Harvest Thoughts from Ruth

I was sharing a few Harvest Thoughts today with the Senior Citizens club in Winchburgh. What I said arose out of the story of Ruth in the Old Testament. Her story is one of only two stories about women that get a whole book in the Bible to themselves. Although I summarised Ruth's story for the gathering this afternoon, I won't do that here. I suggest that you read the whole book for yourselves. It's not long.

What is the story of Ruth all about? Why is it in the Bible?

At first sight it’s just a family story about King David’s great-grandmother Ruth, and her mother-in-law Naomi. Ruth had married into Naomi’s family, and then through multiple bereavements the family had become destitute. Boaz comes to their aid and rescues them both.

It’s a nice story, but why has it become Holy Scripture?

I think the reason is that Ruth's story is a model for human relationship with God.

The key moment is Ruth's declaration of faithfulness to Naomi prior to their return to Bethlehem. She was committed not only committed to Naomi, but to Naomi's people, and to her God. Here is what she said, “Where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay; your people shall be my people; and your God my God; where you die I will die; and there I will be buried.” (Ruth 1:16,17 NRSV)

When Naomi’s family come on hard times due to crop failure they decide to go somewhere else. It’s a betrayal of God. They go to the Moabites, who worship a different god, and seek their fortune there.

They abandon their family heritage in the Promised Land as part of the People of God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses.

So when misfortune comes upon the family, those who heard the story say, “It serves them right. They ran away and now God has deserted them. It’s not surprising disaster has come upon them.”

And in the story, Naomi herself thinks that the Lord has dealt harshly with her and has brought calamity upon her. She tells people to call her ‘Mara’, which means ‘Bitter’. She certainly felt bitter after all that had happened to her.

And when we read the story today, perhaps we also think that she is entitled to feel bitter, after losing her husband and her two sons.

However, it was the family’s decision to leave Bethlehem that contributed to Naomi's present state of poverty. The story does not tell us if anyone else left Bethlehem because of the famine. Certainly, some ten years later, the town seems to be doing well. Boaz, Naomi’s relative, seems comfortably well off, employing many labourers. Boaz felt comfortable enough to grant Ruth and Naomi a significant portion of his crop, as much as Ruth was able to carry on her own. Perhaps Naomi and her husband were too quick to go to Moab.

Also, Naomi’s attitude takes no account of Ruth. Perhaps she thought that this foreign young woman could be of no help to her. Ruth had to ask Naomi if she could go and glean, i.e. to scavenge, in the fields after the harvest.

And although Naomi gave her permission, she didn’t give Ruth any advice on where she should glean. Surely Naomi knew of her kinsmen in the town. But it seems that Naomi had given up. She was in despair. She had lost her trust in God, and in everyone else as well.

But Ruth doesn’t give up. She goes out to look for food. And God blesses her hopeful faithfulness. She comes to Boaz’s field, and Boaz finds out that she is staying with Naomi, the widow of his relative. Boaz tells his workers to look after Ruth and to leave extra grain for Ruth to collect.

Ruth could have taken the grain she had gleaned to the market and kept the money to buy food for herself. But ‘No’. She is faithful to Naomi. She said she would stay with Naomi, through the bad times, even unto death, if that is where their path lay.

It is Ruth’s faithfulness to Naomi, and her unconditional acceptance of Naomi’s culture, and faith in God, that is the motive for this story being retained in the Bible.

The story of Ruth tells us that God is faithful to those who turn away from him, and then come back to him, as Naomi did. Naomi was not very strong in her faith, but she did leave Moab and return to her family in Israel, in Bethlehem. And God restored her.

And God is not only faithful to Naomi, but also to Ruth. She was a foreigner, living in a strange land, with strange people, worshipping their strange God. But she was faithful to Naomi, and God’s response was to be faithful to her, and through her to Naomi.

God exhorts us to look out for the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner, in our midst. We should shelter them and care for them, rather than discriminating against them, as too often happens these days.

And as we are faithful to God, so we can trust him to be faithful to us, just as he was to Ruth and Naomi.