RUTHIE!!!

CHAPTER 7

She had a heavy bundle and was just wondering how to carry it back home when a reaper she only knew as Elias called her. “It’s mealtime, Moabite. Come, eat and drink with the rest of us.”

She listened to the grumble of her stomach and smiled at him. “Yes, a meal would be nice, Elias.”

So she sat beside the reapers and Bo’az passed to her parched grain; trying not to stare at her. Uneasy by the attention she was receiving at the table, she ate sparsely and hid some of the leftovers in her garment.

When she was sure she had enough, she rose to glean again; excusing herself from the group as gently as she could.

After she had left, Bo’az motioned over Gershon and instructed him to leave out some grain from the sheaves for her to glean, ending with the instruction not to rebuke her. “At all costs, Gershon,” he had said, “leave her to glean in peace and don’t allow anyone to bother her.”

Ruth gleaned until the sun went down. After beating out her grain, she saw she had gleaned about an ephah of barley; and went into the city, gladdened at today’s great harvest. She showed Naomi upon reaching the house what she had gleaned and gave her the food she had gathered at mealtime.

Naomi was surprised at today’s results. “Where did you glean today, Ruth?”

She smiled, a dizzy smile of one ungraciously in love, and replied her mother in law, “The man whose field I worked in today is Bo’az.”

The name struck a chord. Naomi thought hard. “That man is a kinsman, Ruth. He is a relative of ours, yes, one of nearest kin!”

Ruth felt obligated to tell her all. “He said I was not to leave gleaning on his field to another, but to stay close to his maidens till the harvest was finished.”

Naomi reiterated Bo’az’s instruction, Ruth’s safety in mind. “Do as he says, Ruth, lest in some other field you are molested.”

For the whole harvesting season, Ruth stayed and gleaned only in Bo’az’s field, their friendship growing over time into a strong bond. Bo’az was a strong man, wise and reliable in his ways and an honorable man. Ruth found herself relishing his friendship more and more each day, her interest in him sparked by his gentleness and care.

She could say she had found love. Yet she wanted to wait. “Yahweh shows the way and opens the door,” she would say. If Bo’az was meant for her…well, only God could tell.