Title: Ruth went out to glean
Ruth 2:1~3
Naomi's husband Elimelech's relatives had an influential man whose name was Boaz. Ruth the Moabite woman said to Naomi, "Let me go to the field, and if I find favor with him, I will glean with him." Naomi said to him, "Go, my daughter." He went and followed the reapers to glean in the field, and by chance he came to a field belonging to Boaz, Elimelech's kin.
Today's text 2:1,2 is talking about what happened at Naomi's house in Bethlehem. The following verse 3 tells what happened in the barley field near Bethlehem.
2:1, "There was a strong man among the relatives of Elimelech, Naomi's husband, whose name was Boaz."
These words reveal what Naomi has. In Bethlehem, there was a relative of her husband Elimelech. That's Boaz.
In the Old Testament times, the smallest social unit in Israel was the father's house. When God commanded Abraham, "Leave your land, your relatives, and your father's house" (Genesis 12:1). The next largest unit after the father's house is the relatives and kinsmen. Anything greater than that is a tribe. What is the scope of Elimelech's relatives? In the words of 1:2, "the Ephrathite". Elimelech and Boaz alike belonged to the Ephrathites.
Verse 1 refers to Boaz as “a man of might”. If we look at the cross-references of the Bible we see, it is called “sign”. Boaz was rich. In chapter 2, he was a rich man who owned a field and had many servants.
Let's look at another example in the Bible where the word "wealthy" is used to mean a wealthy person.
2 Kings 15:20, "Then he extorted the silver from all the rich men of Israel, and gave each fifty shekels of silver to the king of Assyria. Then the king of Assyria turned and did not dwell in the land."
The word "strong" is often used in the Old Testament to mean "a warrior."
Joshua 6:2-3, "The LORD said to Joshua, "Behold, I have delivered Jericho, its king, and its warriors into your hand; all your soldiers shall go around the city once a day, and go around it for six days."
Judges 6:12, "The angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon and said, "Great warrior, the LORD is with you."
2 Samuel 17:8, "And he said, "The king also knows that your father and his servants are mighty men, and they were enraged like a bear in the field with its young taken away.
In 3:11, "Do not be afraid, my daughter, I will do everything you tell me, for all the people of my city know that you are a virtuous woman." Roy said it was the same. If it is a man, it is difficult to translate it as virtuous, so I translated it as strong, and if it was a woman, I translated it as virtuous. So Boaz and Ruth are ideal people. Boaz was the ideal man, and Ruth was the ideal woman.
If you look at the meaning of the name Boaz, "Bo" in Hebrew means "to him," that is, "to God." It means “Jehovah God has strength.” Unlike the three weak and weak men in chapter 1, namely Elimelech, Marlon, and Kirion, Boaz was a powerful and powerful man. Boaz was an ideal man and became a precious man like a pillar in the temple. I hope that all the male members of our church will become like pillars in the church, at home, at work, and in this society like Boas.
In verse 2, Ruth finally begins to act. So far, the story has been centered on Naomi, but now Ruth appears as the main character.
"Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, Let me go to the fields."
Where is Ruth? He was a Moabitess. She was a foreign woman. Not from Bethlehem. Ruth is now in a strange and unfamiliar place. When we speak with contempt for people from other countries, we call the Japanese people juggernaut, the Americans the Yankees, the albino people, and the black people the black people. It is the same to despise strangers in the East and the West. Even Ruth, a foreign woman, does not know what people will hear when she goes out. When Ruth and Naomi returned from Moab, there was no time to get acquainted with the people of Bethlehem. You may be despised and ostracized as a foreign woman by the locals. You might get kicked out.
But Ruth cannot stand still. Ruth knew she had to get up to get food for herself and her mother-in-law, Naomi. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the barley harvest had just begun. You cannot miss this opportunity, the time of the barley harvest. Ruth seized the opportunity.
Perhaps Ruth would have woken up early in the morning and told Naomi. “Let me go to the fields.” How diligent are you? How active, adventurous, and positive are you? Despite being a Moabite woman, she says she will go even though she may be despised and expelled because she is a foreigner.
The Moabites seem to be active in women. Who are the ancestors of the Moabites? This is Lot. The descendants of Lot and Lot's first daughter became Moabites. After leaving the city of Sodom, Lot's daughter had no man to take over her descendants, so she slept with her father and made her father drink wine. Afterwards, he slept with his father and gave birth to a son named Moab. It shows us not as a weak woman, but as a very active and aggressive person.
Ruth continues to speak to Naomi.
2:2, "If I find favor with him, I will glean after him."
He says he will go out to the field and glean. Find verses in the Bible related to gleaning.
Leviticus 19:9-10, “When you pluck the grain of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, and you shall not glean any of your ears, and you shall not pluck all the fruit of your vineyard, and you shall not gather any of the fruit that has fallen in your vineyard, but for the poor and foreigners. Leave me alone, for I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 23:22, "When you pluck the grain of your land, do not cut down to the very corners of the field or pick up what has fallen; leave it for the poor and the stranger; I am the LORD your God."
Deuteronomy 24:19-22, "If you forgot a bunch of grain in the field while you were harvesting it, go and take no more, and leave it for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, so that the LORD your God will bless you in all that you do. After you have cut your olive tree, do not examine its branches again; leave the remainder for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. Durah, remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this."
At the time of harvest, he told them not to cut all the grain, but to leave a few corners. He also told them not to pick up the gleaning that fell and just leave it alone. Similarly, when harvesting fruit, he was told not to pick up any fruit that fell to the ground. It was for the poor and the poor, such as orphans, widows and foreigners. What ideas are contained in this? The owner of the earth is Jehovah God. All the produce of the earth belongs to Jehovah God.
Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
God is the creator of the earth and the sky. We are just stewards who take charge of it and manage it.
In this way, Israel's law stipulates that gleaning is allowed for the poor and foreigners. However, gleaning is prohibited during harvest. In other words, it is okay to glean after the harvest is over, but it is forbidden to do so during the harvest. Because it can interfere with the harvest and can even sneak the ears of grain from the sheaves that have been harvested by dishonest people. To prevent this, the gleaning is made to wait until the harvest is complete.
Looking back at the second half of verse 2, Ruth says, "If I find favor with anyone, I will glean after him." It is forbidden to glean along the harvester. So grace is needed. Ruth cannot sit and wait. You couldn't put a spider's web on a living mouth. Ruth felt the responsibility to care for her poor mother-in-law, Naomi. Therefore, he is going to ask him to let him go and glean even during the harvest.
Ruth did not complain about her circumstances. I was not just sighing with negative thoughts. The important thing is that Ruth relied on the word of God amidst the turmoil. Ruth relied on what God had commanded the Israelites to do for the poor, foreigners, and widows. So, although it was an unfamiliar place, I boldly went out into the field.
There was a lot of grain in the field, and there was God's merciful law, but if Ruth did not get up and go out into the field, the ears of the field would not have been Ruth's. And if it had not been for the field, Ruth would not have even met Boaz. Ruth's life-changing history would never have happened.
1:16 Second half, "Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God."
We need the same attitude. Like Ruth, we must rely on the Word. But we must not stop there. There must be a practice of faith that goes forward like Ruth. Hebrews 11 is also called the faith chapter. The ancestors of our faith mentioned here are people who relied on God's words and put them into practice. Thus, we know well that all of us received the great blessing that God has prepared for us.
Ruth got up diligently and went out into the field. God hates the lazy. He hates people who only want to maintain the status quo, like those who received one talent. Just like those who received two or five talents, God is pleased with those who diligently go out and be faithful in their assigned work. Of course, the person who received the five talents must have had these worries in his heart. “What if I accidentally lose all five talents?” Let's say that the person worked hard and lost everything. Would the master rebuke the servant? It's not like that. He would have comforted and encouraged him, saying, "It could be. I'll give you five more talents, so try again." The lazy man told the ant to go and learn. It should not be the kind of person who lies quietly under a persimmon tree and hopes that the persimmons will drop.
When you sow seeds in a field, the seeds fall on the roadside, sometimes on rocky ground, and sometimes on thorns. But it would be wrong not to work at all because it is scary. If you sow the seeds diligently, the seeds that fell in the middle of the soil will grow and bear fruit 30 times, 60 times and 100 times. So is the church. If you have the fear of doing something wrong while doing this, you can't do anything. God works when we go forward with an adventurous, positive, and active faith.
2:3, "Ruth went and followed the reaper to glean in the field."
From the fact that Ruth said that she went out to the field, you can see that Naomi gave permission. Ruth said that she gleaned after the reapers. This case is a special case. In this case, you must obtain permission from the owner of the field.
"Ruth went and followed the reapers to glean in the field, and she happened to come to a field belonging to Boaz, Elimelech's kin."
Ruth accidentally came to the field belonging to Elimelech's relative Boaz. Not intentionally. How would Ruth know whose field it belonged to? I don't know. However, it seems to be a coincidence, but the providence of God was at work behind it. When Ruth worked hard for her mother-in-law, God's hand led her to Boaz's field. In this way, the ideal man and the ideal woman are met.
Now, let's take a look at how God works through Ruth, who acts proactively.
As we looked at today, I pray in the name of Jesus that you and I who diligently sow seeds from dawn with a positive and adventurous faith like Ruth become.