Second Presbyterian Church

"The Struggle to Survive:
Preaching from Ruth"
August 15, 2004

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Sermons Homepage » Sermons for 2004 » Sermons for August 2004 » Sermons from the Series on Ruth

#2 in the Series on Ruth
The Rev. Daniel E. Hale, D. Min.

• Ruth 2: 1-23

Two weeks ago, you may recall that Naomi had experienced horrible tragedy. She had left her home in Bethlehem to look for food in Moab. While in Moab her husband, Elimelech ("God is king"), died. Her two sons married Moabite women and then the two sons died. They had no children, no one to carry on the family of Elimelech. So Naomi returned to Bethlehem with Ruth, one or her daughters in law. Ruth had sworn allegiance to Naomi, to her people (Israelites who hated Moabites) and to her God (the LORD). The only two signs of hope we heard in chapter 1 were that the famine was over in Bethlehem and that they had arrived during the barley harvest.

People who have experienced horrible tragedies need to exist, even if they no longer have any idea WHY they are existing. Perhaps Ruth was the first one to begin to recover from the shock of tragedy and realized that they needed to find a way to put food on the table. And so it was with Naomi and Ruth. Ruth tells her mother in law that she would like to glean and Naomi concurred.

Gleaning was a method of survival by the poor during the times of ancient Israel. By Hebrew law reapers were to leave some of the harvest on the ground so that the area poor could come and harvest what was left and have something to eat. Since harvest season for both wheat and barley were around six to eight weeks it really wasn't much for a poor person to survive; it surely didn't last for an entire year.

But Naomi and Ruth didn't have the luxury of worrying about survival for a year; they had to find a way to put food on the table immediately. Like all really poor people, Naomi and Ruth had to focus upon that particular day, not five or ten months in the future.

The rest of chapter two describes Ruth going out to glean. She picked the field that belonged to Boaz. Now Boaz was introduced at the beginning of chapter two. At first it seemed disjointed to the line of the story, but the narrator was giving us "anticipatory information." He was letting us know that this story was NOT just a story about tragedy and survival by having to scratch for their existence. He was letting us know that through Naomi's tragedy the LORD had bigger plans underway.

The narrator was letting the reader know that no matter how purposeless life had felt for Naomi and Ruth, it wasn't. There were great purposes being fulfilled. It's just that Naomi and Ruth, at that time, didn't have a clue!

So Ruth began to glean in Boaz's field. Along came Boaz, from Bethlehem, and he inquired about the young woman who was gleaning in his field. As you know Boaz was very generous to Ruth: he gave her too much to eat for lunch, he gave her the right to drink the water provided for the workers, he saw to it that the young men would not molest her, and he instructed the reapers to pull some grain out of the sheaves for Ruth to glean.

Why? Why did Boaz do all this for Ruth? He reported to Ruth that he had heard about all that she had done for Naomi.

When Ruth had returned to Naomi at the end of the day she had reaped 3/5ths of a bushel of barley, or 22 liters of the grain. That was a tremendous amount of harvest. Ruth also gave to Naomi what was left over from her lunch.

Now, Naomi was curious. Where had Ruth gleaned? Who was it that had been so generous? So Ruth told her it was Boaz and how he had treated her. At this point you could hear the gears in Naomi's brain begin to work. "Ah yes, he is a relative of Elimelech. In fact he is one of the Redeemers."

We are beginning to receive a glimpse of the rest of the story. But first, who is a redeemer? Simply put, a redeemer is a relative who can marry a widow and therefore continue the family line of the dead father. In this case it would be continuing the family line of Elimelech. You may recall that Naomi had told Ruth and Orpah that she was too old to bear other sons. And even if she could have a couple more sons, Naomi and Orpah were too old to wait for sons to grow up and become husbands for them. Ordinarily a brother of the deceased husband would marry the widow and continue the family line of the deceased.

You may recall the test that the Sadducees gave to Jesus. One account is in Mark 12: 18-27. They tested Jesus with the story of a man who married, then died; his brother married the widow, then died and so on until all seven brothers married her, but no one was able to sire children. The story has another point than what I am making. But the context of the story was that all efforts were made to preserve the family line of the husband.

Evidently, certain close relatives, as well as brothers, could also "redeem" the family by marrying the widow and acquiring the land of the deceased. Boaz was one of these redeemers.

So, you can understand why Naomi's brain was starting to work overtime. She was, perhaps, beginning to see that something bigger was unfolding, much bigger than the mere struggle for survival. She was, perhaps, beginning to see that the LORD was working in this situation in a way that was much bigger than she had ever imagined. It was much bigger than the fact that the LORD had caused tragedy to come her way.

The way the chapter ends is that Ruth went out and gleaned behind the workers of Boaz until the end of the barley and wheat harvests.

Again, the point in this chapter seems to be this. We experience great tragedy and loss. And when that happens we can feel as if the hand of the LORD is against us. But behind our tragedy is the future that the LORD is developing. And always it is a future that is far greater than we can ever imagine. And during those times when we are caught up in these great losses we can see no future. We see a loss, and we cannot see a future in any way. What are we to do?

We are to do like Naomi and Ruth. We are to figure out a way to survive. We are to go ahead and struggle to put food on the table, even if it looks like we are only living from day to day, barely putting food on the table. As Christians we are called to trust our future in God. Because we accept what Paul says in Romans 8:28, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good." As a church we are called to trust our future in God and what He has in store for us. Can we do that? Yes, when we continue to place our faith in Jesus Christ who died to redeem us so that we can be alive in the family of God. Amen.

The Rev. Daniel E. Hale, D. Min.