This blog post is sponsored by Divine Desserts Publishing. Read one of our novels – sweet comforting soothing stories for parched souls. All books are Christian-themed and they are perfect for Bible study and church groups! Tell your friends by sharing this blog post! For those listening – the link is at the end of this blog post!
A number of things come to mind when I read Ruth Chapter 2. Boaz was quite taken with Ruth. He wanted to know more about her and he wanted to protect her. Love was on the horizon – you can tell by his actions. Also, he told the harvesters to leave some grain behind so that Ruth could pick it up and have plenty to eat.
When they stopped for mid-day meal, Boaz offered her some roasted grain and bread dipped in wine vinegar.
For a Sunday School project you should read this chapter and serve a meal to your students using similar food, if you’re able to find it. I found some roasted grain on Amazon and I prepared it. I served it with some over-easy eggs. You can also eat it as a side dish.
I cooked it in chicken broth. You must cook it for a long time – similar to the cooking time for brown rice. The roasted grain tasted okay – it reminded me of a cross between rice and oatmeal. It looks similar to oatmeal.
Another thing that comes to mind is my childhood. When I read about Ruth and the other women gleaning wheat behind the harvesters, I recall my life on a military base. There was a huge cornfield on the edge of our neighborhood. I honestly don’t know if the cornfield belonged to the government, or, if it was owned by another entity.
To clarify, we lived on a patch of land, with other families, that belonged to the US Army. Our patch of land was surrounded by civilian territory. I was very young at the time, so, am unclear as to if the cornfield belonged to the government, or to a civilian entity.
After the corn was harvested my mom, me, my siblings, as well as a bunch of other people in the neighborhood, would go through the cornfield and pick up ears of corn that may have been missed. I’m not sure why we did this! It was an activity that the community did together. We’d husk and eat the corn later.
So, here’s Ruth chapter 2 – don’t forget to leave a comment!
Ruth 2
New International Version
Ruth Meets Boaz in the Grain Field
Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.
2 And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”
Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” 3 So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.
4 Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you!”
“The Lord bless you!” they answered.
5 Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?”
6 The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. 7 She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”
8 So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. 9 Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”
10 At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”
11 Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 12 May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
13 “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have put me at ease by speaking kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servants.”
14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.”
When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. 15 As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her. 16 Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”
17 So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. 18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.
19 Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!”
Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.
20 “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.”
21 Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’”
22 Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”
23 So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.
This blog post is sponsored by Divine Desserts Publishing. Read one of our novels – sweet comforting soothing stories for parched souls. All books are Christian-themed and they are perfect for Bible study and church groups! Tell your friends by sharing this blog post! For those listening – the link is at the end of this blog post!