Ruth 2: Divine Appointments

Ruth 2 “Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side of the family named Boaz. He was a wealthy, prominent man from the clan of Elimelech. One day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields so I can gather grain behind whoever permits me to do so.” Naomi replied, “You may go, my daughter.” So Ruth went and gathered grain in the fields behind the harvesters. Now she just happened to end up in the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech. Now at that very moment, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “May the Lord be with you!” They replied, “May the Lord bless you!” Boaz asked his servant in charge of the harvesters, “To whom does this young woman belong?” The servant in charge of the harvesters replied, “She’s the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the region of Moab. She asked, ‘May I follow the harvesters and gather grain among the bundles?’ Since she arrived she has been working hard from this morning until n…”

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Introduction: Introduce, Ruth Series, Pray

Recap from ch 1:

A woman named Naomi, famine, lost husband, lost sons, lost everything. And she’s in an extremely hopeless situation.

Last week we talked about all of these seeds of hope that god is putting in her life.

God was planting seeds of hope in her life through ruth, who stuck by her side. He was planting seeeds of hope in her life, by seeing her, by noticing her, and seeing the pain that the people of israel were in.

And he is planting literal seeds of hope in the fact that they are ariving in bethlehem right during the barely harvest.

And that’s a real glass half full outlook to have on things.

Show of hands, who here would call themselves “glass half full” type of person?

half empty?

It’s ok, if you are, we need both types of people in the world.

But I think, if we look at her situation as chapter one ends, I think it’s fair for us to recognize that everything is not sunshine and rainbows.

Realistically I can understand that right now naomi’s glass is not half full.

I don’t even think, objectively she would say it’s half empty.

Naomi has just spent the last 10 years as a widow. and she’s lost a child. and now she’s going back to her home, but she’s not the same.

her glass has been drained.

her glass at this point has few drops in the bottom, and from her vantagepoint it has been dropped, and shattered, and now she’s left holding the shards.

Because the thing is,

she does have this seed of hope, she has the opportunity to go back to bethelehem, and gather grain, and try to start a new life,

See israel had a law, given by god, that when you harvested your field, you were to leave some behind. you were supposed to leave the corners of your field unharvestred.

and if you missed some as you were cutting you were supposed to leave it standing, not go back and gather it.

so that the poor and the widows and the orphans could go through and collect food to eat.

but let’s be real.

laws are only as effective as the people who followed them.

Laws are only effective if the people follow the laws, and if the judges, the leaders enforce the laws.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but during the time this story was playing out, israel didn’t have the greatest track record when it came to following god’s law.

they couldn’t even keep themselves away from worshiping idols. what are the odds you think that they’re going to follow the mundane laws about harvesting?

so naomi and ruth are holding these shards, and they’re walking into a situation that’s honestly extremely bleak.

1 they’re going to have to be able fo find a field owned by someone who even obeys the law.

They could show up and have the whole field be picked dry.

and you go, yeah but there’s a law.

yeah. so what?

2) they’re going to have to find harvesters who are going to obey the spirit of the law. technically, they could leave a single stalk of grain in each corner, and “technically” be obeying.

3) they have to face the fact that they are single women in an extremely vulnerable situation. they have an extremely high likely hood of being assaulted, abused, kidnapped.

I know we’re in a culture today that doesn’t like to talk about this, but a fact of life simply is, that women are vulnerable. women are physically smaller than men on average, and men more often than not will take advantage of that.

and 4) after all of that, even if they find a good field, and even if they are able to find good workers, and even if they somehow manage to stay safe

then they have to worry about the fact that it’s very likely that the amount of food that they’ll be able to harvest is going to be mediocre at best.

this is a bleak bleak situation they’re in.

and so it really isn’t a surprise that naomi is walking into this situation at the end of chapter 1 feeling completely hopeless.

as chapter 1 ends, we’re left with this note from naomi.

Ruth 1:20 NET 2nd ed.

But she replied to them, “Don’t call me ‘Naomi’! Call me ‘Mara’ because the Sovereign One has treated me very harshly.

Ruth 1:21 NET 2nd ed.

I left here full, but the Lord has caused me to return empty-handed. Why do you call me ‘Naomi,’ seeing that the Lord has opposed me, and the Sovereign One has caused me to suffer?”

And on a certain level, after all ruth has gone through, this is a completely understandable emotion for her to have.

But I want to point out somehting really interesting about the style of ruth.

in our bible, ruth is located more or less chronologically in between the book of judges and the book of 1 Samuel.

If we’re categorizing the bible, we might call this the “history” section.

But in the Hebrew bible they organized things differently than we do. In the hebrew bible you have three sections.

Torah: five books of moses.

Nevi’im: (prophets) joshua, judges, samuel, kings, exekiel, jeremiah, all of the prophets, and all of the “history books” are in the section called the “prophets”

and then you have the ketuvim, the “writings.”

These are a lot of “poetry” type books, and a lot of “parable” or “story telling” type books. think proverbs. Job. Psalms… and Ruth.

Ruth is fascinating because we find out at the very end that it’s a historical account. But it’s told in the “style” of a story. the “style” of story telling is a lot like jesus’ parables. but the content of what actually happened is an accurate historical account.

And when we’re reading this “style” or genre in the bible, we have to make note of the all-seeing “narrator” and then the voice of the “characters” in the story.

If you ever watch a movie, and one of the main characters says “well, at least it can’t get any worse” and then the movie freeze frames, and the voice of the narrator comes in and says “little did she know, it could get worse”

that’s kind of what we get here.

Naomi is speaking, and she’s defeated, and she’s hopeless, and she feels like she’s being punished. From her vantage point, that’s how she feels. And then the author swoops in and lets us, the reader know “little did she know… they had arrived at the beginning of barley harvest.”

little did she know....

Ruth 2:1 NET 2nd ed.

Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side of the family named Boaz. He was a wealthy, prominent man from the clan of Elimelech.

now we’ve gotten the narrator’s comment, cluing us, the reader, in on what’s going on, but our “characters” are still unaware of how god is working in their lives..

And then we cut back into the story.

Ruth 2:2 NET 2nd ed.

One day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields so I can gather grain behind whoever permits me to do so.” Naomi replied, “You may go, my daughter.”

Your bible might say. “let me go gather grain after someone in who’s eyes i find favor.”

which is just an ancient hebrew way of saying “I’m going to go out there and just hope that someone feels sorry enough for me, or is kind enough that they’re going to allow me to go in behind the harvesters and collect some leftover grain.

so that we don’t starve to death.

Remember, again, this is an indication, that just because israel had this law in place, it doesn’t mean that everyone was successfull in finding a farmer who actually followed this law.

So this alone was a big leap of faith.

So she goes out, and we read in verse 3

Ruth 2:3 NET 2nd ed.

So Ruth went and gathered grain in the fields behind the harvesters. Now she just happened to end up in the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.

And this phrase ‘it just happened’ is honestly the hinge point of the entire story.

Everything from here moving forward is going to be a bit of a “it just so happened” moment.

Again, remember, we’re seing this from ruth’s vantage point.

of all of the fields in behtlehem, she could have went out into any of them. There would have been hundreds and hundreds of different fields for her to go out and collect grain.

And it “just so happens” that she ends up in this one. This field owned by boaz.

who “just so happens” to be a relative of elimilek. and “just so happens” to be wealthy and prominent in bethlehem.

and as we read through this we, the reader are getting the little winks and nods here. From ruth’s point of view, she’s thinking “oh wow, what a happy coinciednce” what a luck act of fate.

but we know, and the author knows....

“little did she know, God was behind it the whole time”

Ruth 2:4 NET 2nd ed.

Now at that very moment, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “May the Lord be with you!” They replied, “May the Lord bless you!”

it “just so happened” and I’m putting quotes around that, that boaz came back from town at that very moment.

let’s play this out. In a big field, and a decently big area, it’s more “likely” that boaz and ruth are going to miss each other. Boaz is in town, maybe buying some goods and supplies.

ruth goes out into the field, collects what she can, and then moves on to the next field,

and then ruth comes back 5 minutes later and they miss each other entirely.

but of course we know that god is working. Ruth doesn’t see it yet. Naomi definitely doesn’t see it. But god never stops working.

he says to his harvesters “may the lord be with you” and they replied “may the lord bless you”

it “just so happened” that boaz is a faithful follower of god.

and it might not seem like such a big deal, but look, if you’ve spent any time in the old testament, especially around judges when this book was written, that was a rarity.

it just so happens that she ends up in the field of someone who actually follows god. and blesses people in his name.

DIVINE APPOINTMENTS

Ruth 2:5-9

Ruth 2:5–9 NET 2nd ed.

Boaz asked his servant in charge of the harvesters, “To whom does this young woman belong?” The servant in charge of the harvesters replied, “She’s the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the region of Moab. She asked, ‘May I follow the harvesters and gather grain among the bundles?’ Since she arrived she has been working hard from this morning until now—except for sitting in the resting hut a short time.” So Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen carefully, my dear! Do not leave to gather grain in another field. You need not go beyond the limits of this field. You may go along beside my female workers. Take note of the field where the men are harvesting and follow behind with the female workers. I will tell the men to leave you alone. When you are thirsty, you may go to the water jars and drink some of the water the servants draw.”

I want you to think about how big of a step up this is for ruth.

So the way they would go through and harvest, you’d have the men go first through the field, and do all of the cutting.

and then you’d have the female servants go through on a second pass, and they would cut anything the men missed, and the rest of them would do the gathering and the bundling.

and you’d have another group who would walk through and carry the water jugs. Think about hauling water for that many people in the ancient world. That’s a big deal.

and then, after both groups had gone through the “gleaners” the poor, the widows, the orphans were allowed to go through and harvest the leftovers.

And if you were one of the ones following behind, guess what...

you did it all. You didn’t get this “three phase” operation. you did all the cutting, all the gathering, all the bundling.

It’s like when I was a kid I used to make extra gas money buiding barbed wire fences for folks in their pastures.

and when you’re building fence with a couple other people it’s nice because you can have one guy go through and start laying out all of the T- posts.

you can have another guy pulling wire.

he gets to the end you can have a third person cut it off the spool.

guess what, when you’re building fence by your self, you get a lot of walking in.

and the worst is like if you’re hauling everything in you’ve got your t-post pounder and your tamping bar for the wood posts, and your post hole digger, and you get a hundred yards or so from where you started and you’re like “where’s my water?” where’s my plyers?”

you gotta go all the way back.

that’s a lot like what it would have been like for ruth.

she’s gotta haul her sickle, and twine, and a sack, and carry the grain she’s harvesting.

and she doesn’t get to walki in a straight line either. she’s got to do all of that while also zig zagging to get the tiny little leftover sections.

and so what boaz does here, is he lightens her load immensly.

he’s like you just stay up here with the crew.

you don’t even have to cut. you just worry about picking up grain.

you don’t even have to worry about water. I’ve got you covered there too.

That’s an amazing step up from what she was doing before.

Ruth 2:10–13 NET 2nd ed.

Ruth knelt before him with her forehead to the ground and said to him, “Why are you so kind and so attentive to me, even though I am a foreigner?” Boaz replied to her, “I have been given a full report of all that you have done for your mother-in-law following the death of your husband—how you left your father and your mother, as well as your homeland, and came to live among people you did not know previously. May the Lord reward your efforts! May your acts of kindness be repaid fully by the Lord God of Israel, from whom you have sought protection.” She said, “You really are being kind to me, sir, for you have reassured and encouraged me, your servant, even though I will never be like one of your servants.”

Ruth recognizes that already boaz is going above and beyond what the law required.

the law just says “you should leave some extra grain in the field”

but it gets better. Verse 14

Ruth 2:14 NET 2nd ed.

Later during the mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and have some food! Dip your bread in the vinegar.” So she sat down beside the harvesters. Then he handed her some roasted grain. She ate until she was full and saved the rest.

So now she’s not only getting a way easier job to do, but now she gets to sit with the workers and eat a meal, and get full.

again, it might not seem like much, but I could imagine after a long day, especially if you’re not used to doing that kind of work, that’s amazing. and again, above and beyond his requirements.

Ruth 2:15-17

Ruth 2:15–17 NET 2nd ed.

When she got up to gather grain, Boaz told his male servants, “Let her gather grain even among the bundles. Don’t chase her off! Make sure you pull out ears of grain for her and drop them so she can gather them up. Don’t tell her not to!” So she gathered grain in the field until evening. When she threshed what she had gathered, it came to about thirty pounds of barley.

so if that wasn’t enough, now boaz tells his servants, let her go up to the bundles.

now she doesn’t even have to bend over. She can just go right up to the bundles stacked up in the field and pluck them out.

and then he says “on top of all that I want you to take the stuff you’ve already bundled, and pull that out, so that she KNOWS to take even more.

30 pounds of barely. your text might say an “ephah” which is an insane amount for one person to harvest as a “gleaner”

That is an insane amount.

picture a 5 gallon bucket heaping over, in one hand, and then two folgers coffee cans full.

and all of this because she “just so happened” to be in the right field of the right person at the right time ..

I’ve noticed that god’s favorite way to work in our lives is through his people.

You’ll notice, god could have blessed ruth and naomi by some sort of miraculous supernatural means.

he could have made it fall from heaven like he did the manna in the wilderness.

he could have made their food multiply like the jar of flour and oil with eliiah in 1 kings 17.

or like Jesus multipying the loaves and the fish.

So we know god “could” have provided for them like this.

But God’s favorite way to provide for his people is through his people.

through these “divine appointments” these “just so happened” moments.

2019

that moment for me was my shards moment.

Ruth 2:18-23

Ruth 2:18–23 NET 2nd ed.

She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much grain she had gathered. Then Ruth gave her the roasted grain she had saved from mealtime. Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you gather grain today? Where did you work? May the one who took notice of you be rewarded!” So Ruth told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked. She said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be rewarded by the Lord because he has shown loyalty to the living on behalf of the dead!” Then Naomi said to her, “This man is a close relative of ours; he is our guardian.” Ruth the Moabite replied, “He even told me, ‘You may go along beside my servants until they have finished gathering all my harvest!’ ” Naomi then said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “It is good, my daughter, that you should go out to work with his female servants. That way you will not be harmed, which could happen in another field.” So Ruth worked beside Boaz’s female servants, gathering grain until the end of the barley harvest as well as the wheat harvest. After that she stayed home with her mother-in-law.

And as we close out chapter two, we’re left on this sort of “cliff hanger”

Naomi finds out who it is who has been helping ruth, and the “characters” in the story finally come to the same realization that we the reader have known all the way back in verse 1.

Boaz is a relative of elimelek. a “guardian” or your bible might say “redeemer”

Because realistically, ruth finding a wealty farmer who is extremely generous is a huge blessing for the here and now.

But eventually that food’s going to run out.

Long term, that 5-gallon bucket isn’t going to take care of them.

but boaz is legally able to redeem them, which means he has the legal right to continue the family line of elimelek.

remember, in this culture lineage is everything. if you don’t have a lineage, your property, your rights, your ability to do business, everything. If you don’t pass on an heir, it all dies.

and we’ll talk more about this next week, but suffice it to say for today that this is a HUGE seed of hope.

I want you to here me on this though.

I think we need to remember that sometimes those shards, they’re not going to ever be the same.

naomi is not ever getting her little boys back. she’s not ever going to get her husband back. ruth is not ever going to get her husband back.

I don’t know how much you know about glass, but once it’s broken it doesn’t ever really go back exactly the way it was before.

And we need to recognize 1) god didn’t break that glass.

It might feel like he did sometimes, but that’s not the nature of god.

We live in the broken world, broken by sin, broken by our own fallen nature, everything about it is broken.

and it’s not always even a result of what we ourselves did.

more often than not it’s a result of the fact that we live in this place. this broken dark place.

And those pieces don’t go back.

But God steps in. He puts people in our lives, he sets up these divine appointments with people. and he gives us opportunities to be redeemed.

god steps in, and he takes those shards, and he places one here. and one there. and creates the most beautiful piece of mosaic art out of broken pieces.

Because that’s who god is.

our god takes broken things and makes them beautiful. they’re never the same as before, but they’re so much more beautiful.

It was God who took the brokeness of joseph, and what his brothers meant for evil, and turned it for good.

It was god who took the brokenness of the israelite people wandering in the desert and set them apart for his purposes

it was god who took broke fishermen and broken tax collectors and turned them into disciples

it was god who took a broken man who persecuted christians and turned him into the one of the most prominent apostles in the new testament

and it was god, who to the broken body of his son on the cross, and the broken people who shouted crucify. crucify.