Glory to God! I believe that the Lord has been good to each and every one of us throughout the past week as He has blessed us with everything we need for our life in this world, especially the mental, physical/material, and spiritual needs. As the faithful followers of a faithful God whom we worship in Spirit and truth, we need to be appreciative towards God for all the blessings He showers upon us time and time again. Let us also be thankful and grateful to the Lord God Almighty as His love and faithfulness towards us endures forever more (Psalm 106:1; 107:1; 118:1).

The Lord has blessed us with a Scripture passage of blessing for our SftW meditation this week that is taken from the book of Ruth 2:4. The book of Ruth narrates a set of incidents that took place around three thousand years ago, in addition to the description of a heartfelt life-time relationship that developed and was sustained between a Moabitess daughter-in-law (who is a widow) towards her Jewish mother-in-law (who is also a widow) and how God worked in and through each of them to change the course of the human history through one of Ruth’s descendant grandsons, namely Jesus.

As Naomi returned to Bethlehem from Moab, her Moabitess daughter-in-law, Ruth, also accompanied her to Bethlehem where Ruth met with one of Naomi’s kinsmen-redeemer named Boaz. He was a prominent and wealthy and a man of high standing in Bethlehem from the clan of Elimelek. In addition, perhaps he owned a large area of farming lands and fields with numerous workers to take care of them. We can understand from all these that he might have been an influential and resourceful person in his society and had the financial assets to be considered as a kinsman-redeemer in his extended household, especially to protect and provide for Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth who would eventually become his wife.

We can understand the context of the passage we chose for our meditation this week was that the first thing Boaz does as he arrived from Bethlehem was to greet his harvesters/workers, saying: The Lord be with you (Ruth 2:4a) and the harvesters responded to him, saying: The Lord bless you (Ruth 2:4b). This could be the way Boaz greets his workers and his workers’ response to him every time he visits his harvest fields. Such greeting and response are nothing less than a warm and heartfelt and God-centered exchange of greetings between a master and his servants as they respect each other’s God given positions. Such exchange of pleasant greetings sounds like there existed a good relationship between Boaz the master and his workers, the harvesters. Unlike some harsh masters, what we can understand from such greetings is that Boaz was a godly man with good standing in society and among his family and friends and even among his workers. Boaz was not a person who makes his workers work mercilessly but his approach to his workers was with a loving/caring heart. He was not trying to find out their weaknesses and treat them badly, rather, he was trying to encourage and treat them well. When we come to the New Testament teachings, especially Jesus’ teachings, He taught His disciples to love one another, as it is mentioned: A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:34-35). According to Apostle John who is known as the apostle of love, God is love and all those who love one another is born of God, as it is mentioned: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love (1 John 4:7-8). Like Boaz’s kind of greeting and the harvesters response are well connected with the second greatest commandment Jesus taught His disciples, which states: Love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27b) as the first and foremost and greatest commandment is to Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mark 12:30; also refer to Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37; Luke 10:27a).

From this perspective we can understand that Ruth loved her mother-in-law Naomi without any conditions as it is mentioned: Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me (Ruth 1:16-17). In return, Naomi also loved her widowed daughter-in-law very much and cared for her as a daughter (Ruth 1:18-2:2). Thus, as a young widow, Ruth followed her widowed mother-in-law, Naomi, to a land that is very much unknown to her and without knowing that God was preparing a bright future for her. Though she was a Moabite woman and worshipper of Moabite gods and deities, she became familiar with the God of Israel through her husband Mahlon and mother-in-law Naomi; and eventually learned to trust in the God of Israel and follow His commands who was unknown to her until she became the daughter-in-law of Naomi.

As she arrived at Bethlehem from her homeland in Moab along with Naomi her mother-in-law, she committed herself to work and began to earn livelihood for herself and her mother-in-law. In search of food, she ended up gleaning in the field of Boaz [a powerful and highly regarded person in Bethlehem] not knowing that he was one of Naomi’s kinsman-redeemer. Boaz observed her closely as she was gleaning among the women who work for him and learned that she left your father and mother (Ruth 2:11a); she left her homeland (Ruth 2:11b); she loved and cared for her widowed mother-in-law Naomi (Ruth 1:16-17); and she was an enthusiastic and hard-working woman (Ruth 2:2, 6-7). So, he permitted her to stay in his fields (Ruth 2:8a); stay in the field where his men are harvesting (Ruth 2:9a); glean in his fields following the women who work for him (Ruth 2:8b, 9b); he allowed her to drink from their water jars (Ruth 2:9c); and so on. Eventually, Boaz became Naomi’s kinsman-redeemer and married Ruth to be his wedded wife in the sight of his relatives and friends and the elders of the city of Bethlehem (Ruth 4:1-12) and ultimately Boaz and Ruth became one of the great, great grandparents of Jesus the Christ and the Savior of mankind in the line of king David (Ruth 4:16-22; Matthew 1:1; 9:27; Luke 18:38).

Dear friends in the Lord, as we conclude our this week’s SftW meditation, let us follow the example of Boaz and his harvesters in treating others the way they did and loving one another as Jesus commanded. Let us love God and His Son whom He sent to this world to redeem us and save us from eternal condemnation and death [separation from God]. Let the world know that we are the disciples of Jesus Christ through our words and deeds and let us be passionate in loving God and caring for each other. May the Lord God Almighty bless us all! Amen!