In the last blogpost we saw that Boaz blessed Ruth. He said: “May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” (Ruth 2:12). We see similiar metaphors elsewhere in the Bible. These are pictures of God as a mother bird where the chicks find shelter under God’s wings. It is a picture of complete safety and rest.
Ruth was seeking her home in God. She left Moab behind in a step of faith. Boaz saw Ruth’s faith, admired her for it, and blessed her. Ultimately, Ruth’s blessing did not come from Boaz. It came from the LORD where she had decided to find her home.
Boaz showed Ruth the grace He wants to show all of us. Boaz not only welcomed her. He ate with her, even though she was what could be considered an unclean Moabite. (At that time, Jews and Moabites weren’t exactly what you would call friends, and that is an understatement.) He made sure that she got even more than just the leftover grain on the fields.
Ruth 2:14-23(NIV)
At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.”
When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her. Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”
So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.
Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!”
Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.
“The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.”
Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’ ”
Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”
So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.
We see here that what Boaz gives to Ruth is most generous. It could be considered grace. Jesus has lots of grace for us as well. He wants to eat with us, even though we are unclean through sin. He gives us more than we deserve:
John 1:14,16 (ESV)
And the Word became flesh and dwelt (tabernacled) among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. … For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
Jesus keeps heaping on the grace. We see that Boaz does the same thing and will keep doing so.
Ruth 2:20 (NIV)
“The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.”
The LORD has not stopped showing his kindness to Ruth, nor has Boaz. The LORD does not stop showing his kindness to you either.
Lamentations 3:22-23 (NIV)
Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
Each day we see God showing His kindness, love and grace to us again. He wants to welcome us like the mother bird welcomes her helpless chicks and keeps them safe. We may have nothing to bring except sin, dirt and grime – but He holds out His arms in an embrace, waiting for us in order to welcome us back home (Luke 15). He shows us grace each day! Even in the midst of difficult situations he provides his love and mercy. How do you see God’s grace to you today? Counting our blessings can help us look at life with the right eyes and keep us from being bitter and growing weak and tired.
Questions
How do you see God’s grace in your life?
What people are especially great at showing the meaning of God’s grace to you?
How do you show grace to others?
Deeper 