Afew weeks ago something a little out of the ordinary happened in our local primary school Scripture Union group.
One boy in the group, we’ll call him Andy, invited the most awkward and unpopular girl to join his team for a game – she was his first choice! I watched her disbelieving and then delighted face and silently celebrated Andy’s kindness – his ‘hesed’, that wonderful Hebrew word that echoes through the story of Ruth and much of the Old Testament (Psalm 63:3, for example).
We’ve already seen ‘hesed’ in action in the opening chapter of the story. Faithful kindness characterises the relationship between Naomi and her daughters in law (1:8) and has impelled one of them, Ruth, to stick with Naomi, identify with her God and her people and with all the economic and social risks that these choices bring her. Try to take the time to listen again to the whole narrative, or at least chapters two to four of the story of Ruth before you read on.
It seems to me that Boaz, who now joins Ruth as the central character in the second part of our story, would also have celebrated young Andy’s kindness. Like Andy, Boaz seems to understand our human need to belong, especially when we feel like outsiders (2:5-6). We can imagine how the foreign widow from Moab began to feel as Boaz’s practical kindness drew her from the margins of the field, from trailing behind his reapers (2:3) to become part of his team (2:8), enjoying their privileges and even some special treatment (2:9,14–16). How encouraged Ruth must have felt as she heard Boaz speak warmly about her loyal kindness towards her mother-in-law Naomi and the risks she had taken to remain with and care for her (2:11–13).
Boaz’s choices about the way he related to Ruth reflected God’s own thinking about how his people should behave towards the poor and vulnerable. In the agricultural economy of the times, the poor were those who either did not own land, or who could not work any land they might have. Naomi had inherited land in Bethlehem from her dead husband Elimelech (4:3), but was unable to farm it without the help of male relatives. She was dependent on the provisions God had made for the Jewish community to care for its poor, provisions that Ruth quickly understood and acted on (2:2): ‘When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf … you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow…When you gather the grapes…do not glean what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this’ (Deuteronomy 24:19–22). There is something deeply attractive about Boaz’s thoughtful care for Ruth – and through her, for his relative, Naomi – as he puts God’s word into action in this unexpected situation, in the understanding that he is working out God’s protective role (2:12).
Ruth seems so deeply convinced of the kindness of God
Throughout the story we are aware of the mysterious activity of God’s Spirit, making connections, moving things forward in ways that are entirely outside human control, interacting with the decisions and actions of men and women. Naomi doesn’t direct Ruth to glean in any particular field, but, ‘As it happened, she came to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech’ (2:3). Naomi, who has earlier struggled to trust God’s love and care (1:20-21), is now quick to acknowledge that it is the Lord’s own ‘hesed’ that has drawn Ruth to encounter Boaz (2:20). It is surely this shared conviction that enables the two women to plan the risky action that follows in the fascinating scene at the threshing floor. By now, Ruth seems so deeply convinced of the kindness of God in caring for her and Naomi that she actually takes the initiative and goes beyond Naomi’s instructions (3:4) to speak the bold words that amount to a marriage proposal to Boaz (3:9). Once again the scene is characterised by kindness – Boaz’s acknowledgment of Ruth’s kindness to him in not looking for a younger man (3:10) and his gentle and protective care of Ruth’s reputation (3:14). The story moves towards its unhurried conclusion (3:18) as Boaz carefully ensures that the man with closer ties to Naomi is given every opportunity to claim his rights – though with an enjoyable piece of comic timing to add spice to the narrative (4:4–6)!
The story of Ruth comes as a hopeful and refreshing interlude after the often violent and faithless narratives of the book of Judges. It assures us that even at the worst of times (Ruth 1:1), men and women – and children like young Andy – can choose lives of faithful kindness in response to the faithful kindness of God, and that God weaves that faithfulness into his loving purposes. Who knows the impact of young Andy’s kindness on that little girl’s life? Naomi, Ruth and Boaz could never have dreamed that their son Obed would be grandfather to Israel’s greatest king (4:21). And they would have been amazed to read Matthew’s family tree of Jesus the Messiah and find Ruth listed alongside her husband and alongside other ‘outsider’ women in God’s story – Rahab, Tamar and Bathsheba (Matthew 1:1–16).
Pauline Hoggarth is retired after 10 years with Scripture Union International, helps run a local primary school SU group and is the author of The Seed and the Soil: Engaging with the Word of God.
