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Text: Ruth 2:4-17
The virtuous soul receives a personal invitation (vss 4-9)
- Boaz takes note of the stranger among his reapers and how she has labored the right way with the right heart.
- Boaz graciously invites Ruth to stay and glean in his field.
- Boaz has instructed his reapers to allow strangers to glean. (A reaper then isn’t a tractor, the harvesters are people.)
- And his reapers are under instruction not to mess with the women that come to glean.
- Boaz has also instructed his reapers to provide water to the gleaners.
- A neat note about the reapers in regards to prophecy. Jesus Christ told a parable about wheat and tares and the end of the world. In that parable he said, the reapers are the angels (Matthew 13:39). Boaz has instructed his reapers to be ministers to the faithful.
- Boaz’s invitation is to abide with him.
- He offers to supply her need.
- He offers to give her water to drink.
- John 15:4, Abide with me because you won’t get what you need without me.
- John 15:7, Abide with me and tell me what you need so I can supply it.
- John 15:10, Abide with me by listening to my words and therefore partaking of my love.
Grace is attracted to faithfulness without respect for persons (vss 10-12)
- Ruth asks why Boaz has taken note of her and her humble attitude is the attitude of every true believer in Jesus Christ.
- Boaz answers that it’s her faithfulness, her dedication to Naomi, and her trust in the God of Israel that has attracted him to her.
- What about the fact that she’s a Moabite? Choosing the God of Israel trumps her race.
- What if Ruth isn’t pretty? God’s children say, Beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.
- But Ruth is poor. God’s children say, Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death.
- Boaz’s attraction to Ruth is because of her spiritual qualities which included:
- Her charitable care for Naomi.
- She turned from Moabite idols to Israel’s God.
- She left her parents and chose God’s nation.
- Notice whose wings these are according to Matthew 23:37. Ruth is a heathen who came to trust in the God of Israel in contrast with a nation who for the most part will not trust their own God.
- This chapter follows the theme that grace is attracted to faith, by grace through faith. By Boaz’s grace through Ruth’s faith, a family will be “saved” and new life will be birthed.
- Grace in verse 2, verse 10, and every provision of gleaning is grace: 2,3,7,8,15,16,17,18,19, and 23. Then you mix some faith with it in verse 12 and you’ve got a recipe for new life.
- Grace through faith is not a new testament theme at all. Part of our problem when we read what Paul wrote in Ephesians is all we can see is faith in Jesus Christ because that’s what applies to us. We can’t seem to get our minds around faith before Jesus Christ, even though Hebrews 11 deals with it very well.
- In a time when Israel had been given the law. They were in their promised land. A time when judges ruled. The Holy Spirit makes note of and rewards an insignificant Moabite lady who has come to trust under the wings of the God of Israel. Boaz rewards her work of faith.
The gracious man’s reward (vss 13-17)
- Boaz speaks comfortably to Ruth.
- Boaz is friendly to this stranger.
- Boaz feeds Ruth from his table.
- Boaz goes beyond Israel’s law to make sure both Ruth and Naomi are provided for. Boaz not only obeys the law of Leviticus 19:9-10 about allowing strangers to glean your field, but he goes above and beyond that. Why? Because Ruth possesses qualities that Boaz finds endearing.
- Ruth is allowed to gather among the sheaves which are more than just gleanings, it’s the actual harvest.
- Ruth is also allowed to gather what’s been left on purpose for her.
- Ruth gathers an ephah which is 10 omers (Exodus 16:36), and an omer fed one person for a day (Exodus 16:16). So Ruth gathers 5-7 days worth of food for her and Naomi. Ruth’s work of faith is rewarded with the ability to keep whatever she can carry with her.
- Boaz has essentially said you can have whatever you’re willing and able to carry home. Be it according to thy faith!
