(Through the Bible) Ruth — Chuck Smith

Ruth in the Time of the Judges

Shall we turn now to the book of Ruth? As we were studying the book of Judges last week, we pointed out that at the end of chapter 16, the end of the story of Samson, you actually came to the end of the history part of the book of Judges.

What followed in chapter 17 and on to the end were a couple of incidents or scenes that took place during the time of the judges, just to show that it was a time of spiritual confusion and moral decay as far as the nation was concerned.

When the Danites moved their area of inheritance, a portion of them went on up to the northern part of the land, how that they captured this young priest and how he had these teraphims and so forth, these little images that had been made.

And it was just a time of spiritual confusion. And then it was a time of moral decay as we saw the conditions of the Benjamites and the sodomy that was beginning to be practiced by the men of Gibeah and its consequences.

Now, that gives you one side of what was happening. There is another story that took place in the book of Ruth, opens now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled. And so the story of Ruth, again, is sort of an appendix to the book of Judges, in that this story fits back into the period when the judges were ruling over Israel.

Now, it was a time of spiritual confusion. It was a time of apostasy, a time of moral declension. But yet in the midst of it all, God was working out His plan in those hearts and lives that were open to Him.

And this is always true. Though you may look at an overall condition of a nation or a people and say, boy, they're really in a mess. Yet God is always working out His plan in the hearts and in the lives of those that are open unto Him.

And so here God was working in the period of moral declension, in this period of confusion, yet God was working in a very special way. And the book of Ruth gives us the insight into the work of God. Now, quite often when we live in a corrupted society, such as we live today, and where in our whole educational philosophy, they teach that the mores of a society determine what is right and wrong conduct.

And thus, having established that as a sociological fact, as we look around and see the mores, we say, well, everybody's doing it and that becomes the criteria it must meet. Must be right. It is interesting that the Bible declares that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Now, that is the biblical account of creation. You have in the educational circles today, the humanistic philosophy that is actually prevailing within our educational system. And the humanistic philosophy, rather than saying that God created man, declares that man created God for his own convenience, because he needed something to believe in.

He needed to have some kind of a guide for moral conduct and all, and so man created God. And that actually, man's moral conduct is determined by the mores of his society. The Bible declares, in the beginning, God created man.

And the moral conduct were standards that were established by God, which are absolutes. Humanism, God created, or man created God for his own convenience, and man establishes his own standards, his own mores.

And thus, they are relative to the situations. Now, living, and all of you have in some degree been affected by the humanistic philosophy that prevails in every level of our society today. The danger is falling into that trap of thinking, well, everybody is doing it, I'm weird or out of step, because I'm not following along with the same pattern of the world in which I live.

And to be accepted, I must join the crowd. And after all, if everybody's doing it, it must be all right. False. That is the philosophy of humanism expressed in its existentialism. Not so. God has established standards.

Man is always trying to get a little twist on the standard that God has established. But what if this, and what if that, and trying to make it relate to a special case that God has established? The standards by which we are to live.

God created man and established the moral standards for that man. So, God is always working. And in this confused, corrupted society in which we live, God still desires to work in the hearts and the lives of those that are open to the work of God.

Oh, God help me that my heart might be open unto God so that He can work in my life in the midst of this corrupted society. Now, the Bible foresaw the corruption in which you are living today. The Bible very aptly expressed sort of the scientific attitudes of uniformitarianism that have prevailed, that have set the stage for the evolutionary thesis, which has, of course, set the stage for the whole humanism, because God is no longer needed, man evolved from the protozoa, and the whole thing is tied together.

And Peter said, in the last days there will be scoffers that will come saying, where is the promise of the Father? That is, of the coming again of Jesus Christ. Where is the Lord? He hasn't come. Since our fathers have fallen asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning.

I defy you to find me a better definition of uniformitarianism. All things have continued as they were from the beginning. That is exactly what the dogma or the theory of uniformitarianism declares. All of the phenomena that has ever existed in the creation and the evolving of man into his present state can be observed in the world today.

There have been no catastrophes and so forth. No dramatic changes. And it is interesting that Peter foresaw this scientific theory before it was ever propounded, and he actually gave the greatest flaw within it.

For this they were willingly ignorant, that God destroyed the world that was with a flood. They closed their eyes to that. The fact of the universal flood, which is by far a better explanation of the geological column and of the geology itself than is this theory of evolution.

The geological column does not prove at all the theory of evolution. In fact, it raises great questions in regards to the theory of evolution, because within the geological column there is a total absence of any transitional forms.

And if the transitional forms took place over millions of years of evolving, surely we would have fossils that would show the transitional forms. So absent is the fossil record of transitional forms that it has led one of the professors at Stanford to come up with the magic bird kind of a theory, whereas a snake one time laid an egg and a bird flew out.

It's the hopeful monster theory. And he had to come up with that because of the absence of transitional forms in the geological column. Rather than there being gradual changes, they're now saying suddenly in the Cambrian state there appeared multitudes of many faceted animals in highly developed forms.

Remarkable. Hocus pocus dominocus. So it's a thing that we are in this society of which the Bible said perilous times would come. Men would be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. They would be fierce, they'd be incontinent, which speaks of this sexual freedom that people are advocating today and goes on to describe our modern day society.

Jesus in referring to these things said because the iniquity of the earth is going to abound, the love of many is going to wax cold. But in the midst of this crooked and perverse world, God is still working in the hearts and lives of those that are open and surrendered unto him.

So in the period of Judges, a time much as today when the gays were parading and declaring their normalcy and desiring to actually propagate their own thing there in Gibeah and were publicly parading their perverse style of life, God was working in the hearts and lives of those that were open to God.

Now, the book of Ruth is another insight that shows us how God can work and does work his purposes on the earth even under adverse circumstances. So it came to pass when the Judges ruled that there was a family in the land, a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, and he went to sojourn in the country of Moab with his wife and his two sons.

And this man was a lima, he was a limalek, and the name of his wife was Naomi, and the name of his sons were Malon and Chilion, and he was an Ephratite. Now, Ephratite or Ephra was the area, the general area in which Bethlehem was situated, like Santa Ana is situated in Orange County.

Bethlehem was situated in the area called Ephra, so he was an Ephratite, like you might be called an Orange Countian because you live in Orange County. Now, the names are always interesting because the names are oftentimes significant to the story.

They named their children and every name had a meaning. Now, they say that names have meanings today. And you can look back to the meaning of your names in some of the dictionaries, what your name actually means.

The name limalek means my God is King. Beautiful name. The name Naomi means pleasantness. A very beautiful name indeed. But the name Malon means sickly, and the name Chilion means pining. Now, often the children were named after circumstances of their birth.

When Esau was born, he was all covered with hair and so they called him Harry. The word Esau means hairy, and he's just a hairy little kid, so it's a good name. When his brother was born, his twin brother, he reached out and grabbed hold of Harry's heel.

And so they said, look at that, he's a heel catcher, and they called him Yaakov, heel catcher. So, they were named after circumstances of their birth. Probably when Malon was born, perhaps he was premature.

Maybe it was touch and go for a while. He just didn't look well. They said, oh, he's sickly. He's Malon. So, he picked up the name Malon, sickly. Later, when his brother was born, he didn't look much better, so they called him pining, sickly and pining.

No wonder they died young. They were sickly and pining. So, in the land of Bethlehem, there was a famine. There was a drought, which does take place periodically over there. Last year, they had a drought.

They heard that there was good land over in Moab, and so Elimelech decided to sell out and with his wife and two sons move over to Moab, which is the high plateau country across the great rift, the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, over on the other side, the high plateau country, which is very fertile area.

So, they moved over to Moab, and while they were there, Elimelech died. And so, the boys married girls from Moab. The one married a girl by the name of Orpah, the other married a girl by the name of Ruth.

And it came to pass in time that both of the boys also died without having any children. And so, Naomi said to the two daughters-in-law, go back and return to your families, to your mother's house, and may the Lord deal kindly with you, even as you have dealt with the dead and with me.

So, during this period of family tragedy, these two girls actually showed a real depth of character. They were very kind to Naomi and the comforting of Naomi. They took their tragedy very well. And so, Naomi is wishing them that they also might receive the same degree of kindness that they have displayed unto her.

And the Lord grant that you find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband. So, may you both find some good boys and get married. May you have a happy married life. May you find someone else, and may you live at rest in the house of your husband.

So, she's just encouraging the girls, hey girls, you know, you're better off here, you're better off with your families. And you're better off just getting married here with someone else. And so, the two girls went with her for a while on the way back.

And so, they wept and all, and then Ruth, I mean Naomi, said to them again, look girls, I am really too old to have any more sons. And even if I had a hope of having sons, let's say that I was married now and became pregnant tomorrow, would you want to wait until my sons grew up old enough to get married?

I don't want to wait for, and anyhow, it's not going to happen. So, you just go ahead and return home and get, you know, your husbands and get married. And so, Orpah fell on her neck and kissed her and bid her farewell and returned to her mother's house.

But Ruth then uttered these beautiful words, entreat me not to leave thee or to forsake thee, or to return from following after thee. Because where you will go, or where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge.

Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. And God forbid, if anything but death should separate between us. And so, the devotion of Ruth to her mother-in-law, look, I'll go with you. Don't ask me to leave you, or to forsake you, or to return back to my family.

For wherever you go, evidently, there was a beautiful bond that was created between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law. Very beautiful bond. Wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge.

Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. And God forbid, if anything but death should separate us. And so, they came back into the land. When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her, and the two went till they came to Bethlehem.

Now, when they arrived in Bethlehem, the people said, Oh, Naomi has returned. And she said, Don't call me Naomi. Now, let's put it in their language. They said, Oh, pleasantness has returned. She said, Don't call me pleasant.

Call me bitter, for the Lord has dealt bitterly with me. Mara. Bitter. Don't call me pleasant. Call me bitter. The Lord has dealt bitterly with me. Now, it is interesting that she sort of blames the tragedy on God.

The Lord has dealt bitterly with me. There seems to be a natural inclination for us to blame God for our tragedies, and especially for death. When Jesus arrived in Bethany at the time of the death of Lazarus, he had been very sick.

His sister sent the urgent message down to the Jordan where Jesus was staying. Come quickly, the one you love is sick. And Jesus tarried there at the Jordan for two days, and then headed off for Bethany.

Now, for a message to get from Bethany to Jordan took two days. Jesus stayed there an extra two days, and it took him two days to get back to Bethany. So, in the meantime, six days had transpired from the time the message went out, your friend is very sick, the one you love is very sick.

And it was six days later that Jesus was arriving in Bethany, and the girls knew that it was too late. And they knew that it was actually later than it should be. He could have arrived earlier. They were aware that he was delaying.

They didn't know why. And Martha came out to meet him and in an accusing way said, Lord, if you would only have been here, my brother would not have died. Lord, where were you when we needed you? Lord, why didn't you come quicker?

We told you come quickly, the one you love is sick. Lord, what took you so long? Why didn't you respond, Lord? And really, the idea is she was blaming the death of her brother on the Lord. Lord, you could have averted this.

Now, we know that that is true. We know that God does hold life in his hands. We know that God is able to sustain life. We know that God is able to restore life. We know that the days of man are appointed of God.

And thus, there is this inclination to blame God for death. And in a sense, that is right. But in another sense, we only feel bitterness because we have a totally wrong concept of death as it being the end.

Oh, he had his whole life in front of him. Everything going for him. Oh, what a shame. I heard this so much when my younger brother was killed. Handsome, good looking, big guy. Just had everything going for him.

Good sense of business and was making investments and just everything falling in the line. Bought an airplane so he could get back and forth between his business better. Crashed in his airplane. Oh, what a shame.

Whole life in front of him. What a shame. Yeah, what a shame. He got there before I did. By the time I arrive, he's going to know every nook and cranny. It's going to take me a while to catch up. You know, he's with the Lord.

What's so bad about that? He's there in God's kingdom. What's, you is that I miss him. The sad part that I miss all the fun we used to have together. He was an exciting person and he used to always be doing, you know, crazy things and exciting things.

And I miss that. I sorrow because what I have lost, but I don't sorrow for him. I'm jealous of him being with the Lord. How glorious. Not having to hassle with gas lines, with bills, and all of the kind of things that we have to experience.

How wonderful. But I'll catch up with him one of these days. But we have the wrong attitude, you see, concerning death. We look at this life as though, oh, it is so precious. It's so wonderful. Hang on to it.

That's because of the uncertainty of that life that he has promised to us. Our lapses of faith. Don't call me pleasant. Call me bitter. That's sad. It's sad whenever you become bitter over any experience of life because bitterness only hurts you.

We are warned to be careful of any root of bitterness within our lives because of the effect that it can have on your total life. The bitter roots can bring forth bitter fruit in your life. And we must guard against bitterness.

And bitterness is an attitude that I choose because of the circumstances that I face. I don't have to become bitter. I choose to become bitter. For there are other people who go through the exact similar circumstances and they become better people because they learn to commit and trust in God all the more.

They say, well, it's all in the Lord's hands and I belong to the Lord. And God has just given me strength and God has given me the capacities and all. And they become actually better people. Some of the greatest people I know are people who have suffered incessantly through life.

And through the suffering there has been a depth of character developed that is unparalleled by others who have never experienced suffering or sorrow. Out of suffering, out of sorrow, the roots can go deep into God and the life can become beautiful and strong and powerful.

Or you can root into bitterness and your life becomes bitter and tight and tense. It's tragic when a person gives himself over to bitterness. It's all in how you look at the situation. I can look at it and I can become bitter and say, if God loved me, then why did He allow that to happen to me?

And my life becomes tense and I become tight and my blood vessels begin to constrict and there's not a real flowing anymore. And my whole life is so tense and I begin to actually get the effects of it physically.

Or I can say, well, the Lord has given, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. All things work together for good. And God has a plan and He loves me. And I know that He is watching over me.

And whatever it is, God's working out a plan in my life. Praise the Lord. God, You know that I need to have this worked out. You're just seeking to conform me into Your image. Have Your perfect work within my life, God.

And I can become a better person and an open person and filled with God's love. And I can flow out the beautiful fruits of love and faith and hope to others. Naomi, for the moment, was responding in the wrong way.

Don't call me pleasant. Call me bitter. Oh, sad. That's sad. When you've allowed the circumstances of your life to jaundice your feelings and you turn bitter against God and bitter against the circumstances of life.

Naomi thought it was all over. She thought that was the end of the road. She didn't know the plan that God was working out. She said, I went away full and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. Why do you call me pleasant?

Seeing the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has afflicted me. So Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law with her. They came out of the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

Ruth Gleans in Boaz's Field

Now Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth in the family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz. So Elimelech had, and in the fourth chapter, Boaz calls him our brother Elimelech. So a relation, perhaps a full brother, perhaps a half brother, who became a very wealthy man, a mighty man of wealth.

And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, let me now go to the field and glean the ears of corn after that which I must, after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, go my daughter.

Now in the law, God made a provision for the poor people. There were welfare laws in those days. I think they are far superior to the welfare laws today. It wasn't just a give me or give out dole to people.

But the law declared that when you had fields, you could only harvest your fields once. You couldn't go back through to pick the second time. You had one shot at your harvest. You went through once. That was it.

Nor did you pick up anything off the ground so that the poor of the land could come into your fields after your harvesters had gone through. And whatever wasn't ripe when they had gone through, whatever was there was free for the poor people.

And thus, they could always go into the fields and they could come in after your harvesters. They could pick up any vegetables or any of the fruits or whatever that remained after your first once harvest through the thing.

Then the rest was left for the poor. And thus were the poor of the land taken care of. It was a very excellent welfare law. The poor of the land were taken care of adequately by this law. If you wanted to eat, there was always food.

You could always go out into the field and gather it after the harvesters. And so Ruth said to Naomi, I'm going to go out and glean in the fields after the harvesters. And it says, and it was her hap, or we would say today, it so happened that she was in the part of the field that belonged unto Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

It so happened. No, that's not so. Nothing just so happens. When we relate a thing, we say, well, you know, it was the strangest coincidence. But really, when you're God's child and God's hand is on your life, there aren't really coincidences.

God's hand is in all of these things. Now, when God guides our lives, somehow we've got a mental concept that in order for God to guide me, there's got to be some kind of a mystical, spooky kind of an aura, you know, where you almost go into a semi-trance and a fog begins to sort of come around you.

And you hear a voice in the echo chamber, and it says, go left, you know. You know, and you expect God to lead you in some kind of a mystical way. When in reality, God leads you in such natural ways, you say, well, it just happened that I was there at that moment, you know.

For the last few weeks, my wife has been asking me concerning a doctor that was with us in Israel last year who helped her when she broke her arm. She said, I'm so concerned about him. I wonder if everything is all right.

I haven't heard. We send them a Christmas card, and we haven't heard. I wonder, oh, I wonder how he's doing. Have you seen? No, I haven't seen him. I wonder how they're doing. And she's been on to me for this for a few weeks.

Well, my son's church, the ladies were having a retreat up at Idlewild last weekend. Not this, but the previous. And so Kay went up to teach the ladies. And because the dust was getting to her, she decided not to eat lunch there in the camp, but to go into a little restaurant called the Bread Basket.

So as she was in there eating lunch, who should come in? But the doctor's wife, who was passing by and decided, oh, I want to get one of the specialties of the bakery shop there. And so she just on impulse ran in to get something out of the bakery.

It just so happened. You see, no, those things don't happen. God is leading. God is guiding. And God puts these things together. But it happens so naturally that you don't recognize it's God doing it.

God leads us in very natural ways. It comes as a thought. It comes as an impulse. It comes as an idea or it comes as an inspiration. Oh, I'm hungry for a tamale. Gotta have a tamale, you know. Well, where should we go?

And well, let's go there. And God is actually putting together circumstances. You get there and there's the plan of God unfolding. He's been guiding and it so happened. But no, it doesn't so happen. God's hand is there leading and guiding.

For the steps of a righteous man are ordered of the Lord and He delights in His way. And if you will in all your ways just acknowledge Him, He will direct your path. Now looking at it from our side, we say, and it so happened that she came into the field of Boaz.

But in reality, God was holding her by the hand and directing her to that field that she was going out wondering where in the world am I going to glean? You know, oh my, this is all new. I don't know any place around here.

Oh, there's some gals out there. I'll follow them. And God was just leading all the way along. It's neat the way the Lord does lead our lives. It's glorious the way God directs our paths as we just yield ourselves to Him.

Before I get out of bed in the morning, I say, Lord, today is yours. My life is yours. Now you just leave me, Lord, and whatever you have for me, direct my life today, Lord. I don't have any hard, fast plans that can't be broken, Lord.

You just bring into my path whatever you want. I want to be open to you today. And it's always exciting because you never know just what God has in mind for you each day. As he puts the circumstances together, and we look at it and say, man, that was the most amazing coincidence I've ever seen.

You know, not really. God was bringing the ends together all the way along. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and he said to the reapers, the Lord be with you. And they answered him, the Lord bless thee.

Now, Boaz does show many characteristics of a fine, outstanding, godly man. Just remember, it's a time of spiritual declension and apostasy, the period of the judges. But here is a man who is walking with God, who comes out and greets his servants by saying, the Lord be with you.

And evidently, there's a good management relationship here with servants, and they say, and the Lord bless thee. We'll see other indications of this man's spiritual nature. Then said Boaz unto his servant that was over the reapers, where did this chick come from?

That's a modern translation. And the servant that was over the reapers answered and said, it is the Moabites, the Moabites damsel that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab. And she said, I beg you or pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.

And she came and has continued even from morning till now. She only tarried just for a little time in the house. Then said Boaz unto Ruth, listen, my daughter, don't glean in any other fields, neither go from here, but abide here fast by my maidens and let your eyes be on the field that they reap and follow after them.

For I have charged the young men that they shall not touch thee. And when you're thirsty, you can go to the vessels and drink of the water that the young men have drawn. And she fell on her face and bowed herself to the ground and said unto him, why have I found grace in thine eyes that you should take knowledge of me seeing I'm a stranger?

And Boaz answered and said unto her, it has been fully shown to me all that you have done unto your mother-in-law since the death of your husband and how you have left your father and mother in the land of your nativity and are coming to a people which you did not know before this.

The Lord recompense thy work and a full reward be given to thee of the Lord God of Israel under whose wings thou art come to trust. So here's a beautiful scene. They are meeting. He speaks to Ruth and he said, you know, just stay in the fields of my maidens, follow with them, don't go to any other fields.

And when you get thirsty, you can drink from the containers that the young men have drawn. And she's amazed by the kindness. She knows she's a stranger here. She said, you know, how come you're treating me so kindly?

I'm a stranger. And he said, I've heard all about you. I've heard about your kindness to Naomi. And I've heard about your decision really to come into a new land and under the shelter of Jehovah. And so his beautiful words, may Jehovah recompense thy work.

May the Lord just reward your decisions and a full reward be given to you from Jehovah, the God of Israel under whose wings you have come to trust. The people there were very close to nature. They were very earthy people.

And thus they, they picture God in earthy pictures. And one of the pictures that they had of God was that loving, protecting concern over his children as a mother hen has that loving, protective concern over her little chicks.

So that when danger threatens, the little chicks run under the mother who ruffles out her feathers and covers them and stands there to protect them against danger. This is one of the pictures of God in the Old Testament.

Under his wings shalt thou trust. And this picture of a mother hen brooding and protecting and covering with her wings, with her feathers, her little brood. It's a very earthy kind of a thing. And if you haven't been around a farm or chickens, you don't understand it fully.

Fortunately, when I was a kid, even growing up here in California, we were country enough around here that we still had chickens on the backyard. But may the Lord reward you under whose wings the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to trust.

Trusting in God now, looking to him. Then she said, let me find favor in thy sight, my Lord, for you have comforted me and you have spoken friendly unto your handmaid, though I am not like one of your own handmaidens.

And Boaz said to her, at mealtime, you can come here and eat of the bread and dip your morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers and he reached her parched corn and she did eat and was sufficed and left.

And so Boaz is showing a definite interest in her, reaching over and getting some parched corn for her, inviting her to eat. And showing the protection. And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men saying, now you let her glean even among the sheaves.

Don't reproach her. Now if she happens to wander over into the area where you haven't been yet, don't yell at her. Let her go. And then every once in a while, just let a handful drop on purpose for her.

So Ruth gleaned that day and she came up with about a bushel of barley. So that when she got back to Naomi, Naomi said, where in the world were you gleaning today? The Lord be gracious unto that man. And Ruth said, well, I happen to be in the field of a man whose name was Boaz.

And Naomi said unto her, blessed is he of the Lord who has not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said to her, the man is near of kin to us. He is one of our next Goels, kinsmen redeemers.

This man is a family member. He is a Goel. He's a kinsman redeemer to us. One of the next of kinsmen redeemers. And Ruth, the Moabitess said, he said unto me also, you shall stay fast by my young men until they have ended all my harvest.

And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, it is good, my daughter, that you do not go out with his maidens and that they do not, that you do not go out with his maidens and that they do not meet you in any other field.

So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of the barley harvest and of the wheat harvest. And she stayed there with her mother-in-law. Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said unto her, my daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee that it may be well with thee?

Boaz as Kinsman-Redeemer

And now is not Boaz of our family with whose maidens you have been working? Behold, he winnows the barley tonight in the threshing floor. So wash yourself, put on your perfume and your beautiful gown and get down to the threshing floor, but don't let them see you until they have finished eating and drinking.

And it shall be when he lies down to sleep that you mark carefully where he's lying and then go in and uncover his feet and lay down there, and he will tell you what you're to do. And she said unto her, all that you say to me I will do.

So she went down to the floor, and she did according to all that her mother-in-law had instructed her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, his heart was merry, and he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn.