Ruth 2: Women with a Story to Tell: Life as it Happens.

  “As it happened,” that’s what the text says (Ruth 2:3). Ruth went out to glean barley in order to provide some food and income for her mother-in-law Naomi. First, what does it mean ‘to glean’?

 Harvesting wheat or barley until recent times involved farm laborers cutting the stalks and stacking them in sheaves. After they dry out, the sheaves are gathered (hence the old hymn “Bringing in the Sheaves, we shall come rejoicing bringing in the sheaves.” On a solid threshing floor, laborers would use flails to beat the kernels out of the head, and others would blow away the chaff and collect the grain. 

 This process changed considerably with the invention of machines to cut and thresh the stalks. One of the earlier ones, which is still around, is a combine called “The Gleaner.” Mechanical reapers pulled by horses appeared in the 1820s, followed by threshing machines run by steam engines beginning in the 1850s (They sat stationary in the field and sheaves were brought to them.) Later, steam engines pulled combined cutting and threshing machines in the field, but in the 1930s gasoline engine tractors took over. Finally, around World War II, self-propelled combines appeared in the fields (I remember the first one I saw), and that is what we still see today.

 The Gleaner, introduced in 1923, sported a new technology that was efficient and would minimize the loss of grain. All methods, until quite recently, left some grain on the ground in the field. That is why poor people, particularly women, would walk through the field in olden times and pick up by hand the grain that had been overlooked or spilled. That work is called ‘gleaning’. 

 “As it happened,” Ruth ended up in a field owned by a relative of Naomi’s deceased husband, a rich man named Boaz (Ruth 2:3-6). Boaz noticed the newcomer among the gleaners and must have been attracted to her because he instructed her to keep working his fields. Then he instructed his male workers not to molest her but to be sure and leave grain for her to glean (Ruth 2:8-7-9).

 Ruth was pleased, but also curious. “Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?” (Ruth 2:10). That is a legitimate question, given what we know about men’s manners from reading some stories in the Book of Judges. 

 The character of Boaz seems to match the character of Naomi. Their behavior is a prime example of what God intended when he set apart the children of Israel.  The response of Ruth establishes her as a model of the anticipated response of the ‘the nations’ when Israel does the right thing. 

 The text reveals a rich landowner who still cares for his workers and others around him, unlike the Parable of the Rich Landowner that Jesus told (Luke 12:13-22). When he arrives at his field, Boaz greets the workers with a phrase similar to the one that we should be using in church: “The LORD be with you.”  The workers answer, “The LORD bless you.” 

 (At the time of “Passing the Peace” as some churches do early in the church service, I typically do not say, “Hello, how are you?” Instead, I say, “The peace of the Lord be with you.” The traditional response is, “And also with you.”)

 In answer to Ruth’s question, “Why have I found favor with you even though I am an alien?,” Boaz says, 

 “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. May the LORD reward you for your deeds, and may you have a full reward from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!” (Ruth 2:11-12).  

 It is God’s plan of salvation to choose Abraham though whose descendants the nations will be blessed, if Israel shows kindness and generosity and if the nations respond to this demonstration of godly character (Genesis 12:1-3). In this specific example, Ruth from Moab has responded to the kindness of Naomi from Israel, and now Boaz from Israel rewards Ruth’s faithfulness to her dead husband’s mother. Naomi’s kindness drew the response of Ruth’s kindness, and now Ruth’s faithfulness brings out the kindness of Boaz. Such is life, or rather so it should be. 

 God’s plan of salvation is voiced again in the poetry of the psalms. This is Psalm 36, a poem written by David. (See also Psalm 57:1, 61:4, and 91:4.)

   “Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains; your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O LORD. How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. (Psalm 36:5-9).

  The prophets recognized this mission of God for Israel. For example, Israel is reminded to: 

“Give counsel; grant justice; make your shade like night at the height of noon; hide the outcasts; do not betray the fugitive; let the outcasts of Moab settle among you; be a refuge to them from the destroyer” (Isaiah 16: 3-4).

 But instead of being God’s witness to the nations, Israel departed from God and mimicked the evil practices of the nations. False worship, false government, and false alliances that failed when the time came. Thus, instead of the nations coming to Jerusalem to worship the one true God, God scattered the Israelites among the nations and many were lost there. 

 Naomi and then Boaz have shown the proper example of godly behavior to this immigrant from a sometimes enemy nation, Moab. Ruth, who was embraced and not chased away, responds with faith and kindness. That is the way it should have been and always should be. It should be that way today whether a country calls itself a Jewish nation or a Christian nation. How will other nations know about the God behind these claims? A faithful witness is what God expects, an expression of the love of God, a demonstration of the righteousness of God, and the offering of God’s mercy.