Ruth meets Boaz

I apologize for not posting yesterday. I have six kids at home who I cyber school, plus I am in college myself, and sometimes, life happens! My goal is to post everyday, and I will try to meet that goal, but there will be days when I will not be successful.

So, today I read Ruth chapter 2. We meet Boaz, who was a “kinsman” of Naomi, or relative. It doesn’t say how they were related, just that they were. But it does tell us that he was wealthy. Ruth asks if she can go to his fields and “glean”, or pick up the leftovers that the harvesters leave behind. So, she goes, and it just so happens that she ends up in the fields belonging to Boaz. Although, I am sure it didn’t “just happen”, I suspect God was directing her.

Boaz arrives, sees the workers, and says “The LORD be with you. And they answered him, The LORD bless thee.” This makes me think that Boaz is a Godly man, one who treats even his workers well. And his workers respond by praying a blessing upon him, which means they probably had a great relationship with one another. He sees Ruth working, and asks one of the workers who she is. His servant tells him it is the girl who came back with Naomi from Moab.

I got into a discussion about this with someone over the weekend, and this is what they explained to me. In those days, they didn’t have social services or welfare. But the poor needed a way to feed themselves and survive. So, when farmers harvested fields, they purposely left some that they didn’t harvest. This way, the poor could come and harvest it, and if they didn’t own farms, or couldn’t physically plant them, this would give them a source of food. It also provided a “job opportunity” for those who didn’t have one, not a hand out, but work for those who wanted it. And apparently anyone could show up and work, so they next part was interesting.

The servant tells Boaz that Ruth had asked permission to glean, which she really didn’t need to do, but showed respect. He also told Boaz that she had been there since morning working. I get the impression that her asking permission got their attention, and her working diligently all day kept it.

Then Boaz speaks to Ruth, and tells her to stay working on his fields, and to “abide here fast by my maidens”. He also says, “have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee?” I suppose that a young woman traveling alone was probably not very safe in those days, but Boaz, who just met her, is protecting her, and taking care of her, even providing water for her to drink.

Ruth falls to the ground, bowing before Boaz, and says, “Why have I found grace in your eyes?” I found myself feeling very sorry for Ruth at this point. Her husband died, she left her home, her family, her culture. She traveled to a foreign land trusting a “new God” that she barely knew. She went to seek work to provide for herself and her mother in law, who she really had no obligation to care for, but chose to do so anyway. She worked all day in a stranger’s field picking up what the workers dropped. And when the closest thing she now has to a relative approaches her, telling her she can work, and drink if she gets thirsty, she drops to his feet and basically says, “Why are you being so nice to me, I am a foreigner.”

Boaz tells her he has heard what she has done, that her husband died, she left her family and her home, and traveled to an unknown land with an unknown God to care for Naomi. Then at mealtime, he invited her to eat, and “dip thy morsel in the vinegar”. I do not know the significance of dipping the bread in vinegar, or if there is any, but if anyone else knows what this means or why they did it, please share!

After they finish eating, she goes back to work, and Boaz has a word with the other workers. Basically he tells them to leave behind extra on purpose, to make sure that she gets quite a bit. She worked hard all day, and at the end of the day, she had “an ephah of barley”. What is an ephah? I had to look that up, but it turns out to be about a bushel, and barley is just a wee little grain, so for her to gather a bushel of barley in a day by hand, by picking up basically what other people dropped, she really must have been working hard!

Ruth goes home and gives the barley to Naomi. Also, when Ruth had eaten, she had saved some of her food, and brought that home to Naomi as well. Naomi wanted to know all about Ruth’s day, and Ruth tells her about Boaz and all that has happened. And then Naomi says, “Blessed be he of the LORD, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead.” I can almost envision the joy on Naomi’s face, as her inner heart transforms from “my life is bitter” to “the Lord has not forgotten me”.

Ruth tells Naomi that Boaz told her to come back, and Naomi tells her to keep going, and not to go to any other fields. She finishes the barley harvest, and then the wheat harvest, and chapter 2 ends.

I have read through Ruth before, but I have never looked at it as deeply as I have today. I feel convicted of being annoyed, when I have to go to my kitchen and prepare a meal, to go to my refrigerator, freezer, and pantry to choose food that is ready for me, and prepare it to serve as a meal to my family. There is so much in life to distract us, to pull us away from where our hearts really should be. Some days, as the day has slipped away from me, and it is mealtime, and I realize that I haven’t given thought to the evening meal, I find myself annoyed as I attempt to “throw something together”. I don’t realize how blessed I am to have food sitting waiting to be prepared, electricity, running water, all the modern “conveniences” of cooking that others only dream about. Today’s assignment is to prepare a meal for your family. If you live alone, prepare a meal to bless someone else. As you are preparing the meal, pray for the ones that the meal is for.