Ruth 2:1-23.  Today we have more of that powerful storytelling.  Yesterday we left Ruth and Naomi settling back down in Bethlehem.  The problem is it would be hard for them to settle down because they were both widows and for the most part women in that society worked in their homes, either of their fathers or their husbands.  From Proverbs 31 we know that they worked hard and even earned money but it was definitely from home, but they had no husbands so what were they to do?  Fortunately when God set up the rules for Israel he included a way for widows and orphans to survive.  When crops were harvested the farmers were to only go over the field once, anything that was left was available for widows, orphans, and the poor to go out and take.  The practice was called gleaning and that is what Ruth is going to do.

But first the storyteller gives us a new little bit of information, like a teaser on TV trying to get you to watch the next episode of some show.  Naomi had a rich relative.  Oh!  Is that how they are going to survive, he’s going to give them some money?  Notice he is called a “kinsman”.  That is a very special word in the Hebrew culture because in their law if a man died and left a wife but no children were born then his brother had to marry the widow and raise a child in the name of his brother.  If there was no brother the responsibility passed to other close relatives, kinsmen.  This kinsman was named Boaz.  Cut!

Back to Ruth and Naomi sitting at home planning how to get food.  Ruth has learned of the gleaning law and asked her mother-in-law’s permission to go out and glean.  She hopes to find a field where she will be accepted.  Although gleaning was the law, remember this was the time of the judges and people “did what was right in their own eyes.”  It is quite possible that farmers didn’t allow gleaning or that invaders were stealing a lot of the produce (If you read through Judges you might remember that Gideon was hiding in a wine press with his wheat trying to keep the Midianites from stealing it, (Judges 6:11)).  So Ruth a foreign widow goes out into an uncertain situation to try to find food for her and Naomi.  And guess who’s field she just happened to glean in, Boaz’.  Hmmmmm!  Very Interesting.

IN verse 4 we see that Boaz is a caring man who right off the bat blesses his workers.  This would not be some casual comment, in those days people took blessings very seriously.  Next he takes notice of Ruth gleaning and asks who she is.  At the time she was not actually gleaning she had been working all morning and was resting in the rest tent.  In verses 8-9 we see that Boaz is an especially kind landowner because he promises Ruth protection and provision (water) as she continues to glean in his field.  In verse 10 we see that she can’t believe how kind he is being to her since she is a foreigner.  Boaz tells her that he has heard about her faithfulness to Naomi and to the God of Israel.  Then he gives another blessing, this time to her, he prays that God will give her a full life.  She still cannot believe here ears she considers herself a servant, the lowest class in Israelite society, and even admits she doesn’t even equal or measure up to his servants.  So we see Ruth a hardworking, faithful, and humble.

In verses 13-17 Boaz takes things to the next level when he has here eat with his servants and farm workers.  Then he secretly tells his workers to drop stuff for her to find and not to harass her.  At the end of the day she separated the wheat kernels from the straw and leaves.  What she had left were wheat kernels enough to more than fill a 5-gallon bucket, somewhere between 30-50 pounds of wheat, and remember she picked it and separated it.

In the next part of today’s reading we see that Naomi is amazed at what she brought home.  When asked where she had worked Ruth told her it was in the field of a man named Boaz.  Naomi then told Ruth that he was a close relative.  The story is progressing, what will happen?  Boaz is a kind and faithful man who is full of hesed (a big Hebrew word that means that he is faithful above and beyond).  The storyteller told us there was a kinsman now he is part of the story.  So with Naomi’s blessing Ruth continues to work, gleaning in the field of Boaz, throughout the harvesting season, and she continued to support Naomi.

There is going to be more to this story but for now I like it that Ruth has been faithful to Naomi.  It certainly has cost her, she probably could have found a husband back hope in Moab.  Also she gave up all her own culture and friends to go to a place where she was a foreigner.  But she was devoted to her mother-in-law.  Look at the results though, some one took notice and cared for her even though she was a foreigner.  You might be thinking Boaz but behind it all is God.  God is the one who set up the laws and it was God who provided the harvest.  But we see too that human obedience is an important part of God’s plan working.  Boaz was faithful, Boaz was committed, Boaz cared above and Beyond, Boaz had hesed.  All of this in a nation on the edge of disaster.  We need to be faithful too.  We need to show kindness and the heart of God to others too.  We need to love people like God does regardless of where they are from.  We need to have hesed.  And as we will see the results will be beyond what we could even imagine.

Lord help me treat others with respect, care, and kindness.  Let me be a servant.  Give me your heart for others.  Thank you for loving me.  Let me be a Boaz to many people.