Daily Devotional • Februrary 27
A Reading from Ruth 2:14-23
14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and eat some of this bread and dip your morsel in the sour wine.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he heaped up for her some parched grain. She ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over. 15 When she got up to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, “Let her glean even among the standing sheaves, and do not reproach her. 16 You must also pull out some handfuls for her from the bundles and leave them 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 She picked it up and came into the town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gleaned. Then she took out and gave her what was left over after she herself had been satisfied. 19 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, saying, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.” 20 Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a relative of ours, one of our nearest kin.” 21 Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’” 22 Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “It is better, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, otherwise someone might bother you in another field.” 23 So she stayed 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.
Meditation
When Ruth comes home with well over half a bushel of barley, Naomi is amazed, as well she should be. It is the first good news she’s had since, well, a very long time. We are not told why Boaz has treated Ruth so well, but treated her well he has. Does Boaz treat all gleaners with such charity, or has Ruth caught his attention in some way that is not explained?
Since Boaz gives directions to his reapers about her, one may reasonably deduce that this is a unique situation. His providing for her and Naomi gives Ruth the assurance that she is safe and respected, and need not be anxious about anything. She continues to glean throughout the harvest season; we can only guess what the young men and young women thought about Ruth’s special place, and what Ruth thought about it. We are only told what is happening, and it is an ideal situation. We see God working.
Naomi has turned toward the Lord from the bitterness that she had taken on as her new identity: “May [Boaz] be blessed by the Lord!” she exclaims. It is the first time we have seen true emotion in her. Even when Ruth told her with profound passion that she would come with her no matter what, Naomi only said, “Well, okay then.” The events of this lesson show Ruth and Naomi anticipating Jesus’ teaching: “Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you will drink” (Matthew 6:25) and “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11).
By allowing Naomi and Ruth to suffer grief and then severe poverty, God prepared them for the grand meaning of these teachings. Loss is loss, but it can never overcome the invincible love that God has for his people and which is manifested in his own way and time, as is best.
David Baumann is a published writer of nonfiction, science fiction, and short stories. In his ministry as an Episcopal priest, he served congregations in Illinois and California.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
Trinity Episcopal Church, Upperville, Virginia
The Diocese of Mahajanga – The Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean
