Grab your Bible, a journal, and a pen to reflect on what God is teaching you through this section of scripture. Here is the format that we will follow:
Be Still: As you read, write out the Bible verse or verses that stick out to you most?
Abide: What truth can you learn? Are there any principles or commands present? What is the overall theme of the text?
Adore: What does the text reveal about God and His character?
Apply: How does this Scripture apply to your life today? How does the truth of God’s Word change your daily perspective? How can you live differently in light of this truth?
Pray: Pray God’s Word back to Him. Turn these thoughts into prayer. Ask the Lord to show you how to meditate on and apply this Scripture to your life.
Scripture: Ruth 2:14-23 At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.”
When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her. Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”
So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.
Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!”
Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.
“The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.”
Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’”
Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”
So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.
For consideration as you reflect:
- The Hebrew word that is used when it says, “Blessed be the man who took notice of you!” and “The Lord bless him!” is the word “hesed.” This is often translated as “lovingkindness.” How does this apply to the story of Ruth and Boaz? How does the idea of lovingkindness apply to God and His relationship to you?
- The role of a guardian-redeemer was to help a destitute family member. The idea of guardian-redeemer is actually the central focus of the book of Ruth. Why do you think this is? How does it apply to us?
