Ruth 1: 22- 2: 3
We have seen how Elimelech brought his family into Moab where there was food, so he could provide for his wife and sons; and how Elimelech died, his sons grew up and married Moabite women, and then they also died, leaving the three women destitute.
When Naomi heard that there was food in Israel again, she explained to her daughters-in-law how much better it would be for them to stay in their own land, and Orpah went back to her mother's house, but Ruth abandoned her people, her culture, her land, and her gods to come to Judah with her mother-in-law.
(22) So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the land of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.
Naomi arrived back in Judah at the beginning of barley harvest, which would have been the eighth month of their agricultural calendar, or April/May.
(2: 1) Now Naomi had a kinsman of her husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.
Now we are introduced to Boaz, and we find that he is one of the family or clan of Ruth's late husband, and he is wealthy.
(2) And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose sight I may find favor."
Now Ruth asks permission from her mother-in-law to go to work. Naomi has probably shared with Ruth some of the customs of her people while they were still in Moab all those years, and Ruth is wanting to gather whatever pieces of grain the reapers had dropped, as the Law expressly allowed the poor the right to glean in the fields (Leviticus 19: 9-10; 23: 22; Deuteronomy 24: 19-21), but the owners of the fields were not always cooperative.
So Ruth hoped to find a field where she would find favor, an expression used by a person of inferior status in reference to a superior.
And she said to her, "Go, my daughter."
And Naomi affectionately gave her permission. As both of them were poor widows, Naomi could have gone with her, but she may have been weary from the journey, or wanting to inspect her property.
(3) So she departed and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.
So Ruth went alone, and we're told that she happened, by accident, to end up in the very field that belonged to her relative. But was it happenstance?
We've seen how God has been setting up this whole situation, so we must understand that the Lord God has led her to this property. How often does God lead, and we're oblivious to it? We attribute coincidences to Providence or Chance, instead of to our Lord God who is sovereignly leading and directing our steps.
O my Father, please open our eyes when You are leading us into what seems to us to be disaster! Help us to recognize that we're not "ending up" someplace, but we're "in place" for the working out of Your Plan!
O Father God, Your plan for each of us is for our good, so that You will receive the credit, the glory. And each of our lives is only one thread of Your great Tapestry of Time, to be woven in and out among all the other threads of the lives of others we encounter. Help us to go in Your strength and in the confidence of Your faithfulness, to accomplish Your purposes, and shine and glow as gold and silver threads against the black velvet of the rebellious ones.
My Father, send us, Your children, out into the world, to broadcast the good seed of Your Gospel among all the nations, so that every living person will be able to hear and understand enough of how You love us all, to turn to you, and receive Your gracious and generous gift of Redemption through Your dear Son! Lead us to bring all of Your embryonic children to the birth into Your family, and fill Your great house with Your uncountable progeny!
And give everyone else no excuse for refusing to humble themselves before You in confession and repentance.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
