ルツ記2:1-23 Ruth 2:1-23,

Elimelech and Naomi, a couple from the village of Bethlehem, took their two sons and moved to the neighbouring country of Moab. This was due to a crisis in which the crops in their fields were not producing well. Their sons married women from Moab. However, while living in Moab, Naomi’s husband Elimelech and her two sons died. Naomi must have been very sad. Naomi decided to return to her home village of Bethlehem because the crops in the fields were once again producing well.

At that time, her dead son’s wife, Ruth, decided to go with Naomi to Bethlehem. For Ruth, who was born in the country of Moab, Bethlehem is a foreign village. If she went there, she would probably have to go through a lot of hardship. So why did she decide to go? It was because Ruth married an Israelite and learnt that the God of the Israelites is the true God. And because she decided to live her life believing in that God.

Thus, Naomi and Ruth came to live in Bethlehem. However, Naomi and Ruth did not have the ability to cultivate the fields by themselves. So how would they make a living? In the land of Israel, there was a system called the gleaning. This was a system whereby those who had fields of wheat or barley would leave the ears that fell in the fields when they were harvested, so that those in need could glean. So Ruth went to the field and gleaned.

The owner of the field where she was gleaning was a man called Boaz. Boaz said to Ruth, “Do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.” Boaz was very kind! Why was Boaz so kind to Ruth? Because he knew Ruth from what other people had told him about her.

What did he know? Boaz said to Ruth, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The LORD repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” The word “wings” refers to the wings of a bird. Boaz said, “Just as a parent bird protects a little bird in its wings, so may God protect you, who believes in him, and give you grace!”

Boaz told the young men who were reaping in the afternoon to pull the ears out of the sheaves and deliberately drop them so that Ruth would glean them. So Ruth was able to glean a lot. She then beat out what she had gleaned and threshed them and took them home with her. Naomi was amazed at the harvest. When Ruth reported the day’s events to Naomi, she discovered that Boaz was a relative of Naomi’s dead husband. Thus, Ruth, who believed in God and came to a foreign country, met Boaz. Eventually, Boaz and Ruth got married and had a child. The great-grandson of Boaz and Ruth was David, who became King of Israel.