Ruth 2
"For surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield."
(PSALM 5:12)
Both Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi, were widowed and destitute. With no means of support, Ruth gathered anything missed by those harvesting the barley near Bethlehem. She was a foreigner knowing neither the people nor the land of Judah. But God's leading placed her in a field owned by Naomi's relative, Boaz, and there she gleaned. In time she came to know Boaz and even married him. Generations down the line, she became an ancestor of Jesus Christ Himself. Ruth was living in the center of God's will, and she knew His favor. Ruth was not jumping through hoops to win favor with God and man. She did what she needed to do each day in the place and at the time God chose for her.
What a relief it is for each of us who have received Jesus as Lord to know God does not require us to perform any extreme measures to qualify for His blessing on our lives. He has extended His favor to meet our every need, going so far as to meet our greatest need for salvation through the free gift of life given to us in Jesus.
INSIGHT
"HIS FAVOR LASTS A LIFETIME; WEEPING MAY REMAIN FOR A NIGHT, BUT REJOICING COMES IN THE MORNING."
(PSALM 30:5)
READ THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
Exodus 5-6
Psalm 28
Mark 8
Ruth 2
New International Version (NIV)
Ruth Meets Boaz in the Grain Field
2 Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.
2 And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”
Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” 3 So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.
4 Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you!”
“The Lord bless you!” they answered.
5 Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?”
6 The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. 7 She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”
8 So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. 9 Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”
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?”
11 Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 12 May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
13 “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have put me at ease by speaking kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servants.”
14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.”
When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. 15 As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her. 16 Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”
17 So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah.[a] 18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.
19 Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!”
Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.
20 “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.[b]”
21 Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’”
22 Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”
23 So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.
Footnotes:
a. Ruth 2:17 That is, probably about 30 pounds or about 13 kilograms
b. Ruth 2:20 The Hebrew word for guardian-redeemer is a legal term for one who has the obligation to redeem a relative in serious difficulty (see Lev. 25:25-55).
Cross references:
A. Ruth 2:1 : Ru 3:2; Pr 7:4
B. Ruth 2:1 : 1Sa 9:1; 1Ki 11:28
C. Ruth 2:1 : S Ru 1:2
D. Ruth 2:1 : Ru 4:21; 1Ch 2:12; Mt 1:5; Lk 3:32
E. Ruth 2:2 : S Ru 1:22
F. Ruth 2:2 : S Lev 19:9; S 23:22
G. Ruth 2:2 : S Ge 6:8; S 18:3
H. Ruth 2:3 : ver 14; 2Ki 4:18; Jer 9:22; Am 9:13
I. Ruth 2:3 : ver 1
J. Ruth 2:4 : S Jdg 6:12; Lk 1:28; 2Th 3:16
K. Ruth 2:4 : S Ge 28:3; S Nu 6:24
L. Ruth 2:6 : S Ru 1:22
M. Ruth 2:7 : S Ge 37:7; S Lev 19:9
N. Ruth 2:7 : 2Sa 4:5
O. Ruth 2:10 : S Ge 19:1; S 1Sa 20:41
P. Ruth 2:10 : ver 19; Ps 41:1
Q. Ruth 2:10 : S Ge 31:15; S Dt 15:3
R. Ruth 2:11 : S Ru 1:14
S. Ruth 2:11 : S Ru 1:5
T. Ruth 2:11 : Isa 55:5
U. Ruth 2:11 : Ru 1:16-17
V. Ruth 2:12 : 1Sa 24:19; 26:23, 25; Ps 18:20; Pr 25:22; Jer 31:16
W. Ruth 2:12 : S Jos 24:15
X. Ruth 2:12 : Ps 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 61:4; 63:7; 91:4
Y. Ruth 2:12 : Ps 71:1
Z. Ruth 2:13 : S Ge 18:3
AA. Ruth 2:14 : S Ge 3:19
AB. Ruth 2:14 : S ver 3
AC. Ruth 2:14 : S Lev 23:14
AD. Ruth 2:14 : ver 18
AE. Ruth 2:15 : S Ge 37:7; S Lev 19:9
AF. Ruth 2:16 : S Ge 37:10
AG. Ruth 2:17 : S Jdg 6:11
AH. Ruth 2:17 : S Lev 19:36
AI. Ruth 2:18 : ver 14
AJ. Ruth 2:19 : S ver 10
AK. Ruth 2:20 : S Jdg 17:2; S 1Sa 23:21
AL. Ruth 2:20 : S Ge 11:31
AM. Ruth 2:20 : S Ge 19:19
AN. Ruth 2:20 : S Lev 25:25
AO. Ruth 2:20 : Ru 3:9, 12; 4:1, 14
AP. Ruth 2:21 : S Ru 1:22
AQ. Ruth 2:23 : S Ex 9:31
AR. Ruth 2:23 : S Ge 30:14; S 1Sa 6:13
"CHRISTIAN" MYTHS ABOUT MONEY [PART 1]
with Dr. Ben Witherington
How are your finances? Does your heart swell with pride or sink with fear at the topic? No matter who you are, Jesus has something vitally important to say to you about money.
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