2. Ruth: How A Little Service Goes a Long Way

Bible, Women & Bathrobes Episode 4

In today’s episode we talk about Ruth chapter 2 where Ruth goes to glean barley in Boaz’s fields, and how his unexpected kindness is such a blessing to both Ruth and Naomi. We will also share how principles from this chapter apply to us today.

Key Talking Points

·     What gleaning is with regards to the law of Moses and how that benefits Ruth and Naomi as widows.

·     How Boaz shows kindness to Ruth in offering protection in his fields as she gleans, and shows extra kindness to her in offering water and food. When she asks why—he answers because she has been so kind to Naomi (his kinsman’s wife/widow).

·     How this story isn’t just about redeeming Ruth & Naomi, it is a story of God redeeming Israel symbolically.

·     Following Boaz’ example, we can invite new brothers and sisters in Christ to feel loved, wanted and nourished when they come into our congregations.

·     What the Levirate law means for Ruth as a near kinsman.

Main Takeaways

·     From Heather, “We can be generous in our service…being open hearted [with] your service [because it] is what someone needs…not being stingy, I guess, and being generous.”

·     From Bonnie, regarding how much Ruth gleaned, “[It] brings me back to what our Savior has done for us. Right? He gives us extra when we come to Him with a willing heart and just this like little grain of faith. Right? He will magnify our efforts, and he will magnify our whole life and give us so much more than …what we expect.”

·     From Bonnie again, “the whole point of the Bible study, is how do we become like Him and become more His disciples? And that's a perfect example of how to be a disciple of Christ is we're giving generously of our abundance.”

·     From Tamara, “Often when we're feeling down and discouraged and have gone through something hard, like both Ruth and Naomi have,…we're wondering, Where are the windows of heaven that are supposed to open, right? I've gone through this hard time. Where are they? Where my answers? And God sends people to us that act is His hands. And what a blessing that is to know that others out there who are listening to God.”

Invitation from Bonnie

“And so for anyone listening out there who's wondering, how can I give back to the Savior? How can I, you know, magnify my calling? How can I make this work? Like think outside the box and ask Him, if you go to Him in prayer and in supplication, and ask how can I serve? Then he'll tell you he wants you to serve his fellow man, right? We are his hands and he will give you the ways and you will be richly blessed in abundance like Ruth was.

Heather B. Moore’s Bio

Heather B. Moore is a USA Today bestselling author of more than ninety publications. Heather writes primarily historical and #herstory fiction about the humanity and heroism of the everyday person. Publishing in a breadth of genres, Heather dives into the hearts and souls of her characters, meshing her love of research with her love of storytelling.

Her ancient era historicals and thrillers are written under pen name H.B. Moore. She writes historical women's fiction, romance and inspirational non-fiction under Heather B. Moore, and . . . speculative fiction under Jane Redd. This can all be confusing, so her kids just call her Mom. Heather attended Cairo American College in Egypt and the Anglican School of Jerusalem in Israel. Despite failing her high school AP English exam, Heather persevered and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Brigham Young University in something other than English.

You can find a Heather’s novel about Ruth here.

Please join Heather's email list at: HBMoore.com/contact/

Website: HBMoore.com

Instagram: @authorhbmoore

Facebook: Heather B. Moore

Keywords

#Naomi #Ruth #Boaz #Biblestory #harvest #Redemption #Biblewomen #service #bekind #BibleWomen&Bathrobes #podcast

Transcript

Tamara Anderson 0:00 

After going through a hard time and feeling like you might have been a little abandoned by God, have you ever wondered what the next step is? If you have, we're going to dive into the second part of Ruth today and kind of see what happens after her hardship and watch the beginning of the unfolding of God's redemption for her and see how we can apply it to us so stay tuned.

Tamara Anderson 0:28 

Welcome to Bible, Women & Bathrobes the podcast where faith meets comfort. Join us Tuesday and Thursday morning. As the gals from Women Warriors of Light and their guests, don bathrobes and dive into the inspiring stories of women in the Bible and the teachings of Jesus Christ. From Esther's bravery to the Sermon on the Mount. We explore it all with warmth, laughter, sisterhood, and maybe even a few sleepy eyed moments. tune in live or at your leisure as we learn lessons from scripture which empower women today.

Tamara Anderson 1:09 

Welcome to another episode of Bible, Women & Bathrobes. I'm your host Tamara K Anderson. And joining me is my co- host, Bonnie Randall, and we are blessed again, to have Heather B. Moore on. She is a USA Today Best Selling Author of over 90 publications. Oh my word! And we are so excited to have her joining us on this second part of talking about Ruth. Heather wrote an amazing novel about Ruth, we will be sure to link that in the show notes. And if you're wondering where you can find out more about Heather, please check out her website at HBmoore.com. And I will put all her bio in the link if you missed the intro last time. But Heather, thank you for being here with us again this morning.

Heather B. Moore 2:01 

Thanks for having me. I'm excited to talk about Ruth today and to hear about your insights as well.

Tamara Anderson 2:06 

Oh, I think we're all excited about this. So last week, we kind of left off with the story of Ruth and Naomi having lost their husbands. They came back to Bethlehem. Ruth is of Moabite descent and had converted and and so she went with her mother in law Naomi back to Bethlehem, which is where Naomi and her family were originally from. And this was done at great, personal sacrifice truth she could have stayed in Moab. And and Naomi encouraged her to do that get remarried, but she says no, I'm gonna go with you. And so we were able to see her love and kindness and dedication not only to Naomi, but to this new religion to her. And that's kind of where we pick up the story here.

Tamara Anderson 2:58 

Now, because Naomi and Ruth were both widows, they were in a very precarious position. As far as not having a way to sustain themselves. They didn't have a man to protect them. And although they were coming home to to be in the country where Naomi was from, they weren't able to access the land that her husband Elimelech had left behind. And so we'll kind of dive into the story of that part of it too.

Tamara Anderson 3:34 

But, Heather, I thought I'd start off and let you kind of talk us through the chapter two of Ruth, we start off with, with Ruth going and trying to glean barley in the fields that was time of the barley harvest. Could you talk us through why she had to do that and what gleaning meant.

Heather B. Moore 4:00 

Yeah, so we read in Ruth, chapter two verse two, it says, And Ruth the Moabites, sorry. And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, let me now go to the field in glean ears of corn after him in who sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, go my daughter." So the question becomes, why does Ruth work in the field? And is this kind of a common practice? Is this her only option? So it seems that kind of, kind of, in general, in their culture throughout the land, women usually work you know, in their homes, obviously raising children taking care of their homes, but since with Naomi they don't have children, um, and they're widows, and then men work out in the fields. So there so there are, there are kind of three different times that I've discovered that women do become involved in agriculture, and one is gleaning, which is what Ruth does. One is herding. And we read about that in Genesis. Another is cultivation. And we read about that in the Song of Solomon.

Heather B. Moore 5:17 

So basically, it just it shows that this isn't something that the average woman does, but women that are more in a destitute need, they will go and glean in the fields. The other thing too, is that so basically field work is usually done by those who are poor, those who are enslaved, those who are desperate to earn a living. In fact, in Deuteronomy 24, we learned that it's, it's one of their laws to help the poor, and that this is the way that they do it, is that they will leave and we learned about this a little bit later, is that they will leave extra I guess, corn or whatever, whatever their their farming, so that those who are coming behind the glean that they have the extra to take home and feed their families.

Tamara Anderson 6:17 

Yeah, so hard work. I mean, this is hard labor. The men were the people who usually harvested but any of the poor could come behind them.

Heather B. Moore 6:27 

yeah, so Ruth and Naomi would know about this law. So that's why they know it's an option for them.

Heather B. Moore 6:33 

Yeah. Bonnie.

Bonnie Randall 6:34 

So gleaning is, from what I understand, tell me this is right. Leaning is after while they're harvesting, there's things that fall off. Like if they're harvesting wheat, or corn, or like, not everything gets into the bundle, there'll be pieces that fall on the ground, and gleaning means that people come in behind them and pick up stuff. Is that correct? Or is it that there's I think I remember last time, one of you mentioned that there's a quarter of the field, that they're allowed to glean, and so they're not allowed to glean in the whole field. Do you know exactly how the gleaning works?

Heather B. Moore 7:17 

Yeah, I think is both. So the so I actually just found this scripture in Deuteronomy. So it's Deuteronomy 24:19. And it says, so this is the Lord instructing Israel, "when thou cuttest down, Thine harvest in the field, and has forgotten as sheep in the field, Thou shalt not go again to fetch it, it shall be for the stranger for the fatherless, and for the widow, that the Lord thy God may bless thee and all the work of thine hands." So it's, yeah, so like, this is both like, they could set aside a corner of their field for this purpose of people that, you know, are, are coming in need it. But they also are saying, don't clean up after yourselves. We have people that are coming to clean up and what they clean up, they're allowed to keep.

Bonnie Randall 8:01 

Okay, so that's really interesting, because we need to know it, because later in, I don't know where exactly it is. I've lost my place in the scriptures. But later, Boaz sees this woman, this random, beautiful woman when he comes home from his business trip or whatever he's doing in Bethlehem, right? And he like, why is this chick doing? Like, who is she? She's beautiful. And, hey, he tells us workers, you know, leave her a little bit more, you know that was funny, I mean, kind of cute. Like all he's flirting a little bit here. I don't know if you've ever watched any of the movies of Ruth, but the way they interpret some of that is just kind of funny. Like, I have young kids so I watch the cartoon versions. And even my kids noticed how kind he was to Ruth and they asked, like, why would he do that? So I'd like to ask that question. Why do you think Boaz would, would open his his heart to this stranger?

Heather B. Moore 9:12 

Well, I think I mean, this is just maybe an opinion. But I think by the time he got to the field that maybe he had already heard about her. I'm trying to see if there's a place where it said specifically.

Bonnie Randall 9:27 

It does say that he had known. He tells her because she asks, Why are you letting me do this? Right. And I think you're right that he says, I've heard of the kindness that you've shown your mother in law, where is that?

Heather B. Moore 9:39 

So small town, right. Everybody knows everything--everyone's business. It's so so he so he, he already knows her plight as far as she's from Moab. She's, she's basically given up her family, her religion, and she's taking care of .. She's doing this To take care of herself, also Naomi. This is her primary purpose of even being in Bethlehem. And so he's already impressed that she is sacrificing and serving her mother in law and and this of course, means that she is an extended kinsmen. So she's family.

Heather B. Moore 10:18 

And so I think he just all those kind of come together where he's like, Yeah, I can help you out. You're young, I can see you can be a hard worker anyway. It's not like you're you're sitting on the side of the road begging, you're you're working, you're willing to put in the time and the effort. And you're not only doing it just for your own sustenance, as you're helping my kins-woman, Naomi, so I think, yeah, like kind of what you said. There's a combination there.

Bonnie Randall 10:45 

I really like verse 12, where it says he, he's talking, Boaz is talking to Ruth. So backing up in verse 11, he says, Okay, so in verse 10, she asked, Why have I found grace and thine eyes, that thou shouldst take knowledge of Me and see a scene that I'm a stranger? And in 11 he says, "it has fully been shewn to me that thou has done unto thy mother in law, since the death of thine husband, and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, the land of thy nativity. That thou art come into the people which thou knowest not heretofor." And then I love verse 12, he says, "The Lord recompense the work and a full reward be given the, of the Lord of God of Israel, under whose wings that art come to trust." That's beautiful poetry, "in whose wings thou art come to trust." And doesn't make you think of the Scripture. As a hen gathereth her chicks. It makes me think of that, like, you know, this is the safety of Israel, the safety of we'll, we'll take you in as our own, and we'll, we'll help you.

Bonnie Randall 11:59 

And for me, this story, when I was studying it, trying to figure out, you know, the deeper meaning, the scriptures of redemption really, really stood out. And then I listened to a podcast of a pretty popular Christian preacher, he's also quoted, or they use this stuff a lot on the YouVersion app. I don't know if you guys know what that is. But it's the Bible app that's pretty popular. Anyway, he helped me understand that this story is more than just about a really nice kinsmen, who is letting his you know, family member. It's more than just redeeming this one family. It's about redeeming all of Israel.

Bonnie Randall 12:54 

And that's an allegory of being redeemed, all of us being redeemed of the Savior. And I have to be honest, I had never looked at the story that way before. And my whole mind was blown. So I went back and reread this story again with those eyes, and I found myself just weeping and feeling like, oh, my gosh, there are so many times I can relate to Ruth now, or I have been a beggar gleaning and asking for help, or riding the coattails of someone else's faith, because I didn't have enough in that moment. Right. Like, it just made me really feel so much, such a deeper connection to her and feel so grateful that this metaphor, allegory. Which is the right word?

Tamara Anderson 13:51 

We understand what you're saying.

Bonnie Randall 13:54 

Would be in here that I could I could see that, that there is that deeper meaning of, of redemption. So what is a kinsmen? And how does that relate to to redemption and redemption of Israel and redeeming all of us?

Tamara Anderson 14:16 

I'm gonna just gonna pop in there and say, I love what you've shared so far, Bonnie, and what you've shared, Heather. I think the kinsmen part is is being family--is being whether you're part of the family like Boaz was to Naomi through her husband. So Boaz was actually, kinsmen or family to Naomi's husband Elimelech. And that's important for us to note for further reference down in the story. But what's interesting is because these women were without protection, a man to protect them or provide for them. I love that Boaz when he initially approaches is Ruth he tells her in verse eight "Hearest thou not my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, Neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens." So come stay here in this field for the whole harvest, you're welcome here. So he's almost saying, Hey, you are family to me. Stay here with my people.

Tamara Anderson 15:22 

And then in verse I, verse nine, he says, you know, I'm charging my men not to touch you. So he's saying, I'm offering my protection to you as family. And you can drink with us, go get get a drink, when you're thirsty, you can eat with us get some food when you're hungry. So he's offering her not only the opportunity to glean but he's kind of bringing her under that mantle of family, extended family, even though she is a stranger. And I think, I think that is very symbolic of, of what God expects us to do, as people are adopted into our fold into our congregations wherever we are in the world, to be that kind of a person who notices when someone new shows up and greets them and is kind to them. That's what Jesus wants us to do. He wants us to act like-- these are my brothers. These are my sisters in Christ, right? And to treat them with kindness. Heather, any other thoughts on that?

Heather B. Moore 16:36 

Yeah, I just love just what Bonnie said is the allegory that we see in these verses, like, even just just looking at through the last couple of days, like it's brought more meaning like, I feel like you could read the story multiple times and focus on something else. But I love what you you said is just it's he's offering not only her sustenance, but protection, and, and also blessings.

Heather B. Moore 17:05 

You know, when we, when we mentioned "under whose arm thou art come to trust." And so it just it It's just a beautiful allegory. I did want to bring up that I thought it was really interesting when it was actually I think it was to remember, it was Dr. Kerry Muhlestein I think is where I read this. When he talks to her in verse 14 and says,