Day 10 - Grace - Favor towards the Widow and the Foreigner 

Ruth 2:2-10

PAUSE –
Take a deep breath, offer this time and your focus to the Lord with the Psalmist. 

      Search me God, and know my heart;
      Test me and know my anxious thoughts.
      See if there is any offensive way in me,
      And lead me in the way everlasting.      Psalm 139:23-24

REJOICE in God’s goodness with Psalm 34:4-6

       I sought the Lord, and he answered me, He delivered me from all my fears.
      Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame
      This poor man called, and the Lord heard him;
      He saved him out of all his troubles.  

Throughout the Old Testament the word hen (grace) is used in various contexts and forms.  Some fifty names in the O.T. derive from this word: Elhanan (“grace of God”), Hananel (“grace of God”), Hananiah (“grace of Yah”), Hannah (“grace”), Hanun (“gracious”), Jehohanan (“grace of Yah”), just to name a few. Yah is a shortened form of Yahweh which is the name of God. 

Hen is often used with the word hesed which is typically translated “lovingkindness”, “kindness”, or “mercy”. But sometimes hesed is rendered in Greek as dikaiosune, meaning “justice”.  The critical point of looking at the use of these words together is that the usage does not presuppose reciprocity or quid quo pro (“something for something”). That is, this vocabulary revolves around the concept that God – and people following God’s example – is willing to extend grace, mercy, and kindness to people who do not necessarily deserve grace, mercy, and kindness… ”unmerited favor”.  (Notes from “What Grace Is”, Craig A. Evans)

Grace is a central character in the story of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz. Naomi’s name means “my pleasant one”, but after the death of her husband and two sons she takes the name “Mara” which means bitter.  She literally asks people to call her by the name, “Bitter one”.  Naomi and her husband Elimelek had emigrated with their two sons, from Bethlehem to Moab during a famine in order to survive.   After 3 deaths, Naomi is so devastated and desperate that she decides to return to the land of Judah to essentially beg at the edges of the fields of a relative (hoping for a kinsman redeemer). Her daughter-in-law Ruth declares her loyalty to Naomi – and even Naomi’s God, so she emigrates with Naomi to Judah to support her mother-in-law. 

Read and Reflect

       After arriving in Judah Ruth says to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.” … 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… 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…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.”

At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor (hen/grace) in your eyes that you notice me – a foreigner?”  Ruth 2:2-10

For many this is a familiar story and if you know the end you remember that Boaz truly becomes the kinsman redeemer by marrying Ruth and providing for her and Naomi. Out of this marriage is born a son, Obed, who becomes the father of Jesse, the father of King David. 

This is a remarkable story of God’s grace extended through Boaz to the widow Naomi and her foreign daughter-in-law Ruth.  Note the references to someone “in whose eyes finds favor (grace)”.  It seems that when someone sees others through the eyes of grace/favor, God blesses tremendously. 

Reread and Reflect.  

After arriving in Judah Ruth says to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”… 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… 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…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.”

At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor (hen/grace) in your eyes that you notice me – a foreigner?”  Ruth 2:2-1 

Imagine the desperation of Naomi and the risk for Ruth. Consider the questions Boaz would have to overcome in order to see Ruth with favor, in a culture where he could have easily taken advantage of her or even taken her as a slave.  

Imagine someone in your community that could easily be taken advantage of. Or someone who doesn’t belong.  How might we see them with the eyes of grace(favor)? What would it take to help them belong and feel safe?

Ask –
Dear Father, I ask that you bring to mind the forgotten, the overlooked, and the desperate in both my community and our world today.  I pray for your mercy to be extended through your people to welcome the stranger, the outsider, and the vulnerable Amen. 

Yield –
Dear Father, Open my hands and let your Spirit speak into my own places of vulnerability and heal the wounds that you carry.  I surrender any attitudes that cause you to withhold gifts of grace to the most vulnerable around me. I pray for the eyes to see like you, Jesus.  Amen.

A song that moves my heart to prayer is “I Speak Jesus” 

      I just wanna speak the name of Jesus – Over every heart and every mind
      ‘Cause I know there is peace within Your presence  - I speak Jesus
      I just wanna speak the name of Jesus – ‘Til every dark addiction starts to break
      Declaring there is hope and there is freedom – I speak Jesus