When looking at the book of Ruth, it is usual to identify Ruth as the main character in the plot. Ruth returns, after the tragic death of her Jewish husband to Bethlehem in Israel with her mother in law Naomi. Ruth was born in Moab and now through no fault of her own finds herself an alien and a widow in a foreign land. Ruth is forced to collect the scraps and leftovers of the grain harvest just to survive.
It is in chapter two of Ruth where we meet Boaz, a relative of Ruth’s deceased husband.
The first thing that strikes me is Boaz’s generosity…He greets the workers in his field with “The LORD bless you!” (Ruth 2:4 – and yes….the exclamation mark is in the Bible) “The LORD bless you!” they called back. I don’t know about you but “The LORD bless you” is probably very low down on the list of things I would like to say to some of the bosses I have had over the years.
In verse 12, Boaz makes the following statement; “May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” He goes on to instruct the workers in his field to intentionally leave some stalks of grain for Ruth to easily glean.
When Israel left Egypt some 200 years prior, God had instructed them not to oppress or mistreat aliens – and to remember what it feels like (Exod 21:21, 23:9)
To cut a long story short, Boaz and Ruth marry and have children who form part of the lineage of the great King David and then another great Bethlehem birth 1300 years later…that of Jesus.
Psalm 146:9 states clearly that the LORD himself watches over the alien, the fatherless and the widows. Boaz through his generous character, generous speech, generous treatment of his employees and his generosity with his wealth actually became the means that God himself blessed Ruth…and wrote himself one of the most interesting cameo appearances in Scripture.
In my country (Australia) we are surrounded by a sea of widows and fatherless children as a result of the growing tsunami of marriage failures. We are a country that is constantly arguing about immigration and accepting refugees. We struggle with hard choices about what to do with ‘boat people’ who arrive on our shores regularly from some of the world’s least desirable places.
Perhaps it is God’s plan that we should demonstrate through generosity of our speech, character and wealth that He is looking after our aliens, widows and fatherless.
