Bible Studies
Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17 – Gleaning for God
Naomi and Ruth had traveled back to Bethlehem and set about finding ways to support themselves. Ruth had gone out into the fields of barley and wheat that were being harvested in order to glean the stalks of grain that had been missed by the harvesters. The field she chose to work belonged to Boaz, a family member of Naomi’s husband, Elimelech. Boaz noticed Ruth at work and assured her that she would be safe to work his field throughout the harvest as a reward of her faithfulness to Naomi. Ruth was able to glean a substantial amount of grain due to Boaz’s generosity.
Key Verses: (NIV)
- 3:1: “One day Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, ‘My daughter, should I not try to find a home for you, where you will be well provided for?’” – Naomi, in response to her reawakened hope now that their basic needs were being met, turned towards providing for Ruth’s future.
- 2: “Is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been, a kinsman of ours?” – Naomi is laying the groundwork for the Hebrew practice of kinsman-redeemer where a brother or close kinsman takes over the responsibilities of caring for the family whose husband/father has died.
- 3: “Wash and perfume yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor…” – During the harvest, the stalks of grain that had been harvested during the day would be threshed during the night in order to break loose the grain from its seed casings. Boaz would be taking his turn threshing and sleeping throughout the night. Naomi wanted Ruth to present herself as a potential bride for Boaz.
- 5: “I will do whatever you say…” – Ruth fully trusted Naomi’s loving-guidance and knew that she was looking out for her best interests.
- 4:13: “So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife…and the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.” – From the depths of despair and tragedy, living in a foreign country that despised her heritage, and with a future without hope, Ruth, through her dedication to Naomi and her focus on God, had all the darkness erased by the love of Boaz, her redeemer-husband.
- 17: “And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.” – The ancestral line of King David is established through the tearing down of racial and political boundaries and through the redemption of a broken Israel.
- What choices have you had to make in life?
Promises of the Gospel:
The story of Ruth is a series of choices. From the beginning with the decision of Elimelech to leave Bethlehem to the final choice of Boaz to take Ruth as his wife, the characters illustrate how their lives are affected by the decisions they make. God’s role in these choices is subtly revealed from within their personalities: Naomi’s steadfast faithfulness to the Lord, Ruth’s dependable support of Naomi, and Boaz’ allegiance to right and good. With the birth of Obed we come to realize that God has been actively involved throughout; assuring that His plans and objectives for Ruth and her role in history were to be completed as planned. The promise of Ruth is that God remains actively involved in our lives, even when we can’t perceive His presence. God has a plan for our lives and that plan is good. We may not understand where we are headed, we may never fully comprehend what He has in store, but through our steadfast faithfulness, dependability, and focus on good, we will achieve what He has in mind.
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