Ruth 2:1-23, See with your eyes of faith in Bethlehem!

As you look forward to the New Year, I am sure you have many thoughts and dreams how things will unfold for you. Depends on the mood you are in, you might be apprehensive about the unknown future or you might feel excitement. It all depends on your outlook on life.

For Naomi and Ruth, a new season began when they changed their life direction to Bethlehem and arrived there after ten years of life in Moab.

It just happened that when they arrived in Bethlehem, 1:22 says that “barley harvest was beginning.” But, having gone through chapter 1, we know better than to say this just happened. From 1:6, we learned that God was on the move in Bethlehem; God noticed his people and came to their aid to provide food for them in Bethlehem. So, the barley harvest that was going on when Naomi and Ruth arrived in Bethlehem was the result of God caring for his people.

So, beginning in chapter 2 Naomi and Ruth entered into a new season in Bethlehem. My prayer is that you will also enter the year 2007 knowing that God is on the move! Instead of anxiety and apprehension, your hearts will be filled with new excitement because you know that God is on the move.

PRAY…

As they entered into the new season in Bethlehem, the story introduces us to a new character named Boaz. Chapter 2:1 describes him as a man of standing. He was a prominent, well-to-do, well regarded and honored man in Bethlehem. Another thing about this man was that he was from the same clan as Naomi’s late husband Elimelech. A clan was bigger than the extended families but smaller than a tribe. Boaz was Naomi’s relative.

This introduction of a new character Boaz is briefly interrupted by the conversation between Ruth and Naomi. We see Ruth’s earlier pledge in chapter 1 to stay where Naomi stayed, to have Naomi’s people as her people continues in this chapter. Ruth volunteered to go to the harvest fields to pick up leftover grain, hoping it would be at kindhearted person’s fields. The story doesn’t say why Naomi couldn’t go and do the same. Perhaps, she was too old or still too distraught of having lost her two sons.

God gave the Israelites a law, which allowed this provision for the poor to glean what’s left on the harvest fields. Leviticus 19:9-10 says, “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leaven them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.” But, since people generally disregarded God’s laws during the time of Judges, this law for the poor and the aliens wasn’t well kept. So, for Ruth to hope to find favor from someone wasn’t just a warm wish. She had a reason to be concerned to go out there to glean what’s left of the harvest fields. She could stumble into the fields belonging to some mean and godless owners who didn’t care for the poor. She could be harassed. Being out there in the harvest fields not just as a woman but as a foreign woman posed a real possible danger to her. But, it was a difficult time; Naomi and Ruth didn’t have whole of option.

Ruth went ahead and ventured out there and found a field to glean what was left after the harvesters. Verse 3 says, “As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.” “As it turned out” sounds like a statement of chance. Do you believe in chance? Do things just happen for no reason? Verse 4 says, “Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem.” “Just then…” Was this coincidence too? Or, was there something else going on beyond the radar of human perception? Keep this question in your mind as we move along.

Verse 1 describes Boaz as a man of standing, wealthy, well known, well regarded and well honored man in the Bethlehem society. Verse 4 clues us that Boaz was a man of faith as well. When he arrived to his fields from Bethlehem, he warmly greeted his harvesters with a blessing, “The LORD be with you.” The harvesters then responded to him also with their warm blessing for him, “The LORD bless you!”

When he arrived, he noticed Ruth working to glean the field. He inquired his workers about Ruth. Verse 6-7, the foreman, the head of the harvesters, described Ruth as “the Moabites who came back from Moab with Naomi.” He also told Boas how Ruth asked for permission to glean and gather behind the harvesters and how hard she had worked.

From verse 8 to 17, we see Boaz showing incredible generosity to Ruth. And, we see Ruth responding to his generosity with deep gratitude. Boaz called Ruth, “My daughter” in verse 8. This tells us that Boaz was quite older than Ruth. In verse 8-9, we see him telling Ruth to stay in his fields instead of venturing out into other fields. The harvesters, the men wielded sickles and his servant girls followed them tying the sheaves in bundles. Boaz told Ruth to join the servant girls to glean and gather the grain. He had told his men not to harass her. She was given also the privilege to drink from the water jars that men have filled.

Touched by Boaz’s acts of generosity, Ruth asked him in verse 10, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me- a foreigner?” She was known by people not just as Ruth, but Ruth the Moabite woman. Why should Boaz a man of standing be so generous to Ruth?

Boaz explained Ruth why he was being generous to her in verse 11-12. Apparently, Boaz was well aware of what Ruth had done, to leave Moab her homeland to follow her old mother-in-law, a widow, Naomi to live with a people she did not know! Ruth’s sacrificial, kind and loyal act impressed Boaz so much that he was compelled to be generous to Ruth. He asked God to repay, to reward Ruth for all that she had done for Naomi. Boaz as a man of faith saw Ruth not as some lowly foreigner, but as a woman who sought to be under the wings of the LORD, the God of Israel. To this, Ruth humbly asked Boaz to continue to show his favor to Ruth.

Boaz didn’t stop here. He invited her for the lunch to share the bread, wine vinegar, roasted grain. He even served her. She had more than enough to eat with some left over.

And in verse 15-16 when Ruth got up to glean, Boaz ordered his men to leave Ruth alone even if she gathered grain from the sheaves, not just from the ground. He told them instead to intentionally pull out stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up.

All these generous measures taken for Ruth didn’t make her lazy. She worked hard in the field until evening and then threshed the barley she gathered. It amounted an ephah, over twenty some pounds of barley. If Boaz didn’t show his kindness to Ruth, she would be hard-pressed to gather even a pound. Well that is not even counting the risk of being harassed and getting hurt.

Verse 18, we see Ruth after a hard and long day of work late into evening making her way back to the town carrying the 20 some pounds of barley along with the left over lunch.

When Ruth showed up, Naomi was amazed at how much Ruth gathered. Naomi knew right away that someone had shown incredible generosity to Ruth and her. “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!” Indeed Naomi was right! Boaz took notice of Ruth working in the field. Naomi learned from Ruth it was Boaz who showed such kindness to them. She said in verse 20, “The LORD bless him... He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead… That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers.”

Leviticus 25:25 talks about kinsman-redeemers having the responsibility to buy back family’s land sold. Leviticus 25:47-49 talks about how kinsman-redeemers are to buy a family member who had been sold as a slave. Leviticus 25:35 talks about the responsibility of kinsman redeemer to look after needy and helpless members of the family. And, last week I mentioned to you the levirate law from Deuteronomy 25:5-10 about marring a childless widow of a deceased brother.

Chapter 2 began with what seemed to be coincidences or chances of Ruth having stumbled into Boaz’s field and Boaz showing up when while Ruth was working in the field. But, Naomi, looking at things with the eyes of her faith in God who takes notice of his people and come to aid of them, didn’t relegate the events that took place as mere coincidences. She saw God was moving!

Having gained favor and protection from Boaz, Naomi encouraged Ruth to go back to the fields that belonged to Boaz and to work along side of his servant girls. And, Ruth did exactly that. For the next month and half during the barley harvest followed by the wheat harvest, Ruth gleaned at the fields of Boaz, while taking care of her aging mother-in-law.

I will make two application points to consider from today’s text.

1. See with your eyes of faith in Bethlehem and you see God at moving!

When you read chapter 2 without the eyes of faith wide open, it would be tempting to explain away what happened to Ruth as good fortunes or simply good coincidences.

But as we saw how Naomi perceived things not as random events, but as guided by the unseen hands of the Almighty God, we need to cultivate the eyes that can see God at work clearly in the midst of our days.

How was Naomi able to see with her spiritual eyes and perceive God at work? It is because she moved from the godless life in Moab to God centered life in Bethlehem.

When Naomi moved to Moab, she believed in the false hope that life would be full! But, in reality life in Moab was empty because God was not at the center in Naomi’s life in Moab. It is only when Naomi moved back to Bethlehem where God was evidently working, where God was at the center, she could hope for truly fulfilling life.

The reason she could hope with her eyes of her faith and trust that God was going to come through for her and Ruth is because she was moving towards God; she was learning to trust God. The right direction is critical for cultivating the eyes of faith that can see God at work!

Do you see God at work? If you are not seeing God at work, do you think it is because you are not moving to Bethlehem where Jesus was born, where Jesus is the bread of life, where Jesus is the King, where Jesus is at the very center of your life?

If you want to see God at work, you got to go and be at Bethlehem, you got to stay connected to Christ. Jesus said in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”

Only the eyes of faith that see God at work can participate in God’s work. And, the only way that you can cultivate the eyes of faith that see God at work is when you are connected to Jesus.

The New Year 2007’s outcome will be determined by your direction, where you stay, who is at the center of your life, whether you have the eyes of faith to see God at work. One direction leads to abundant fruitful life and the other leads to empty life destined to destruction.

The New Year 2007’s outcome will be determined by the person you follow, listen to, hang out with, enjoy spending time with, pay attention to… If that person is Jesus, you will see with the eyes of faith and see God who is on the move!

2. See with your eyes of faith in Bethlehem and you see people differently and treat them differently.

When you see with the eyes of faith in Bethlehem, in intimate connection to Jesus, then you will see people differently and treat them differently.

Boaz was a man of standing, not just because he was wealthy man, well-respected and honored man in the society, but because he was a man who saw with the eyes of faith.

To the eyes that are not connected to faith, Ruth was a Moabite, foreign woman, undesirable, unlovable outcast in Bethlehem.

But, Boaz saw Ruth differently. When people saw a pagan, foreign and despicable Moabite woman in Ruth, Boaz saw an amazing woman of faith, living selflessly for the good of others, living diligently with integrity and honor, living faithfully after God whom she committed her life to. With the eyes of faith Boaz was able to see that Ruth was an extraordinary woman of godly character.

And, because he saw things differently about Ruth, he acted differently! Some other land owners would have harassed and molested her. But, not Boaz, a man of standing deeply connected to God who saw the spiritual shape of Ruth treated her with utmost generosity and kindness.

We need to cultivate this ability to see people differently and treat them differently; we need stand out in the crowd with this ability.

Again, this requires we make the directional change to go to Bethlehem and stay there; in Bethlehem, we need to be connected to Jesus who was born as our King.

Do you remember the time when a woman was caught in the act of adultery in John 8? The self-righteous people encircled this woman with their white knuckled hands high, clenching rocks, ready to crush her to death! But, what did Jesus see? Jesus saw a woman who needed him to forgive her, to give her new life, new beginning. And, because Jesus saw her differently from the rest of those who encircled her to kill her, he treated her differently. He challenged the self-righteous people to go ahead and throw the stones at her if they were without sin. No one dared for none were without sin. Jesus asked the woman in verse 10, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?... Then neither do I condemn you... Go now and leave your life of sin” said Jesus in verse 11. If anyone could condemn her, it was Jesus since he was sinless Son of God. Yet, we see him relating to her lovingly, kindly, respectfully and forgivingly.

Let the year 2007 be the year when you see people differently and treat them differently because you go to Bethlehem and stay there to live with Jesus and learn from him!