Ruth 2:8-16

00:00:00:10 – 00:00:19:39
Clint Loveall
Hey friends. Thanks for joining us. As we continue through the book of Ruth, we find our way into the second chapter today, picking up the story at verse eight. I’m gonna try and get through, oh, about eight verses or so. I’ll try to read them quickly, but then we’ll come back and we’ll have some discussion. So this is where we are in the story.

00:00:19:44 – 00:00:37:50
Clint Loveall
Then Boaz said to Ruth, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. Keep your eyes on the field that is being reaped and followed behind them. I’ve ordered the young men not to bother you. If you get thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.

00:00:37:55 – 00:01:00:16
Clint Loveall
Then she fell prostrate with her face to the ground, and said to him, why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take notice of me when I’m a foreigner? But Boaz answered her, all that you have done for your mother in law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, and how you left your father and mother in your native land, and came to a people that you did not know before.

00:01:00:21 – 00:01:25:39
Clint Loveall
May the Lord reward you for your deeds. May you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge. Then she said, May I continue to find favor in your sight, my Lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, even though I’m not one of your own servants at meal time, Boaz said, come here, eat some of this bread and dip your morsel in our wine.

00:01:25:44 – 00:01:52:16
Clint Loveall
So he sat beside the reapers and helped and heaped up for her some parched grain. She ate until she was satisfied, and had some left. When she got up to glean, Boaz instructed, these young men let her glean even among the standing sheaves, and do not reproach her. You must also pull out some handfuls for her from the bundles, and leave them for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.

00:01:52:21 – 00:02:23:22
Clint Loveall
So as we move into the story, we have this newly developing relationship. Boaz has taken notice of Ruth. We saw that yesterday, and now is the first time that they speak to one another. And Boaz approaches. Ruth, listen, my daughter, daughter here is an interpretive, it’s choice. could also be my young woman. It has to do with this idea that he’s older.

00:02:23:22 – 00:02:51:01
Clint Loveall
It’s not disrespectful. but it doesn’t speak to a kind of family connection that is coming up later. And so, anyway, he effectively tells her, just stay here. Just stay in these fields, just keep gleaning. And then he makes provision for her to have enough. He tells the young men don’t bother her, which, she by law isn’t in under any danger.

00:02:51:01 – 00:03:22:28
Clint Loveall
But she is a younger woman. She is a foreigner. She is out with men. And there’s always, you know, there’s a sort of danger that hangs over this whole story. And being vulnerable is still the reality for Ruth. And so Boaz steps in to begin adding some of his protection and some guidance to his people, and then going so far as to even leave out extra for her and let her even go to the places that you haven’t gleaned yet.

00:03:22:28 – 00:03:45:23
Clint Loveall
You haven’t reaped yet. And and just basically give her what she wants and don’t bother her. She can take water. And so, this moves quickly, but Boaz takes a very strong interest, if not in Ruth personally, which we don’t know yet, but is kind of hinted in the text, certainly in providing some security for her and watching out for her.

00:03:45:36 – 00:04:07:12
Michael Gewecke
I you think there are a couple layers here to breezed through pretty quickly? the first thing we want to mention is that there is the layer of just simply a providing physical needs for her in this. He’s being very compassionate in making it possible for her to drink the water that’s collected by the young men. That’s water she doesn’t have to collect for herself.

00:04:07:17 – 00:04:32:28
Michael Gewecke
It, it also makes it possible, as you said, Clint, for her to go and collect in the same line or just behind the line of people reaping in some places, going into these parts of the field. And in the midst of that, there’s a real kind of generous sort of access to the stuff that other people who are also in Ruth’s position, being very vulnerable and not having access to themselves.

00:04:32:33 – 00:05:09:07
Michael Gewecke
She’s now being taken care of, and she has some security in that. So there’s just a basic even when it comes down to, hey, sit down for us with lunch. There’s a kind of basic providing for those basic needs here. And I think that that is worth noting that if there is a bare minimum sort of expectation for Boaz in this story, it was what we talked about yesterday, the idea that there’s this accommodation that you could come into the field and you could glean the stuff that was left over that was intentionally put there for people who were of lesser means, who didn’t have access to food or to commerce in another way.

00:05:09:12 – 00:05:42:10
Michael Gewecke
But here, Boaz, at every turn is going beyond the minimum expectation. And he’s not only caring for what she could absolutely need, he’s going one step further to even reach into some of that round of comfort. And I think that that does speak to him that. So I do think there’s another layer in this, just very briefly, and we have it listed right here in verse 11, when Boaz says to her, all that you’ve done for your mother in law since the death of your husband has been fully told me how you left your father, mother, native land came to people that you didn’t know before.

00:05:42:25 – 00:06:06:55
Michael Gewecke
May the Lord capital L reward you for your deeds. May you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge. This is a powerful, now even theological statement. Yes, it has to do with where she is geographically. But Boaz connects her, coming with her mother in law, Naomi, to be a spiritual move.

00:06:06:55 – 00:06:33:25
Michael Gewecke
She’s gone from that foreign land now. She’s moved in under the protective wings. What a beautiful phrase. She’s come under the protection of even the God of Israel. And Boaz is going to be one human voice, one human instrument in doing God’s provisional work for her. It’s a beautiful next level kind of interpretive move here. This isn’t just taking care of someone in need.

00:06:33:30 – 00:06:46:10
Michael Gewecke
He sees it as someone who is left behind, family left behind, the people left behind. God’s finding protection and care underneath the hand of God. That that is a beautiful reflection.

00:06:46:15 – 00:07:11:15
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And there’s some, you know, some ongoing connections to the story. When Boaz tells Ruth in verse eight, keep close to my young women, that is the word to cling to. We’ve seen that. That’s what we’re told that she did to Naomi. part of that is just an author using familiar language. But part of that is a connection to the prior story.

00:07:11:24 – 00:08:06:57
Clint Loveall
There’s also we will see this most clearly and, and I think most dramatically in chapter three, probably next week. But if you read these parts of the story in the Hebrew, there are words that are pretty innocuous in English, because we would use other words if we were trying to paint a different picture. But in the Hebrew language, which is in some ways simpler, but in other ways more complicated, there are scattered throughout this story, some words that can be taken to view this through the lens of flirting, through the lens of Boaz and and Ruth beginning to get attracted to one another.

00:08:06:57 – 00:08:30:43
Clint Loveall
This come under the wings, which is seems like a reference to the Lord, but can be taken as a reference to what Boaz is doing. This idea. Why have I found favor in your sight? Toward favor? There is is, a word that can be loaded in other places. there is. And and people argue depending on their comfort level.

00:08:30:43 – 00:08:55:23
Clint Loveall
But but it is likely that the author in a, in a few subtle ways, is trying to tell us that, that Ruth and Boaz are noticing each other, that they are developing a kind of rapport with one another, a relationship with one another. Now, that’s not dishonorable on Boaz this part, because he he we’ve already been told he’s an upstanding citizen.

00:08:55:28 – 00:09:29:25
Clint Loveall
He’s he’s doing something good for her, but he’s clearly going beyond what is expected. And part of the reason for that is likely that he sees something that he’s attracted to in Ruth. He sees something that he appreciates about Ruth. He sees something interesting in her. And so there is, if you look at this from where the story is going to end up, there is this moment of attraction here where these two characters are beginning to kind of draw nearer to one another.

00:09:29:25 – 00:09:53:07
Clint Loveall
And, and that’s not in a that’s not in an explicit way. There’s nothing like that happening. It’s just that we lose in English. I think according to lots of Bible scholars, we lose in English a kind of nuance that’s in this story that also gives it an undercurrent of romance. And I think that given where the story is going to end, that’s probably fair.

00:09:53:20 – 00:09:56:10
Clint Loveall
And so I think it’s worth pointing out.

00:09:56:15 – 00:10:19:01
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, I think that sometimes we miss the intentional wordplay just because the word that gets translated into English doesn’t play off of the other word that is being referenced in the section, but maybe we could look at example of that in verse ten. We have the same word, the word foreigner, in this text actually, is the same word that we get.

00:10:19:01 – 00:10:47:20
Michael Gewecke
Translators take notice. Let’s take a look at this quick. here in verse ten, top of the page here. You should take notice of me when I am a foreigner. Those both come from the same word. And so the idea being there’s this pun being played off of the idea of taking notice or seeing, but also the person who is not seen or the foreigner who’s not accepted and that’s the kind of thing that is part of the poetic nature of the text.

00:10:47:20 – 00:11:12:14
Michael Gewecke
Not to say this is poetry, but there’s actually quite a bit of looseness in Hebrew prose. So the idea that this story is doing more than just telling a narrative, this is more than just a highway that gets you from one place to another, that there’s there’s much along the path. There’s a lot that’s been built into this text that is establishing to your point, Clint, the growing of a relationship.

00:11:12:14 – 00:11:42:05
Michael Gewecke
This is more than just, simple narrative with simple outcomes. This is actually, seeing two people who shouldn’t be seeing each other at all, seeing each other. This is two people who shouldn’t innately have any working relationship with one another. And yet there’s a relationship being establish. Boaz is stepping in and saying, you’re going to have some standing in this field that is way beyond the bar of what is expected that I want to grant this to you.

00:11:42:05 – 00:12:04:04
Michael Gewecke
And so there’s unexpected turns at every moment in this story that you certainly don’t expect in this day for Ruth to be sitting and dining at lunch with the workers in the field, that that’s not what happens. And yet that is what’s happening here. And that that’s the constant reversals happening here, which are they’re building up. Right. They’re going in a direction.

00:12:04:04 – 00:12:08:01
Michael Gewecke
But at this point we’re just seeing the very early stages of it.

00:12:08:06 – 00:12:36:33
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I do think I think that’s in the text. I think it’s again, we’re going to get to places where it’s far more obvious and maybe even far more controversial. But in regard to this part of the story, there are some hints that Ruth and Boaz are noticing one another in, in the current, in the current speak of young people, they’re quote unquote talking.

00:12:36:37 – 00:13:02:51
Clint Loveall
They’re, they’re beginning to, take an interest in one another and working that out. let me try. Maybe we could, let me see. Yeah, we probably should leave that because we’ll have to unpack some of the next part of the story. but again, Ruth now has taken a small step towards some security. At least she is under some protection.

00:13:02:56 – 00:13:36:45
Clint Loveall
she has a a a better situation than she did. there’s food. There is a man who is watching out for her. There is an opportunity to gather and to glean. And so this this one woman who is an outsider, is now beginning to be noticed by insiders, particularly by Boaz and that offers a new direction, potentially in the story, which will be followed up in the rest of the narrative.

00:13:36:50 – 00:14:04:53
Michael Gewecke
Let’s just very briefly make note of the fact that chapter one was full of bad news. There was a lot of bad things that happened to Naomi and then Ruth and or make different choices. But here, chapter two, Boaz marks the beginning of good news now happening in Ruth’s life. And this is objectively, qualitatively good news. This is a moment where someone is showing kindness for her.

00:14:04:53 – 00:14:32:22
Michael Gewecke
And I think importantly, Clint, to your point, there may be a kind of interest in one another, but that’s not necessary. It’s not assumed he’s not doing this. The text is is relatively clear that that he’s not doing this for particular gain or outcome. He’s doing this and he’s being truly gracious to her, which is a mark of his own character as he sees her character.

00:14:32:22 – 00:14:57:00
Michael Gewecke
I mean, we’ve already had how laudable it was that she was out early. She was working hard. He sees this in her. And the writer of Ruth is also, in some ways lauding Boaz for the same kind of good character in in taking care of it. That’s an implicit sort of subtext reading, but I think that’s there. So the good things are beginning to happen in the story, and we’ll of course follow that as we go.

00:14:57:05 – 00:15:10:55
Michael Gewecke
Thanks for being with us, friends. We look forward to seeing you when we continue this study. Remember, we are not meeting Wednesday or Thursday. We’re going to be back on Monday. Hope to see you then. Subscribe so that you don’t miss a single study. Like this video, if you find it helpful, helps others find it in the future when they’re studying.

00:15:10:55 – 00:15:13:30
Michael Gewecke
Root themselves and we look forward to seeing you next week.

00:15:13:42 – 00:15:14:20
Clint Loveall
Thanks everybody.