Ruth 2: 14-20….A good days work!

And at mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her roasted grain. And she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over. When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. And also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.”
So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. And she took it up and went into the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied. And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.”

Comment: In this one day a lot happens! I guess it is good to have the owner on side.

• Boaz asks the foreigner, supposedly getting the left over droppings of the harvest, to eat with his team of workers and ‘spoils’ her with unexpected delights of food and drink.
• His workers are told to let her stray into the area of initial pickings and surreptitiously to give her some extra good stuff, I think this would have generally been frowned upon.
• An ephah is over 20 litres, so that is a good days pickings!
• Overawed, Mother-in-law asks where she had got this wonderful harvest of food.
• When Boaz’ name is mentioned Naomi realizes afresh that she knows him. He is a relative and one who is entitled to buy back the land that her husband had left (maybe sold) when they went to Moab. This he could do if he desired by Jewish law.
• Naomi, who on arrival back in Bethlehem was accusing God for His harshness upon her, now gives Him thanks for His goodness.
• Not in the passage but I think Naomi is beginning to hear wedding bells!

Prayer: Thank you, Father, for my daily bread!