Ruth 2:4-7 – “At Work”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁴And behold! Boaz coming from Bethlehem, and he said to the harvesters, “The Lord [be] with you!” And they said to him, “The Lord bless you!”⁵And Boaz said to his young man, one set over the harvesters, “To whom [belongs] this young woman?” ⁶And the young man, one set over the harvesters, answered, and he said, “Young woman Moabitess, she one who returned with Naomi from the fields of Moab. 7And she said, ‘May I gather (nah) and I will gather among the sheaves after the harvesters?’ And she came, and she remained since the morning and until now, this to dwell [in] the house a little while.”

It never ceases to amaze me how much the Bible says about people’s work and how important it all is to God. That the Bible would make much of people’s work should not surprise anyone – it’s a book about life, and “work” is basically where people spend their lives. It is my constant lament that church teaching never refers to people’s work. Every sermon is about church or devotions or maybe they might at least touch on family. But work is a non-subject. It’s is too bad because it isn’t helping people live their faith in the real world where they live every day. People’s work is the one very specific thing God says believers do (or can do) that “adorns the doctrine of God our Savior in all things” (Titus 2:10).

But laments and rants aside, just look at this passage! Everyone is working. And what we see is a situation where that work is commended to our notice. Boaz, though a wealthy man, goes out to his fields personally to observe the work. And one cannot help but wonder at the relationships we observe. “The Lord be with you,” he hails to his workers and they respond, “The Lord bless you!” I do not believe we’re reading anything into the text to observe that this man’s faith has changed the way he treats his employees and, not surprisingly, they respond in kind. Here’s a man whose love for God finds its way into his love for his employees and suddenly a whole bunch of people get to live in a much more pleasant world.

Then note that Boaz’s interest in his workers is such that he specifically notices there is someone present he doesn’t recognize. Boaz is a man who is seriously familiar with his workforce, even though he has a young man to serve as the immediate supervisor. Boaz knows when there’s a new person around. Then notice that his supervisor can give him an immediate, clear, accurate, and informative answer when Boaz poses a question. “Whose young woman is this?”

Finally, we can’t help but notice the supervisor’s assessment of Ruth. What does he tell Boaz? There are so many things he might have said. Yet, what he tells Boaz is pertinent. And what does he tell him? He tells him about a young woman who is humble – she asked if she could glean. Perhaps other poor people just wandered into the field to get what they could get before someone threw them out? Not so Ruth. She politely asked permission first. One thing in Hebrew that can’t be translated into English is the injection of the word “nah” into her request. See my translation above where I show it. In today’s world, if a young person wants to acknowledge someone over them, we will “dip” our heads just a little as we speak to them. It is a way of showing humility and respect. In Hebrew they would inject the word “nah” to communicate exactly those same thoughts. So Ruth is a person who understands authority and happily accepts the authority positions under which she finds herself.

Then, of course, he tells Boaz that she has worked “from morning until now, except for a short rest in the shelter.” Ruth was no sloucher. The supervisor has already noticed her diligence and is ready when Boaz asks to tell him about it. Again, he could have told Boaz a lot of things, but what has stood out to him is this girl’s humility and her hard work.

God records all of the above and commends it to our attention, our observation, and our imitation. Oh that believers everywhere realized how important it is to God that we all learn to be humble and work hard. It isn’t so important to God what work we’re doing, but how we do it. “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God!” I’ve known too many people who profess to be believers in the workplace, are very vocal about their faith, and yet they were anything but humble or hard workers. No one took their supposed faith seriously – because it didn’t change them where it really showed. On the other hand, I’ve known people in the workplace who said very little but commanded the respect of everyone there specifically because they always worked hard and treated people well. Those people really do “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.”

God help us all to be like Boaz and Ruth and let our faith make us people whose daily lives adorn the Gospel – in the run-of-mill of our lives where we constantly interact with people who need a Savior, people who need to see Jesus in the eyes of someone they work with, in the words of one of the other moms who bring their kids to soccer … or whatever, wherever.

(Oh, and by the way … isn’t it cool – the first words are, “And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem.” The Kinsman-Redeemer comes from Bethlehem! Who else does that remind you of!)

Proverbs 27:18, "Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof:

 so he that waiteth on his master shall be honored."

God cares about our work!