Ruth 2:1-13
1 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 men—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.”
In this section we have the speedy development of the plot in which Boaz is introduced, Ruth’s desire to provide for her and her mother in law is made clear, the meeting of Ruth and Boaz takes place, and Boaz’s steps move him from remote stranger to bringing her (and thereby Naomi) under his own personal ward and protection.
God may not be present as a character in this story however we see Kingdom principles and mechanics at play. My takeaway from this story is that God is ever-present, and when we each move in step with the divine flow the Lord is ever eager to move with us also.
Monday 30th January
1 Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.
It is made clear in this verse that Boaz is a man of standing in Bethlehem, a man of ‘great wealth’ (KJV), a ‘goel’ meaning kinsman or chieftain of Naomi’s past husbands’ family clan. Ruth whom we met in the previous weeks readings is faithful to her mother in law but she is a stranger in a strange land. The framing of these two central characters places them at opposite ends of the social hierarchy. Ruth is powerless, a foreigner and a stranger with nobody looking out for her needs or protection and in contrast Boaz, the chieftain of the family clan and a man of wealth and standing, a ‘goel’ in the town.
Q: Given the great social distance between these characters, what might we expect Boaz’s attitude toward Naomi to be? What might we expect Naomi’s reaction to her situation be? What is our experience of the powerful and being powerless? And what is our attitude towards the powerful? What is our attitude toward our own sense of powerlessness?
Tuesday 31st January
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.
Throughout the book we always made aware that Ruth is a stranger, a foreigner, and that she and Naomi are destitute since returning from Moab. It is always ‘Ruth the Moabitess’, we are not allowed to forget that she is a foreigner and nor is she allowed to get it either.
I am reminded of the way in which smaller communities might refer to a settler in their community or Island as an ‘Incomer’. How long would it take to live on an Island community until you were no longer an incomer? Consider how might this make a settler in need of charity and rest feel and how you might feel to be a stranger in search for a home, working in the land and providing for your needs but never permitted to forget that you are not really one of the locals?
Q: What do you think God requires of us when either being the stranger, or when we find the stranger amongst us?
Wednesday 1st February
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.
A couple of qualities are attributed to Ruth and Boaz according to their relative social standings:
Boaz, as mentioned already is the goel, or Kinsman/Chieftain, a man of wealth, but the quality which impresses me from the page is his attentiveness. In verse 4 Boaz greets the workers with a blessing and they enthusiastically reciprocate, a sign of his considerate nature I propose. Boaz is also attentive to the vulnerable status of Ruth, he is conscious of her faithfulness to Naomi’s care and he seems impressed by her industry and graft. Boaz carries his power and authority with humility and grace and does not despise those less fortunate than himself.
Ruth, though always referred to as the Moabite (as discussed yesterday) is unceasingly compassionate toward her mother-in-law Naomi (Ruth’s name literally means ‘compassionate friend’). Ruth is motivated to work, shows courage especially given the strangeness of the place she finds herself. Ruth is also respectful, she defers to Naomi when asking whether to go into the fields to glean. And Ruth evidently has a great work ethic, a real grafter. These are all qualities that quickly secure the attention and then protection /provision of Boaz.
The vertical distance in status between these two characters is quickly flattened by the actions and attitudes of them both. They each demonstrate essential character traits which not only improve their own situations, but improves the lots of those around them also. What might have been a hopeless situation for the two women quickly turns around because of their respective characters.
Q: How might both Boaz or Ruth’s outcomes and relationships been different had either of their approaches to life and people been different?
Thursday 2nd February
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 men—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.
In another book I am reading three words were used to describe the essential ingredients for character and life development and blessing – grit, grind, and grace. Applying these terms to Ruth we can see some interesting attributes – Grit: Ruth demonstrates her resourcefulness and mind toward action by taking the initiative. Grind: Ruth not only has the ideas but she proves to be a can-do person with courage too and applies herself to the job in hand. Grace: the redeemer in the story recognises the attributes and quality in the humility and determination of Ruth and steps in to ensure her success and protection. The well-known proverb or saying – ‘The Lord guides a moving ship’ comes to mind.
Q: Assuming the model of Grit, Grind & Grace is something you can engage with; try removing one of the ingredients or changing it for something else and consider whether the story might have to change and if so, in what ways might it be changed?
Alternatively; if you do not like the framing of Grit, Grind, & Grace how else might you present the attributes and character displayed by Ruth? What might we learn from her today?
Friday 3rd February
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.”
In these verses we see Boaz offering his own blessing to Ruth as he acknowledges her devout character, principled nature, and faithfulness. Boaz recognises that Ruth has sought refuge through trust in God and he acknowledges his part as Gods appointed ‘goel’.
Ruth in these verses has gone from a stranger to a person wholly acknowledged, fully seen, and increasingly heard. Some much healing and restoration can come from being appreciated, acknowledged, fully seen and heard. Is there anything more horrifying than to become aware when it is too late that a person or people group went almost completely under the radar until tragedy strikes? Is there anything worse for the development of a person than to feel overlooked, unseen, unheard, worthless?
Q: In what ways can we overlook people around us? In what ways do you feel insufficiently heard/seen/acknowledged?
Saturday 4th/Sunday 5th February
‘Hesed’
Throughout the book of Ruth there is a fundamental guiding principle that holds, it is the ancient Hebrew principle of ‘Chesed’ or more commonly ‘Hesed’. It is a frequently used term which appears in the Old Testament c253 times and is one of those words which presents great challenges for translators.
The book begins with the ‘hesed’ Ruth does for Naomi–from staying steadfast to gleaning in the fields to bringing food. Then there is the ‘hesed’ she does in honouring the memory of the dead in Naomi’s family (which becomes, by marriage, her own), “And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, ‘blessed be he of the Lord, who has not left off his kindness [hesed] from the living and from the dead’” (Ruth 2.20). Boaz says to Ruth, “Your last act of kindness (hesed) is better than your first that you did not go after the young men whether rich or poor.” He promises to look after her needs [Ruth 3:10].
Hesed is a term central to the Jewish understanding of who God is, and it is a descriptor of all that can be right, noble, sacrificial, and wonderful. Hesed describes a kind of love that does not pursue its own ends – but ever lives and acts for the ‘other’.
The unfortunate thing for the translators of the Biblical texts and scrolls is that nothing in our language can come close enough to the all-encompassing, theologically significant, and divine characteristics of ‘hesed’. Most commonly we find it translated as ‘lovingkindness’. Like the word ‘Shalom’, we find that even the most versatile and expressive of languages cannot adequately convey in a single word, in succinct terms the completeness of the one word ‘Shalom’, as so too it is with ‘Hesed’ – perhaps even more so. Given the difficulty, one has to wonder why we didn’t do what we have successfully done with so many other words in our language; and simply adopt Hesed into our own language.
But even if we had taken the word on as part of the English language we would still likely fail to capture the lived, culturally inbued component. This is a word which has been birthed from the shared testimony of the Hebrew experience, the testimony which tells of the great things that God has done which gives the word its special texture and meaning. And so we find in some versions of our English language Bibles hesed variously described weakly as ‘friendly’, or ‘affectionate’ which is perhaps not nearly sufficient! The best we manage in the New Testament might be ‘charis’ or Grace, as Martin Luther realised when he translated Charis and Hesed into the same ‘Gnade’ (clemency, favour, grace, mercy, pardon). One of the early great bible translators Myles Coverdale was deeply concerned about how best to translate ‘hesed’ and avoided using mere kindness in respect of Gods dealings with his people, as it encompasses so much more than that.
‘Hesed’ is consistently ascribed to Ruth, in spite of her foreignness she is attributed the qualities more usually used to describe Yahweh’s lovingkindness toward his people… In fact when the word is used apart from describing God, hesed is the quality that moves someone to act for the benefit of somebody else without any sense of ‘whats in it for me’. A selfless love. The love that does not seek its own. The love that the great Apostle Paul is at pains to describe in immortal fashion in Corinthians 13. This hesed that features so strongly in the story and throughout the Bible generally, is the greatest attribute of all. Hesed is a defining characteristic of Ruth’s love and dutiful conduct.
Attributing to Ruth such a profound characteristic would undoubtedly be one of the key factors that made Ruth such a compelling character to the Hebrew hearers. That Ruth’s actions, her attitude of mind, of heart and her spirit so special to the early hearers of this tale. To the alien and foreigner from Moab is attributed ‘hesed’ (at the beginning in chapter 1 (1:8), in the middle of the tale (2:20), and at the final turn of the story (3:10)). She is no incomer any longer but cemented as a key character in the story of Gods people.
