Bread – Encourage

Readings for Wednesday, March 2, designated by the Book of Common Prayer: Ruth 2:1-13; 2 Cor. 1:23-2:17; Matt. 5:21-26; Psalms 119:145-176, 128, 129, 130

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Today we read from the book of Ruth about Ruth and her first encounter with Boaz, her future husband and her redeemer-kinsman.

The setting is that Ruth, a Gentile, has abandoned her family and her past livelihood to accompany Naomi, her mother-in-law (Ruth’s husband was deceased) and a Jew, back to Israel.

Before we proceed, realize how much has been said in a few words. Ruth was a Gentile. This was no small thing in the Old Testament. She was not part of God’s chosen people and, although the Hebrews were commanded to take care of the alien in their midst, she was still an alien. She probably was not brought up with the knowledge of the Lord, and she may very well have practiced a totally different religion. She was married to a Hebrew, when marriage outside the ranks was highly discouraged. Her husband had died, which in many cultures was a very bad omen. She was taking care of her Hebrew mother-in-law, and I’ll let your imagination run wild about what that may have been like.

In other words, where we start our story, Ruth was in a bad place emotionally, politically, economically, and socially.

And rather than return to a place of safety and comfort, her own people and who own home town, Ruth instead went to a strange place, Israel, where she knew no one (except Naomi), where she had no family (except Naomi), where she had no money and no property, where she was unfamiliar with the customs, and where she was outside the normal society (a Gentile in a Jewish society). She did all this because she had made a promise, a covenant, and she brought herself under the wings of God to shelter her and to help her fulfill that covenant. She did all that from a well of faith.

And what is she doing when we found her in today’s reading? She is out “gleaning” the fields, which is what the poor people do after the rich people have taken the primary harvest. When the crop was harvested, there would always be something left over and the landowner would deliberately leave the leftovers out in the field where the poor people could pick them up for themselves. After giving up everything to fulfill a family promises and to find shelter in God, Ruth is reduced to gleaning out a living from leftovers.

Boaz is a Jew, he is rich, and he owns the field where Ruth is working from morning to night to take home some leftovers. He sees her and, from earlier investigation, knows her background, knows she is a Gentile, knows her care for Naomi, and knows her faith. He says to her simply “I have been told about what you have done … May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” Ruth 2:12

What a nice thing to say! What an encouraging thing to say! And Ruth responds to the encouragement by saying “You have given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant – though I do not have the standing of one of your servant girls.” Ruth 2:13

I know several people who are involved with various forms of prison ministries, some in the prisons themselves and some in post-prison work, where they work with prior inmates to try to get them re-integrated into the world. The people they serve have often left everything they knew, their friends, their ways of doing things, their family, their comfort and their safety in order to step into the kingdom of God, to declare obedience to Him, to confess their sins, and to seek the shelter of His wings and the reality of eternal life. Even though they have exercised faith in the Almighty, they still find themselves with little future, left to gleaning the fields of the wealthy, finding whatever jobs an uncaring or fearful society might begrudgingly give them access to.

These people who I know are Boazes to these ex-inmates. They are there to remind these foreigners who have sought shelter in the Almighty that what these “criminals” have done has been heard about, and to speak a word of encouragement into their lives – “May you be richly rewarded…”

We and Ruth and the ex-prisoners have something in common. We do not “need” these encouragements from others, because we “know” that God is good and will sustain us in all adversity, including delivering us from death’s door into eternal life. However, we sure do appreciate them. When we hear from a Boaz that he or she has heard of our faith, what we have done or maybe even what we have not done (with respect to turning to our old life), and we hear a blessing spoken to us, in our favor, does anyone turn that away? No, we have the reaction of Ruth – “You have given me comfort.”

So, to whom can you be a Boaz today? In whose life can you speak encouragement, hope, a blessing? I’ll bet there are a lot, beginning with our families. All we have to do is be like Boaz, standing in the field looking at all the people reduced to gleaning the leftovers of life – and reach out to them with a smile, a hand, and the truth in love.

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