“Guardian
Redeemers”
“May I continue to find
favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have put me at ease by speaking
kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your
servants.”
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. As
she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the
sheaves and don’t reprimand her. Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and
leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”
So
Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had
gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. 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.
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.
“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.”
Ruth
2:13-20
Ruth was in a
predicament. Her husband had died and she was the bread winner for herself and
for her mother-in-law. God worked through Boaz, who became aware of her. Boaz
gave her the ability to have food, protection, and he helped provide for her
emotional needs by comforting her.
Are you aware of the
needs of the people around you – in your church, neighborhood, or under your
own roof? Today, consider how you might help bear someone’s burden. Then you
will be fulfilling God’s plan for you.
God works
through us to meet the needs of those around us.
Our Daily Bread –