November 7th

Boaz

            Now Naomi had a kinsman on her husband’s side, a prominent rich man, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.  And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain, behind someone in whose sight I may find favor.” She said to her, “Go, my daughter.”  So she went. She came and gleaned in the field behind the reapers. As it happened, she came to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.  Just then Boaz came from Bethlehem. He said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you.” They answered, “The Lord bless you.”  Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “To whom does this young woman belong?”  The servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, “She is the Moabite who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.  She said, ‘Please, let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the reapers.’ So she came, and she has been on her feet from early this morning until now, without resting even for a moment.”

                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.  Keep your eyes on the field that is being reaped, and follow behind them. I have ordered the young men not to bother you. If you get thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.”

Ruth 2:1-9

            This is the way that the system is supposed to work.  Ancient Israel had laws in place to look after the poor and destitute.  They were to be allowed to follow after the laborers and gather whatever had been missed by the workers in the harvest.  It was hard work and it would make no one rich, but it would keep people fed and allow them to survive as they tried to dig their way out of poverty.  That was how it was supposed to work.

            In reality, what usually happened is just what you would expect.  The poor coming to glean were often attacked and, if they were young women, molested.  The landowners tried to maximize their profits and could not abide losing grain to non-paying customers so they would chase off or forcefully remove the poor from their station.  Viciousness and greed and lust and apathy were frequently on display as the poor tried to survive.

            Ruth was in a vulnerable place and then Boaz came in and saw her condition and heard her story and gave strict orders that she was to be taken care of.  He was not trying to seduce her or buy any favors.  He was probably not expecting that the two of them would ever even have a conversation.  But he knew that he could use his position to make her life harder or make her life easier and he chose to bless her and her family.

            There will be times when we find ourselves in Boaz’s shoes and we have the choice to make someone’s life easier or harder.  It could be at work.  It could be at church.  It could be on committees that we serve on.  It could be while we are with our children at the park.  We will be in a position of power and we will be able to choose whether to utilize the system that we are in to make someone’s life better or we could abuse the system, benefit ourselves and our family, and use our power and position to make that person go away.

            When I worked at the Day Services Center, I took many meetings with families who had no chance to become our clients.  They were usually parents who were at the very beginning stages of discovering that they children had disabilities and were trying to figure out what do to next.  They had hundreds of pages of paperwork to go through and years of process to endure before they would become eligible for our services, but what they really needed at that moment was someone who could give them some direction and some encouragement…maybe even a couple of helpful hints about making life at home calm down.  I could have easily refused the requests for those meetings and referred them to a different agency, but I had been in their shoes before and I had enough information to get them started on this path that we are all too familiar with.

            Boaz did not have to help Ruth, but the system was set up so that someone just like him could step in and assist someone just like her for the betterment of society as a whole.  May we be able to see our opportunities as well.

A moment to reflect:

Where could you use your position, power or knowledge to help others along their path?