In 1978, I was traveling from north Bihar to Uttar Pradesh, in north India. I and another OM’er (Operation Mobilization worker) had been in Bihar for about a week, and we were anxious to get back to our home base. For one thing, we weren’t all that crazy about Bihar, and also our mail was waiting for us in U.P. So we set out in the morning, having been told that it was about a 4 hour trip. We didn’t have a map, and there weren’t any signs pointing the way, so we were dependent on asking directions from people. But we were expecting it to be a fairly easy trip. We were used to finding our way around in India, and we didn’t expect any real problems (other than breaking down, which was always a possibility with OM vehicles).
When we left the town of Motihari in the morning, we asked directions from a couple of people to make sure we were going the right way. We turned onto the road that they had told us would lead to Gorakhpur, and after two hours we were feeling good about the progress we’d made. We’d been able to travel at a reasonable speed, and by now should have been about halfway there. Then, about half an hour later, the road ended at a river. There was no bridge and nothing to do but turn around and drive 2 ½ hours back to Motihari and start over again. At the moment when I saw that river, I felt like the bottom had dropped out emotionally. It was out of proportion. After all, we were going to get back eventually. But all the feelings of alienness, of being someplace where I don’t belong, descended on me. I thought, “what on earth am I doing here?” People had laughed at us when we stopped in Motihari to ask for directions, and I felt sure they had intentionally sent us the wrong direction. I had been really anxious to get back to Gorakhpur, which was the closest thing to home at that point, and now we were further away than when we’d started.
As we saw in chapter one, both Naomi and Ruth have had a series of overwhelmingly difficult experiences. Both are widows in a society where the position of widows is very precarious. Naomi has spent ten years in a place where she’s known as a foreigner, and during that time has lost her husband and two sons. Ruth has lost a husband and has now left her home to settle in Israel with her mother-in-law. So now she is known, everywhere she goes, as a foreigner, someone who doesn’t belong. But their experiences of grief have also alienated them from this world. They’ve had the kinds of experiences which make people ask, “what on earth am I doing here?” That’s why Naomi, at the end of chapter one, says “Call me no longer Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty; why call me Naomi when the Lord has dealt harshly with me, and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?” Remember that Naomi means “pleasant,” and Mara is the Hebrew word for “bitter.” She’s saying, “the name Naomi, the name you called me when I lived here, doesn’t describe me anymore. It doesn’t fit with the things God has brought into my life. My life has been bitter and painful; the Lord Almighty has afflicted me. Call me Mara, because my life is full of bitterness.” Life, for both Naomi and Ruth, has not turned out the way they had hoped.
That’s the background to chapter two. Naomi is clearly depressed and has lost hope. She no longer believes God is good. He has become her enemy, and what hope does she have, since He is Almighty? There’s no way she can resist His will. She doesn’t expect, any longer, to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Ruth has bound herself to Naomi and is determined to stay with her at all costs. But that doesn’t mean she has an easy time of it. She has her own grief to bear, and now she’s away from home, in a place where everyone sees her as a foreigner.
In a situation like this, it’s very easy to become paralyzed, to give up hope, to feel like it’s just not worth the effort to do anything. Paul draws tremendous hope from the assurance that God is on our side: “if God is for us, who can be against us?” But if God is against us, as Naomi has come to believe, what’s the use of trying? Who can help us if the Almighty has become our enemy? But in the midst of all these depressing thoughts, Ruth decides to do something. She says to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain, behind someone in whose sight I may find favor.” The last verse in chapter 1 tells us that they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest, so Ruth decides to take advantage of the situation.
Gleaning was a special provision made in the Law for poor people in the land. Listen to these verses from Deuteronomy: “When you harvest your grain and forget a sheaf back in the field, don’t go back and get it; leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow so that God, your God, will bless you in all your work. When you shake the olives off your trees, don’t go back over the branches and strip them bare – what’s left is for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. And when you cut the grapes in your vineyard, don’t take every last grape – leave a few for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. Don’t ever forget that you were a slave in Egypt. I command you: Do what I’m telling you” (24:19-22, The Message). This is what Ruth is referring to when she says to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain, behind someone in whose sight I may find favor.” The Law made special provision for people in their situation.
So Ruth steps out and is guided to a field belonging to Boaz, one of Naomi’s relatives by marriage. We’re told about Boaz at the beginning of chapter two, but it’s clear that Ruth doesn’t yet know who he is. She’s looking for somewhere to glean, but there’s no assurance that she’ll be treated well as a foreigner. The nation has fallen into a lawless condition, as the author of Judges says: “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes” (21:25). She’s taking a risk going out like this. Verse 3 says, “As it happened, she came to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.” As it happened. She’s not scheming about how she might put herself into contact with this rich relative. She doesn’t even know about him. But God guides her to the right place at the right time. God has plans for Ruth and Naomi, and for Boaz, that none of them are yet aware of. He is bringing them together for a purpose, although they don’t know it. This secret leading of God is called providence. It’s the sort of thing Paul is talking about in Romans 8:28: “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” God is going to take all the things that have happened to them, all the difficult things, and is going to bring good out of them. He is going to redeem these things.
So Ruth steps out and is providentially led to the field of Boaz. That’s the first thing that’s here. The second thing is that Boaz takes notice of Ruth and goes out of his way to show her kindness. We need to realize that Boaz is not typical of the Israelite men we read about during this time period. One commentator makes this observation: “Boaz stands out against an uninspiring crowd. He is the only male character in Judges 17-Ruth 4 who consistently demonstrates compassion, integrity, and moral courage in the face of challenge. Others pretend to such traits but uniformly fail to incarnate them.... Boaz stands head and shoulders above all the men in the... context” (Michael S. Moore, New International Bible Commentary: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, p. 333). Notice, for example, how the subject of Ruth’s safety keeps coming up. Boaz urges her to only come to his fields, and warns his own workers to keep their hands off, to leave her alone. And, near the end of the chapter, Naomi says to her: “You’ll be safe in the company of his young women; no danger now of being raped in some stranger’s field” (The Message). Ruth steps out and God providentially leads her to just the right place at the right time.
Boaz has already heard about Ruth; he’s heard about the kindness she’s shown her mother-in-law. When he takes notice of her and speaks kindly to her, Ruth is startled: “Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?” And Boaz answers her: “I’ve heard all about you – heard about the way you treated your mother-in-law after the death of her husband, and how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth and have come to live among a bunch of total strangers” (The Message). He’s heard reports about her and he wants to reward her for her kindness; so he provides for her and ensures her protection in his fields: “Listen, my daughter. From now on don’t go to any other field to glean – stay right here in this one. And stay close to my young women. Watch where they are harvesting and follow them. And don’t worry about a thing. I’ve given orders to my servants not to harass you” (The Message).
But he goes one step further. He’s also concerned about her spiritual welfare, so he says this: “May the Lord reward you for your deeds, and may you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you’ve come for refuge!” We don’t know, at this point in her experience, how much Ruth knows about the God of Israel. Her understanding may be fairly vague. But in identifying with Naomi and coming to Bethlehem, she’s taken refuge under God’s wings. Often our first steps toward God are unclear and uncertain; we don’t know quite where we’re going or what we’re getting ourselves into. But God has our lives in His hand, and He is providentially leading us. When we first take refuge in God, we don’t have a clear idea of what we’re doing; but He is faithful and honors our tentative, uncertain steps toward Him.
So Ruth spends the day gleaning in Boaz’s field, and when she returns home and gives Naomi a report, Naomi immediately recognizes that God has been with her: “Blessed be the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead.” She then tells Ruth that Boaz is a close relative, something that will become important in the next chapter. Notice the contrast between Naomi’s attitude in chapter one and her attitude when she hears about Ruth’s day. In chapter one, she’s filled with a sense of bitterness. Things in her life have been so overwhelming that she’s lost a sense of hope in God’s kindness. She doesn’t expect Him to bring good things into her life any more. She doesn’t believe in God’s goodness and kindness. But as soon as she hears Ruth’s report, she’s filled with gratitude.
There’s a big difference between someone who turns away from God because of suffering and someone who temporarily loses sight of God’s kindness because of grief. Jesus described the first kind of person in the Parable of the Sower. These people are represented by the seed that falls on rocky ground. “As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away” (Matthew 13:20-21). They take offense at God and His ways and they turn away from Him. They want nothing more to do with such a God. Naomi isn’t like that. She’s bewildered and confused; she’s lost sight of God’s goodness, because of the things that have happened to her. But at the first evidence of God’s sovereign care, she turns to Him in gratitude. She recognizes that He cares about her, that He hasn’t forsaken her after all.
Naomi has doubted God’s goodness, but she hasn’t turned away from Him. Doubt isn’t the same thing as unbelief. We’re often too hard on people who struggle with doubt. Maybe their doubts are threatening to us. Those who turn away from God are guilty of unbelief, but doubt isn’t the same thing at all. Doubt is a struggle of faith. Os Guinness describes it as “faith in two minds.” On the one side is faith, and the opposite of faith is unbelief; doubt is wavering between the two. The things that happened in Naomi’s life were so overwhelming that she doubted God’s goodness; she didn’t know how to reconcile her experience with what she believed about God.
Doubts need to be faced honestly, or they can eventually lead us to unbelief; but we don’t need to fear our doubts. Doubt is a normal experience for God’s people living in this fallen world. J.C. Ryle, an Anglican Bishop near the end of the 19th century, had some wise words in this area: “Some doubts there will always be. He that never doubts has nothing to lose. He that never fears possesses nothing truly valuable. He that is never jealous knows little of deep love. Be not discouraged; you shall be more than conqueror through Him that loved you.” Doubt is a normal part of Christian experience. Rather than denying our doubts, pretending that they aren’t there, we need to face them. And we can face them knowing that God is bigger than our doubts about Him. Here’s a good prayer to use when you’re struggling with doubt. It’s by Martin Luther: “Dear Lord, Although I am sure of my position, I am unable to sustain it without Thee. Help me, or I am lost” (quoted by Os Guinness, Doubt, p. 236). God is bigger than our doubts about Him. That’s what Naomi is experiencing at the end of chapter two. Her soul was filled with darkness and doubt, but now, at the first evidence of God’s gracious care, her soul is flooded with light.
The truth is that God cares about us and is at work redeeming every part of our lives, ordering things to work out for our ultimate good. We can see that clearly happening with Ruth and Naomi. And Paul says it is true of us: “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” He’s already proven His love for us by giving His only Son. How can it be that He’ll not take care of us? “He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?” (Romans 8:32). God is committed to taking care of us, bringing us safely to His eternal kingdom, where we will live in His presence forever.
But we still live in this fallen world, and sometimes things happen which fill us with doubt. Things happen that don’t make sense. How can a good, loving, all-powerful God permit such things? Naomi was a genuine believer who, for a period in her life, became overwhelmed with doubts about God’s character. She lost her bearings for awhile, like my friend and I did in North Bihar. But God didn’t forsake her; and He won’t forsake us either. He is bigger than our doubts about Him. C.S. Lewis said “No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep on picking ourselves up each time.... The only fatal thing is to lose one’s temper and give it up. It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us; it is the very sign of His presence” (The Business of Heaven, p. 17). Our doubts grow out of our human weakness, living in a fallen, disordered, broken world. The bigger reality is that God cares about what is happening to us, and He is committed to bringing us safely to His eternal kingdom. He will give us the light we need, and will enable us to say, with Naomi, “God hasn’t quite walked out on us after all! He still loves us, in bad times as well as good!” (The Message).
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