"4 And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you!” And they answered, “The Lord bless you.” 5 Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” 6 And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, “She is the young Moabite woman, who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. 7 She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.’ So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.”
8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. 9 Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.” 10 Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favour in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” 11 But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. 12 The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” 13 Then she said, “I have found favour in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.”
14 And at mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her roasted grain. And she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over. 15 When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. 16 And also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.”
17 So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley."
Ruth 2:4-17
The quality of the man's character comes through very clearly in v 4. One is prompted to remark that if we had even some of this spirit obtaining between manage- ment and labour today, the entire industrial scene would be transformed! The point is not, of course, that we should go around the office or the shop floor mouthing pious phrases: it is something in the quality of the life that communicates the blessing. This is how it was with Boaz; and one is prompted to wonder whether the richness of his life bears any relation to his having stayed at home during the hard times of famine. We are all good at avoiding pressures and edging out of unpleasant situations, but what if the right thing to do were to stay in the midst of them and suffer them, however much it might cost us, in the glad consciousness that God will use them to do something in us, for good?
Boaz's question in 5 was a natural one, but we must not misunderstand it, and the force of Ruth's action in going to his field (2) needs to be appreciated. Ruth and Naomi had returned to Bethlehem empty: they were penniless, and there was no Social Security in those days. Something had to be done. It was providential, in the first instance that the time was the beginning of the barley harvest - it would have been hard for them if the harvest had been over. But if there was no Social Security, there was something else: the merciful provision by a compassionate God for the needs of the poor, enshrined and en- acted in the levitical ordinances (Leviticus 19:9, 10; Deuteronomy 24:9-22). This is cer- tainly not a question of the poor getting the 'left-overs' - the corner of the field was left on purpose, as God's provision for them. Doubtless Naomi had instructed Ruth in the laws of Israel, so that when she went out to glean she did not go in any surreptitious way, but as of right: it was the recognised right of the poor and the widow to do so, and one that Boaz would be swift to honour.