Title: The First Conversation Between Boaz and Ruth
Ruth 2:8-10
Boaz said to Ruth, "Listen, my daughter, do not go to another field to glean, and do not leave here. Stay with my girls. See the field they are cutting and follow them. I commanded the boys not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to a bowl. Drink what the boys have brought. Ruth fell to the ground and bowed down and said to her, "I am a foreign woman; why do you show mercy to me and look after me?
Boaz and Ruth finally start talking. Boaz listened closely to the servant with the cutters about who Ruth was, what she wanted, and what she had been doing since early in the morning.
Boaz speaks to Ruth.
2:8, "Boaz said to Ruth, "Listen, my daughter, do not go to another field to glean, and do not leave here; stay with my girls."
"My daughter!" It's a way of speaking with friendliness, just like a father would to his beloved daughter. Looking at that, don't you think that there is a slight age difference between Boaz and Ruth?
Ruth 3:10, "He said, "My daughter, the Lord bless you, for you did not pursue the poor, neither the rich nor the young."
From what is said here, we can see that Boaz did not burn and grew old. Boaz said to Ruth, "My daughter!" When you do, you are speaking from the father's position.
"Listen, my daughter." Ruth is listening now, even if I don't ask her to listen. To "listen" means to emphasize "listen" and "listen". In the Bible, when the people of Israel say, “Hear, O Israel,” it is emphasized that they should listen carefully.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5, "Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is the only LORD; you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."
Deuteronomy 20:3, "Say to them, Israel, listen, for you have come today to fight your enemies; do not be afraid in your heart, do not be afraid, do not tremble, and do not be dismayed by them."
Psalm 50:7, "Listen, my people, I will speak, and I will testify to you, O Israel: I am God, your God."
Jeremiah 10:1, "House of Israel, hear what the LORD says to you."
Micah 1:2, "Listen, all ye people, and listen carefully, you earth and all that is in it; for the Lord GOD testifies of you, as he will do in the temple."
Boaz tells Ruth not to do two things, but instead to do two things. The first of the two things not to do is, "Do not go to another field to glean." There is no such thing as a badger in the fortress, but how many times does the badger cut scissors per minute? It's up to the fucker. Whose mind is it that the gleaner goes to which field to glean? The gleaner's heart. If you think you can pick up more by going to that field than this one, go to that field. But what did Boaz say? "Do not go to another field to glean."
Not only that, but to emphasize that fact, I told him not to do it a second time. "Don't leave here," he said. I told you not to leave this place here. I told you not to do two things like that.
Instead, I was told to do two things. First, he said, "Stay with my girls." To stay with the girls who work for Boaz means that Boaz will not think of Ruth as a mere gleaner, but as one of the workers he cares for and is responsible for.
When looking for workers during the harvest season, we look for two types of workers. One class is men, the other class is women. At the barley harvest, the men's job is to cut the grain. What women do is collect them and tie them into bundles. So he told me to stay with the girls who were tying the sheaves.
The second thing we were told to do is, in verse 9, "Look at the fields they are cutting and follow them." "They" appears twice in this verse. Who are the "they" in front? Men. Who will be the second "they" after that? Girls. Hebrew has separate masculine and feminine words. In the Hebrew Bible, they appear first as masculine words. In other words, if the boys cut it and the women gather the sheaves and tie them up, follow them. In doing so, Ruth had the advantage of gleaning more to her advantage than many of the gleaners.
Besides that, what other benefits did it bring? Let's look at the middle part of verse 9.
"I commanded the boys not to touch you."
Isn't there a lot of times when a woman who is a gleaming gleaner crosses a boundary that shouldn't be crossed to pick up one more? In order to impose sanctions, they are careful at first, but later, swearing and rebuking occur. This is what Boaz ordered to protect Ruth from this.
2:15-16, "When Ruth was getting up to glean, Boaz commanded his boys, "Let him glean from among the sheaves, and do not rebuke him, nor do he pluck little by little out of the heap for him, and let him glean, and do not rebuke him."
So, Boaz allowed Ruth to glean freely without any obstacles like a worker, not just a gleaner.
What did Ruth ask the servant with the choppers? In 2:7, he asks, "Let me glean from the shepherds among the sheaves." But in verse 9, Boaz said, “Look at the fields they are cutting and follow them.” Also in verse 15 it says, "As Ruth was getting up to glean, Boaz commanded his boys, saying, Let him glean from among the sheaves." So, it was what Ruth had hoped for. Boaz made Ruth's wish come true.
Not only that. Let's look at the second half of verse 9.
“When you are thirsty, go to your vessel and drink what the boys have brought.”
The holy land of Israel is very hot. How thirsty are you when the sun is shining? Boaz is well aware of that. So I made him drink water when he was thirsty. In the past and now, in our country or Judea, is it a man's job to bring water? What would a woman do? Usually, women go to the well to get water. When the women arrive, the men drink water.
Genesis 24:11, "The camel knelt down by the well outside the city, it was evening, when the women went out to draw water."
Genesis 24:13, "The daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water, and I stand by the well."
1 Samuel 9:11, "As they were going up the slope to the city, they met girls coming out to draw water and asked them, "Is the seer here?"
In ancient times, in Israel, there was a case where a woman brought water like this, and on the other hand, there were also cases where the Gentiles living with the Israelites came.
Joshua 9:21-27, "He said to the crowds, "Let them live." As the chieftains had told them, they became woodcutters and drawers for the whole congregation. Joshua called them and said to them, "You live among us, so why do we Have you deceived us because you are too far away from us? Cursed are you, therefore, that you are slaves forever, and all of you will be woodcutters and drawers for the house of my God. They answered Joshua, saying, The LORD your God commanded Moses his servant, I have done this for fear that we might lose our lives because of you, because it was clearly heard by your servant, saying, ‘Give all this land to you, and destroy all the inhabitants of the land before you.’ Behold, now we are in your hands. Let us do what is good and right for us.” So Joshua did to them immediately, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, so that they could not slay them. He made him a drawer, and he has been to this day."
Deuteronomy 29:10-11, "Today from you, from your chiefs, from your tribes, from your elders, from your officers, from all the men of Israel, and from your children, and from your wives, and from the stranger in your camp, and from anyone who cuts wood for you. All those who draw water stand before the LORD your God."
But what about the text here? The boys made what the boys brought and allowed the girls to eat. It has given me such amazing benefits.
So where in Israel does the water taste the best? Guys, do you remember the story in the Bible? David was strangled while fighting the Philistines. “If someone draws water from the well by the gate of Bethlehem and lets him drink the cool water.” Hearing the sound, the three men rushed through the enemy camp and fetched water from the well by the gate of Bethlehem. What did David do with this water then? did you drink It's not like that. I poured water.
2 Samuel 23:16 "Three mighty men clashed with the armies of the Philistines and passed by, and brought water from a well by the gate of Bethlehem, and came to David, but David was not pleased to drink, and poured out the water to the LORD."
The best well in Israel is the well near the gate of Bethlehem. So where did these boys of Ruth also get their water? They must have brought the cool water from the well near the gates of Bethlehem. Boaz gave Ruth a wonderful grace.
God has given us more wonderful grace than this. Because we have the water of life that keeps us from thirsting forever.
John 4:14, "Whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never thirst. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water springing up to eternal life."
It is said that the water that the Lord gives is water that springs up to eternal life and never thirst. God has commanded us to come and drink this living water of grace without cost.
Isaiah 55:1, "Come, you who thirst, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy and eat; come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."
Ruth, who received the grace, could not stand still. In verse 10, Ruth fell to the ground and bowed. This action says two things. Doesn't that mean the difference between you and me is the difference between heaven and earth? A subordinate bowed down and bowed down as a sign of respect to his superiors. Not only that, but because my heart was overflowing with gratitude, I bowed down and bowed down as a token of my gratitude. Then he thanked Boaz.
2:10, "I am a foreign woman, so why do you show me great favor and look after me?"
He said that he was not in the same situation as the woman of Israel. They are Gentiles who do not deserve any favor from the Israelites. It means thank you for giving this kind of grace to yourself.
It is said that some tribes in Africa have this custom. If you find favor with someone, you must go to that person's house and spend the night outside the house in the cold dew. If he didn't do this ungrately, he said he was ungrateful, saying he was ungrateful and did not receive the dew outside the house despite receiving grace.