She went out as pleasant but returns as bitter. Naomi makes no pretense about the state of
her soul when she returns to her people, the Lord has brought calamity upon
her. There are a couple of points of
Jewish law at issue right away here.
Boaz is a righteous man, a kinsman of Naomi's husband, and someone the
pair of women believe will favor them in their plight as widows. The law requires that the gleanings and edges
of the field not be harvested. That
which is left behind in the first pass is not to be collected by the owner but
left for the poor. The law provides for
those who have fallen on hard times, imposes boundaries and restrictions on
owners. Boaz, however, goes beyond the
law and allows her to follow close behind the reapers and to drink from the
water they provide the laborers. He does
not begrudge her reaping what is potentially rightfully his. Why?
Not for her beauty but for her righteousness in the way she has dealt
with Naomi and for her sacrifice in doing so.
One righteous soul favorably regards another.
Can you imagine looking back and knowing that one Sabbath
there was a visiting teacher and it was the incarnate Son of God? The first sentence is so blasé but how
amazing that Jesus taught in a synagogue on the Sabbath! It seems pretty ludicrous that the ruler of
the synagogue told the woman she should come on one of the other days of the
week to get healed. As if that were the
only thing that had kept her infirm all this time, that she didn’t come on the
right day of the week. This was the day
Jesus was there so this was the day healing was possible. This woman got it right, she glorified God,
not the man called Jesus, God. The
people also know what they have seen, even if the leader doesn't. This "righteous" leader didn't know
true righteousness when he saw it.
The first thing Paul tells Timothy to do is pray for all
people. Most of the time we think that
prayer is something we do if we cannot do anything else. If I can help fix the situation I go there
first and if I can't, I pray. Paul says
to pray first of all. Pray for peace by
praying for their salvation to the God who desires all to be saved and come to
knowledge of the truth. Do we believe
that Jesus is able to do more than we can to help someone? If so, it just makes sense to pray for Him to
act to fix the situation before we step in.
He is the only righteous one, so He knows best how to solve any problem
and what is best for us all. Start the
process like Ruth, find the righteous man and go to him.
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