Ordinary to Extraordinary - Story of Ruth

Have you ever felt out of place?

Story of when I first arrived in Canada (1987) and attended the public school

How does that feel?

Oddly strange

Don’t know how to react

Try to go with the flow

Today we come to a beautiful story of an ordinary woman, I would even call her an underprivileged and emptied woman in society but by God’s providence, hailed her to become the extraordinary vessel filled with the compassion of God.

We begin by knowing that:

Ruth 2:2 “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 favor.” Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.””

Ruth 2:6 “6 The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi.”

The location of Moab plays an important role in understanding the book of Ruth

Genesis 19:37 “37 The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today.”

- The Moabites were hostile to the Israelites

Number 22:2-3 “2 Now Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, 3 and Moab was terrified because there were so many people. Indeed, Moab was filled with dread because of the Israelites.”

The Moabites remained hostile even after the conquest.

Here’s where the story of Ruth plays out. You have Ruth, the Moabite, her mother in law Naomi the Israelite and Boaz the Israelite. In hindsight, there should be tension where Ruth, the underdog, would’ve gotten pick on or seen as a stranger. Even Ruth admits that she is a stranger of the land,

Ruth 2:10 “10 At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?””

So obviously, there is something happening between all these characters where the boundaries of ethnicity, cultural diversity, and status differences are overshadowed by the lovingkindness of God. We will focus mainly on the relationship between Boaz and Ruth, the Israelite and the Moabite today and how “hesed,” the lovingkindness of God turns someone that is an outcast into something extraordinary.

No strings attached

A couple of years ago, we often hear that phrase in many mobile phone carriers! “Unlimited data!” “Talk and text anytime and everywhere!” Soon, as our world became more “online,” mobile carriers soon had to drop the term “No strings attached” to their data plan.

It makes sense since we all begin to stream most of our favourite content and personal connections are built virtually, mobile data is essential to most people nowadays. So mobile carriers have cleverly worked around that catchphrase where they give you a certain amount of “normal speed” data and after a certain amount that you have burned through, you will only get “slower speed” data.

I am sure that many of you have much better examples than this, but it is true that there are “no free lunches” in what the world offers us out of its greediness. Fortunately, we have the Bible, the Word of God. His “hesed” is everlasting and really is no strings attached. We see that right off the bat by how Naomi, the mother in law of Ruth describes Boaz.

Ruth 2:20 NIV

20 “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.”

The “He” mentioned in verse 20 is Boaz and what has he done to deserve such praise from Naomi. When Naomi says, “He has not stopped howing his kindness to the living and the dead,” she is implying that Boaz had not abandoned his kindness even though the recipient doesn’t feel like they deserved any of it.

This same sentence structure of “not stopped showing kindness” appears back in Genesis 24:27

Genesis 24:27 NIV

27 saying, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.”

That’s Eliezer, the servant of Abraham praising God for providing a wife for his master’s son. Not just any woman, it was one that exceeds expectation!

Sometimes in life we need to know that God’s lovingkindness is more than what we think it is. Often His hesed is overshadowed by the box that we put God in and could never expereience His fullness because of the experience that we have come across in our past. As we can see in Ruth 2:20 that God’s lovingkindness has no boundaries, living or the dead, deserve or the underserved, His hesed has no limits.

Free of obligation

Ruth 2:8 NIV

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.

Hearing this verse melts my heart. Under the Mosaic law, landowners were to leave the edges of their field unharvested so that the poor can go and take whatever is there. Ruth, being a foreigner, was poor, and had no food felt rightly into that category. But that doesn’t stop Boaz from extending the same kindness that God would to His people. He said to Ruth, “come alongside the other women that are working for me!” “You don’t need to go to another field once the edges have been gleaned. In fact, don’t go anywhere. Just stay here and take all you need!”

It is obvious that Boaz knows Ruth would not have the ability to pay him back. In other words, there was no obligation when Boaz decides to extend his kindness to Ruth.

It is also obvious that Boaz knows Ruth is a Moabite – a historical nemesis and bully to the Israelites. Boaz didn’t care, he goes as far as calling Ruth one of his daughters. That is incredible.

What Boaz is doing is portraying God’s righteousness. The outcome was only accomplished though, through Boaz’s righteous response.

An article from the Reformation Bible College writes that,

“Through his actions, Boaz communicates Christ. His person and character illustrate the incredible hesed that Christ possesses for his people…”[8]

To make this point of what God’s righteousness is, we must point to Paul’s explanation in the book of Romans,

Romans 3:22–25 NIV

22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—

We never deserved the death of Christ because we all have sinned against God. Collectively, we put Jesus on the cross. But it is the nature of our living God that He, not us, loves us so much by showing us His hesed unconditionally. Doesn’t matter where you are from, what ethnicity, or cultural background you are from, when you cast your faith on our Lord Jesus Christ, we are indwelled in his lovingkindness. God’s lovingkindness, collectively, extends to all those who believe to be received by faith.

No obligation. No strings attached.

Beyond the call of duty

Ruth 2:9–12 NIV

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 favor in your eyes that you notice me—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.”

You think that providing food for Ruth was enough as a relative to her mother-in-law. Boaz doesn’t think so. He goes as far as providing protection, comfort, and divine providence for Ruth. Ruth knows that she does not qualify for any of the above. She thinks that she is a nobody, just an ordinary outsider that has landed in a place, and in the midst of strangers that she doesn’t know.

But Ruth could never imagine the power of lovingkindness that would change her life’s trajectory. It was Ruth’s loyalty to her mother-in-law that inspires Boaz, who extends generosity beyond the call of duty toward Ruth.

The story of Ruth is not just about kind people doing good things, but rather an example of how ordinary people with mixed motives become extraordinary through the cultivation of hesed. What that means is that the lovingkindness of God is like a domino effect – it is passed on from one person to another, a perpetual motion that never ends.

And that is what’s being displayed between Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz where each person’s life was changed no matter what their initial motives were.

“…those who act with hesed mirror the ways of God, serving as agents of God’s hesed through their deeds of kindness.”[10]

What does that have to do with me?

In Ruth’s story, we saw a woman of God that didn’t even belong in God’s chosen people group. Ruth was an outsider, an alien, and a foreigner. But God did not limit his lovingkindness for Ruth. God used Boaz to display His lovingkindness to Ruth which gave Ruth the providence that she needed to rise up and receive the dignity she deserved.

Take this $50 bill for instance…

No matter how much I disfigure it, it is still $20. It kept its worth.

“I’m a child of God, Yes I am!” - Brooke Ligertwood

God sees us as his children in all His worth. He created each of us in His own image and His lovingkindness to us has never changed.

Like in the story about Jacob, who is a treacherous liar, even to his own family. But despite that, God chooses him and repeats the promise he made to Jacob’s grandfather Abraham—that he would have a huge family, through whom God would restore his blessing to the nations. And so twenty years later, when Jacob realizes how undeserving he is, he says to God, “I’m not worthy of all the hesed you’ve shown me.” And he’s right. But God’s hesed was never about Jacob’s actions in the first place! It’s a display of God’s generous loyalty to his promise and our worthy before the eyes of God!

For thousands of years, humanity has betrayed our commitment to God, God still kept His promise in a dramatic and drastic way: by becoming human and binding himself to us in the person of Jesus. And in his life, death, and resurrection, God opened up a new future for all of us and for all of creation. And God did this because it’s just who God is, generous, loving, and eternally loyal to his promises. And when we experience the purity and power of God’s loyal love shown through Jesus, it compels us to reimagine why and how we can show hesed back to God and to the people around us.

Is there someone around you that is suffering? Hurt? Neglected? Or perhaps, like that $50 bill, stepped on and trampled on the ground?

Whe\n you have change to take a second look at the book of Ruth, you’ll see that the presence of God is very minimal. No burning bush. No thunderous voice from pillars of smoke or clouds.

God’s hesed is a promise that begins with you being reminded of the underserved loving kindness that has been bestowed upon you. Then you take that reminder of gratitude and promise, to treat others just as how God has moved you with His hesed.

Look, I get it that there will be times when we question “Where are you God when I needed your lovingkindness?” This will happen in any relationship, the ups and downs, and at moments of happiness and resentment. I believe that these are the times when all of us can perpetually stir up one another with the underserving love, the loyal love of God to us and extend it to those that are feeling a little bit “ordinary”, “out of place”, “a foreigner”, or even pressured by the injustice of this world.

“The greatest act of benevolence God can do for us is to give us a sense that there is justice in the world, that there is some degree of predictability, and therefore that we can control our fate (at least to some extent) by controlling how we treat each other and how we act toward God…one good deed provokes another and another, and each adds goodness to the world.”[11]

We are bringer and bearers of God’s goodness because for all those who believe have claimed the victory in Christ.

“Cause the God I serve knows only how to triump, my God will never fail. I am going to see a victory.”

Hesed is a cosmic event that begins here, effecting the local community, spreads around the city, and makes an impact to the world.

[8] Stephanie van Eyk, “The Ultimate Kinsman-Redeemer,” Ligonier Ministries, June 5, 2013, https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/ultimate-kinsman-redeemer. [10] Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Tikva Simone Frymer-Kensky, Ruth = the Traditional Hebrew Text with the New JPS Translation (Philadelphia, PN: Jewish Publication Society, 2011), 51. [11] Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Tikva Simone Frymer-Kensky, Ruth = the Traditional Hebrew Text with the New JPS Translation (Philadelphia, PN: Jewish Publication Society, 2011), 49.