Ruth 2:1-16
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.”
Ruth 2:1-16 HOW DID RUTH KNOW GOD?
Springford Baptist Church: January 30, 2022.
What will we learn this week about “KNOWING GOD” from this woman we meet in the Bible named Ruth?
There are just 2 books of the Bible named after women: Esther and Ruth.
God worked out the details of Ruth’s life in unique ways. Ruth was not Jewish. Ruth was from Moab and is referred to as a foreigner. Yet at a time when many of God’s people were not living to please God, Ruth’s choices and her way of living does please God. In her lifetime, Ruth comes to recognize that God is a loving God Who is always at work in the details.
We need to understand, that it was the Jewish practice, if a man died for his brother or next closest relative to marry the man’s widow. The intention was to have children and to carry on the family name.
There was Ruth in the land of Moab living in her familiar surroundings with relatives and friends. Her father-in-law has died, but she has her Jewish mother-in-law Naomi. She and her husband and her husband’s brother and his wife are all close together. Life must seem good and we can imagine that Ruth would go about her daily activities with a smile on her face.
Then both Ruth’s husband and his brother die. These are Naomi’s only sons.
What now?
Naomi decides to return to her home (Bethlehem).
“With her two daughters-in-law she left where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.” (Ruth 1:7)
Naomi turns to her daughters-in-law and urges them to go back to their own families.
“Go back each of you to your mother’s home. May the Lord show kindness to you as you have shown to me… May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” (Ruth1:8)
Initially, both Ruth and her sister-in law protest, but then Orpah, Ruth’s sister-in-law does turn to go back home.
Not Ruth! No Ruth makes a different decision. Ruth says to Naomi with great determination and emotion, “Where you go I will go and where you live I will live. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God…” (Ruth 1:16)
Ruth’s decision is significant. She could have turned back to the familiar and gone home as her sister-in-law did. But she clearly loves Naomi and is willing to leave everything behind to go with Naomi back to Naomi’s home and family.
Ruth is determined that Naomi’s God will be her God.
Often, when we have to make difficult decisions, we long for the choice that seems easier. When we pray, we are hoping that God will see things the same way we do.
In Ruth’s story, we see someone who felt compelled to make a choice that was not the easiest.
She was not thinking so much about herself as she was thinking about her mother-in-law Naomi.
Love motivated her in her decision.
Love motivates God in His decisions! Ruth came to know that this was true because of the way that God revealed Himself in the unfolding details of her life.
God was watching over both Ruth and Naomi.
They return to Bethlehem at the time of the barley harvest and Ruth, a practical person goes out to glean some grain.
(Ruth 2:2)
She does not sit at home and expect God to take care of them, Ruth is willing to do her part. She is willing to work hard.
God has things for each of us to do as well to see our prayers answered and His will accomplished.
Ruth was willing to do her part and we see that our loving God does His.
Ruth does not go to just any field to gather grain, she goes to the field of Naomi’s relative on her husband’s side, a man named Boaz.
Don’t you think that God arranged this? Scripture does not indicate that Naomi told Ruth to go to a particular field. We read, “As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz…” (Ruth 2:3)
You know how often people will talk about remarkable coincidences.
Wouldn’t it be easier and more accurate to talk about miracles?
Our God is immense and He oversees a vast universe, but clearly God is not too busy to arrange important, sometimes small details in the lives of people. These are miracles.
Why does God bother to do this?
Remember I said that love motivated Ruth in her decisions and that love motivates God in His decisions!
How reassuring to know that God loves us and will bring solutions in our lives in ways we wouldn’t even imagine or plan.
We can know God and God’s love in the details of life.
When Ruth is noticed by Boaz and then shown special favour and protection, God is at work in those details.
The words that Boaz speaks to Ruth express the truth of how any one of us can know God: May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” (Ruth 2:12) We can know God as One who does not forget us. He loves us and shelters us under His wings.
The conversation that Ruth and Naomi have at the end of the day when Ruth returns home rekindles Naomi’s faith.
In her grief over losing her husband and both of her sons, Naomi may have begun to wonder if God was still watching over them and if she really could trust God.
Naomi asks Ruth, “Where did you work”?
Ruth replies that she was working in the field of Boaz.
Immediately, Naomi recognizes that God is up to something in these details. “The Lord has not stopped showing His kindness to the living and the dead. That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsmen redeemers.” (Ruth 2:20)
So it is that according to Jewish custom, the widow Ruth becomes the wife of Boaz.
She was willing out of love to return with her mother-in-law to a foreign place. She was willing to live with her mother-in-law and to have no guarantee of remarriage. Naomi’s God became Ruth’s God and her life was dramatically changed.
In time, this same loving God gifted Boaz and Ruth with a son named Obed who became the father of Jesse who was the father of King David. (Ruth 4:16-18)
(Ruth was King David’s Great Grandmother)
Follow that family tree through the generations and you come to the birth of Jesus God’s own Son.
God used Boaz as a “kinsman redeemer” to redeem Ruth’s life and carry out a bigger plan.
Love motivated God’s decision in this instance and certainly love motivated God’s decision in sending Jesus to be our Redeemer!
Recall again with me the depth of love that motivated our God to give His only Son for us!
We discover in the account of Ruth’s life that Ruth’s love for Naomi was life changing. God’s loving care for Ruth was life changing and God’s love for us is absolutely life changing.
How can we know God and his love for us in the details of our lives?
How might God choose to use our willingness to make decisions motivated by love to change lives and to carry out the details of His much bigger plan?