2) Seeking Grace, Ruth 1:18-2:4
We left off last week listening to Ruth’s interchange with her disheartened mother-in-law, Naomi. And we saw in Ruth 1:16-17 her incredible statement of faith. Let’s look at it again.
16 And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:
17 Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.
This was a statement of absolute commitment, and as we saw last week in II Timothy 1:12, that’s what saving faith really is. Paul said, I know whom I have believed, and then he clarified that by saying that Christ would keep that which I have committed unto him.
The Bible promises that our faith will be tried – not to undermine it, but to refine it. Job said it perfectly – when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. And here we are getting a first glimpse of the unshakeable faith of an amazing woman. She has never been beyond the borders of her native land. Growing up in Moab, she’s been taught from earliest memories that the Jews just over Jordan were her people’s enemies, and that the worship of their Moabite god Chemosh was better than the Jewish worship of Jehovah.
And then, as if to prove what she’s always heard, a family of Jewish refugees fleeing a famine in Israel move into their town.
See! Moab really is better to live in than Israel – Chemosh is better to his people than Jehovah. (The idea of God chastening His people when they rebel doesn’t spin as favorably for the local cult.)
Ruth’s experiences are screaming that it was a huge mistake to turn from Moab’s worship of Chemosh to Israel’s worship of Jehovah. Ever since joining this family, her father-in-law has died, her brother-in-law and her own husband. And you can imagine when the Moabite women draw from the communal well each morning, how they’d point out the curse her life has been under since she joined that Jewish family. Now her sister-in-law gives up and returns to Moab, and Ruth’s own mother-in-law, instead of urging her to press on, uses irrefutable worldly wisdom to urge her to depart also.
Yet despite her background, all her childhood conditioning, and the tragic circumstances of her life even now, she delivers this magnificent statement. It’s as if she can see that the worst day in Zion is better than the best day in Moab. And by the end of the story, we can all see in hindsight what she saw by faith.
Even in that backslidden Jewish family, in their traditions, their laws and their stories, there is a sense of promise, a sense of hope unlike anything Ruth ever experienced in the child sacrifices of the cult of Chemosh.
So when Naomi starts talking about returning to her family’s stake back in Bethlehem to finish out her grim days on the charity of relatives, Ruth determines to go with her.
She says, “Quit trying to talk me into leaving – I’d die first!” Since her husband was dead, Ruth was technically under the guardianship of her mother-in-law. She says, “Even if you die, I’m not going back. I’m going to go wherever you go, I’m going to join your people, I’m going to follow your God, live where you live, and die where you die – and may God strike me dead if I don’t!” And indeed, God does strike all dead who don’t! How quickly we would silence temptation if we answered its appeal like this!
And notice her new loyalty – she swears it all by the Lord – by Jehovah, not by Chemosh!
Ruth 2:11 points out that she has left her father and mother and the land of her nativity. Jesus said whosoever loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. The Bible repeatedly says that God’s followers are citizens of a kingdom they have never seen; they are on a pilgrimage to a land beyond their sight.
Ruth has just vowed, thy people shall be my people. But Deuteronomy 23:3 pronounced a curse on the Moabite people – An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD forever.
According to the law, Ruth and all her people were forever excluded from being able to join the nation of Israel. Most other Gentiles could become part of the nation, but never the Moabites or their northern cousins, the Ammonites.
And yet, Ruth not only becomes a member of the nation, she even becomes the great-grandmother of its great King David, and through him, an ancestress of the Messiah Himself! How could a member of a cursed nation enter into such a privilege? There’s only one way – through the amazing grace of God!
And in the same way, every descendent of Adam is under the curse of his Fall in the Garden of Eden. Sin has separated us all from our heavenly Father and His spiritual family. And yet, He invites all who have been born of Adam to accept His grace and be born again into the family of God. Ephesians 2:12 says that when we were without Christ, we were strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But then He describes how Jesus made peace for us through His cross, and in verse 19 he says, Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God.
The kind of commitment we see in Ruth’s words reflect the commitment in every prayer of a repentant sinner who becomes a follower of Christ. “I’ll never return from following Thee, but where You lead me I’ll go; where you plant me, I’ll live; I’ll join Your people who call on Your name; I’ll worship your God and Heavenly Father; I’ll bear Your cross and die upon it if that’s what you call me to do!”
Her final phrase, God do so to me and more also if ought but death part thee and me, was an ancient way of swearing upon one’s life – “May God strike me dead and even worse if anything but death fulfills this vow!”
Ruth sounds more like a daughter of Abraham than Naomi does; like Abraham, she leaves her kin and country for a land she’s never seen trusting in the God of Israel.
18 When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her.
Steadfastly minded – that’s how the Bible describes Ruth’s absolute commitment to stay with Naomi and become a part of the covenant people of God. True faith is always characterized by faithfulness.
Bear in mind – Ruth makes this vow having no idea whether the people of Bethlehem will accept her. She has no expectation of spending her life as anything more than an impoverished widow in company with another impoverished and aging widow.
But her answer convinces Naomi that there is no use in further appeals. Whether Naomi is secretly relieved and truly glad to have a loving daugh-ter-in-law with her, or resigned and uncertain how she will appear bringing a Moabite daughter-in-law into Bethlehem, either way there’s nothing more she can say in the face of such determination.
From the borders of Moab to Bethlehem would’ve been about 30 miles. But they were dry, dusty, desert miles. There would be a river to cross at Jericho, then a nearly 3,000-foot slope to climb, winding all the way – no water springs, no food, and no men to help, especially with the aging Naomi. At the least, it would have taken a week for two relatively helpless women exposed to the elements, animals and criminals.
Imagine all the questions Ruth would have been asking about her new people and new home. We suppose that Naomi would have spent the time coaching her on all the dos and don’ts of her new culture. It would have been a lot to learn, especially about all the Jewish ritual laws and regulations
– a lot for Ruth to take in during her crash course.
19 So they two went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi?
It was a humbling return for Naomi. Everyone knew they’d left in search of bread and a better life. Everyone also knew that Israelites did not belong in Moab. Returning now with the wear of the years in her face, her arms empty, her husband and sons lying in foreign graves – all of this reveals the blunder her family had made in trying to dodge affliction so long ago.
The end of this verse tells us that they said, Is this Naomi? The word they is in the feminine gender, which means it was the women of Bethlehem who are exclaiming over her. But all the city was moved about the news of their return, and, no doubt, about the men left behind. When the women ask, Is this Naomi, they’re expressing amazement. Naomi’s name means pleasant, but one look at her shows that her last 10 years have been anything but pleasant. When people wander away from God, they may return, but not the same. Naomi’s response in the next verse shows that the obvious changes on the outside reflect the changes that have taken a toll inside her as well.
20 And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.
We can’t always control the circumstances of life, but we can control how we respond to them. If we respond rightly, trials will make us better. But if we respond wrongly, they’ll make us bitter. As we’ve seen so far, Naomi’s family hasn’t been responding well at all. They’ve run from trials, they’ve followed worldly wisdom, they haven’t separated themselves from ungodly influences, they’ve pursued material values over spiritual ones, they’ve certainly not been the lights in the darkness that God calls us to be. And now here she is blaming God for how her life has turned out – call me Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.
She calls Him the Almighty, El-Shaddai, the Most High God Whose will is irresistible. He caused her bitterness. This is the opposite of Romans
8:31, if God be for us, who can be against us.
Mara comes from the word myrrh, a bitter spice used for wrapping the dead. Imagine what she must be remembering as she says this. Her family tried to escape a chastening famine for a better life, but it only led to bitter deaths. Anytime we leave God’s will for an “easier road”, we’ve just started down the broad path to destruction.
But if you’re taking the path toward the pigsty, don’t blame God for the stink. You want roses? There’s plenty of them – just start heading a
different way!
Naomi explains her complaint in verse 21:
21 I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?
When her family left, they thought they were leaving empty. In the midst of a famine, the very reason they went was because they thought they had nothing left in Bethlehem.
But now in hindsight, Naomi realizes they didn’t know what being empty
was all those years ago. Living in Moab under a curse, has taught her a thing or two about real emptiness, both inside and out. Every life lived outside of God’s will is an empty life.
But now she says God has brought her home again empty. Actually, nobody who returns home to the place of God’s blessing is empty anymore. She has Ruth who turns out in the end of the story to be better to her than seven sons. Naomi sounds like Jacob in Genesis 42:26 when his boys are saying they need to take Benjamin down with them into Egypt, and he says, all these things are against me!
She says, the Lord hath testified against me. Look around at all the women that stayed in Bethlehem, rode out the famine, submitted to the chastening experience God had brought on their land. They have their husbands, their children. It’s like God is showing her what her life might have been like had they stayed where they belonged. Her outcome compared to theirs is God’s witness against her family’s foolish decision.
Have you ever looked back on some bad decision you once made and
wondered how your life might have gone “if only”? John Greenleaf Whittier wrote, “Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these – it might have been!”
But if you spend your life looking in the rearview mirror, sooner or later you’re going to run into something – or become bitter, like “Mara”.
Some 13 centuries later, the apostle Paul will reflect back on all the worthless accomplishments of his foolish youth, and he’ll write in Philippians 3:13-14, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
You may think like Naomi that everything pleasant in your life is gone forever, that the rest of your life will be bitterness – “Just start calling me Mara now!” But listen very carefully to these next ten words: God’s will for the rest of your life begins today!
Now just let that sink in for a moment. However far astray you’ve wandered, at any point you can change direction and start heading toward the destiny where you’ve always belonged. Naomi hit rock bottom in Moab and she thinks her life is over – but if that’s what it took to get her back to Bethlehem where she belonged, then thank God for that rock at the bottom! Because now that she’s moving in a different direction, her whole story starts in a new direction too. Her life is far from over – it’s just about to begin!
Naomi makes one more statement in this verse – the Almighty hath afflicted me. Her family leapt from the frying pan into the fire, and she recognizes that God has dealt with them for it. But while what she says is correct, her attitude about it isn’t. Hebrews 12 warns us to not despise God’s chastening, and verse 11 says, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. But “Mara” has not yielded to the exercise, and what she’s showing is the fruit of bitterness.
But now she has moved back to the place of blessing, and God’s grace immediately begins to write a whole new chapter in her life.
22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.
So Naomi returned. She’s returned from a life of disaster, and God’s grace is about to do something completely unexpected – something amazing!
In this chapter, 12 times we see the word return, or some phrase that means the same thing (turn again or go back, etc.). Every success story begins with an instant of repentance – Naomi returned... out of the country of Moab. And her prospects are already looking up, for they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest. Repentance always brings a new beginning. The sad chapter that began with a famine ends with a harvest.
And notice where the harvest was – in Bethlehem – the “house of bread.”
It was a relatively fertile area with pastures for flocks. It was rich land, and in harvest, it brought forth bread in abundance. How fitting that it should one day become the birthplace of the Bread of Life, of the sacrificial Lamb Who would take away the sins of the world!
And notice which harvest it was. The barley harvest was the first in the year. It always fell during the weeklong Feast of Unleavened Bread, which began the day after Passover in the spring. Leviticus 23:10-14 said no one could eat of the new barley until they had offered a sheaf of the first fruits of the harvest to the priest in the tabernacle. As soon as this was done, everyone could start eating the new barley. It was called the Feast of the First Fruits, and it always fell on the Sunday after Passover.
Paul explained the meaning of these feasts. He says in I Corinthians 5:7 that Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Jesus was the ultimate Passover Lamb, sacrificed on the very day of Passover for the sins of all the world. And He arose the following Sunday three days later on the Feast of First Fruits. So Paul says again in I Corinthians 15:20, now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.
So Naomi, the returning Israelite, and Ruth, the outcast Moabite, are both coming in a spirit of repentance to the birthplace of the Messiah at the very time when He will be crucified, buried and risen. What a picture of the backslidden Christian being restored to fellowship through the cleansing blood of a risen Savior! What a picture of the cursed outcast finding grace and forgiveness where the new birth of Christ takes place in the heart through the death, burial and resurrection of the coming Messiah!
And notice one more thing about this harvest. Seven weeks later it was
followed by the wheat and rye harvests, so by the time the one was done, the next would begin.
Naomi and Ruth have arrived at the very start of a series of harvests – they won’t miss out on a single blessing through this whole growing season. It’ll continue all the way through the fall, and they’ll be in on the whole thing – no careful rationing for them next winter! How the Heavenly Father kills the fatted calf for the returning prodigal and for the newborn saint! How He provides for the weakest and newest of His own!
Now we come to chapter 2 where we meet the third and final main character in this love story.
1 And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.
The name Boaz means “Strength”, which explains why King Solomon later gave the name to one of the great pillars at the entrance to his temple in
I Kings 7:21.
Boaz is called a mighty man of wealth, and the same expression is used in Judges 6:12 when Gideon is called a mighty man of valor. This has led some interpreters to say that the wealth of Boaz was his character, and as the story unfolds, we will certainly see that he’s every inch a man of valor. But the story will also reveal that he owns tracts of land and employs many servants as well. So either or both meanings would certainly apply to him. And considering how Boaz pre-enacts the role of Jesus in this divine romance, both descriptions, a man of valor and wealth, are perfectly appropriate for him.
But the key to his role in what follows is the fact that he’s a kinsman of Naomi’s husband, Elimelech. This family connection positions him to rescue these widows, and the one God uses to do it isn’t bitter old Naomi, though she’s actually nearer in kinship to him, but the committed and faithful Ruth. The fact that this new, young, enthusiastic believer is better poised for God’s blessing than the older, disillusioned backslider is not unusual. In fact, as these verses before us show, it’s a very old story. And through this new, committed follower, God is going to restore the weary and broken one.
So what’s your story today? Have you served God in the past, but wandered from the narrow path into the thorns? Are you ready to repent and come home? Why not ask the Heavenly Father to forgive and restore you right now?
Are you young in the faith and wondering whether God can use an inexperienced new believer like you? Why not commit yourself to His will and see what kind of story He writes in your life?
Are you far from God and needing your own Bethlehem moment where Christ is born in your heart? Why not trust in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ for your salvation today?
2 And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.
What? No motherly advice or encouragement? Not even a prayer for God to bless her labors and protect her in a strange new land? Nothing but a fatalistic, “Go, my daughter”?
Even though Naomi has been embittered by her hard years in Moab, Ruth is willing to serve and, more importantly, to seek grace. That attitude makes her the one that God will work through to restore Naomi. Someone has well said that God changes us before He changes our circumstances. Otherwise, if He improves our circumstances, but we remain the same, then we will eventually become worse.
The word corn here doesn’t mean Indian corn such as we Americans would naturally think of. It means grain – in this case, it’s barleycorn (1:22).
To glean was to go scavenge in the fields where the farmers had already reaped and pick up whatever fallen kernels one finds on the ground. It would be like someone today searching under couch cushions for loose change.
In ancient Israel, landowners were commanded to deliberately avoid trying to clean up all the loose grain or grapes left behind after the harvest. Why? Leviticus 19:9-10 explains, when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God. In Deuteronomy 24:19-22, God repeats this command, and says that the gleanings are for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.
Gleaning was a right of the poor, not a privilege. Moses’ law even said that in lean years you were to leave more for them to glean – the opposite of what one would typically do when things were tight!
Such laws were meant to teach landowners to be generous, and also to provide for the poor, the strangers (or foreigners) and the widows (Ruth would have been all three) in a way that promoted industry and did not rob
the poor of dignity.
Ruth learns about this provision in God’s law, and she acts on it – as everyone who comes to the Lord should do. Trust what God says and obey it.
To venture out on her own like this was a real step of faith for Ruth, because she was a total stranger here, and she was a single, unprotected young woman. She had no idea who owned what land, or what kind of people she would encounter in whatever field she might venture into. Imagine a single, pretty young woman venturing out for the first time to try hitchhiking, and you’ll get a sense of the trepidation Ruth was feeling! And as we’ll see from warnings people give her in just a few verses, these are very real concerns! But she and Naomi were desperate – they had to eat!
And how did it turn out for her? Verse 3 tells us:
And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.
Ruth stepped out that morning by faith in God’s word, and she went out looking for grace, and what did she find? Her hap was to light upon Boaz’ field. So, what do you think – happenstance or Providence?
It was a part of the field belonging to Boaz. There would be a common field in which each villager would stake out his part with maybe a boundary rock, or he might just recognize where his own crops began.
Boaz was a kinsman of Ruth’s deceased father-in-law, Elimelech. Later in the story, this relationship becomes important. But Ruth doesn’t know anything about who owns the field. She’s just going forward in simple faith, and the providence of God is orchestrating events on her behalf – the equivalent of a desperate girl hitchhiking and getting picked up by her cousin!
Psalm 37:23 says, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord – and the same goes for a good woman too.
Verse 2 just told us that Ruth was out looking for someone who would show her grace, or undeserved favor. As a woman, as a widow, as a Moabite, and as a pauper, she was at the rock bottom of the social ladder, completely vulnerable, and a good dose of grace was exactly what she needed.
And Ephesians 2 describes all of us before we came to Christ as being in
exactly the same boat. Verses 11-19 tell us to remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh... That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye... are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.
She went searching for grace, and verse 4 tells us what she found:
And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The LORD be with you. And they answered him, The LORD bless thee.
The opening words in the first verse of this book tell us that the story takes place during the times when the judges ruled. What was it like back then before Israel started having kings? Well, twice in the book of Judges, in 17:6 and in 21:25, it says, In those days there was no king in Israel, every man did that which was right in his own eyes. And throughout the book of Judges we see that it was a pretty lawless period. False religion was rampant – rape, murder, sexual perversion, the slaughter of babies, riots, social disorder, marauding gangs... sound familiar? You know, for all our progress, our culture isn’t all that different from 1200 BC!
But in the midst of all this ungodliness and anarchy, there were still some true followers of God. There were still some people who would come to work in the morning and wish everybody God’s blessing, and the workers would “God bless him” back. And that’s exactly what we see happening here. Boaz appears on the scene, and his opening lines in this love story are, The LORD be with you. And LORD is all capitals here, so it’s talking about Jehovah, the God of Israel.
And in the midst of our culture’s chaos and growing depravity, there are still people who will tell us to have a blessed day, who will say, God bless you, who will include God in their conversation and in their lives. And they are the lights in the darkness – they are God’s channels of grace, they’re the ones who make a difference in the culture, because you have to be different in order to make a difference. If you want to make a difference in the world around you, be different where it counts within you!
And that difference starts with repentance from sin and faith in the gospel.
If you’ve never come to Christ for salvation from sin before, then wherever you are, why not just bow your heart before God and tell Him something like this:
“God, be merciful to me, a sinner; I believe Christ died for my sins on the cross; I believe He rose to give me victory over death; I trust His sacrifice to pay for my pardon; I repent of my sins; I receive Your forgiveness by faith. I trust Your grace to deliver my soul on the judgment day – Amen!
