A mother-in-laws counsel

Ruth 2:15-23

Have you ever worked for a person who made it very clear what they expected of your performance?  I have, and I’ve also worked for the one that gives no direction and little guidelines about what they expect, the latter of the two bosses never fail to tell you that you did not meet their expectations.  Boaz was the kind of boss I liked; he made it very clear what his expectations were.  Look with me at verses 15-16, “When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. And also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.”

Ruth would not be called the woman of the year in 2018 and she would be looked down on by the liberal women’s movement as someone whose elevator does not go to the top floor.  She should be back home living off mom and dad, or even better have a string of kids outside of marriage and getting paid very well for doing so by the welfare system.  She would not be honored, nor thought of favorably as Ruth was by those who knew of her actions.  And we find nowhere that she was out telling any one of her acts of kindness toward her mother-in-law.

When she came home that day with the grain she had gathered, she had about 26 quarts of barley.  I read this was enough grain to feed a workingman for several weeks, and Naomi knew picking up the grain that was left after the harvesters would never allow for this much grain.  But Ruth was not through with the surprises, she also pulled out what she had left over from the meal and gave it to Naomi.

So Naomi, who understood much better than did Ruth the customs of the Jewish people, asked the following question.  We find her question in verse 19a, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.”  And Ruth replies in 19b, “So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, “The man's name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” 

We are told all through Scripture to seek counsel, and Naomi is going to give Ruth some excellent counsel and insight into the man Boaz in verses 20-23. “And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.” And Ruth the Moabite said, “Besides, he said to me, ‘You shall keep close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’” And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, lest in another field you be assaulted.” So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests. And she lived with her mother-in-law.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice