Ruth 2 | The Sweetness of God in the Bitterness of Life
INTRODUCTION
Let’s open the Bible now to Ruth, chapter 2. We’re looking at this little book in the Old Testament because we need constant reminders of the faithfulness of God. When the hope of redemption seems to get dim, God provides in surprising ways. Ruth is a poor, widowed, foreign woman from whom the Savior came. This is a story of what only God can do.
But the story doesn’t start out hopeful, as we saw last week.
In his novel This Tender Land, William Kent Krueger tells the story of orphan brothers, Odie and Albert. They are sent to a training school primarily for Native Americans in the 1930s. The people running the school are hard and mean, but they act under the veil of the Bible. In one instance, the headmaster reads from Psalm 23 and puts himself in the shoes of the shepherd and the children as the sheep. Odie sees through it, but he’s not yet given up that what God says is true. Maybe God does care, despite his current circumstances.
One night back in the dormitory, as they lie listening to the lonely cries of a child in the darkness, Odie and Albert have a conversation. Albert, the older brother, lives in fear of having to leave Odie behind. Albert says,
“I’m afraid I’ll get taken from you, and who’d look after you then?”
“Maybe God?” [Odie replied]
“God?”
He said it as if I were joking.
“Maybe it really is like it says in the Bible,” I offered. “God’s a shepherd and we’re his flock and he watches over us.”
For a long while, Albert didn’t say anything. I listened to that kid crying in the dark because he felt lost and alone and believed no one cared.
Finally Albert whispered, “Listen, Odie, what does a shepherd eat?”
I didn’t know where he was going with that, so I didn’t reply.
“His flock,” Albert told me. “One by one.”
I wonder if that’s how Naomi felt. She felt the bitterness of God toward her. She felt consumed by his anger, not comforted by his love. I wonder if in her darkest moments she would agree with Albert. Was the shepherd eating his flock one by one? Her husband was gone. Her sons were gone. Orpah was gone. Only she and Ruth remained. Was their time coming soon?
As we step through the doorway of chapter 2, we enter a new land at harvest time. Bethlehem is beaming with fullness after a long famine. The barley harvest had just begun, and empty bellies were filling up.
But Namoi’s and Ruth’s belly still grumbled. Did God hear? Did he care? Their circumstances would shout that he didn’t. But there are whispers of grace rumbling through the pages of this chapter. God is changing their fortunes. We see no miracles as we do in the Exodus or the victories of the Judges. Instead, we see a course of seemingly normal events. A girl gleaning on the edges of a field. A man coming from the city to check on his work. A harvest in full force. It’s in everyday life that God does most of his work. It was true for Naomi and Ruth, and it’s true for you and me. God is always doing 10,000 things in our lives and we might see only a few. We might feel his absence, but he is ever-present. We might wonder if he cares, but he’s working now for our good. We might ask why our lives aren’t better, but he’s preparing a home for us out ahead.
Following God doesn’t always feel like a straight line upward to glory. Sometimes our circumstances push us way down low. But the low place is where we find our Savior. He was born in a manger. He had no place to lay his head. He died condemned on a cross. But he is called the King of Glory. In God’s economy, the low place is the high place. The story of Ruth reaffirms that truth. It makes sense. Jesus came from this lowly woman—this poor outsider is the ancestral mother of the King.
Naomi had complaints in chapter 1. But what God shows Naomi, and through her what he shows us, is that behind the bitter circumstances is a sweetness of a Savior. So let’s read chapter 2 now, and let’s pay attention to the sweetness of God in the bitterness of life.
1 Now Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. 2 And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” 3 So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech. 4 And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you!” And they answered, “The Lord bless you.” 5 Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” 6 And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, “She is the young Moabite woman, who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. 7 She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.’ So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.”
8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. 9 Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.” 10 Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” 11 But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. 12 The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” 13 Then she said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.”
14 And at mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her roasted grain. And she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over. 15 When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. 16 And also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.”
17 So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. 18 And she took it up and went into the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied. 19 And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” 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.” 20 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.” 21 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.’ ” 22 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.” 23 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.
Did you notice the sweetness of God in this chapter?
The bitterness of chapter one begins to be counteracted by the sweetness of chapter two. Through what appears at first a random set of events, we see three truths about the sweetness of God.
The sweet providence of God (2:1-7)
The sweet protection of God (2:8-13)
The sweet provision of God (2:14-23)
THE SWEET PROVIDENCE OF GOD (2:1-7)
Nothing happens in our lives that is not a result of God working in our lives. The events of Ruth 2 are proof.
Ruth and Naomi came from Moab to Naomi’s old home of Bethlehem. Ruth is a Moabite, as we are constantly reminded throughout the book. That’s an important detail to remember because it helps us understand her position. Moab is infamous in the Old Testament for being an enemy of Israel. Naomi is poor, husbandless, food-less, and everything-else-less. But she’s at least a true Israelite. Ruth is a Moabite. Naomi has a lot going against her, but Ruth has even more. But they have God on their side, and that makes all the difference. The author wants us to see that God is behind everything that happens in this story, just as he is in everything that happens in your story.
In verse 2, Ruth has an idea. “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.” Here we already see the sweet providence of God. Ruth and Naomi are in the land of Israel, a place ruled by God’s law, which made provision for poor women like them. God’s law allowed for poor people and foreigners to glean from the fields by restricting landowners from scraping out every possible grain. The edges were for the hungry. Leviticus 19:9-10 says, “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God.” Here is the sweetness of God revealed in his law. When setting up Israel’s economy, God provided for the poor.
Not only that, but God also commanded his people should protect widows and aliens. Exodus 22:22, “Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry.” Deuteronomy 10:18 says, “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.” Psalm 146:9 says, “The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow.” God cares about people like Naomi and Ruth, and Ruth takes a step of faith knowing this is God’s land, and this is God’s field, and if there is a godly man running it, she will find food.
Let’s linger here a moment. There was no one less worthy of care from an economic, social, political, or otherwise standpoint than an aging widow and her foreign, also widowed, daughter-in-law. They could be nothing but a burden on society. But God cares about them. God cares about those whom no one else has any reason to care about. Here is the mighty heart of God. Naomi and Ruth deserved, from a social standpoint, nothing. But God was not too busy to care for them. He was not too great to notice them. His eye was upon them. He knew their comings and goings. He saw all Naomi’s bitterness toward him and yet loved her anyway. He knew Ruth was a Moabite, yet she found a place in God’s heart. Here’s the implication. If you feel low and overlooked as Ruth and Naomi felt, God is not too great to notice you; he’s too great not to. God is not too busy to care for you; he’s doing it already, even if you can’t yet feel it. God is not too distant to know the details of your life; he knows them all, down to the number of hairs on your head. He feels every stomach grumble. He hears every sigh of desperation. He knows every kind of suffering. And he cares.
One way God cares is through his providence. What is God’s providence? We often think of it in terms of his sovereignty. The Bible says, “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Ps. 115:3). God has the right and the power to control all things. But that is different from his providence. Providence is the use of that sovereignty for the specific purpose of caring for this world and using his sovereignty for his wise purposes. One definition I found put it this way, “The providence of God is the working of God’s sovereignty to continually uphold, guide, and care for his creation.” [Helm]
God’s providence is all over this book, and all of this chapter of this book. I want to hone in on one phrase first and then step back to examine the whole. In verse 3, the author says, “So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech.”
Did you notice those words there in the middle of that sentence? She happened to come. The Hebrew literally says, she “chanced to chance” or “her chance chanced.” She “happened to come” upon the part of the field Boaz owned. What a coincidence! Here is a widowed foreigner who just so happens to come to the part of this big field owned by someone who understands the heart of God’s law and knows how to care for someone like her.
The author intends us to see the irony of this. Ruth comes to the one part of the field in all of Israel where she could find the help she needed, the protection she needed, the provision she needed. Here is the sweetness of God. God is working behind the scenes to bring about his purposes. There is nothing random or left to chance about life. There is only the providence of God.
So we zoom out a bit and we see the providence of God laying all over these verses. Ruth not only came to the one part of the field most accepting of her but that field was also owned by a certain man. Look again at verse 1. Boaz was a relative of Naomi’s husband. We find out later that means he’s one of their redeemers. We’ll look at that more in the future. For now, it’s enough to know that means Boaz can help pull Ruth and Naomi out of their plight by redeeming them—marrying Ruth and redeeming Elimelech’s old land. God made provision for this also in his law. This is all the more remarkable because when Ruth told Naomi she was going to glean, Naomi offered no direction. If God is not in this, how did Ruth get to this part of the field under the care of this man?
Boaz’s introduction is also important. In verse 1, he’s called “a worthy man.” Other translations of that phrase are “a man of standing,” “a man of valor,” and my favorite because of who comes from Boaz and Ruth, King David, “a mighty man.” Boaz is not just some nice guy. He’s a God-loving, Spirit-empowered, Redeemer-producing, kind-hearted man of standing, valor, and might who just so happens to come to the field while Ruth is there gleaning. After the darkness of chapter 1, Boaz is like the morning sun, full of hope. Look at verse 4. “And behold [the author wants us to see the providence here], Boaz came from Bethlehem [the field was outside the city].” Notice even his greeting of his workers. “The Lord be with you!” Apparently, Boaz’s faith wasn’t a private affair. He took his Christianity into the office with him. Then, Boaz did something amazing. He noticed Ruth, an unnoticeable, and he was impressed with her. The servant in charge of the reapers told Boaz about her. Ruth took the initiative to care for Naomi. She humbly asked to glean. She worked hard all day without rest. She has the qualities of a Proverbs 31 woman. And Boaz took notice. Ruth hoped to find someone kind enough to let her glean. In God’s sweet providence, she found a future husband who would redeem Naomi’s house. Not bad for a day’s work!
Here’s the point: where you go and what you do is not left to mere chance. It is the result of the sweet providence of God. It may not always feel sweet at first, but it is leading ultimately to something glorious. It was for Ruth. It was for Boaz. It was for Naomi. If you love God, it is for you too.
Now that we’ve seen the sweet providence of God, let’s look at the sweet protection of God.
THE SWEET PROTECTION OF GOD (2:8-13)
Not only did God providentially lead Ruth to a field, but he also lead her to a kind protector. Notice how Boaz jumped into the relationship with Ruth in verses 8 and 9. He knew who she was, and he knew how vulnerable she was. He didn’t sit back and wait. He didn’t let things play out before he acted. He took the initiative to help. He commanded her not to leave his field for another. He gave her the right to stay close to his young women. He gave her permission to go after his servants who are reaping, getting the best of what’s left over. And he charged his men not to touch her. When she was thirsty, she could go and drink from his wells. He built fences around her to ensure her safety in a world that was not naturally safe, especially for people like her. Boaz used all he had for Ruth’s protection. The sweet providence of God is taking form in the sweet protection he offers through Boaz.
What is Ruth’s response? Humble amazement. Verse 10 says she fell on her face and bowed to the ground in astonishment that Boaz would do this for her. Everything in her life indicated a continual struggle for survival. She didn’t leave Moab with Naomi because she saw a better life in Bethlehem. It was guaranteed to be harder for someone like her, a foreign widow. But she went anyway. She could not possibly have had any great expectations, so when Boaz noticed her and cared for her, and invited her inside his circle, she could not believe it. She knew who she was. And Boaz knew who she was, and to Boaz, she was impressive.
Boaz answered her question in verse 11. “Why am I doing this? Because I heard about all you did for your mother-in-law. I know you left your father and mother and your native land and came to these people that you did not know, not because you were in search of a better life, but because you had steadfast love for Naomi. You were unwilling to let Naomi go it alone.” Because he saw that, Boaz was unwilling to let Ruth go it alone now.
But there was something else Boaz saw that impressed him more than all the rest. He saw Ruth’s faith. Of all the places she could have gone and all the gods she could have worshipped, she came to Israel and to the God of Israel. She took refuge under God’s wings. So Boaz prayed a prayer of protection over her in verse 12. “The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” Remember what Ruth said to Naomi when she vowed to stay with her? It was not only her love for her friend and mother-in-law that compelled her. She took Naomi’s God as her own. Ultimately, faith drove Ruth to Bethlehem. Faith drove Ruth to stay with Naomi. Faith drove Ruth to Boaz’s field. When her life fell apart, she sought refuge under the wings of God by faith. Ruth esteemed God’s protection as the only true protection, though at the time she could probably barely see how it could possibly play out for good. God was her hope and her joy. Therefore, she was “repaid” and “rewarded” as Boaz puts it. Not in some kind of justification by works but in the blessing of her hope in God’s work on her behalf. She trusted God, and he did not let her down. She came under the mighty and safe and protective wings of God, and he carried her along.
Ruth points the way forward for us all. When your life falls apart, God’s wings are spread to protect you. Nothing can ultimately harm you there in that safe place. That won’t mean days won’t be hard. You might even die. But if you love God, you will not die again. You will live. You will be resurrected. You will find the wings of God are the only true shelter.
Come under the wings of God and you will live. Come under the wings of God and you will find protection from all that scares you in the world. Come under the wings of God and you will find a refuge for your soul, a safe place for your life, a shelter from the storm. Why? Because One like Boaz is there, able to save. When Jesus came to Jerusalem, he looked out over it and said, “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” Jesus is not the holdout. The only requirement for the sweet protection of his wings is the willingness to go under them.
When you are tired and needy and weak and wounded, and when life gets so hard you can’t see the way forward, draw near to God in Christ. Go under his wings. How will he respond? He will pull you in tight—so tight that you might even hear his heartbeat. Finding refuge under God’s wings might mean you can’t see much else around you. He might hug you that tight. But you can trust him. Perhaps your hard circumstances are for this reason only—to be pulled closer to the heart of Christ. Have you ever had those moments? You sense God is carrying you somewhere, but you can’t see the path, and when you arrive you don’t even know why you’re there. How did it turn out?
Hiding under the wings of God might feel pretty dark, but there is no brighter place to be. You can trust him.
There’s one more thing to see in this chapter: the sweet provision of God.
THE SWEET PROVISION OF GOD (2:14-23)
Ruth the widowed Moabite who left her homeland with an empty stomach now finds a fullness she could never have imagined. Boaz not only gave her permission to glean from her field and to protect her as she does but he also filled her to the brim with food both then and later. He invited her to eat bread and dip it in the wine. How long had it been since Ruth tasted something that grand? She sat beside the reapers, among Boaz’s people. Not behind them, but beside them. He elevated and invited her inside his inner circle. He passed roasted grain to her. He passed it to her. She ate from his hand until she was satisfied. And just like the apostles of Jesus after the feeding of the multitudes, there was some left over. She was given permission to get up and glean again with a full belly and more strength than when she came, and he told his men to let her take not only the crumbs but the sheaves, and he pulled out some food from the bundles they had already reaped and left it on the ground for her to find. Boaz provided abundantly for this dear woman. This is God’s sweet provision through his servant Boaz. This is a vision of the kind of fullness God offers all who come to him.
When your life falls apart, there is a field to which you can come with an owner that will care for you. There is a God who owns all this world who has a man who came to this world to find us poor outsiders reaching for crumbs on the ground. He sees us. He knows us. He invites us to his table. He feeds us from his hand—more than that, from his very body, which was broken for us to atone for our sin. He lifts us up to an honorable place with him. His eye is on the one no one else notices. His heart is big enough for all our needs. His field is big enough for all our hunger. His wings are wide enough for all who need refuge. His house is big enough for all who need a room. He is a Redeemer not only of our earthly lives but of our eternal souls. He is a complete Savior with complete love and care, with sweet providence and protection and provision that never ends, never fades, never fails, and never runs out. You are not forsaken.
What happened to Ruth that day is a picture of what happens to all who come to Christ. He lifts us up. He cares. He provides. His eye is upon you right now, and everything in your life is leading you to a place of glory and fullness and redemption in him.
Remember what Odie said to Albert? I think he was right. It really is like it says in the Bible. God’s a shepherd and we’re his flock and he watches over us. Isn’t Ruth proof? Isn’t your life proof? If you don’t believe that yet, why not take a chance with God? He can prove himself to you. When your belly starts to rumble; when the pain just doesn’t seem to end; when the tears won’t dry; when the land is barren; when despair is a constant friend; when almost no one is left to care for you; when life feels bitter; wait for the sweetness to come. Jesus will pull you in tight under his wings. He will be your redeemer. He will shepherd you and watch over you, and you will eat from his table.
Let’s pray.
