HOPE ON THE HORIZON
Opening Prayer
Lord, when I see somebody in need, help me not to turn away, but to be willing to go the extra mile to help.
Read Ruth 2:14–23
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
14 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. 15 As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her. 16 Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”
17 So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah.[a] 18 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.
19 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.
20 “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.[b]”
21 Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’”
22 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.”
23 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.
Footnotes
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Do you more often dwell on your own problems or think of ways to help others?I recently heard about a young woman who, although in a dark place herself, wanted to bring light into other people’s lives. She started crocheting brightly colored flowers and leaving them wherever she went for people to find and take home. Other people leave books, painted rocks, scarves, or pay forward a coffee. There’s always something we can do to lighten a load, often anonymously.
Boaz continues to do all he can for Ruth. He goes the extra mile, but discreetly, making sure his men actively make barley available for her (15,16). Ruth, although grateful, has no idea who he is, or how God is already working in her life.
When Naomi hears their benefactor is Boaz (20), the name immediately rings a bell. He is a relative on her husband’s side, thus making him a guardian-redeemer, a man legally bound to take care of the family in their troubles. Naomi blesses both Boaz and God. She knows God is at the heart of all good. Hope blossoms for Ruth’s future (and hers). But patience is still called for as the tale unfolds (23).
Apply
Ask God if there is something specific you can do to brighten someone’s day. Now do it!
Closing prayer
Jesus, may I be sympathetic and loving toward others, compassionate and humble as I serve those around me (1 Peter 3:8).
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