Have you ever hit rock bottom? Sometimes we feel as if we are not simply scraping the bottom of the barrel but have already taken the barrel, held it upside down, shaken it, and discovered that there is absolutely nothing left in it. Further scraping would be a fruitless task, because there is nothing left to scrape. That is where Naomi and Ruth found themselves in the beginning of Ruth 2. From her state of fulness at the beginning of the book, where Naomi had a husband and two sons to support her and take care of her, Naomi had been reduced to a state of emptiness with no one around her to help her. The only one left was her pesky Moabitess daughter-in-law, Ruth, and she wasn’t too sure whether Ruth was more of an asset or an embarrassment.

So, this odd couple returned to Bethlehem. But in the midst of the darkness at the very end of Ruth 1, there was a tiny sliver of light; they arrived in Bethlehem “at the beginning of barley harvest.” In this little notice, the narrator hints that Naomi isn’t reading events correctly. Naomi has been seeing her situation go from fullness to emptiness in her own life, however, the movement for her people back home in Bethlehem had been the opposite. They had gone from famine as the story opened, to the brink of a new harvest in the Promised Land. There was food once again in Bethlehem. God’s hand of judgment had been lifted from His people.

Naomi’s problem is like the struggle many of us experience. In the dark night of our souls, we imagine and worry about the worst possible scenario. We persuade ourselves that God has abandoned us and that we have no prospects. God doesn’t promise to give us the grace to survive all the scenarios we can dream up – but only to give us the grace to enable us to make it through whatever He actually brings into our lives. In fact, much of what we worry about turns out in the end not to be part of God’s plan for us after all; our worry was wasted work! Of course, Jesus told us this Himself when He said, “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” (Matt. 6:27).

In the meantime, though, there was the pressing issue for Ruth and Naomi of what to eat; and there was a likely solution (Ruth 2:1-2). Provision was made in the law of Moses to take care of the poor through a kind of “Welfare to Work” program. The poor were not simply to depend on handouts from the state. Rather, they were allowed to glean in the fields after the harvesters and around the edges, picking up scraps that were left behind.

Gleaning was hard work; it was hot work; it was not necessarily safe work either, since not every landowner would fulfill the provisions of the law. It was perhaps especially dangerous for a foreign woman, a Moabitess, who had no clan connections to protest her or to call on in distress. So, when Ruth volunteered to go out and glean to provide food for the two of them, she was making herself vulnerable not just for her own sake but for Naomi’s too (v. 2). She was stepping out in faith that somewhere out there was a generous, God-fearing landowner who would make room for the poor. Faith doesn’t simply sit around waiting for provision to drop down from heaven; we are called to do what we can, and as we do, to trust that God will provide for our needs.

As it turned out, there was a God-fearing landowner in Bethlehem who cared for the poor: a man named Boaz, who was a distant relative of Naomi’s. Ruth had no obvious reason to pick one field over the next, but she ended up in Boaz’s field (v. 3). The narrator is inviting us to see, there was no such thing as luck driving this chain of events. This was all part of a higher plan. It was nothing less than a divine appointment that brought Ruth to the fields of Boaz. Ruth trusted in the Lord; He directed her steps unwittingly to exactly the right location (Prov. 16:9).

In due course, the divine appointment-maker also brought Boaz to his fields to see how the harvest was progressing (vv. 4-7). As Boas looked out over the scene before him, something struck him. Among the gleaning poor was an unfamiliar figure. He therefore asked “Whose is she?” – not “Who is she?” as if he expected a name, but “Whom does she belong to? Where does she fit in society?” (v. 5). The foreman replied, in effect, “Oh she’s that foreigner who came back from Moab with Naomi – you know the one. She’s an outsider; she doesn’t really belong anywhere. But I can tell you, she worked like a dog in this hot sun all day.”

Boaz indeed knew the one of whom the foreman spoke. He had heard all about Ruth abandoning her people and her land for Naomi’s sake, and now he found her hard at work in his field for the sake of her mother-in-law. In spite of the difference between their social standings, Boaz spoke to her as a person (“my daughter”) and he made her a generous offer (vv. 9-12).

Can you imagine the impact these words must have had on Ruth, the outsider? These were the first kind words she had heard since she left Moab. More than that, they were a blessing that sought God’s favor upon her, as if she too were a member of the covenant community. No wonder Ruth was comforted, then, by Boaz’s generosity. She said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kingly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants” (v. 13). Ruth, the outsider, had been made to feel welcome to come in.

Boaz’s kindness was not limited to mere words, however. Rather than leave her at a distance at the mealtime, as she would have expected, he invited her to draw near (v. 14). Though Ruth had probably brought little or nothing to eat, Boaz provided her a share of his own food: special treats of bread dipped in sour wine and roasted grain so that, for once she had enough to eat. Boaz even commanded his men to be deliberately careless in their harvesting, so that this poor widow would have an abundance to carry home with her (vv. 15-19).

No wonder Naomi was astonished at what Ruth had gathered; somewhere between twenty-nine and fifty pounds of grain, or several weeks’ worth of food for the average worker. When Ruth returned home, there was plenty to eat, and also plenty to talk about (vv. 19-23). All of a sudden, faced with the mound of food that Ruth had brought home, the practical evidence of God’s goodness to her, Naomi’s attitude began to change.

First, Naomi’s heart began to soften toward God (v. 20). Suddenly, Naomi was beginning to see that the Lord wasn’t out to get her. In fact, He was still able and willing to smile upon her, to show her covenant faithfulness, in spite of her history of sin and rebellion. Ruth’s one-day outing, in which she went out empty and came back full because the Lord went ahead of her, persuaded Naomi that perhaps she had been too quick with her bitterness. The Lord was able and willing to provide for their physical needs after all. She began to recognize that, contrary to what she had earlier thought, the Lord had not stopped showing His covenant faithfulness to her and Ruth.

There is even a hint of repentance in Naomi’s strong urging of Ruth to heed Boaz’s counsel to stay from now on in his fields, rather than going into the fields of another, lest she come to any harm (v. 22). Now Naomi could see how foolish the decision was to move to the fields of Moab in search of greener grass had been. She was thus warning Ruth not to repeat her own pattern of sin: “Stay in the fields of the one upon whom the Lord’s blessing rests. Don’t go wandering off as I did!”

But food was only one of the things that Ruth lacked. She had not simply given up her best prospect of physical sustenance by going with Naomi, she had also – to all human appearances – given up the prospect of marriage and a home of her own. Even though she now had food, she still needed a husband, a lack that is emphasized by the closing statement of the chapter (v. 23). However, If God has faithfully provided so abundantly for Ruth’s need of food, will He not also supply her needs in this other area?

The apostle Paul says, “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). Sometimes it doesn’t seem that way, though, does it? Sometimes it may seem as if God has turned His face away from us and closed His ears to our prayers. It may even seem that He has stopped showing us His faithfulness after all. Yet the Book of Ruth is a glorious testimony to Paul’s statement: God will meet all our needs. In her grief and confusion, Naomi had misunderstood God and misjudged Ruth. She had failed to see that the Lord is the God who welcomes the outsider. She had forgotten that He is the shepherd who does not stop showing His covenant faithfulness to the wandering sheep. She didn’t remember that He is the Father who waits with open arms to welcome back the prodigal daughter. God’s faithfulness never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning (Lam. 3:22), and will accompany us every step along the hard road of life, until our faithful God welcomes us into our heavenly home.

Ruth 2:1-23 Study Questions:

How does Ruth take initiative as this chapter begins (vv. 1-2)? What does Naomi’s response tell us about her demeanor perhaps changing toward Ruth?

The narrator’s literal words, in Hebrew, tell us that Ruth came to Boaz’s field “as if by chance” (v. 3). How should we understand this “coincidence” in light of the sovereign plan of God?

What do Boaz’s first words in the narrative tell us about his character (v. 4)? How does Boaz’s initial conversation with Ruth further develop and reveal his character and integrity (vv. 8-12?

What has Boaz obviously heard about Ruth already? What special commands does he give to his men concerning her (vv. 15-16)?

How does Naomi respond to Ruth’s day of gleaning (v. 18)? What instructions does she give to Ruth when Boas’s identity is revealed to her (vv. 19-22)? What hints are we getting as to Naomi’s softening heart? What does she say about God? What are we learning about God through His goodness and grace in this chapter?