Working In the Fields With Boaz August 19, 2015
Love’s Resolve
Ruth 2 Page 1
Elimelech and his family go to Moab
God works to bring the family home
Ruth converts
Naomi returns home with her daughter-in-law Ruth
No prospects, destitute
The only thing Naomi and Ruth have is ______
Proverbs 3:5–8
Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body And refreshment to your bones.
According to Jewish tradition:
The day that Ruth the Moabite emigrated from the Land to a foreign land, the wife of Boaz died.
Jacob Neusner, The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary, vol. 15 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2011), 271.
Naomi has complained about her lot in life but she has also shown an acceptance of it as judgment from the Lord for her family ______
We ended Chapter One with the only ray of hope shining being the barley harvest was going on
As we enter Chapter Two, we get another ray of hope
Ruth 2:1
Now Naomi had a kinsman of her husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.
This is the first time we meet Boaz
Boaz = In Him (the Lord) is ______.
Stelman Smith and Judson Cornwall, The Exhaustive Dictionary of Bible Names (North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos, 1998), 43.
In the Hebrew, we are told he is a mod of Naomi.
The word carries the meaning of “familiarity,” “an acquaintance,” or “friend.”
Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Ariel’s Bible Commentary: The Books of Judges and Ruth, 1st ed. (San Antonio, TX: Ariel Ministries, 2006), 305.
The word ______carry the connotation of a kinsman redeemer
The comment indicates that Naomi has more resources than meet the eye and more than she has acknowledged. But, in addition, this comment also highlights the two women’s isolation: neither the townspeople nor the wealthy relative have come forth to offer help to bitter Naomi. Change in the women’s predicament only occurs when Ruth ventures forth alone.
Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Tikva Frymer-Kensky, The JPS Bible Commentary: Ruth, First edition, JPS Tanakh Commentary (Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society, 2011), 27.
Page 2
We see here, just peripherally, a picture of some in the church who will see the straying believer return, but they are not really welcoming of the individual back.
This group likes to remind folks over and over of ______they were and how could God truly forgive them
Paul had to deal with folks like this in Corinth
The church in Corinth had a sin problem
The Problem
1 Corinthians 5:1
It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife.
The Solution
1 Corinthians 5:4–7
In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
They were not to ______in their midst but kick the person out and let the Lord deal with that person to bring them to repentance
Paul made it clear
1 Corinthians 5:13
But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.
So they did that
This person was forced to become a prodigal, he was not one by choice, but made one due to his ______
He repented
What is our natural human inclination when someone who has done wrong repents?
We tend to remember and we are ______
Jesus forgives, so should we
We will see Boaz as a picture of Christ
What did Paul have to do?
2 Corinthians 2:2–8
For if I cause you sorrow, who then makes me glad but the one whom I made sorrowful? This is the very thing I wrote you, so that when I came, I would not have sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice; having confidence in you all that my joy would be the joy of you all. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you. But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree—in order not to say too much—to all of you. Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.
The people of Bethlehem were glad to see Naomi back, but did anyone offer to help?
We learn that Boaz is related to Elimelech, probably distantly, we really are not told
Jewish tradition holds Boaz is Elimelech’s nephew and Naomi’s cousin
Page 3
“Elimelech and Salmon and ‘such a one’ (Ruth 4:1) and the father of Naomi were all sons of Nahshon b. Amminadab (Ex. 6:23, Num. 10:14).”
Jacob Neusner, The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary, vol. 15 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2011), 271.
The Bible doesn’t say much more though than they are related.
We also learn he was “a man of great wealth.”
In the Hebrew we learn even more
He is a gibbor hayil
גִּבּוֹר
manly, vigorous, hero, champion
Ludwig Koehler, Walter Baumgartner, et al., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden; New York: E.J. Brill, 1999), 172.
חַיִל
wealth, property, wealthy landowner who is competent, apt for military service and brave of good family, brave, brave man, landowner, under obligation of military service employment of a certain amount of men, upper class
Ludwig Koehler, Walter Baumgartner, et al., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden; New York: E.J. Brill, 1999), 311.
We will also find, as we go forward in the story, that Boaz is a type of ______
Here we see even the description given of Boaz is also easily one that could fit ______
Ruth 2:2–3
And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose sight I may find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” So she departed and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.
Ruth is a practical woman
The harvest is going on
No one has dropped off any casseroles to help out so we have to do something to feed ourselves
She takes it upon herself to ______.
Ruth also wanted to find favor in the eyes of some local farmer
She is already looking to solve the second problem too, someone to ______
She wants to show any prospective groom that she is a hard worker who is all about preserving her family
Leviticus 19:9–10
“Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the LORD your God.”
Naomi knew this, so did Ruth
She was an alien and was also a widow
She qualified under the law
She is also being the daughter-in-law and she asks for permission
Naomi’s response is only ______in Hebrew
Page 4
This language need not convey biological kinship but often indicates differences in age or status. Some modern scholars have called attention to certain silences in Naomi’s responses to Ruth. They see these as examples of Naomi’s ambivalence about Ruth and her attempt to disassociate from Ruth.
Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Tikva Frymer-Kensky, The JPS Bible Commentary: Ruth, First edition, JPS Tanakh Commentary (Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society, 2011), 29.
In other words, Naomi is still on her pity pot and is not too worried about what might happen to Ruth once she goes out into the fields
That all changes later, but right now, Naomi ______.
The extreme poverty that forced Ruth to pick the fields like any pauper was no coincidence, but it was a foreshadowing of that poor man, riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9) that would descend from her—[he would be] the Messiah.
Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Ariel’s Bible Commentary: The Books of Judges and Ruth, 1st ed. (San Antonio, TX: Ariel Ministries, 2006), 307.
Zechariah 9:9
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Ruth needs someone to show her ______.
She is a nobody on the absolute bottom rung of society
So Ruth goes out and just happens to pick the field belonging to Boaz
What a coincidence
The Hebrew is rather unique here: “She chance, chanced upon the field of Boaz.” The expression is found again only in Ecclesiastes 2:14–15. From a human perspective, the phrase means it was a stroke of simple good luck: she “chance, chanced” upon the field. The expression emphasizes that she did not understand the full significance of what she was doing. She did not know the people; she did not know the owner of the field; she came to a field purely by chance, working a particular section of the field belonging to Boaz. But that is the human perspective. From a divine perspective, this was all divine providence.
Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Ariel’s Bible Commentary: The Books of Judges and Ruth, 1st ed. (San Antonio, TX: Ariel Ministries, 2006), 307.
Ruth is a picture of the ______
She is hungry, desperate, lost, with no help
She just “happens” to show up in our field one day
John 4:34–38
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”
We have people who show up in “our field” every day
They need to be introduced to ______
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Ruth 2:4–7
Boaz, this ______, this might man of valor, this land owner, the one who has everything to include hired hands, has actually come down into the fields to be with the ______
John 1:1–5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
John 1:10–14
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Just as Boaz came down to be with the reapers, our King, the Messiah, came from Heaven in order to redeem us and ______
He wants us to be with Him so much, that He provided Himself in our place on the Cross ______
Luke 10:2
And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
Deuteronomy 31:6
Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.
Matthew 28:19–20
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Boaz shows up as the ______, just as our Lord of the Harvest is always with us
Boaz notices this Gentile woman among those who are gleaning
Who is it that introduces the Gentile to this Jewish man?
An ______introduces the Gentile Ruth to the Jewish Boaz
This is a picture of the Holy Spirit who is busy about introducing the Gentiles who make up the Bride of Christ, the Church, to the Lord of the Harvest, the Messiah