s will until we look back in time. She knew the Law, she immediately went out and did what she knew God would want her to, and somehow she just ended up in the right field. I have come to learn that when we are committed to God’s will and do what we already know he wants us to do, often our own decisions based just on what we sense, will seem like our own decision but really it’s the Spirit of God leading us in a very subtle and natural way. Remember Paul says we have the mind of Christ, if we have surrendered to him and seek to follow him. God says he will make all things work out for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. He can make any decision work if we desire his will.
Just by going out to glean in the fields Ruth was putting herself in a position to be mocked and hated as Moabite woman, raped, or even killed, and not many would have really cared. We see how relieved and grateful she is when we see her response a little later.
The point? Don’t fret about decisions, make sure you are doing what God has already made known to you, desire his will and purposes, and he will make sure that circumstances work out the way they are supposed to. He says, “You worry about your relationship with me, and I’ll take care of the results in your life. I am that sovereign and powerful”.
V4 shows that Boaz was a man of God and treated his workers well. How many of your workplaces sound like that. The Boss cares about you so much that he greets you with “the Lord be with you”, and the workers respond with an affectionate “the Lord bless you”. I’d like to work there, the rich owner loving his workers and the workers getting treated so well they love their boss. Wait a minute, I do work in that kind of place. That is the relationship between us and our boss, God.
In verse 5 we hear that Boaz sees Ruth and he says “whose young woman is this”. Now he is definitely saying, who do I have to go see to start courting this woman, or if I may take liberties and get really modern here, “Hubba, hubba, who is that”. Now I don’t think it was just her looks, though that is probably what first got his attention, but Ruth worked very hard showing her strength, which was very important when men were seeking a wife in that culture if you remember the story of Isaac and Rebekah.
But notice the foreman’s response. She’s that Moabite woman from the country of Moab that came back with Naomi. I’m pretty sure he was saying this half apologetically and really stressing the fact that she is a Moabite woman, you don’t want to mess with her. But just like our redeemer Jesus, he pays no attention to that, just like Jesus showed no prejudice, he just looked at her heart and what she had done for Naomi.
So right away Boaz protected and provided for her showing that he could be a great husband, but notice the incredible respect he showed her as well. In those days a rich landowner could have easily taken advantage of a beautiful young poor foreign woman, or any of his workers could have. We see both Boaz’s respect, and the relationship he had with his staff that he knew that Ruth would be safe with them. He also really knew God, because he knew that God would accept her despite where she came from. He saw her heart like Jesus does.
So we see all that he does for her and then doesn’t V 14 resemble the Lord’s Supper? Look at the dynamics in these few verses. First she gets to dip her bread in the same wine, which is really vinegar, that Boaz is using, just like the disciples did at the Lord’s Supper. Then we see just like when Jesus fed the thousands, that she was satisfied and there was some left over.
Then he says to his workers, help her go out into the harvest and glean even amoung the sheaves. I believe that is a direct reference to allowing her not only to go to the harvest of Gentiles or the outsiders at the edge of the field, but let her even harvest amoung the Jews (the sheaves). After all she would be the great…… grandmother of Jesus and the church.
Maybe she is beautiful, but Scripture focuses on the fact that she is rewarded for her humility, generosity, and loyalty.
Now again notice the next passage. Ruth received more than she deserved or more than her redeemer was required to give her. And what does she do, she immediately goes and shares it with someone else. Naomi is even one of the sheaves (the Jews), but her faith has taken a devastating blow over the past few years. Ruth gives her what she was given and when Naomi asked where she got it, she introduces Naomi to the redeemer. Do you get it? And I think we see a revival start in Naomi’s life as well.
What a great picture. Live with humility, love and loyalty, desiring to follow God in spite of the potential cost. Get rewarded by the redeemer Jesus Christ who gives us more than we deserve in his mercy. Take what we have and share it with others so they can meet the Great Redeemer. Did you know all that was here in this little Old Testament story?
I mentioned earlier about Ruth’s response to Boaz. What does she do? She fell on her face bowing to the ground, and listen to what she says in the King James version, “Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou should take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger.”
Wow, let me paraphrase that for you. “I am not even one of your people yet you show grace and favour toward me, a stranger”. Let me remind you of what took place with Mary the mother of Jesus. Now Mary wasn’t a Gentile but the angel came and said that you have found favour with God. Mary asks how can I get pregnant since I am a virgin, just like Ruth says how can this be, how can you show me favour?
In her magnificat Mary then says that God has looked upon the humble estate of his servant and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
She doesn’t say it’s for the Jews, or the gentiles or anyone else other than those fear, reverence, love Him and want to please Him. Mary also said he has filled the hungry with good things and has helped his servant Israel (reflected in Naomi) in remembrance of his mercy. Obviously the responses of Mary and Ruth are different in content, but I think very similar in heart. And both women lead directly to Jesus.
Jesus has broken down all human barriers and while we were still sinners he died for us. Ruth can’t understand and is amazed by the grace this man Boaz is showing to her, and isn’t that what all people are supposed to see in us Christians, ridiculous uncommon grace like Christ our Lord showed us? If you think you deserve to be a Christian you’re wrong, it is all Christ’s doing no matter how long you have been saved.
And you know what I thought? I can see why He would have shown this grace to Ruth, she has amazing qualities and risked everything for the love of her mother in law and her God. But what I don’t understand is why he showed such grace to me. To me that is way more amazing than showing grace to Ruth. How about you?
I just want to point out a couple more words in verse 12. Boaz says may the Lord the God of Israel give you full reward even though you are a foreigner. Now even still today there are many Jewish people who believe that Gentiles will not get the full reward of the God of Israel just because of their racial heritage. But that is not true, Gentiles like you and me now become full members in the family of God through Christ. And I think the end of that verse tells us why he will give this to her, because she sought refuge under God’s wings.
Isn’t that really what it takes to be saved, the knowledge that you need the saving refuge of God and seeking it, desiring it, and making a decision to get it at any cost? Man I love this little book.
So Boaz favours Ruth so much he even says, “You guys let her come glean where you are reaping (this was way beyond what the Law required), in fact drop a few sheaves and when she says hey guys you dropped something, you just tell her we don’t have time to come back, you just keep it”. She ended up with an ephah which is almost a bushel, plus the leftover food she ate with Boaz.
We see now how God’s plan is beginning to unfold seemingly by chance. Ruth’s behaviour leads her to a redeemer. Now because we are going to have to deal with this idea of kinsman redeemer later, and most of you I imagine don’t spend much time in the book of Leviticus, I want to just give a simple description of this law.
We find it in Leviticus 25 and the real core of it is that the land is never theirs - it is God’s. The Native Americans actually had this right. He gives the Israelites the Promised Land to dwell in and prosper as long as they are devoted to him and live by His rules. When they stray for long periods of time he allows others to take the land from them, and they fall into slavery. Or if there was no invasion, they may have had to sell the land to a stranger to survive. They may sell themselves as bond servants as well.
But there is always a return. In the fiftieth year or year of jubilee, all land returned to the original family, and people who had sold themselves would be free if they were still living.
If however, a person had a rich relative, that relative could redeem the land and the people by paying what was left basically on the mortgage, for whatever was left of that 50 years. This is called redemption. A kinsman redeemer would be a family member who was able to redeem land and people from others outside the family.
This is a picture in that ancient system of Jesus Christ who not only redeems people from the slavery of sin, but also promises to redeem the whole earth one day. Jesus paid off the debt we owed for all time.
Now Ruth didn’t know who Boaz was until she gets back to Naomi and tells her about him. Naomi knows that he is one of the redeemers from the family, a cousin of her husband Elimilech. Isn’t it interesting that Elimilech didn’t have the faith to stay in Bethlehem though his name meant “My God is King”, but his cousin Boaz’s name means mighty or strong, and he stayed in the land only to now be very wealthy and prosperous, and able to redeem what was left of his cousin’s family. But Boaz wasn’t the only redeemer in the family and he wasn’t the closest as we find out in the next chapter.
To me it just goes to show that when and if we return to God after we walk away, and let’s face it most of us do at times, he will provide a way for us to be redeemed. In some ways this story resembles the Prodigal Son parable.
What we see in this chapter is how love trumps the Law. Ruth’s legal obligations to her mother in law were exempted after her husband died, but Ruth stayed with her out of love. Boaz was required by the Law only to allow Ruth to glean on the edges of the field and get the scraps of the harvest. He didn’t have to give her anything to eat or drink, he didn’t have to protect her. But he did way more than the Law required of him as well, because of love, not just for Ruth, but also for Naomi.
Again this is exactly what Jesus came to show us. Love is the greatest Law and in it all the other Laws are fulfilled. That is something all us church folks need to remember because we have a history and reputation to many outside of the church, as people who find the rules more important than love and acceptance and forgiveness. Do we welcome and bless the foreigners that come to our doors, the people who are not like us, people who have maybe even been enemies? That’s really what the whole Bible is about and it’s exemplified here by Boaz and of course even more by Jesus himself.
So as the chapter ends, Ruth stays on Boaz’s field for about the next six weeks through the barley and then wheat harvests. Every afternoon you would see coming into Bethlehem – not wise men, not yet; not shepherds, yet; not Mary and Joseph, yet; but Boaz and Ruth. The town is gossiping about its most eligible bachelor and this Moabite woman, and Naomi knows that something has to be done because obviously Boaz wants to be her redeemer. We’ll see how this all plays out in act 3 next week.
