Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends around the world.
The day AFTER Thanksgiving is a day often referred to as “Black Friday”, at least in America. It has been considered the opening day of shopping for Christmas by many retailers and thus a huge day of spending in person and online around the world. For many people it is, therefore, a day of great excitement. But there’s another very harsh reality for this day which is far removed from the excitement of major shopping. It’s the experience many people around the world will have today of returning to their very complex, pain filled world of 2023.
The declared wars in Ukraine and Israel will rage again today with ferocity. The undeclared wars in Sudan, Yemen and several other countries torn apart by tribal, or terrorist warfare will rage again today. Famines in Africa, floods in India, earthquake recovery in Afghanistan and Nepal all resume today. So, I wonder what the ‘day after Thanksgiving’ will be for you my friends, wherever you are in our world?
Come with me, let’s rejoin Ruth as she and Naomi are adjusting to life in Bethlehem in about 1100bc, following their many years of pain in Moab, which included the death of both their husbands. (Ruth 1:1-5) Yesterday we watched as amazingly, Ruth spent her day gathering grain to provide food for she and Naomi. While she had not planned it, the record says she found herself gathering grain in the field that Ruth later discovered was owned by Mr. Boaz. They met and he treated her kindly and gave instructions to his harvesters to not harm her and to actually give Ruth some additional opportunity to collect more grain then normal. He also gave both invitation and instruction to Ruth to glean grain only in his fields with his harvesters and that she’d be safe there.
This was no coincidence. God was at work in a most unusual and merciful way, providing for Naomi and Ruth even though Naomi’s heart was very hard and she had blamed God for her misery when welcomed back to Bethlehem by friends she had known years before. (Ruth 1:20,21) That’s important friends, for it’s a picture of how merciful God is at work in the lives of many people on this Friday after Thanksgiving Day in the horrific messes all around our world.
Come with me, let’s rejoin Ruth and see what happened next. Ruth 2:17 tells us Ruth collected all the grain she had gathered that long day working in the hot sun and then went to the threshing floor to grind that grain. “Ruth carried it back to town and her mother-in-law saw how much Ruth had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave Naomi what she had left over from what Boaz had given her to eat. Naomi asked, ‘Where did you work today? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!” I can only imagine the long story Ruth then told Naomi as they sat to eat from what Ruth had brought home.
Of course, when Ruth finally identified the field owner as Boaz and explained his unusual kindness to her, Naomi was deeply moved in her soul! Her words are powerful: “The LORD bless him! He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead. That man is our close relative, he is one of our kinsman-redeemers.“ (Ruth 2:20) I have a feeling Naomi paused right there, probably moved to tears as she ate and reflected on Ruth’s amazing story. For Ruth, it was yet another part of her learning curve for in the Jewish community this matter of a “kinsman-redeemer” was very important and may not have been so among Ruth’s people the Moabites.
Many years before, as God had laid out commands and guidelines for how His chosen people Israel should live their lives distinctively in honor of Almighty God, the care of widows was an important element, particularly in ancient times when most societies did not have social systems to support widows or orphans. Deuteronomy 25:5,6 give clear instructions that at the death of a married man his brother should take the widow as his wife to assume care for her for the rest of her life. Also, if possible, the brother and widow should have children together, especially a son, who would carry on the legacy and name of the deceased brother. In addition, the brother who wedded a widow assumed financial responsibility for any indebtedness she may have and assured that she inherited whatever estate her deceased husband had owned.
When Naomi made the statement to Ruth, ‘That man is our close relative, he is one of our kinsman-redeemers’ while the record does not tell us, I wonder if Ruth furrowed her brow and asked Naomi to please explain the meaning of these words. Oh, can you imagine the joy Naomi had as she explained the love God had for His people even in the heart wrenching death which left widows in such pain?
That remarkable day comes to a close with Naomi giving Ruth this admonition of working only in the fields of Mr. Boaz because not all Israelite men were as honorable as Boaz: “Naomi said to Ruth, ‘It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with his girls, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.” Naomi’s reaction of celebration, her call for God to bless Boaz, and her tender instructions to Ruth give us an insight into what was happening in Naomi’s hard, broken heart. While Naomi blamed God for her pain, she had not totally abandoned her spiritual heritage nor her deeply rooted admiration for the God of Israel. Now, as she began to see the evidence of God’s merciful love for Naomi the Israelite and Ruth the Moabitess, Naomi’s heart was softening and I imagine that night, perhaps for the first time in many years, Naomi lay down to sleep with a smile on her face and deep, deep gratitude to God in her heart.
Ruth chapter 2 concludes with this summary statement: “So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean until the barley and the wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.” (Ruth 2:23) We can assume this was a period of several weeks in which Ruth was finding daily work which was amply providing the food she and Naomi needed.
Meanwhile, it’s safe for us to assume Naomi was reacquainting herself with all the friends and families in the village of Bethlehem which she and her husband had known so well before they fled the famine years before. We can also assume Ruth was beginning to feel at home in Bethlehem, being treated kindly by the girls with whom she worked each day and being introduced by Naomi to the entire village. While they were both still widows, missing their husbands very much and having to face the challenges of life all widows face, Naomi and Ruth were experiencing God’s healing work in their hearts as Bethlehem was becoming a welcome home for both of them.
As the harvest season began to draw to a close, however, both Naomi and Ruth looked out ahead with many unanswered questions about their long-term future and tomorrow we’ll find out how God responded to their growing anxiety? For today, on this day after Thanksgiving Day, what reality have you returned to and how are you seeing God at work in your personal world?
Here’s a tender song to help us consider that…
Today’s Scripture is Ruth 2:17-23.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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