LABOR SURPRISE
Ruth 1-4
The Message Ruth 2:2: “One day Ruth, the Moabite foreigner, said to Naomi, ‘I’m going to work; I’m going out to glean among the sheaves, following after some harvester who will treat me kindly.’”
Famine, death, and despair are desperate circumstances. Famine (FA-min means food shortage) was the reason Naomi decided to trek from Moab back to her hometown of Bethlehem, “House of food.” Naomi and her husband lived in Moab, where their two sons were born. Both the men married Moabite women. After ten years, Naomi and her two daughters-in-law buried all three men.
Three desperate widows headed for Bethlehem, where Naomi had family. On the road, Naomi encouraged her two daughters-in-law to return to their native land. One split. The other one, Ruth, decided to remain with Naomi (Ruth 1:14). While Ruth was not Jewish, she was introduced to God—the one Naomi worshipped (1:16). They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest time.
The opening Scripture picks up the story here. Barley was the first of seasonal crop to ripen for harvesting, in April or May of each year. As a despised foreigner in a strange land, Ruth wanted to help. Harvesting barley had 8 steps, mostly done by men: 1) Cutting the ripened standing grain with a hand sickle. 2) Binding the grain into sheaves (SHE-ves are clusters of stalks)—usually done by women. 3) Gleaning collects the stalks of straw together, where many are often missed. This is where Ruth began her labor.
4) Transporting the sheaves to the threshing floor was done by donkey. 5) Threshing loosens the grain out from the straw stalks by winnowing. 6) Winnowing means to toss the grain into the air with huge forks. The afternoon wind blew the straw and chaff away, leaving the grain at the winnower’s feet. 7) Sifting the grain removed foreign matter. 8) The grain was bagged for transportation.
Now, a man named Boaz (from Naomi’s husband’s family), owned land. It was Boaz’s field where Ruth began gleaming behind the harvesters. Boaz asked his foreman about this woman, who was seen to work very hard. Boaz met Ruth, and encouraged her to continue gleaming behind his harvesters. He instructed his workers to let her keep all the grain she found.
Boaz learned about Naomi, and all that Ruth was doing for her (2:11). Impressed, Boaz married Ruth (4:10-13). Boaz and Ruth had a son, and named him Obed (Ruth 4:17), Ruth’s labor surprise.
Take Home Nugget
The baby Obed became an unimaginable blessing to us. This baby directly linked to the birth of the Messiah!
In all the setbacks of your life as a believer, God is plotting for your joy.” John Piper
HAPPY LABOR DAY!
J.D. Griffith
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