Ruth 2

Ruth chapter 2 here the Word of the Lord Now Naomi had a relative of her husband's a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech whose name was

Boaz 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 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 and Behold Boaz came from Bethlehem and he said to the

Reapers the Lord be with you and they answered The Lord bless you then

Boaz said to the young man who was in charge of the Reapers whose young woman is this 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 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

Then Boaz said to Ruth Now listen my daughter Do not go glean in another field or leave this one

But keep close to my young women 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 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 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 the

Lord repay you for what you have done and A full reward be given to you by the Lord the

God of Israel under whose wings you have come to take refuge 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 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 when she rose to gleam

Boaz instructed his young men saying let her gleam 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

So she gleaned in the field until evening and then she beat out what she had gleaned and it was about an ephah of barley

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 from being satisfied 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 have worked today is Boaz 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 harvest and she lived with her mother -in -law

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word I Never had a coincidence

Maybe something too coincidental just to be chance How about a coincidental rendezvous?

One of my favorite professors in seminary whom I met outside of class Well, I'm only two I met outside of class was

William Lane. I have a commentary on mark from him I bought at the time. He was a fairly well -known scholar

He was a visiting professor at the seminary and a full -time professor at a university in Bowley Green, Kentucky And an interim pastor if they're in Bowling Green that I later pastored at briefly

Over a decade later. He had died in the meantime about 20 years after that at Joshua's 2019 graduation from NC State held in this large basketball arena

We go in and apparently at random we sit down and while we're waiting for it to begin

I hear a man behind me mentioned Bowling Green, Kentucky and I turn around and say that I live there for a little while and we talk and the man introduces himself as Something I forgot his first name, but Lane last name

Lane And I said wait there used to be a famous professor there named William Lane and the man said he was my father

It just so happens that we were right in front of the son of one of my favorite

Professors from 30 years before one of the like of only two professors at the my entire time at seminary that I met outside of class

Who was also the interim pastor at the same church? I was later at I'm not sure exactly what that means

Is that maybe I was in the right place I guess but it's just too coincidental to be a coincidence another one the vote at another church that led to this church was a choice between two things the choice was determined by the others not by me between stay and Go that is the people of the church were asked to vote for stay or to go go

One which led to the question whether me and my family up with us. We should go elsewhere

We should just move away And as we were reorganizing and very busy and looking for a place to live and moving and everything

Having been told by people To go I decided to redo a series of sermons

I had done earlier on first Timothy Which is also convenient because first Timothy is about organizing the church and we were looking into whether we should start a new church

Which turned out to be this one? I opened the computer file with my sermon notes on it just a day or two after the stay or go vote

Having totally forgotten what originally several years before I had entitled the first sermon from first Timothy chapter 1 to my surprise my shock

I'll never forget when the file opened and I saw that it just so happened coincidentally to be entitled

Stay as Yogi Berra said that's too coincidental to be a coincidence

Albert Einstein said coincidence and God's way of remaining anonymous Maybe that's true sometimes but some coincidences are just so Coincidental like those that led to this church.

They're not really anonymous at all They're God's way of saying that you know, I'm in control here even over things that appear out of control coincidences are

God's Providence that are right on the border of being miraculous

You know, there's nothing about just happening to sit in front of the son of your favorite professor from 30 years before in California and the interim pastor of your church about 20 years before in Kentucky Coincidentally sitting right next to him or the title of the sermon happening to be just so happening

Coincidentally to be the same word in the church vote just a few days before that conveys the message you desperately need

There's nothing about all that that kind of defies the laws of nature You know, that's a miracle that would just convince a skeptic that that's technically supernatural but still

It's just too coincidental To be a coincidence now Naomi would have understood all this immediately

Well, of course He is God Almighty the one she mentioned last week the

El Shaddai Modern people have a hard time understanding this first. They like to think that they are the captains of their fate

They make their free choices Uninfluenced undetermined by anything else.

They're in control. They think of their entire lives So they don't like to think God's actually in control of law you think of that that a basketball arena

What went into my sitting here or there and his sitting there we ended up right by each other

Both of us made what we thought were free decisions and yet they were determined by God So did

I make a free decision? Yes was God behind it. Yes And we like to put those like they're contradictory

They're not and we'll see that here in root chapter 2 The modern people like to say either got to have one or the other

God either God's in control or we're free Well, God says no both Both and you've seen this meme online this

Chinese girl. It's like why not both? That's what I think. I got what God says. It's my will free or it's got a control and God says why not both?

Well skeptics will even say that if God's in control and bad things happen like disasters and diseases and deaths

And even Naomi thinks this for a little while Then God is a moral monster.

He's against us Christians won't admit that we should know better to say that especially in church

Instead they'll either ignore the issue completely. Let's pretend God's is not in control of the disaster

They're like they're out of control or claim that God has given us over To our own free will and so he's left things out of control

So they make a free will defense again getting back to this It's either got to be God in control our free will either one and God says no

They're both and so what such people really mean is that we don't really trust him with the controls It's like a teenager with a car.

You might think he means well, but you're afraid if you've let him drive without supervision He'll wreck the thing But here at root chapter 2 we see again that God is

Almighty Jedi that he is in control and we should be glad he is Because he knows what he's doing

He is controlling the lives of people because of his steadfast love the great

Hebrew word even the psalm today Psalm 143 revealed to be show to me your Chesed your steadfast love his loyal love his covenant commitment to do good to his people

So the entire book of Ruth is a story to show among other things what this steadfast love what this has said

What it is what it means here in chapter 2 we see that steadfast love is at least three things

First it is consistent then it is considerate and finally it is covering

First set the scene Naomi has returned from Moab to Bethlehem Telling the other ladies there that the

Lord has brought her back empty. I went away full the Lord has bought me back empty She said the

Almighty Caused him the Almighty the Shaddai has brought calamity on me She says and Ruth hands her a tissue at that moment.

You know, she's got to do that answer a tissue roots right there They all feel sorry for Naomi Ruth's feel sorry for Naomi She definitely believes in the sovereignty the control of God over all things what she doubts is whether God is good to her

But it just so happens What she still can't see she has arrived empty. She says but not really she has this loyal daughter -in -law and The barley harvest has begun

And that's not a coincidence at all Chapter 1 verse 6 says that the Lord had visited his people and Given them foods not just left up to the laws of nature of the

Lord. Does it that's why they have harvests coming The Lord has made the fields flourish and Naomi is crying that she's empty but she has

Ruth to go out to those fields for her and Glean for her and she has another relative

Boaz Notice the chapter begins with that Boaz relative of Ella Malick You could be thinking wait

Naomi said she was empty but she has this relative. Yeah, she forgot She's not empty at all

Described verse one is worthy. The work could be distinguished or he's honored. He's a noble man.

He's noble isn't good He owns a field around Bethlehem So he's a property owner He's fairly well off Naomi had either forgotten about Boaz or she just so devastated by her own personal losses that she can't think

Of anything else, but now we know That she's not empty We know even as Naomi is crying about being empty that Boaz is nearby, but God remembered

And he's about to arrange a rendezvous As the harvest begins

Ruth has to go out and glean after any harvesters that will will let her

Notice the way it's put after them. He's back literally behind them Now Israel had a law in Leviticus chapter 19 and chapter 23 that they were not supposed to totally harvest their fields

Don't strip them bare But leave the edge the margins Unharvested so that the poor can come and help themselves and anything the field hands drop

You know when they're when they're picking up the harvested crop don't just go back and pick it up So you taking everything but leave it like for any needy person like Ruth to go out and get it

This is sort of Israel's welfare program This is their way of taking care of the poor who didn't have any fields anything of their own

Notice that they would have to actually go out and work for it. So they have to do some work not just given to them but something is left out there for them to get and of course some people aren't going to follow the law and Others might do it technically

They kind of really got to do this I want to harvest all the crop but but they'll do it reluctantly because they're made to Leave a few barley stalks up at the edge and maybe treat any destitute people who come by to try to pick it up as rudely get out of here and some will do the minimum and resent having to do it and Some if they see some scrounger taking too much will send out their field hands as ruffians

To assault them and Naomi mentions that in verse 22 near the end notice that you go somewhere else You may get mistreated, but this

Boaz he'll take care of you Ruth says she wants to go out and harvest wherever she can quote fine favor in verse 2

So she doesn't know where that is. It's going out hoping That she will find favor. So Ruth goes out at random as far as she can tell she's making a free choice

Free will is it work? She sees some Reapers in the field it goes behind them picking up everything they miss in the middle of verse 3

This is key in the middle of verse 3 notice she happened on a particular field

We could translate as she just so happened. Can you believe it with a knowing smile?

What a coincidence, of course It's too coincidental be a coincidence. She happened to go to Boaz this field who's a relative of Naomi that Naomi has forgotten about She doesn't know it.

She didn't know Boaz is notice. Naomi didn't tell her about Boaz This is why you get the words there of their conversation

Please let me go out and harvest them up wherever I can fight favor and then he says yeah go she doesn't say yeah Oh, by the way, try

Boaz's field is right there on the corner of you know, first at Maine or whatever. No, nothing like that She knowing

Naomi doesn't remember Boaz at all So Ruth said she'll go out and look to glean wherever she can get treated kindly

Somebody feels out there around Bethlehem and the word Bethlehem means house of bread. So there's fields everywhere

And so they bring in a lot of grain everybody is harvesting now what are the chances she just so happens

To find herself in Boaz's field The author reminds us at the end of verse 3 that Boaz is a relative of Ellie Malek.

No, she repeats that twice Verse 1 felt about a minute verse 3. That's not because we forget two verses later

No, it's because we we need to be reminded she just so happened to come on the relative of Naomi a relative a

Relative mind you you know what that means a relative means he could be a Redeemer Just so happens upon his field of all the fields are and then

God's control over everything That's his control everything even over what of where Ruth freely chooses to go gleaning.

She makes a free choice She looks out uses her free. Well, I'm gonna go there I guess And it happens to be

Boaz's field and we see here that for his people for Naomi and Ruth that control

Somehow God guided her free choice and That's loving

That's good Well first it's consistent It's steadfast as in the

English translation here Ruth herself is steadfast having committed herself in famous words of Ruth chapter 1 where you lodge

Naomi I will lodge Your people shall be my people and your God my

God and so she goes with her all the way back to Bethlehem House of bread and is now working by gleaning the leftovers and other people's fields

I'll think about it. We call it low Desperate life. This is you don't have a field of your own

You just have to go out to a field and hope you can pick up scraps Leftover from the harvesters and that you won't get assaulted by the owners of the field there

That's life. And as far as she knows as Ruth knows this could be the rest of her life

This could be what she's doing from here on out And one of the desperately poor picking up the scraps from the paid workers, you know, at least the real harvesters they they're paid

They got jobs and they got a grown house, but you're below them You're just picking up what you can

Going through the dumpsters So this is it This is what she committed herself to do

Consistently It just so happens she's in the field of her relative or her deceased father -in -law

Boaz shows up blesses the Reapers the Lord be with you Showing his Piper says he's a

God saturated man His foreman is there supervising and all the workers say the

Lord be with you and he asked his foreman Whose young woman is this? pointing at Ruth She's moving gradually through the field picking up what everything whatever she can the foreman says well, she's the

Young Moabite woman. No, it's the She's the one everyone's been talking about Remember the whole town of Bethlehem was a buzz about Naomi returning with her loyal daughter -in -law

Ruth was the talk of the town along with Naomi and everyone the foreman Everyone's talking about them and foreman said she's she asked politely to glean after the

Reapers That's been other was after they're done and she's been consistently working from early morning with only a short break now love today is usually celebrated in movies and songs and poems for his first passion a brilliant burst of feelings but in the

Bible it is celebrated mainly for its faithfulness its endurance its loyalty

Being a steady consistent Commitment Love is a long -distance race not a sprint

Here Ruth has committed herself where you die. I will die and there

I will be buried I'll still be there after you die. She's consistently living that out.

She's out in the field from dawn until dusk. She's working hard Get some food for herself and for Naomi because of her

Love As we sang about last week from lamentations the steadfast love of the

Lord Never ceases his mercies never come to an end.

They are new every morning God's death fast love is consistent.

It's enduring is for the long haul it never ceases It's up early working every morning. And if you have it

That Love and you will be consistent and enduring Steadfast love is also considerate

It puts itself in the place of the loved sees what life is like for them considers them what they're going through Boaz says to Ruth not you've got enough from us now, by the way, we left a little out for you

You've gotten it now go try somebody else you moocher Now he's considerate He says now listen my daughter

Let's cause her daughter tender notice the tenderness of his words Do not go glean in another field.

Don't bother about another field or don't leave this one But keep close to my young women in other words stay

Stay here with the women harvesters. I have working for me now They say that during the harvest there those times the men would take the sickle and like a swing blade and cut down the grain

Beat the hard work and then the women would come after them. So you kind of gathering together all that's been cut down Stacking it and then binding it together

Boaz he is saying here you stay close to the women So you look like you're you're one of them even the action the other women are actually my harvesters

They're working for me. You're really not but you can stay close to them So you look like you're part of them and so Boaz is saying you

Ruth stay close you be a part of us You'll be included. You won't look like a straggler or a moocher.

You're welcome here Boaz considers her what's it like to be that you know You have all these people working in the field that you're straggling behind and you're obviously the odd one out

Yeah, obviously the destitute you're the beggar You're the low one here and so Boaz considers that what it's like for her to be in her position

He's not just thinking about his bottom line. Remember he's a businessman and this is his business He makes his living by getting a good harvest.

He owns this field He's hoping this time of year planted it weeded it whatever whatever else he had to do to it

The harvest now has come and he this is where the profit comes from. It's finally getting his income

And so good thing. Well, I gotta keep as much as I can Inconsiderate men would look at people like Ruth poor gleaners picking up their crops.

You look at him as he's there's a parasites Like Ebeneezer Scrooge's are there no prisons? Are there no work houses?

My taxes go to pay for welfare I've got to look after myself here look out for number one

They say but Boaz knew better Boaz the worthy man here shows why he's worthy. He considers the needs of others

Particularly the needs of the needy And he considers the humanity of those like Ruth who are barely getting by and so he says in verse 9

He has charged the young men not to bother her. They're not gonna harass you and When she's thirsty, she can go to get a drink from the water that they provide for their own workers

Otherwise you get our benefits Too so Boaz wasn't just keeping the letter of the law.

He wasn't just you know doing the very minimum He had to do to keep God's law. He was going beyond it to the spirit of the law

He wasn't just doing the minimum by leaving some crops at the margins, but was considerate of the marginalized

Not thinking just of his profit margin So Ruth unlike some poor people today

You think they have a right to what's given to them and aren't appreciative Ruth is amazed at the favor

It's given her the favor in verse 10 she bows to the ground why have I found favor in your eyes

That you should take notice of me Since I'm a foreigner she didn't feel a title to this but the law lets me have it

I can take as much as I want. No, she knows this is favor. It's given to her. She doesn't deserve it She realizes that they could say we know

Israelites first sure. That's our law. That's for Israelites You Moabites go back to your own country and scrounge there but notice how

Boaz responds in verses 11 and 12 all that you have done for your mother -in -law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me

The story of Ruth the epitome of a steadfast lover. It's gotten around and he's heard it completely Boaz has heard about it.

And so he's moved by that. He realizes she said your people will be my people your

God my God Now this Moabitess is now she's one of us. Is he gonna be treated like one of us?

But what it says you left your father and mother and your native land and came to people that you do not know before Remember he's responding to her question.

Why have I found favor? Since I'm a foreigner. I know you could exclude me and his answer steadfast.

Love has brought you here Away from your people to a new people. You said you committed

I heard it my people Your people will be my people. I'm gonna be a part of you

The Lord will be my God And that's what steadfast love does it takes people away from their native people the people of this world or money or pleasure or ego or ethnicity or race or nationality is their

God and It brings them to a new people To other people to whom

God has shown his steadfast love to Boaz is considering what it's like for Ruth Have you consider what it's like for people have left their native land

They were far away from their people We have several people like that around here.

You don't have very many people here, but several of them are like that here We're far away from their people.

What's it like when your biggest holiday? Is it recognized at all?

Where you are where you're from the biggest holiday is not recognizing the place where you are now

It's a like for When your biggest holiday Chinese New Year isn't observed by no one around you anymore.

You can't even get the day off. I Live in Singapore through Thanksgiving It's Thursday there.

You have to go to work And the best I could do it is go to a Denny's after work and order a turkey sandwich. That was

Thanksgiving Makes a difference when people consider you Because of your steadfast love

Boaz considers Ruth her needs for food her refreshment for peace And he doesn't consider her to be a foreigner because of her steadfast love

Steadfast love is also it's considerate and also covering Boaz has already promised covering protection for Ruth as long as she works in his fields

He is not gonna let the young men. There's his field hands bother her Ruth tells

Boaz tells Ruth in verse 12 the Lord repay you for what you have done

For your steadfast love Ruth may the Lord repay you a full reward be given to you by the

Lord the God of Israel under whose wings This is important here. It'll become even more important in the next chapter under his wings

You have come to take refuge Ruth the Moabite notice she's called that she's still moment.

Okay, that's where she's from is now part of the true Israel Because she's come under the

Lord's Covering under his wings. Your God will be my God. I'm coming coming under his wings

Like a baby bird just hatched getting refuge from the mother bird

Ruth is now getting her refuge her covering from the

Lord and refuge gives rest Ruth is resting

Under the Lord's wings and Boaz is honoring that the

Lord Repay you he says and he does his part To see that she is repaid

Ruth is just amazed by Boaz's Steadfast love that he's providing her with the opportunity the protection the welcome the respect

He's covering her You know insulating her from harassment young men aren't gonna bother you here

Don't go anywhere else whether you might get bothered you might get harassed here. You have covering Remember in chapter 1

Naomi pleaded with both or pie and Ruth to go back home to your parents and there

You can get rest there. You can get security there You can get the covering of another husband in Moab and Orpah did but Ruth clung to Naomi And by doing that Ruth was saying

I'll get my covering from the Lord With no hope for a husband anything like that bitch.

She would seek her covering from Naomi's God And so here at least in part Boaz provides it she says in verse 13

I have found favor in your eyes my lord small l in English a term of respect

For you have comforted me and spoken kindly To me to your servant

She's comforted literally in Hebrew. That means you've spoken to my heart This is not just words to and give me information you've your words went down in my heart

Now, of course, the words are comforting because they were backed up by action Boaz didn't just say the

Lord bless you Now you've taken enough from us get out of here go to another field No, he said the

Lord bless you and then practically provided what Ruth needed to be blessed You've spoken and she responds you have spoken kindly to my heart to your servant

Though I'm not one of your servants I'm not one of your field hands not one of your employees that you're looking after so that they can work

In other words, you provide the water and the food so that they can work all day. I'm not one of those But you're treating me like I am which is good kind words are backed up by consistent considerate action

Speak to her heart And this is the pinnacle of the chapter Where Boaz blesses

Ruth says made the Lord give you a full reward for coming to him under his wings

For a covering that's what steadfast love does it draws people effectively to the Lord The invitation goes out to all people as the

Lord Jesus said come to me all who labor like Ruth in the fields and are heavy laden with grief with tragedies with questions about where food or shelter was security where whether Love is going to come where it's all coming from and Jesus says come to me and he says and I will give you rest

Covering Jesus has come to be all who labor in Matthew chapter 11 verse 28

Matthew chapter 11 verse 27 The previous verse says no one knows the

Son except the Father and anyone to whom the

Son Chooses to reveal him to reveal himself

I assume to reveal the Son So no one comes at Jesus invitation, even though it is to all who labor

Understand but the only ones who come are those whom Jesus chooses to reveal himself

In other words all are invited come to me but only the chosen the revealed to Come and Ruth was one of those

So she gets rest she gets consideration a covering a place among God's covenant people

Not first because she had steadfast love Although as if she earned her way in by being loyal to Naomi that was part of the work she did

That granted her the reward from God of being one of his people. No, it was because God first God the one who arranged that she would just so happen to be in Boaz's field.

It wasn't a coincidence God had steadfast love on her the book of Ruth is first the story of God's Steadfast love

So this is the pinnacle of the chapter you've been mountain climbing you reach the pinnacle. What do you do then?

Well, then you got to go back down and you see that kind of the same sites All over again, but then you see it from a different angle this is the pinnacle the chapter

Boaz blesses Ruth and verse 12 for taking refuge under the wings of the Lord and the rest of The chapter takes us back down Like mountain climbing once you've reached the summit go back down back through other facets of steadfast

Love same ones we've seen before we see him again. The summit is the Lord's covering He provides for his people rest for your souls for those he loved like Ruth Then back down again we see steadfast love is again

Consider it in verse 14. They had their lunch break boys invites Ruth. Remember she's not part of the work gang officially

She's just a straggler or she's just a beggar really picking up the scraps, but Boaz invites her

Hey Ruth, come over here. Come on. Join us join our lunch over here We all the hands the employees are taking our break for lunch.

You come join us come Where we heard that before Tom Come you labor

Ruth Have your rest have lunch with us. He doesn't have to provide lunch for the poor gleaners

He should provide lunch for his workers understand, but Ruth's not one of those She's just one of the beggars.

So he doesn't have to provide lunch for her, but he does They have bread and they wine and roasted grain

Boaz passes the roasted grain right to her notice that detail Says he passed it right to her.

Oh She didn't just leave it there and she could help herself. No, he made sure that she understood you're included here

We're considering you we're thinking about you went up to her. Here's here's the food She is enough to be full

She can even take a doggy bag back home to Naomi She'd take a box back to her

Then when she goes back to work Boaz goes far beyond the call of duty And he tells us field hands verse 15 let her glean even among the sheaves

Remember what she's supposed to do is what he stragglers is anything that's left Unharvested or anything that's fallen down that she can take but buzzes say, uh, even that harvested stuff the stuff

We piled up over there the sheaves We've already worked to take up she didn't even go there and take whatever she wants stack grain

She can take from there in verse 16 He tells them to pull out. Does that she even goes further than that?

Not only she couldn't she go among the sheaves had tell you what guys guys guys guys Go pick some out of the also harvested at the stacks lay it out for her

Already already bundled and they're looking at what you we harvest of that stuff buddy, but I know I know Don't lay it out for her and do not rebuke her.

He says it twice. Don't rebuke her. Don't challenge her Don't tell her to go somewhere else. No better take whatever she wants

He's considerate, isn't he? Sometimes there are Christians who say they're compassionate that they care.

They'll pray for you. I'll be your helper I'll do whatever you want like James says they'll say be warm be filled to some poor hungry cold person, but then they won't actually share anything

To Alleviate their their need for warmth to fill their stomachs.

They're not really considerate. It's a lack of love and Boaz is the opposite of that He blesses

Ruth Lord bless you. He and he is the picture of Blessing he puts that into practice because of his open -handed generosity

Ruth is able to glean about 30 pounds of barley that is what that if I is

Because you don't want to eat eyes about 30 pounds. It seems to me like a lot of barley In verse 17 is this 30 pounds enough for several weeks or maybe even months of meals

Steadfast love is considerate practically. It's also consistent Ruth cleans all that day does the work of beating out what she's taken separating the grain from the chaff takes it back home to Naomi and she's amazed a 30 pound bag of Beaten out barley

Not to mention that it left and she plops that down and here's some leftovers from lunch. You can have for your dinner

Luke has stopped there and be satisfied with enough food for the time being but it says in the last verse that she went out like that every day

Consistently throughout the entire barley and then after the barley harvest comes the wheat harvest Living with now providing for her mother -in -law in that last verse of chapter two.

She lived with him her It's what she said she would do. She's consistently keeping her commitment where you lodge.

I will lodge Naomi is amazed at what Ruth brings home that first day in verse 19.

You can hear the astonishment or her voice Where did you glean today? Where have you worked?

Blessed is the man who took notice of you Who could be so generous as to allow you to take that much of their grain?

It's their grain You they allowed you to take that much away Remember Naomi didn't send Ruth out to Boaz's field and say, you know, hey

Boaz. This guy's an easy touch He's easy to take advantage of him Now he had forgotten all about him.

She has no idea where all this barley came from She probably think it did Ruth get lucky Did she just happen?

Upon a generous landowner. It's a coincidence And so Ruth tells her no the man's name with whom

I work today is Boaz Boaz That's a name she recognizes ah now

Now I remember Boaz oh, yeah, and now it begins a Donna Naomi who was earlier crying that the

Lord had brought her back empty You remember when Ruth handed her the tissue right at the beginning of barley harvest

It's like some of us maybe you some disaster strikes Death or divorce disease disappointment.

I'm devastated. Why is the Lord let this happen? I'm empty he's against me

And you lose sight of a steadfast love and tell it just so happens what? Ruth on the first day of barley harvest stumbles upon Boaz's field just a coincidence, right?

The word comes back stay Maybe a new friend a new opportunity a new future something better Maybe just the grace that for now is

Insufficient it dawns on Naomi in verse 20. May he be blessed by the

Lord the Lord. Ah The Lord The one she had cried earlier was against her but brought her back to empty

When Ruth handed her to the tissue remember When she wanted to be called bitter instead of pleasant at the beginning of barley harvest

Now it's the end of the first day and There's something too coincidental

To just be a coincidence and it's dawning on Naomi may he be blessed by the

Lord whose kindness There's that word again in Hebrew, by the way, who's tested who steadfast love

Translates kindness here the Lord steadfast love. She finally realized has not forsaken the living me

I thought I was brought back empty I thought it was against me, but he has not forsaken the living me or the dead her husband and sons

Ruth didn't just get lucky. It wasn't just a coincidence The Lord has kept his steadfast love with me

She realizes and so Ruth can go back secure under a covering until the harvest is finished

The Lord steadfast love has been keeping loyally Covenant with her the

Lord is keeping his commitment to his people no matter what Just so happens

That's why Paul could say in Romans 8 that no one That nothing can separate us from the love of Christ Not distress or persecution or famine or danger or sword or death or rulers or demons?

Nothing present nothing to come no power No matter how high or low nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our

Lord Naomi realizes when Ruth plops down this 30 -pound bag of barley and Tells her that it just so happened to come from Boaz That it wasn't chance that the

Lord's steadfast love Had not forsaken her do you realize that The invitation still goes out to all

Who labor all who carry? heavy burdens

Your burdens of your sins and your guilt your grief maybe

Your betrayals betrayals of others to you Maybe your questions about whether the

Lord is Against you You're trying to make a living while also trying to live