When she got up to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, “Let her glean even among the standing sheaves, and do not reproach her. You must also pull out some handfuls for her from the bundles and leave them for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.”
So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. 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.
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.”
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.”
Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’ ”
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.”
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. (New Revised Standard Version)
Ruth was both a widow and a foreigner from Moab. She and her mother-in-law Naomi had no land. Widowed foreign women were likely to be poor. They were vulnerable to abuse by being out in the fields during harvest time, trying to glean whatever leftovers they could find after the harvesters came through.
The covenant code of Israel prescribed laws concerning how to treat the poor. There was even instruction on what to do in just such a situation of the landowning harvester Boaz and the poor gleaner Ruth:
“When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings. When you beat your olive trees, do not strip what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.
“When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not glean what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this. (Deuteronomy 24:19-22, NRSV)
The law stipulated a spirit of generosity toward the poor in the land. The reason for the law is that the Israelites had been slaves in Egypt, and experienced the cruelty of abusive slavedrivers. Israel was to remember this, and ensure that no foreigners would experience what they themselves had to go through for 400 hundred years in Egypt.
Fortunately for Ruth, Boaz was an observant Jew, concerned for the intent and spirit of God’s law. He held to the covenant law both legally and spiritually.
Boaz remembered God’s grace to Israel. He blessed Ruth, and commended her for placing herself in God’s hands.
If not for the covenant code’s opportunity for the poor to glean, Boaz would have faced a dilemma. Once he became aware Ruth and Naomi’s poverty, he surely would not have let them starve. Yet, neither would he likely have made them dependent upon himself.
It is important to preserve the dignity of people, which is why the Old Testament is filled with social and economic laws concerning the poor in Israel.
Ruth was given the chance to glean and work for the harvest. This allowed her to use the grain for making bread. Furthermore, her own labor freed herself and her mother-in-law from being dependent as beggars. All of this helped make the two of them less vulnerable to exploitation by those with little concern for God’s covenant code.
Rather than being smothered either by sheer dependency, or through being used and exploited, God’s law operated as intended, thanks to the pious concern of Boaz.
This did not go unnoticed by Naomi. She clearly saw the gracious hand of God acting through Boaz.
Regardless of who we are, whether rich or poor, old or young, we can be gracious. We can commit ourselves to working hard for one another. We can be concerned for the common good of everyone.
God’s grace turns our hearts and minds, our heads and hands, toward ensuring that all persons have what they need to grow, thrive, and flourish in this life. This is exactly what biblical justice is all about. It’s what Boaz was about.
This will include concerns about equity. A just society will involve some sort of distribution of resources. It will mean making sure that our collective values, communal priorities, and social structures uphold the inherent dignity of human life. We will protect the most vulnerable among us.
A culture attuned to grace will champion the underprivileged and not use them as political pawns to achieve personal goals. A people focused on grace will place faith in God’s presence and provision for us all.
Those with much will care for the disadvantaged, and will uphold laws that do so. Those with little will take advantage of opportunities to both receive and give, and will make their voices heard on behalf of the needy.
Since God is just toward all, so we who are created in God’s image are to also be just.
Since God is good in all that God does, we too, are to be good.
Since God is gracious, merciful, and kind to the poor, so we are to be full of grace, mercy, and kindness.
Since God is love, so we are to love, not hate.
Faith and hope are born within the heart, because there is a reason to do so. Let us all be the people who give others a reason to trust God, hope for a better tomorrow, and love, despite any unloving situations.
Soli Deo Gloria
Rev. Tim Ehrhardt 