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Women of the Bible in Context: Her God, Her Story, Her Voice
Rediscovering women of the Bible at the intersection of trauma, ancient historical context, and Biblical languages with Jessica LM Jenkins of We Who Thirst.
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For a complete bibliography for each episode visit: https://rb.gy/xx0no6
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Women of the Bible in Context: Her God, Her Story, Her Voice
026 Naomi & Ruth: When Trauma Meets Kindness (Ruth 2)
When life collapses around us, where is God? The Book of Ruth offers a profound answer where divine providence operates not through dramatic miracles but through ordinary people reflecting God's character.
Ruth's gleaning "coincidentally" brings her to Boaz's field – a moment that reveals how God orchestrates circumstances we might dismiss as chance. As Ruth demonstrates remarkable initiative in caring for her grieving mother-in-law Naomi, we witness the striking contrast between two valid responses to trauma: Naomi's withdrawal and Ruth's practical action. Neither approach is condemned; rather, we see how God works through both.
Boaz emerges as the embodiment of godly character – a man whose first words invoke God's blessing on his workers. His extraordinary treatment of Ruth teaches us what true compassion looks like: seeing the heart of the suffering, offering practical help beyond what's requested, and publicly restoring dignity to the marginalized. When Boaz invites the foreign Ruth to his table, he makes a powerful statement about her worth that transforms her community standing.
The cultural context of gleaning reveals God's design for social systems that protect the vulnerable. Yet what truly stirs hope is watching Naomi slowly awaken from her grief when Ruth returns with an abundance of grain. This powerful moment reminds us that sometimes our faith is carried by others when we cannot carry it ourselves – God didn't love Naomi less because she collapsed under grief, but provided through Ruth's faith and Boaz's obedience.
While the chapter concludes with temporary provision, permanent security remains unresolved. The two widows still face uncertain futures, yet hope glimmers as God's care begins to unfold through ordinary human kindness.
Have you experienced God's provision through unexpected people during your darkest moments? Does your approach to trauma resemble Ruth's action or Naomi's withdrawal? Join the conversation on social media or reach out via email – I'd love to hear how this ancient story resonates with your journey.
You may also enjoy:
Heterarchy & Patricentrism: https://youtu.be/OO-E36xt_2E?si=zBiFbkHO5cCG9igx
006 Proverbs 31: Woman of Valor (https://wewhothirst.buzzsprout.com/2384822/episodes/15707471-006-proverbs-31-woman-of-valor)
023 Tamar: Reclaiming Justice Against All Odds (https://wewhothirst.buzzsprout.com/2384822/episodes/17439747-023-tamar-reclaiming-justice-against-all-odds)
021 Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman who won a battle of wits (https://wewhothirst.buzzsprout.com/2384822/episodes/17122565-021-jesus-and-the-syrophoenician-woman-who-won-a-battle-of-wits-matthew-15-mark-7)
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If you are interested in the research and sources behind this episode visit - https://rb.gy/xx0no6 - for a full Bibliography. For full shownotes including ancient sources, join my Patreon.
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I don't know about you, but Naomi's words, her theological statement about God at the end of chapter one of the book of Ruth, has been ringing in my ears for the last couple of weeks. Naomi says why would you call me pleasant? The Lord has afflicted me and the Almighty has caused evil against me. She is looking at her traumatic situation. She is looking at how her entire life has fallen apart and she is crushed. She looks at the God who is supposed to be the covenant God of Israel, who has allowed everything to be ripped from her, and she says the Lord has a hand in this. And I am no longer pleasant, I am bitter. And she is wrestling with both the theology and the practical applications of what do we do when life falls apart and everything hurts and there is no hope, hurts and there is no hope. Chapter one ends with a tiny sliver of hope that there is now bread in the city of bread and the beginning of the harvest of barley has begun. And so we move into chapter two, where we start to see God's providential work on behalf of Ruth and Naomi, as he is doing his work behind the scenes. So often in life, we want God to show up in big, grand ways to part the clouds in the heavens and to send rain, or a word of what we're supposed to do next. We want him to miraculously heal our loved one. We want him to fix the situations we have going on in life. And so often he doesn't step into our lives in those obvious, tangical, big miracle sort of ways. Instead, god continually works through his people, following his character, to do good for those who are hurting the book of Ruth, people functioning justly in the societal systems he set up for their flourishing. God cares for his people, but normally he does this through his people, not through big, flashy miracles, and we are going to see how that works out in chapter two.
Jessica LM Jenkins:I'm going to start by reading chapter two, my translation of it, to get us into the text, to get us thinking about it. I am again going to use the name meanings rather than the transliterated versions we have in our English Bible. There's one Hebrew word. I've been struggling to figure out how to translate that for this, so I'm going to tell you a little bit about it before and we'll discuss it more after. But it's a Hebrew word that has multiple meanings that our English does not have in one word, so we do not have an English word that carries the nuances that the Hebrew word does.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The Hebrew word is na'ar and it can be translated young man, young person, young woman, or it can be translated servant, because in the ancient world, in the household dynamics, hierarchy is not by gender, it's by age, and so when you're trying to discuss a hierarchy between, maybe, kings and his noblemen, I mean high ranking, very powerful men, but they're not as powerful as the king, they're the noblemen under the king. They might be called the naar, the servant of the king, but that naar word also can talk about 10-year-old kids, teenagers, and so it's this word that has this broad range of meaning and it's hugely repetitive in the Book of Ruth. A lot of people are called an ar in the Book of Ruth and it's is this a servant or is this a young person? And it's likely that it's both. I, for my translation purposes, am going to call this a young person, young woman, young man, if there's gender specific in the text. But carry in mind that there's the idea of servant, a hired worker, alongside that. It's not just like a bunch of kids or teenagers running around. A lot of these are going to be adults, adults of you know, 30s, 40s, adults. But I'm going to call them a young person rather than a servant, because there's another servant term later on that I want to differentiate between the two. But there's also this theme that's going to show up in chapter three of young versus old. So there's a lot of these subtle Hebrew things going on that's hard to capture in English, but I'm going to do my best for you. So let's read Ruth, chapter two.
Jessica LM Jenkins:In regard to Pleasant, there was a kinsman to her husband, a man of substance from the clan of my goddess Cain, and his name was Strength. And then, refreshing Frank, the woman from the land of incest, said to Pleasant Let me go to the field so that I may glean in the ears of grain after whomever I find grace in his eyes. And Pleasant said to her Go, my daughter. And she went and she came and she gleaned in the field after the reapers. And then happenstance happened the part of the field belonged to strength, who was from the clan of my goddess king. And behold, strength was coming out of the city of bread. And he said to the reapers the Lord be with you. And they said to him may the Lord really bless you. And then straight said to the young man appointed over the harvesters whose is this young woman?
Jessica LM Jenkins:And then the young man appointed over the harvesters answered and he said she is a young woman of the land of incest, the one who returned with Pleasant from the fields of incest. And she said let me glean, let me gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters. And then she came and she has waited until morning, until now, except for just, you know, sitting here in the field. And then Strength said to her refreshing friend have you not heard my daughter, you may not go glean in another field, and also you will not pass on from here. And thus you will cling with my young women. Your eyes are in this field, which they will harvest and you will go after them. Have I not commanded my young people not to touch you? And when you thirst you will go after them? Have I not commanded my young people not to touch you? And when you thirst you will go to the vessels and you will drink from that which the young people have drawn.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And she fell on her face and she bowed herself to the ground and she said to him why have I found grace in your eyes that you regard me, for I am a foreigner. And then strength answered and he said to her he really told me all what you've done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband, that you left your father and your mother in the land of your kindred and you went to a people who you didn't even know three days ago. May the Lord repay your deed and may your wages be complete from the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you came for refuge under his wings. And then she said let me find grace in your eyes, my Lord, for you comforted me. You spoke concerning the heart of your maid servant, and I myself am not even one of your maid servants.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And then Strength said to her At the eating come here and eat from this bread and dip your fragment in the vinegar. So she sat to the side of the reapers and he held out to her parched grain and she ate and she was satisfied and she had leftovers. Then she rose to glean and then strength commanded his young people saying even if she gleans in the standing grain the ones that haven't been chopped down yet, do not shame or rebuke her. You will certainly even draw out from the sheaves and leave for her, and she will glean. Do not rebuke her.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And then she gleaned in the field until evening and then she beat out what she had gleaned and there was one ephah of barren. And then she lifted up and she entered the city and she showed her mother-in-law that which she gleaned and then she brought it out and she gave to her what she had left over from her plenty. And then her mother-in-law said to her where did you glean today and where did you do this? Blessed is he who regarded you. And then she told her mother-in-law that what she did, and she said the name of the man who I was with today is strength. Then Pleasant said to her daughter-in-law Blessed be he of the Lord who did not forsake his goodness to the living and the dead. Then Pleasant said to her the man is a close relative to us, he is a kinsman, redeemer, a goel.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And then Ruth the Moabitess, the woman from incest. Then, beautiful Friend, the woman from the land of incest also said, for he said to me you will claim with my young people who are mine, until they finish all the harvest which is mine. And then Pleasant said to Refreshing friend, her daughter-in-law it is good, my daughter, that you will go with his young women and then they will not meet you in another field. And so she, beautiful friend, clung to the young women of strength to glean until the finishing of the harvest of barley and the harvest of wheat, and she remained with her mother-in-law. So what we have here some scholars describe as the beginnings of a betrothal. It's not stated explicitly in the text, but the ancient hearers of this text would have heard familiar themes that they are used to in the betrothal scene in a romance story.
Jessica LM Jenkins:We don't have the ending yet, but we are seeing hope sparkling everywhere in this passage. So let's start breaking down what is going on in this passage. Chapter one ends with Ruth and Naomi returning to Bethlehem. They have come back, they're in the city of bread, the barley harvest is beginning and that scene closes. Imagine a play and the curtain comes down. But before the curtain comes up, the narrator briefly gives the audience an aside so that we're clued in on some important details.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The narrator lets us know that there is a man who's going to be in this next scene, and this man is a Gabor Chayil. That's the Hebrew term, and scholars discuss how to best translate it. Most of them land on a man of substance. Chayil is a very it's a military term used, and Gabor Chayil is used for mighty men of valor, victorious warriors. We talked a lot about the term chayil in the Proverbs 31 series. You can go back to that episode I will link it in the comments where we talk about hayil applied to women, which it will be applied to Ruth later on in chapter three or four, but here it's used to describe Boaz.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Now, remember, this whole book is set in the time of judges. This is a very tumultuous time. You could have roving bandits come through. You have other nations like Moab and Ammon and the Philistines who are attacking Israel periodically. So Boaz being a man of substance, a man of standing, he has high honor in the community. He likely also is a strong warrior, though we don't translate it necessarily as a mighty warrior because this is not a military context and outside of a military context it means a man of sustenance, a man of wealth, a man of high honor. But all of those things also go with men who were warriors, because then they can defend their holdings. So you have a lot wrapped up in this phrase about Boaz and his name. Even it has the implications of strength. So I love the Hebrew because it's just in your face. It's like Boaz shows up with a big Superman symbol on his chest. I wonder who the male hero, main character of this story, is going to be. It's probably Boaz, so he's introduced by the narrator that he is there.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The audience, the readers of Ruth, need to know about this person and some background. He is related to Elimelech, naomi's husband, and this is mentioned a couple of times. And this is mentioned a couple of times. But Ruth and Naomi may or may not be aware of him or even really thinking about him. There are some scholars that think Ruth chapter 2 was contrived by Naomi, that she remembered Boaz was there and she sent Ruth to his field. I don't think that follows the best flow of the text. I feel like the text points to a lot of things that highlights God's providence more than Naomi's thinking through this situation. So verse one in chapter two is letting us know Boaz is here, but Ruth and Naomi don't necessarily have that recollection yet. So the curtain ended at the end of chapter one Narrator comes out and is like there's this person named Boaz, you need to know character highlight. Okay, curtain goes up and we're back with Ruth and Naomi, and then Ruth looks at Naomi and says let me go glean. So the curtain goes up and we are back in scene with Ruth and Naomi and Ruth looks at Naomi and says let me go glean so that we have something to eat.
Jessica LM Jenkins:We do not know Ruth and Naomi's situation at this point. We do not know if they are maybe living in a limelight house Were they able to get home or is somebody else living in the house? Are they living in a tent on the outskirts of town? Are they living with a neighbor who is kind enough to take them in? The text never tells us where they are living and sleeping at night. But they have a location that's functioning as home for them. But they have a location that's functioning as home for them. And Naomi says let me go glean so that I can take care of us.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Naomi is either too grieving, too traumatized, too old to do this. Naomi seems again very passive here. She isn't able to do a lot yet to plan or to make things happen. And so Ruth very similar to chapter one, where Ruth is like I'm going to stay with you, your people will be my people, your God, my God, you will not dissuade me from the path I am on. Once again, ruth is standing up as a strong, vibrant, take charge kind of woman and again she is going to provide for this family no matter what. And so Naomi says to her go go, my daughter, my daughter is a term of endearment, but Naomi's interactions with Ruth continue on the same theme. It's constantly go, go, go or silence. That is pretty much all Naomi is doing at this point, sending or silent. And Ruth is the one trying to figure out how to make life work in the midst of trauma and grief.
Jessica LM Jenkins:It's easy to read past their trauma and grief and be like, oh yeah, bad things happening, but they're going to be okay, right? This is our reminder. Some of you listening have experienced loss in intense ways and trauma and death and suffering. Some of you listening have not. And especially for those who have not, it's easy to assume that, oh, you seem fine, you're trauma, you're suffering, you're loss. It's in the past and this is a good reminder to all of us that we carry those losses with us. They don't stop existing just because good starts happening. Again, ruth losing her first husband the pain of that, the loss of that is not cured when she marries Boaz at the end of the book, that pain is still there. The joy of the new hope and relationship and life coexists with the loss and the pain. And so we see here two separate responses of how do we process pain and traumatic instances. Both of them are very natural.
Jessica LM Jenkins:We have Naomi, who kind of just dissociates. She's pulling away from those who are close to her. She's pushing people away. She's shutting down, she's being silent. She's just stumbling home so that she can. I almost imagine her crawling in bed, pulling the covers over her head and just trying to shut out the world. She is in some ways just collapsing inwards on herself.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Ruth is taking another approach. She's had equally horrible things happen, but she is. I'm going to just do the next thing. I need to do the next thing. I need to take care of us. I'm going to work, I'm going to work hard and I'm going to go. She's the mover, she's going to do it. And so neither of those responses are necessarily wrong and neither of those are right. Times of grief require both at times. But it is also beautiful to see how God provided for Naomi in her collapse with someone like Ruth, who can step up and do what needs to be done. So Ruth goes, she went and she came and she gleaned after the reapers. That just kind of closes up what is going to be happening. And so then a happenstance happened. This many, many commentators and scholars say this is just a glimmer of hope. She chanced and she got lucky and she happened into the part of the field that belonged to Boaz. This is God's providence. He often works behind the scenes to just kind of subtly direct that we barely even notice. So let's talk about part of the field. What does that mean? She happened to happen upon the part of a field that belonged to Boax.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Let's think about farms for a second. My grandpa had a dairy farm when I was he's passed away, but when I was a child he had a dairy farm and it was your typical kind of American idea of a farm. You have a small little rural town and then a couple miles outside of the town is my grandpa's farm and on his land, which I don't know I don't know how many acres he had, I'm guessing at least a square mile, but I have no idea he had a lot and so on his land he had a farmhouse and he had the barn for the cows, the milking parlor barn, silos for grain, all of the things. All of that is on his land. The house, the barn, all of it is on his land that he is farming. The town is several miles away and they would leave the farm to go into the town to go shopping, hospital, school, whatever they needed.
Jessica LM Jenkins:But there's a separation between the two. That's not how the agriculture worked in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament you have the town of Bethlehem and everybody has their houses in the town of Bethlehem. You don't have your house on your field, your house is in the town itself and so everybody lives and stores their grain and does everything in town. The fields are all outside of the town and they are portioned off by clan, by family, by household. And there may not there's not like big signs saying this is Elimelech's field and this is Boaz's field and this is Judah's field, this is Jesse's field. There's no signs. There just may be like a rock or like a little wall or something and so and the fields are like right next to each other. So you don't necessarily know whose field is whose or what's going on, unless you live there and are familiar, the people who lived in Bethlehem. No, it's their fields, it's their family's fields. They lived there for generations.
Jessica LM Jenkins:But Ruth, just showing up, she's here. We'll find out like three whole days. She doesn't have a clue. So a happenstance happens. She comes out of the town. Maybe a lot of people are leaving the town in the morning. She just kind of jumps in line, follows them and she happens. Maybe she just follows a crowd of women and she happens into Boaz's field and the text reminds us again because this is significant who was from the clan of Elimelech? And behold, boaz was coming out of Bethlehem. So we don't know how long later it seems like maybe some hired workers, the harvesters families they went out to start working in the field.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Boaz is a man of standing. It doesn't seem like he actually has to do the physical labor himself. He gets to hire reapers. Either he has a large household of himself. It's likely Boaz was married and or widowed before Ruth, although he may still have a living wife when he marries Ruth. The text doesn't tell us and it's irrelevant to the story, but it is a possibility. He's allowed to have more than one wife, so he may have a large household with his own children working. He is a man of sustenance. He probably hired some workers as well. He could have some of his own children working, some of the land and everything. But we have a lot of people, a lot of things going on. Boaz doesn't seem to have to do the labor himself, he can just kind of take a supervisory role. So it seems like all the actual physical laborers went out to the field early in the morning. He was probably taking care of some stuff in town, doing what large landowning men do in town in the morning, and then he comes out a little bit later and everybody else is already working. It seems like it could be a couple hours after they get started. So he comes out and he greets the Reapers.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Now remember Reapers here, at least for me. I don't know if this would be the same for you. I always read reapers kind of male growing up, because it's easy to put specific genders on some of these terms and think that the reapers are the men. They're out there working because, especially grown up complementarian, it's men who have jobs, not women. Women are supposed to stay home, so of course it's men doing most of the work. It's men who have jobs, not women. Women are supposed to be staying home, so of course it's men doing most of the work, not so Harvest time. Everybody's on board Women, children, old people to their physical ability, children to their physical ability. And so when he's talking to Reapers, this is a multi-gendered group, this is not just males, this is all of the hired workers, family members, everybody in his field who are doing the task of reaping. And so he, boaz, comes out of the town, he comes up to the field and he says to the reapers the Lord be with you, which I absolutely love because there's this principle of first speech.
Jessica LM Jenkins:When you look at the Bible, pay attention to the first thing a character says. It can be significant, not always, not 100% of the time, but it's a question worth asking in your Bible study. Is the first thing this person says important to either the characterization of the character or to the story as a whole? And so here, the first thing Boaz says is a blessing on those laboring for him. He immediately says the Lord be with you. And this may be a very typical harvest time blessing they would say to each other, but it's still significant that the Lord's name is the first word out of Boaz's mouth and the second word, because it's only two words in Hebrew. The first word out of Boaz's mouth is the Lord. The second is you, with you.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Boaz is concerned about the Lord and his people. That is as important of a characterization of the essence of who Boaz is as the original description that said he was a mighty man of valor, a man of sustenance. However you want to translate that Right here you have a man who is concerned. He has the wealth, he has the privilege, he has the tenacity and the brute strength. He has it all. And his concern is about the Lord and about his people, both God's people and Boaz's people. Boaz is concerned about the other. That is his first speech. He arrives and he says to them the Lord be with you.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Some people want to take Boaz as an example of manhood, especially when Ruth is read as a romance story. Women are like, are told to find your Boaz, find your Boaz. I wish more men were told to emulate Boaz. I feel like that messaging doesn't get across as often. But Boaz is a man worth emulating, not because he is a wealthy, honored man, but because he is a man who is concerned about God and about people and his concern for God and his concern for people impact how he treats the foreigner and the weak and the destitute. In the book of Ruth, a godly man is the one who cares about the one who can't help themselves, one who cares about the one who can't help themselves. Boaz greets his people with the name of the Lord and the people respond may the Lord really bless you. There's this back and forth. There's this mutual honor, this mutual respect. He is highly regarded by his people.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So Boaz arrives, he greets everybody, checks in with the foreman Verse 5,. Then Boaz said to the young man, to the servant this likely isn't like a young man, a teenage boy, I'm thinking late 20s, 30s, hired, adult man with a family who's in charge of kind of watching. He probably hired or maybe this is purely conjecture is one of Boaz's sons, we don't know and it's their relationship isn't really relevant, but this is kind of the foreman over the field. And so Boaz says to the naar it's that word I was talking about that is his servant, is it young man? It's either both, all of the above. So he's talking to this hired person male, he's talking to this young man who's appointed over the harvesters, the foreman. And Boaz immediately says who is that young woman, that female servant over there? Who is that Na'arah, that woman?
Jessica LM Jenkins:Boaz doesn't seem to know who Ruth is yet. He doesn't know if she's a hired servant that maybe the foreman hired that he didn't know about. He doesn't know if she's related to another family who's helping out today. He's not sure who she is, but Boaz is aware he's not the man who has a whole bunch of workers in his field. He doesn't know Jack from Jill and he's like whatever you take care of it, man who has a whole bunch of workers in his field and he doesn't know jack from jill, and he's like, whatever you take care of it, he is invested in his workers, he cares about who is there and as he checks in with the foreman he's like who's that, who's to whom? Is this who? Who does she belong to? And that is to us.
Jessica LM Jenkins:That sounds really weird. No one would ever be like look at me and be like who do you belong to? Um, because we are an individualistic society, we think about I am jessica jenkins, I am me. You're like that's what you need to know. My family is irrelevant. You know it's an individual society. They didn't work that way back, then you want to know who do, what clan, what group, what family? Who's who? What family does she belong to? Um, how does this who? Who does she belong to? How does she fit into our city? What family she connected to? Who's her father? I don't recognize her. Did someone get married like she's new? Who's this? And so the, the foreman I'll call him a foreman, um, even though he's the. Are the young man, um, because the text is playing off of young men. Young men. Boaz will bring that up in chapter three.
Jessica LM Jenkins:But the foreman replies to Boaz and said she is the, the young woman from Moab who returned with Pleasant. So that's the family group she belongs to, who she is. But the foreman is emphasizing she's from Moab, who returned with Naomi from Moab. He says it twice. He wants Boaz to get the clue that she is not us, she is them. She is Moabite woman which, if you recall from our first episode in this series, moabite women, started with incest with a lot, um, lots daughters got pregnant by lot, their father and the moabite people came from them. Moabite people, um seduced the israelite men because god would not allow balaam to curse israel. So balaam was like hey, since I can't curse israel, have your daughters go seduce the men. Well, that'll take care of it. So Moab and sexual indiscretion, and just there's a lot of ethnic, racial tension there. And the foreman makes sure Boaz knows that she is a Moabite and then he relates her request to Boaz, which is a very interesting request. So the foreman says she is a young woman from Moab who came back with Naomi and she said this is him reporting what Ruth said. We don't have Ruth's actual term, this is his reporting of it. And then she said in verse 7, let me glean and let me gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters. So as the foreman reports Ruth's request, it's a very presumptuous, aggressive request, request.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Let's talk about gleaning and harvesting for a minute so that we in our mostly non-agricultural mindset can kind of get the feeling of what's going on here. So in the ancient world you grow wheat and it grows on a long stalk like a piece of grass, and then you take a sickle which is a long metal blade that kind of curves around and one group of people would grab a bunch of the wheat or the barley with probably their left hand and then take the sickle with their right and kind of cut it at the base and then they would wrap a stalk around it or they would just lay it kind of down as a pile and they'd move through the field. So you have one group doing that and then you'd have another group of people following along behind them picking up those piles. That the reapers. You have the cutter. I'll call it the cutters. They're all kind of considered reapers but they have different jobs. So you have the cutters and the binders. So the cutters would go through, they'd cut it all and they'd leave it in piles unbound on the field as they're going through, and then the binders would come through behind them and wrap them all up and put them in more neatly or piles, or carry them off the field at that point. And so, ruth, what she's asking here is let me gather among the piles that the cutters have cut. So she kind of is asking, at least according to the foreman, to be right there in the middle of it all. Normally gleaners wait till, like a section of the field's a little more done and they just come along and pick up what is left.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The Mosaic law. You can read the passages in Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 24. Leviticus 19, 9-10. Deuteronomy 24, 19-22. God commands Israel in the Mosaic Law, leviticus 19,.
Jessica LM Jenkins:When you reap the hardest of your land, do not reap the very edges of the field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Inevitably, as you're cutting and binding, stuff's going to fall. Don't pick it up. If it falls while you're working, you have to leave it there. Don't go over your vineyard a second time. Leave it for the poor and foreigner. Deuteronomy 24 says basically the same thing. When you're harvesting your field and you overlook a sheaf, don't go back and get it, leave it for the foreigner. And so typically the gleaners would come after and pick up whatever is left. Ruth is asking let me kind of get in among the sheaves, like I'm not necessarily going to pick from the piles, but there'll be more kind of left on the ground between the piles because the gatherers have the binders, haven't got there to gather yet and I want to be right behind the harvesters. I want to be like right there. So I get the first gleanings and this is kind of an audacious, especially for a Moabite request. She's not an Israelite widow asking this, she's a Moabite coming in and asking this and it's a very audacious request.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Gender let's talk gender and gleaning briefly. We do not know. A lot of commentators assume that it would be men who would be the cutters and women would be the binders. We do not know that for sure. From what I can tell, the Bible doesn't tell us who would do which task. In the ancient world they typically would divide the hardest tasks by gender, just because it's easy. And again, in household command structure the matriarch's over the women, the patriarch's over the men. So it makes sense to kind of have him over the guys doing what they're doing, the matriarch over the women doing what they're doing. It just divides things and makes it easier to manage in large group scenarios. Of course here we also have four men in hired hands and it's a very large picture, not just a small family field. But they typically would divine the cutting and the binding by gender. Now we don't know for sure which gender did which task.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Most commentators assume men did the cutting and women did the binding, which may be accurate. Carol Myers, when she was looking ethnographically at the that region of the world, in one place it was the men who would cut and the women would bind. In another place it was the women who would cut and the men would bind and then in a third place they would take turns. The men would do some of the cutting and the women some of the binding, and then they would flip flop, do some of the cutting and the women some of the binding, and then they would flip-flop. So they definitely segregated by gender to do the work. You didn't have men and women cutting together and men and women binding together. They separated. But which gender did which tasks was fluid across that region of the world, so we don't know.
Jessica LM Jenkins:When I looked, I found an image from Egypt that showed men cutting and women binding. But also, if you look at some of those images from the Egyptian tombs, it looks like a ceremonial cutting and binding because they're wearing the Egyptian equivalent of a tuxedo and ball gown to do that, and you're not going to wear a tuxedo and ball gown while you're doing field work. So it may be ceremonial as much as anything else. But as we're trying to picture this scene in our mind, it may be that the men are cutting and the women are coming behind and binding and Ruth is saying I want to be right there with your women binding, picking up not from your necessarily piles, but right between the piles, because that's where the absolute best is going to be. And so the foreman relays this request to Boaz and then notes that Ruth has came and she has waited since the morning until now.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Typically, I thought growing up that Ruth came and had been gleaning all morning, but it sounds like from the commentators I've been reading, who really dug into the language more deeply than I had a chance to that she was actually standing and waiting until Boaz arrived. She came first thing in the morning and asked the foreman can I do this? And he either didn't want to, didn't have the authority and he refused, or couldn't grant her permission. So she has been standing there waiting until Boaz arrives, which may also be why he noticed her, because she's not working, she's just standing there. He's like who's that? And the guy's like oh, does she have a request for you? Listen to what she asked. She's a Moabite and she wants to glean. Ok, yeah, but she doesn't want to just glean, she wants to like, get in there right next to the harvesters to get the absolute best.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And what do we think about this situation? So Boaz takes over and he goes and talks to Ruth. This is not necessarily unusual. I mean it might be a little bit. He didn't send the foreman back to give her an answer, he went and did it himself, which for a high-ranking man like that to talk to somebody may be. But I don't want us to consider that a man talking to a woman is necessarily unusual, especially in a small-town situation. It may be unusual for a high-ranking person to go out of their way to talk to a very low ranking person, but gender wise, this is not an Islamic world where women have to be veiled and hidden away and can't talk to men outside their family. And in the Old Testament women could talk to men, not a problem. It may be a man of high honor may not really associate with the low honor, shamed classes than really poor, though they were supposed to take care of them. Um, but across gender lines this isn't necessarily weird, horribly weird, um.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And then so boaz goes and talks to ruth and he says have you not heard my daughter? This is just kind of of a Hebrew phrase to be like I'm going to say something important. And then my daughter is the same phrase Naomi used. It's likely that Boaz is about the same age as Naomi. He's talking to Ruth using the same manners of speech that Naomi does, indicating there's a pretty big age gap there, which again gets us into that pull on old and young, old and young throughout the Book of Ruth.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And so Bolas says, having not heard my daughter there's an affection here and a strong affirmation of who she is. He says have you not heard? You may not go glean in another field, because she probably like oh no, the foreman said my request, now the big boss is coming over here. Am I going to get kicked out? Like I imagine Ruth, she's standing there.
Jessica LM Jenkins:She's been waiting for a couple hours, to the point where the foreman's like she's practically made this field her home, like she won't leave. I've been ignoring her, hoping she would go, and she hasn't because he may not have the ability to grant her request. So by ignoring her, maybe he's hoping she'll take her Moabiteness away from all of his young men and leave. But she didn't. And so the foreman's like she's still here, she's made this field her home, waiting, and so she's been there waiting for hours in the sun in June in Israel, which is 90s, and so Boaz comes up to her. She sees him coming across the field. I don't know if her heart just sinks like, oh no, the foreman kind of gave me the cold shoulder. He's been hoping I would leave by ignoring me. I didn't. Is the big boss going to come now lay down the law and tell me to scram? But Boaz doesn't. He comes and he says have you not heard my daughter?
Jessica LM Jenkins:You may not go glean in another field. You can't go glean. Oh no, I can't go glean in another field. What are you going to say? You also cannot leave this field. Okay, what are you going to say? You also cannot leave this field. Okay, stay with my young women, with my female hired hands, my female servants. Stay, cling to them, stay here. You keep your eyes in this field where they're harvesting and go after them where they're harvesting and go after them.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Have I not commanded my young people, my hired hands, my servants, those working for me? Have I not commanded them not to touch you? And touch, I mean you could imagine a gleaner getting kind of too close with the hired workers and the workers are like get away, stop, you're not allowed to do that and pushing back. You know you could have tussles going in the field because the gleaners are getting too close and the hired workers are trying to protect the harvest because their wages come from that harvest. Most likely it may be that they got paid in grain, not in money, and so they're trying to protect their wages. They're trying to protect the harvest. The gleaners are starving, they just want food and I imagine tussles could come out.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And Boaz is like I've told them not to touch you. You are, no one can touch you, and I've commanded them not to touch you. Men, women, they're not allowed to rebuke you touch you. You can go right alongside with my young women. We'll imagine, for sake of arguments, that they're binding. You can hang like right behind the women who are binding, go after them, right after them, you get like first picks of all the gleaning. You're right there, next to my hired hands. You are practically in the hired hand circle. I am placing you strategically there. I've commanded none of my people to touch you or push you away or send you away, and when you thirst, go to the vessels and drink from that which the young people will draw. So the servants we don't know if it was the men or the women, but they would draw water and she's allowed to co-drink from that. She's probably been standing there. Maybe she brought a little water from Bethlehem and drew it before she came. It's probably gone. She's just been standing in the sun all day, maybe some shade, but she's allowed to drink from what the hired hands are allowed to drink.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The rest of the gleaners may not be, but she's given this special privilege. And so Ruth falls on the ground, she bows herself to the ground in a way to honor Boaz and she says to him why have I found grace in your eyes? Because I'm a foreigner. She brings up what the foreman had mentioned, that she's a foreigner, she's nobody, she's shade, she's nothing. And he is giving her this exceptional grace. He's not only granting her request, he's going above and beyond her request. She recognizes that. She recognizes that what she said to Naomi at the beginning of the chapter may I find favor in the eyes of someone she has found? And she says why? Why have I found favor in your eyes? I know who I am? And he replies and he said I have been told. We don't know who told him. Evidently, as soon as the foreman said oh, that's the Moabitess. Oh, that's the Moabitess.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Boaz has heard enough of the whisperings of town. He probably has a lengthy household. There's women in a large household. There's women in his household who know the gossip. He's heard it so he knows. Oh, that's naomi's moabitis, ah, ah, okay. And he tells her what he's been told about her. I've been told everything you did, how you've taken care of your mother and how you've left your people to take to honor your mother-in-law, to fulfill your family obligations to your mother-in-law. And you've only been here three days and now you're out working.
Jessica LM Jenkins:He said may the Lord and this is a prayer, it's a blessing Boaz has over Ruth. He says may the Lord repay your deed, may your wages be complete from the Lord, the God of Israel, for whom you came for refuge under his wings. The wings picture is that a mother hen bringing all of her babies under her wings to save from rain or a dust storm or just to protect them, and Ruth is nestling under the wings of the Lord. Ruth is nestling under the wings of the Lord. Boaz not only honors her request, not only expands, but he prays God's blessing upon Ruth and her endeavors. He recognizes what she has done, what she has given up and who she is. He is willing to invest in an immigrant, nobody with a sexually tainted cultural past. He can see the image of God in her. He can see how she has been a person of high character, willing to give up everything for the love of another.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Boaz is presented as a man who cares about God and his people. And Boaz looks at Ruth and says you are a person who cares about God and his people. He recognizes that kindred and he prays a blessing over her. He does not send her away. He does not say go back to your country. He does not say I'm sorry, moabites are not allowed here. I'm sorry, did you come here legally? I'm sorry, there are better ways to do here. I'm sorry, did you come here legally? I'm sorry, there are better ways to do this than to just show up in my field. No, he says welcome. Huh, the Lord brought you here. I recognize that. I recognize that you were responding to God.
Jessica LM Jenkins:God providentially moving people through a myriad of painful, tough, ridiculous, horrible, traumatic circumstances. God providentially moves people from country to country and a man of God recognizes God's work moving people from place to place to place and he recognizes his responsibility to step in and care for those people, not send them away. We also don't know how many of those hired hands working in Boaz's field. It's easy to think those hired hands. He has a lot of wealth. He doesn't want to do the work, he'll just hire people. Maybe, or maybe this is a land recovering from famine that Elimelech fled from and Boaz is saying I will sacrificially hire people who did not weather the famine as well as I did so that they can make ends meet. How many of these hired workers that Boaz has have nothing because of the fame. What they have is what Boaz is offering them, which would be another reason why they might give Ruth a hard time because she's competition.
Jessica LM Jenkins:But Boaz is not going to let that happen. She falls on her face and says let me find grace, for you comforted me. You spoke concerning the heart of your maidservant. She uses a different term here. This isn't the NAR term, that's young person or servant. This is a technical term usually used for, like the house servant of the matriarch in the household, hagar was considered this kind of servant. So Ruth is debasing herself. She's saying I'm, you spoke concerning my heart. She's like.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Ruth acknowledges that Boaz is offering her comfort, and here comfort has three important parts, as we're dealing with people who have experienced trauma, as we're dealing with people who are suffering, as we're dealing with people who have experienced trauma, as we're dealing with people who are suffering, as we're dealing with people in hard situations. There can be more, but there's at least three parts to offering comfort One, seeing. She said you spoke concerning my heart, which means he saw her heart. Boaz saw, he recognized who she is. She's an image bearer of God, what she has done. And then he offers practical help. He goes beyond her requests. What would it be like if, in our lives and in our churches, we looked at immigrants, we looked at those with loss, with trauma, and first we took a moment to see their hearts. Who are they? Why are they here? What have they suffered? We look to see their situation and their heart. We need to see them for who they are, not an assumption, not a caricaturization, but to really see the image bearers before us. Not to assume but to see them, to recognize the depth of what they're going through and then to offer tangible aid, tangible aim.
Jessica LM Jenkins:I assume after this interaction she goes back to work and he keeps doing his manager stuff, but the next verse there's likely a little break between the two, but the next verse it seems to be lunchtime Boaz said to her come here, they're eating lunch. And he says eat from the bread. Hands her bread, dip your fragment in the vinegar, some sort of sauce, to make the bread taste good. And so she sits next to the reapers. He invites her to sit with him and his household. And the hired hands he brings her into the community household and the hired hands he brings her into the community as a man of honor and a man of standing. This statement is huge. This isn't just providing for a meal. This is Boaz telling everybody. He is making a public statement to the entire city of Bethlehem because all of those reapers are going to go home. And do you know what Boaz did today? Do you know he, as an elder in the city, as an honored, high-ranking man, is making a public statement to the entire city of how the entire city is now supposed to treat Ruth. Boaz, single-handedly, is changing her status in the city. Okay, he invites her to sit and then he hands her food. Eating in these cultures together is sacred, it forms bonds. And he invites her in.
Jessica LM Jenkins:This is such a beautiful reflection of God's heart and it immediately makes me think of Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman. You can listen to that episode Jesus and the woman with the issue of blood. So many miracles Jesus did where he didn't just heal the woman or her daughter. In his healing he orchestrated it in such a way to not only deal with the physical ailment but to fix the community relationships so that this woman who was ostracized and on the edge of her community, is now a hero to her community, a woman who was shamed and nothing is now elevated and honored by her community because of Jesus' actions, because of the way he healed the woman with the issue of blood. He didn't have to call her front and center and be like who touched me and have her tell her story and share. He knew he's God. He did it so that everybody else would see, recognize that she is healed, recognize how she got healed, give her honor for her faith, restore her to her community and grant her some celebrity status. That is how Jesus treats weak, wounded, traumatized women. That is how Boaz treats Ruth. That is how we should work to treat those around us who are hurting, because we work as the people of God to reflect God's heart for the weak, the vulnerable, the traumatized, the immigrant, the foreigner.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So they're at this meal. She's sitting, probably wondering why am I sitting with all? I'm sitting with Boaz's family. I'm sitting with the hired reapers oh my goodness, I can't believe. And he hands her food and it seems like he's been handing her enough food. She can't even eat it. Who knows when she had her last full meal. But Ruth is satisfied, she is full and she has leftovers. She's like I need it to go back. So she wraps up that food in some way, puts it with her stuff and goes back to gleaning because she's a hard worker and she's going to get back to it. She didn't get to do it this morning. She had to stand and wait and she's eating. She's going back.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Seems like she gets up and leaves and Boaz turns to everybody still eating and he says hey, even if she goes into the standing grain that you haven't cut down yet and starts just grabbing handfuls, leave her alone, do not shame her Also. So that's for the cutters Cutters. Not shame her also. So that's for the cutters cutters. If she's in your, in your way, pulling grain that you haven't cut yet, leave her alone. No shaming her. Uh, binders, those, those wrapping everything up, take handfuls of those sheaves, drop it on the ground, toss it back to her like drop, okay, both the cutters, men, women, both of you, all of y, all of y'all, all y'all. No shaming her, make sure she is stopped to pick up. Do it subtly, but make sure Do not rebuke her. And so, in this beautiful situation that somebody purposely created for her as he followed the heart of God towards needy people, she gleans until evening and then she beats out.
Jessica LM Jenkins:This does not negate Ruth's hard work. She is working hard because she is able-bodied. Naomi may not be. Naomi is not working. Keep that in mind. It's easy, especially in our American exceptionalism, individualism, to be like. Well, this is an example of not welfare but workfare. She had to work, yes, she did, but Naomi couldn't. Somebody had to work on her behalf, provide for her, and Naomi is just as worthy of receiving benefit as Ruth, who had the physical ability and tenacity to get out there and do the labor.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And in the Old Testament, tithes and offerings were to be given to the tabernacle and temple for the provision of the widows, not so that they just went out to earn, but so that they could just get because they had need, not because they weren't. So, naomi Ruth, she works hard, she beats out everything she gleans and there was one, aoife of barley. Looking this up, it's anywhere from 30 to 50 pounds, probably closer to 30, 35, 40. And this could be two to three weeks worth of food. In Mari, which is a city in Syria. They have some records and a day laborer in Mari, a male day laborer in Mari, would get one to two pounds of grain a day. A female day laborer in Mari would get half a pound to a pound of grain a day as their daily rations. So let's say Naomi and Ruth need to eat half a pound to a pound of food a day. Ruth brings home, we'll say, 30 pounds. So if they are eating one and a half pounds between the two of them a day, this would last them about two weeks. But she's gotten two weeks worth of food in one day and the harvest is going to keep going on for a bit of time. So it's hopeful that they might get enough to last them a while.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So she binds up all her grain in a cloak or something, ties it up in some sort of bundle and she carries it back home. She enters the city and she shows her mother-in-law that which she gleaned and she brought it out Like I just imagine her, maybe on her head, maybe on her shoulder or her hip, carrying it and she just kind of oh I'm back, puts it down. But she's also so excited in front of Naomi and she also brings out the leftovers from her lunch. Like here have a. Like I have all the raw grain that hasn't been cooked, but I also have like legit leftover food from my lunch, so eat that. She brings that home for Naomi to eat and she gives to her that which she had leftover from her plenty. And her mother-in-law said to her and you just feel the shock and surprise here when did you lean today and where did you do this? Blessed is he who regards you. Naomi seems to have no clue. Naomi, this is when Naomi seems to start waking up.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The glimmer of God's activity through Ruth, through Boaz in Naomi's life. She seems to perk up a little bit. I imagine her pulling a blanket off her head and looking at Ruth. Wait, what, what do you have? I expected like a gleaning portion, maybe a basket full. You know enough to get us through the next couple days. You brought home two weeks, three weeks worth of food, if we're careful. Where did you do this? There is hope For the first time.
Jessica LM Jenkins:In the book of Ruth we see Naomi almost able to hope that God might be doing something on her behalf, not just against her, not just allowing the world to crumble, but that God might care. I think there's a lot of us who we believe God is powerful. We believe God can do anything, but does he want to, is the question in our minds. God can make miracles happen, but does he care to do it for me? Will she help me? Because I've suffered enough that I'm not sure my life fell apart. I'm not sure he's going to actually do anything about that. Sure, over there for Miss Sarah Smith, he's going to do great things. For some reason she got divine grace and her life's just truckeding along awesome. But I'm not sure he's going to actually give any of that to me Because what I've experienced says he's sending affliction and evil my way.
Jessica LM Jenkins:But sometimes it's helpful to see that glimmer of hope, to see God's people step up and do what they're supposed to do, to see God cares. God is moving and I want to take this moment for those of us who are in that boat of is God going to do anything for me? It is okay to pray like the psalmist does and say me. It is okay to pray like the psalmist does and say show me your grace in the land of the living, for what good does it do me, o God, if I suffer to the point of death and go to the grave? That does not honor you. I need you to act. It is okay to pray like that the psalmist does. It is okay to act like Naomi and Job and be like Lord. You have allowed these horrible circumstances Death, abandonment, abuse are horrible circumstances. They are not what God designed in his beautiful creation. They are not what God desires for his people. It is okay to look at God and say this is not your design for creation. You have promised to care for your people in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Are you going to show up? It is okay to be that bold?
Jessica LM Jenkins:I think sometimes in our Christian culture we're taught you know, rejoice always, don't be sad. All things work together for good and we're not given permission to look God in the face and hold him to his word. But if we look at the prayers, especially in the Old Testament, they are full of that, they are full of God. You said this I expect you to follow through. Naomi has hope because she's seeing God at work through Ruth's faith, not through Naomi's faith. I want you to hear that as well.
Jessica LM Jenkins:I am not preaching a prosperity gospel where, as if you obey and you pray the right things, god will act. Preaching a prosperity gospel, whereas if you obey and you pray the right things, god will act. We have no guarantee. We don't know God's plan. I am giving you permission to pray bold prayers and hold God to his word and say you said that I was more valuable than the sparrows, that not a sparrow falls without you noticing. Do you see me? You said you clothed the lilies of the field, that you feed the birds of the air. Are you going to feed me? Are you going to clothe me? You said if I see first your kingdom and your righteousness, all this will be added to you. Are you going to add it on this side of death? Because you are the God who keeps your word. The entire bible is predicated on you keeping your word. So I am not my dear audience telling you that if you pray the right thing, god will answer in the way you hope. I am telling you. You have permission, excuse me. You have permission to pray bold prayers to the God who sees and who cares.
Jessica LM Jenkins:But I also want you to note that sometimes, when we are broken and we are weary and we are weak, we need somebody who has stronger faith in that moment to step up and do the thing for us that we can't do. Ruth stepped up and did it. Naomi didn't have it in her. Did God care about Naomi? Less because she didn't have it in her to have hope, because she was collapsed under the weight of trauma and grief? No, god didn't care about her less. God's not mad at Naomi. God feeds Naomi through Ruth's faith and Boaz's obedience. Let that sink in.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Ruth shows up with three weeks worth of food after one day's worth of effort and Naomi recognizes that this was God. She didn't have faith. I don't think she planned this. I don't think she was doing anything but collapsing in trauma. But God surprised her with his grace through somebody else.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And then Naomi, because she is a woman of faith, because she's a theologian, can recognize, once she wakes up, once the sparks in her brain, that maybe God is showing up for me, she can start to see the bigger picture. Naomi says blessed be he of the Lord can start to see the bigger picture. Naomi says blessed be he of the Lord, the Lord who did not forsake his goodness to the living and the dead. And then Naomi recognizes, because this man is a close relative Ah, do you see what God is doing? She can recognize it. She's not a woman of shallow means of faith, of shallow. Naomi can recognize what God is doing. She is not a woman of shallow means of faith of shallow. Naomi can recognize what God is doing. She is not a woman of shallow faith. She is not a woman, woman of shoddy theology. She is the theologian of the book of Ruth. Do not miss that. Naomi is the one speaking theology and pointing out the character of God and pointing out God's action. All throughout the book. Ruth is the baby Christian with faith who's just trying to do the next thing. Boaz is the one systemically operating according to God's heart. Naomi is the theologian me as the theologian. She recognizes God is not forsaking the living or the dead, because Boaz is a close relative and he is a kinsman, redeemer, a goel.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Now we think of redeemer and a lot of different things come to mind, but let's talk about Goel briefly in the context of the Old Testament, a Goel was a term in an Israelite family or clan. It was a specific position a man would have in his clan or family, related to the rest of the clan, family, tribe, and he had several things a Goel and there could be more than one. He had several things he was responsible for. A goel is responsible for the repurchase of property that was owned by clan members and then sold out of economic necessity which might be why Boaz is so wealthy, because he has purchased all of the fields of the people who were destitute during the famine. The Mosaic law said you would, you can, purchase these fields to help these people, but you have to give it back on the year of Jubilee. So the Goel, or if those families, had to sell those fields to someone outside the clan, it's the Goel's responsibility to buy them back, to make sure these properties stay in the clan and in the family, to protect family clan assets which enables survival for the future, because land equals survival for the Old Testament Israelite. So the Goel is responsible to help make sure his family and clan has land which equals survival.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Secondly, he's also responsible to financially redeem relatives whose poverty had forced them to sell themselves or their children into slavery. He's the one who says I'm going to go buy them back out of debt, servitude, debt, slavery. I'm going to come buy them back. That's the Gawail's job. The Gawail also had the duty to physically avenge the killing of a relative. They didn't have kings or laws necessarily. Now if somebody commits murder, you know you have a trial, you have detectives, all the things you have to go through it, and then there may or may not be, you know, life imprisonment, death penalty, whatever In the Old Testament. It's the goel's job to go track down the murderer and dispatch the murderer. That's the goel's job. He's also the one who's going to receive money that's paid in restitution. So if somebody did a crime, if Joe did a crime against Fred, fred dies, joe is found liable by the elders and has to pay restitution money to Fred's family. The goel is the one who makes sure that money. He takes that money and then makes sure it gets to who it needs to get to, and he also is responsible to show up and help other clan and family members in lawsuits. So a goel has a lot of responsibilities for his family and Naomi goes aha, he's a goel, I see. I see what God's doing here.
Jessica LM Jenkins:She's a woman of profound insight. She can recognize, once she is able to wake up a little bit from her grief and her trauma. Does that mean she's over her grief and trauma now? No, that pain, that wound is still there.
Jessica LM Jenkins:But you get to a point in grief where there's a point of trauma and grief where you're just so bowed down you can't think, you can't function. Your head is fuzzy. You can open your eyes but you feel like you can't really focus, your brain can't get thoughts Like it, just nothing works. You feel like you're in a cloud, slogging through mud with a blindfold on. And you can be the smartest, brightest, most intellectual person in the world, with the best theology and the greatest of faith, but when you're there it doesn't matter. You can't see squat, you can't do anything and you're just like I can't function. But when that starts to lift none of the rest of who you are ceased to be, but the weight of grief can dull our senses, both our ability to reason theologically and our ability to see what God is doing.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And we see here as God uses Ruth in Naomi's life. She can start to wake up and see what God is doing and she can call out ah, boaz is a go-whale, he has family responsibilities, he's a kinsman, okay, okay. So Naomi recognizes who Boaz is and Ruth continues because she's just excited she had a great day. Ruth said yes, and Boaz? Ruth may not even fully know what a Goel is because Naomi may not have told her. They were living in Moab, so Naomi's making these connections. Ruth may not have caught up yet.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Then Ruth replies Naomi says he's a close relative, he's a kinsman redeemer, a Goel. Naomi says he's a close relative, he's a kinsman redeemer, a go-whale. And then Ruth says he said I should also stay with his young people, his hired servants, until they finish the harvest. I worked's what I imagined Ruth doing. She's just like stay like. I have security of work for this season, I am contract employed, I can provide. Thank you, lord. And Naomi says that's good, that's good. Go with his young women, stay with them, like Boaz told you to, so that they and this is very ambiguous we don't know who they is, but so that they might not meet you in another field Potential shaming, rebuke, maybe even a sexual situation. You're going to be safe, you're going to be taken care of. Do as Boaz said stay in that field, and so she, being Ruth, clung to the young women, the female hired hands, who would be a variety of ages of Boaz, and she leaned there until the finishing of the harvest of barley and the harvest of wheat and she remained with her mother-in-law.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So chapter two ends. Hope is sparkling, naomi is waking back up. For the original readers it may have sounded like a bit of a betrothal scene, but there's no betrothal yet. It ends with the important note she remains with her mother-in-law and the harvest is finished. We don't know that she has any more conversations with Boaz. The rest of the harvest it was the beginning of the barley when they arrived in Bethlehem, so barley harvest just began. Three days later Ruth is in the field. Harvest could last, I don't know, several weeks to a month perchance, and then you have several weeks or a month and then the wheat harvest begins. So we have a two, two and a month perchance, and then you have several weeks or a month and then the wheat harvest begins. So we have a two, two and a half, three month period here where Ruth is working, but we don't know that she has any more contact with Boaz. That situation though she has, his blessing. Though she has the entire situation set up to the most ideal possible, she remains with her mother-in-law.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The final problem of the book is not salt. Temporarily they have food Fantastic but permanently they are still in limbo. What is going to happen? How is God going to finish helping answer Naomi's prayer from chapter one where she said may you find rest in the household of a husband because they are still widows? Yes, they have food for now, but they are still widows. They still cannot work their land. They still cannot long-term survive. They have good in a temporary situation, but this is not a long-term situation. They need a long-term answer. They don't have it yet, but they have hope.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Thank you so much for listening to Ruth chapter two and thinking it through with me. I can't wait to hear your thoughts. I especially want to hear your thoughts regarding trauma and difficulty and how Ruth and Naomi approach those things and how that impacts your life and the way you process the difficult things in your life. Do you feel like you've been Ruth? Do you feel like you've been Ruth? Do you feel like you've acted more like Naomi? Which of those portrayals of handling grief resonates with you more? Let's talk about it. Find me on social media or send me an email. I can't wait to hear from you.
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