So yesterday we followed Naomi and her family of four 50 miles east of Bethlehem in search of FOOD SECURITY. While there, Ruth marries one of the sons, and then things went very bad, leading Naomi to return to Bethlehem ten years after leaving with only the daughter-in-law in tow. Grieving and hungry. And they arrive just as the barley harvest is starting. Here is Ruth chapter 2:
It so happened that Naomi had a relative by marriage, a man prominent and rich, connected with Elimelech’s family. His name was Boaz.
One day Ruth, the Moabite foreigner, said to Naomi, “I’m going to work; I’m going out to glean among the sheaves, following after some harvester who will treat me kindly.”
Naomi said, “Go ahead, dear daughter.”
And so she set out. She went and started gleaning in a field, following in the wake of the harvesters. Eventually she ended up in the part of the field owned by Boaz, her father-in-law Elimelech’s relative. A little later Boaz came out from Bethlehem, greeting his harvesters, “God be with you!” They replied, “And God bless you!”
Boaz asked his young servant who was foreman over the farm hands, “Who is this young woman? Where did she come from?”
The foreman said, “Why, that’s the Moabite girl, the one who came with Naomi from the country of Moab. She asked permission. ‘Let me glean,’ she said, ‘and gather among the sheaves following after your harvesters.’ She’s been at it steady ever since, from early morning until now, without so much as a break.”
Then Boaz spoke to Ruth: “Listen, my daughter. From now on don’t go to any other field to glean—stay right here in this one. And stay close to my young women. Watch where they are harvesting and follow them. And don’t worry about a thing; I’ve given orders to my servants not to harass you. When you get thirsty, feel free to go and drink from the water buckets that the servants have filled.”
She dropped to her knees, then bowed her face to the ground. “How does this happen that you should pick me out and treat me so kindly—me, a foreigner?”
Boaz answered her, “I’ve heard all about you—heard about the way you treated your mother-in-law after the death of her husband, and how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth and have come to live among a bunch of total strangers. God reward you well for what you’ve done—and with a generous bonus besides from God, to whom you’ve come seeking protection under his wings.”
She said, “Oh sir, such grace, such kindness—I don’t deserve it. You’ve touched my heart, treated me like one of your own. And I don’t even belong here!”
At the lunch break, Boaz said to her, “Come over here; eat some bread. Dip it in the wine.”
So she joined the harvesters. Boaz passed the roasted grain to her. She ate her fill and even had some left over.
When she got up to go back to work, Boaz ordered his servants: “Let her glean where there’s still plenty of grain on the ground—make it easy for her. Better yet, pull some of the good stuff out and leave it for her to glean. Give her special treatment.”
Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. When she threshed out what she had gathered, she ended up with nearly a full sack of barley! She gathered up her gleanings, went back to town, and showed her mother-in-law the results of her day’s work; she also gave her the leftovers from her lunch.
Naomi asked her, “So where did you glean today? Whose field? God bless whoever it was who took such good care of you!”
Ruth told her mother-in-law, “The man with whom I worked today? His name is Boaz.”
Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Why, God bless that man! God hasn’t quite walked out on us after all! He still loves us, in bad times as well as good!”
Naomi went on, “That man, Ruth, is one of our circle of covenant redeemers, a close relative of ours!”
Ruth the Moabitess said, “Well, listen to this: He also told me, ‘Stick with my workers until my harvesting is finished.’”
Naomi said to Ruth, “That’s wonderful, dear daughter! Do that! You’ll be safe in the company of his young women; no danger now of being raped in some stranger’s field.”
So Ruth did it—she stuck close to Boaz’s young women, gleaning in the fields daily until both the barley and wheat harvesting were finished. And she continued living with her mother-in-law.
* * *
I find it a very interesting literary device to introduce Boaz at the start of chapter two, rather than waiting until Ruth actually meets him. It is a little bit like chapter one, where Naomi and family are first introduced in a story called ‘Ruth.’ And if you follow the next two days, each chapter starts with someone else on stage. And then Ruth gets the punch line maybe.
In the case of chapter 2, Ruth declares that she is going to work! That is such a beautiful declaration. We in America have been so jaded by entitlements and welfare that we ASSUME people struggling to survive are lazy. THAT IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE. No one wants to be starving. Ruth realized Naomi was still grieving, and if they were going to have any food with their meals, she had to get to work.
So she goes out to GLEAN. Gleaning is a practice mentioned in Leviticus as a means for the landowners to care for the poor. Consider Leviticus 19:9-10:
“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not make a full gleaning of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.”
For all who have been taught by the church or the Bible college that the Old Testament teaches to give 10% to the church and ignore the poor, I just want to point out that the Old Testament ACTUALLY seems to suggest taking care of the poor FIRST, and then tithing from the amount that you actually harvested. But that is just a bonus point – back to Ruth…
I find some interesting ETHNIC references in this chapter. Maybe when Boaz asked who the new girl is, it was because she didn’t look exactly like the other Jewish girls. And I love that the foreman did NOT let that fact cause him to stop her from gleaning!
To Boaz credit, he is very kind. He has all the power, and he seems to share it without demanding anything in return. Not normal for those in power. And he says it is because he has heard of the way she cared for her grieving mother-in-law. Very nice. I want to believe it. But deep inside somewhere it is hard for me to believe…
Have you noticed this ENTIRE CHAPTER is about FOOD? Why is she gleaning in the first place? FOOD! Boaz invites her to enjoy some of the GOOD FOOD at his table. Then Boaz instructs his servants to give her EXTRA FOOD for gleaning.
So she gets home with maybe more gleaning than Naomi expected PLUS lunch leftovers, and Naomi is IMPRESSED! When she asks Ruth how, we come to a turning point in the GRIEF JOURNEY of Naomi. When she finds out Ruth has somehow gotten into the field of Boaz, and it was Boaz that was filling their coffers, she says these very powerful words:
“GOD hasn’t quite walked out on us after all! He still loves us, in bad times as well as good!”
That is significant to me. I infer from that statement that her incredible loss had caused her to doubt her faith in God. Maybe assume God had indeed left her behind for some reason! This “coincidence” was turning her in a different, healthier direction. That is beautiful.
So chapter two ends with the end of the barley season. They have a houseful of FOOD. Naomi is maybe less bitter?? And both ladies are maybe content to go into the winter with their heads a little higher and an optimism they didn’t have when they reentered Bethlehem before the harvest.
