Wednesday, July 21, 2010
God Is At Work - The Story of Ruth Part II - A "Chance" Meeting, Part 6 of 44
TEXT: "So Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest. And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech; his name was Boaz. So Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, 'Please let me go to the field, and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor.' And she said to her, 'Go my daughter' " (Ruth 1:22-2:2).
IDEA: God has a special concern for poor people.
PURPOSE: To help listeners realize that there are assumptions that biblical writers make that we may not make but should.
Do you think that Christians as a group give a lot of thought to the poor?
Should we? Why?
I. God has a special concern for poor people.
The Old Testament Law Code made special provisions for the poor, particularly during grain harvests.
In Leviticus 19:9, a farmer was not to reap his fields to the very borders. He was forbidden to pick up what remained in the field after his reapers went through it once.
In Deuteronomy 24:19, if a farmer forgot a sheaf of grain and left it in the field, he was not to go back for it. Why?
A similar provision is made in Leviticus 19:10 and Deuteronomy 24:21 concerning the grape harvest.
Behind these regulations, of course, stood the full authority of the legal landowner, Jehovah. Israelite farmers might be the means of God's provision for the poor, but God, the great generous landowner, was the actual benefactor to the poor.
Unfortunately, many landowners took advantage of the poor and did not benefit them. The prophets Micah and Isaiah call down judgment on such people.
Even the provisions of the law weren't particularly generous. The poor were given work to do in the fields to glean what they could, but at best it was subsistence living. Prudent reapers worked carefully and didn't necessarily leave much behind.
This resembled "eking out a survival today by recycling aluminum cans" (R. Hubbard, p 138).
II. We can see the Law at work in the lives of Naomi and Ruth (Ruth 1:22-2:2 above).
The barley harvest took place in April and May and the perceptive reader would know that the prospects for food were good for Naomi and Ruth if the people in Bethlehem would observe the laws about allowing the poor to glean in the fields. At least the two women wouldn't starve.
The author apparently assumed that the law about the poor would even apply to Ruth, though she was an outsider from Moab.
This says something about how God's people should view outsiders—especially when the crop is good. The generosity of God should beget generosity on their part.
The reader might also reflect on the fact that the Moabite people had shown some of this hospitality to Naomi's family when they left famine-struck Bethlehem and went to Moab a decade or more before.
III. Does this provision for the poor say anything to Christians today?
