"So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, 'Can this be Naomi?' 'Don't call me Naomi,' she told them. 'Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.' So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning." (Ruth 1:19-22) The name "Naomi" means "pleasant" but she is bitter over the loss of her husband and sons, so she tells the women of her hometown to call her "Mara" instead because it means "bitter".
Naomi feels personally singled out, for afflictions, by the Lord. She is offended at Him for the hardships that have come into her life. We don't know whether any actions on her part brought troubles on herself. As we discussed yesterday, some scholars propose the theory that it was her idea to move to Moab during the famine and that she persuaded her husband to take the family there. If that's the case, perhaps her husband and sons fell prey to some sort of illness that was going around in Moab but that was not going around in Israel. Therefore, she may feel as if the tragedies that befell her in Moab were the punishment of the Lord. She may think He is angry with her and that He will always hold it against her that she left Israel for a time. But hardship isn't always the result of sin and we don't know that Naomi was responsible for the move to Moab or that the move to Moab was outside of the Lord's will for the family. Troubles don't necessarily mean we have gone astray and are reaping the consequences of our mistakes. Jesus pointed out that God the Father "causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous". (Matthew 5:45b)
We are living in a fallen world where bad things sometimes happen to good people. There are examples of that all throughout the Bible. Good things sometimes happen to bad people, and we can find examples in the Bible of wicked people who prospered for a time. Naomi is a woman who loves the Lord but she is bitter over the troubles the Lord allowed to come into her life. But He is about to turn her circumstances around in a big way. Naomi may be bitter in Chapter 1 but we'll find her rejoicing by Chapter 4. I think it's important to note that even though she wants to rename herself "Mara", we don't find the Scriptures calling her anything but "Naomi". The Lord knows pleasant days are ahead of her. He inspired the author of Ruth to continue calling her "Naomi", never "Mara".
Naomi's return to Bethlehem at the time of the barley harvest is perfect timing---God's perfect timing. It puts Ruth in the right place at the right time to meet the man who will become her husband. "Now Naomi had a relative on her husband's side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, 'Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.' Naomi said to her, 'Go ahead, my daughter. So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek." (Ruth 2:2-3)
Ruth wants to get to work right away supporting herself and her mother-in-law. She knows the harvesters of Bethlehem will be following the law of Leviticus 19:9-10 which 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 foreigner. I am the Lord your God." The Lord made this law to help the needy and it was common to see "the poor and the foreigner" coming along behind the harvesters to glean what was left behind. Ruth isn't an Israelite herself but she's been a member of an Israelite family for quite some time and she is familiar with many of their laws and customs.
It's no coincidence Ruth begins working behind the harvesters in a field belonging to Boaz, the kinsman of Naomi's deceased husband. It's the providence of the Lord. We've probably all heard the expression "a match made in heaven" and that's what's about to take place: the Lord is about to arrange a meeting between Ruth and the man who will become her husband. The Lord causes Ruth to choose a field that, unbeknownst to her, belongs to a relative of her deceased father-in-law. This will set off a chain of events that culminates in Boaz fulfilling the role known as the "kinsman redeemer" of the inheritance that would have belonged to Ruth's dead husband. We briefly studied the role of the kinsman redeemer earlier in the Old Testament but we will discuss it in-depth when we get deeper into the book of Ruth. Here in Chapter 2 we see the Lord putting the initial pieces in place that will turn everything around for Ruth and make her the ancestress of kings of Israel and of Jesus of Nazareth.
After leading Ruth to choose this particular field, and as she begins to follow the harvesters, the Lord arranges for Boaz to arrive at just the right time to spot Ruth in the field. "Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, 'The Lord be with you!' 'The Lord bless you!' they answered." (Ruth 2:4) The barley field was located somewhere outside the city. Boaz comes out to check on the progress of his workers and, because he is a godly man who loves the Lord, he bestows a greeting of blessing upon his workers. They bestow a greeting of blessing back to him. While he stands there looking over the work of his laborers, he sees something he's seen many times before: people walking behind the harvesters to glean what they've left behind. But he also sees something he's never seen in his field before: Ruth. I believe he immediately finds her attractive, not only for her physical appearance but because he notices what a diligent worker she is. Proverbs 31 praises the woman who is a diligent worker and that lets us know that a willingness to work is a quality the men of Israel (and many men of every culture) admire in a woman.
"Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, 'Who does that young woman belong to?'" (Ruth 2:5) I can't help hearing his voice in my head as if he asked about Ruth in the same tone that a person uses when saying something like "Hubba hubba!" when laying eyes for the first time on someone they find especially attractive. Boaz asks, "Who is she?" I think that when he asks, "Who does that young woman belong to?" he's trying to find out if she's married. In tomorrow's study his overseer will provide him with the news that she's a young widow. That will prompt him to introduce himself to her and to invite her to glean only in his fields. He will then give strict instructions to all his male workers that she is to be treated with the utmost respect.
The book of Ruth is a refreshing change after reading the way some men treated women in the book of Judges. Boaz is a true gentleman. He values Ruth's virtue and her personal dignity. He places her under his protection and I am sure would have taken swift and decisive action against any man who dared to speak or behave in an ungentlemanly manner toward her. He displays a heart for women like the Lord's heart for women. It was never the Lord's intention for men to treat women like sex objects or slaves. He created women to be the partners of men and He wants men to treat women with respect and dignity. As the Apostle Peter put it upon inspiration of the Lord, men are to treat women as "heirs with you of the gracious gift of life". (1 Peter 3:7) In Boaz we will find the attitude of a man who considers women heirs with men of the gracious gift of life.
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