Word Live: Enter The Hero
Think of a time when someone put you at your ease. Are you good at making others feel welcome and comfortable? Ask God to show you a situation where you can do just that.
Bible passage
Ruth 1:19 – 2:13
19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, ‘Can this be Naomi?’
20 ‘Don’t call me Naomi,’ she told them. ‘Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.’
22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
Ruth meets Boaz in the cornfield
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 favour.’
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 favour 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 favour 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.’
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Explore
Enter Boaz, the man of the match! ‘As it turned out’ (v 3) Ruth was working in his field, and ‘just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem’ (v 4). Coincidence? God incidence more like.
The man knows his workers well and recognises a new face. We immediately see that he is a force to be reckoned with. Introduced as ‘a man of standing’ (v 1), he is obviously a caring employer. A man of very strong faith, and poetic with it, he tells Ruth that she has found refuge under the wings of the Lord, the God of Israel (v 12).
But Ruth plays her part too. She is not frightened of hard work. And all the good that she has done for her mother-in-law has gone before her (v 11). We too should give our very best to everything we do. And if our eyes are open for the possibilities of God working in our lives, he will be there, perhaps in places we least expect it. How thrilling is that?!
Author
Liz Pacey
Respond
‘Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life’ (Psalm 143:8). Thank God that things happen when we trust him.
Deeper Bible study
Praise be to … the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble’.1
Naomi does not hide from her neighbours how desperate she feels or that she feels struck down by the Lord. Her pain is on public display. Naomi’s neighbours in her home town are ‘stirred’ (v 19) by her sad return with her Moabite daughter-in-law, but the fact they are stirred does not lead them to help her in her grief and trouble. The Law says, ‘If any of your own people become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so that they can continue to live among you.’2 Naomi and Ruth needed the love of their community and they needed practical help, but Naomi’s neighbours just leave these poor women to fend for themselves. Ruth – despite being a foreigner – is the one who fulfils the Law’s requirements by supporting Naomi. Boaz commends her for it – she gains his respect and his help through her hard work and excellent character (2:11–13) – but I really think that the vulnerability and poverty of his widowed relative and this foreigner should immediately have stirred Boaz – and the community – to remember the Law of the Lord and to act with compassion.
This picture of God’s community is a challenge to us today. Boaz happily blessed his workers by saying ‘The Lord be with you!’ (2:4), but he himself needed to be the instrument of God’s grace and blessing for Naomi and Ruth in their time of need. We may be stirred by suffering and grief in our community and in the world, but what do we do about it? Sometimes it is easier to turn a blind eye to the pain in others’ lives, leaving our brothers and sisters to deal with their grief and suffering in private.
Pray for your church community, the wider community, the world. How is God leading you to be an instrument of his blessing and grace to those you know are suffering?
1 2 Cor 1:3,4 2Lev 25:35, TNIV
Author
Katharine McPhail
