Tag: naomi

“The Lord be With You, And May The Lord bless You and keep You As Well” Ruth 2:1-4

Ruth 2:1-4 New American Standard Bible 1995

Ruth Gleans in Boaz’ Field

2 Now Naomi had [a]a kinsman of her husband, a [b]man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. 2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose sight I may find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” 3 So she departed and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and [c]she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. 4 Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, “May the Lord be with you.” And they said to him, “May the Lord bless you.”

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

Boaz said to his servants: “May the LORD be with you.”

Servants’ response: “May the LORD bless you.”

In this exchange of greetings and pleasantries “in the Lord,” I truly believe the implication is that Boaz and his servants lived lives suffused in the presumption that God would be with them in every action, in every step along every path.

Think about it further: Boaz and his servants were not going to war or going on a trip; they were simply going to the fields for the ordinary work of the day. Yet, it seems automatically, begins the day of labor with a blessing on his servants.

In today’s ‘hands off, don’t talk to me don’t offend me’ culture, we increasingly compartmentalize our lives, even our spiritual lives.

With single-minded purpose, we work for some hours of the day, we take care of our daily obligations, and, hopefully, go home and we set aside time to relax.

More than likely times of devotion study and prayer are a “carved out” time and time reading scripture with family may have to be scheduled well in advance.

The alternative is to suffuse the entire day with the recognition that God is with us at every moment, and that prayer can and should be spontaneous and simple – ordinary. That we can take any moment to request God’s blessing on another.

Automatically Greeting with “The Lord Be With You!”

Ruth 2:1-4The Message

2 It so happened that Naomi had a relative by marriage, a man prominent and rich, connected with Elimelech’s family. His name was Boaz.

2 One day Ruth, the Moabite foreigner, said to Naomi, “I’m going to work; I’m going out to glean among the sheaves, following after some harvester who will treat me kindly.”

Naomi said, “Go ahead, dear daughter.”

3-4 And so she set out. She went and started gleaning in a field, following in the wake of the harvesters. Eventually she ended up in the part of the field owned by Boaz, her father-in-law Elimelech’s relative. A little later Boaz came out from Bethlehem, greeting his harvesters, “God be with you!” They replied, “And God  bless you!”

Truth is you and I and the church can learn a lot about the character of a person from their simple hellos and shared greetings and exchanges of pleasantries .

When Boaz entered his field (and the book of Ruth) and greeted his workers, the enormous depth of his character and of his relationship with God became clear.

Boaz lived with the awareness of God’s presence, and it showed in his daily routines. The same was true of many saints throughout the Old Testament.

Almost naturally they saw no separation between the sacred and the secular; rather, all of life was to be naturally lived and labored before the face of God.

When you and I live with similar measure of natural devotion, we experience radical transformation and blessing in both our words and our relationships.

Notice that when Boaz showed up, he didn’t simply throw the name of the Lord around casually or profanely.

He intentionally, reverently used God’s name in his greeting, acknowledging the highest place of authority and intimacy that God had inside his whole life.

Such reverence curbs superficiality in our talk and encourages us to seek God’s blessing in every circumstance—when we lie down, get up, walk along the road, or converse with others (Deuteronomy 6:7).

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 The Message

6-9 Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.

Upon his daily entrance into the field, Boaz set the tone for the whole day for his workers by blessing them and praying for them.

Perhaps his example should provoke us all to ask ourselves, “What tone am I setting in my workplace, in my home, at the grocery store and in my church?”

If the blessing and contentment of the Lord attend your life, whether you are a CEO or an intern, whether your work involves balancing the books or changing countless diapers, you can return blessing with blessing by pointing the people back to Him in all you do and say and prayerfully, their response will bless you.

Ephesians 3:14-21 The Message

14-19 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

20-21 God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!

If Christ has truly come into my life, into your life, into the life of the Church, as the Only Lord and Savior, our deepest faith should echo through every moment.

For this to be across the board truth, be manifested and revealed across the whole Kingdom of God, don’t approach “our time with God” only as a fifteen-minute daily meetings, hoping that that will sustain you for the rest of the day.

Truth is you and I and the whole universal church will never be able to bring others into the sacred presence of a God in whose presence you do not live.

Speak of Him in your conversation.

Let this flow from you naturally, bring His presence, promises to mind in the small triumphs and difficulties of your day. Seek to form a single minded habit of conversing with Him throughout your waking hours. Live with an awareness of God’s presence, and it will show with God, in all your routines and reactions.

Only, O Lord, in Thy dear love
Fit us for perfect rest above;
And help us, this and every day,
To live more nearly as we pray.[1]

1 John Keble, “New Every Morning Is the Love” (1822).

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 25 New American Standard Bible 1995

Prayer for Protection, Guidance and Pardon.

A Psalm of David.

25 To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, in You I trust,
Do not let me be ashamed;
Do not let my enemies exult over me.
3 Indeed, none of those who wait for You will be ashamed;
[a]Those who deal treacherously without cause will be ashamed.

4 Make me know Your ways, O Lord;
Teach me Your paths.
5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation;
For You I wait all the day.
6 Remember, O Lord, Your compassion and Your lovingkindnesses,
For they have been [b]from of old.
7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
According to Your lovingkindness remember me,
For Your goodness’ sake, O Lord.

8 Good and upright is the Lord;
Therefore He instructs sinners in the way.
9 He leads the [c]humble in justice,
And He teaches the [d]humble His way.
10 All the paths of the Lord are lovingkindness and truth
To those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.
11 For Your name’s sake, O Lord,
Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.

12 Who is the man who fears the Lord?
He will instruct him in the way he should choose.
13 His soul will abide in [e]prosperity,
And his [f]descendants will inherit the [g]land.
14 The [h]secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him,
[i]And He will make them know His covenant.
15 My eyes are continually toward the Lord,
For He will [j]pluck my feet out of the net.

16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
For I am lonely and afflicted.
17 [k]The troubles of my heart are enlarged;
Bring me out of my distresses.
18 Look upon my affliction and my [l]trouble,
And forgive all my sins.
19 Look upon my enemies, for they are many,
And they hate me with violent hatred.
20 Guard my soul and deliver me;
Do not let me be ashamed, for I take refuge in You.
21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,
For I wait for You.
22 Redeem Israel, O God,
Out of all his troubles.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

https://translate.google.com/

Recognizing our God at Work? The Tapestry of our God’s Providence. Ruth 2:1-13

Ruth 2:1-13 New American Standard Bible 1995

Ruth Gleans in Boaz’ Field

2 Now Naomi had [a]a kinsman of her husband, a [b]man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. 2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose sight I may find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” 3 So she departed and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and [c]she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. 4 Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, “May the Lord be with you.” And they said to him, “May the Lord bless you.” 5 Then Boaz said to his servant who was [d]in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” 6 The servant [e] in charge of the reapers replied, “She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab. 7 And she said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ Thus she came and has remained from the morning until now; she has been sitting in the house for a little while.”

8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “[f]Listen carefully, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field; furthermore, do not go on from this one, but stay here with my maids. 9 Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Indeed, I have commanded the servants not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the [g]water jars and drink from what the servants draw.” 10 Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” 11 Boaz replied to her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me, and how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people that you did not previously know. 12 May the Lord reward your work, and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge.” 13 Then she said, “I have found favor in your sight, my lord, for you have comforted me and indeed have spoken [h]kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your maidservants.”

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

How Well are we ready to Recognize God at Work?

Ruth 2:2 New American Standard Bible 1995

2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose sight I may find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.”

When you don’t have food, you search for it.

Ruth is going to glean the fields to find leftover grain, and God is also at work—not only to help her discover and find leftovers but to give a harvest of blessing.

Boaz is a distant relative to Naomi—and much more.

God is about to use an ordinary person for his extraordinary purposes again.

Through the kindness of Boaz, Ruth is allowed to glean until the harvest is finished. This journey is marked by the vast generosity and hospitality Boaz demonstrates in his work life and by the way he runs his farming business.

Today many of us will return to work after a weekend.

Whether we are running a business, work at an office, job site, factory, school, or elsewhere, we will enter into the world of others as we get back to work. How we supervise, do our work, will affect how others see the God we claim to serve.

Sadly, the praise we give God on Sunday can be blemished by our words and our actions on Monday through Friday. By the example set by Boaz, A true hero of the faith is called, summoned by our God to be faithful every day of the week.

A life of consistency of character is a sacrificial life that God can use to model and shape and mentor another person’s life and faith in God for all eternity.

God used Boaz and Ruth to eventually be the great-grandfather of King David.

And this means that Ruth—a Moabite outsider—became part of the family line of Jesus. (See Ruth 4:16-22; Matthew 1.)

Ruth 4:16-22 New American Standard Bible 1995

The Line of David Began Here

16 Then Naomi took the child [a]and laid him in her lap, and became his nurse. 17 The neighbor women gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi!” So they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

18 Now these are the generations of Perez: to Perez [b]was born Hezron, 19 and to Hezron was born Ram, and to Ram, Amminadab, 20 and to Amminadab was born Nahshon, and to Nahshon, Salmon, 21 and to Salmon was born Boaz, and to Boaz, Obed, 22 and to Obed was born Jesse, and to Jesse, David.

All this took place because the author of Ruth had recognized God was at work.

Do We Recognize The Tapestry of God’s Providence?

Ruth 2:2-4 New American Standard Bible 1995

2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose sight I may find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” 3 So she departed and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and [a]she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. 4 Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, “May the Lord be with you.” And they said to him, “May the Lord bless you.”

What often appears to us to be an unworkable tangled mess of knots is just the back view of the tapestry God is busy weaving.

Naomi and Ruth had experienced their share of frayed threads in life.

They arrived in Israel widowed and penniless—a perilous position for women in a lawless society (see Judges 21:25).

In Leviticus 23:22 , the law allowed for the poor to enter the fields and pick up (glean) leftover grain as they followed the steps of the official harvesters. This law was established by God Himself and revealed His care and concern for the needy. But God’s law was not always—and not often—observed in this period.

Leviticus 23:22 New American Standard Bible 1995

22 ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field nor gather the gleaning of your harvest; you are to leave them for the needy and the alien. I am the Lord your God.’”

Yet when Ruth resolved to go into the fields, through Boaz’s generosity, God worked through this law to abundantly, tangibly, provide for her and Naomi.

Ruth’s seemingly mundane moment of decision became an illustration of God’s providential plan for the two women—and for all of redemptive history!

Ruth ended up gleaning on the land of Boaz, a distant relative of Naomi’s deceased husband and a man of means and high standing.

Ancient Israelites clearly understood the family to be the basic unit of society, with members of the wider extended family having obligations to support and protect relatives who were struggling like Naomi.

All of this gives us the clearest hints at God’s hand in providing generously for Ruth and Naomi, even in ways that would seem unremarkable at first glance.

In fact, as we read Ruth’s story, we notice that many of its details unfold as if by accident.

Ruth happened to decide to glean that day.

Naomi happened to encourage it.

Boaz happened to pick that time to harvest his field.

Ruth happened to pick his field.

But when we carefully and studiously look at the story as a whole, we can see all of these happenings were the timed, precise, instruments of God’s providential care in unfolding His purpose of redemption.

After all, out of Boaz and Ruth’s lineage would soon come King David and, eventually, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself—a greater provider and protector who also “came from Bethlehem.”

As God carefully and precisely wove these threads into His beautiful story of provision, Ruth and Naomi surely would have thought they looked knotted, hopelessly tangled, disconnected, cut off, and so irreparably frayed at times.

Satan often wants us to stay focused on such seemingly jumbled, discouraging circumstances, leading us to an attitude doubting God and His good provision.

We so easily and casually forget that what appears to be an unrecoverable mess is just the back view of the tapestry God is busy weaving in all our backgrounds.

One day, though, when we get the chance to see His handiwork from the front, all of those strange, dark threads will prove to be part of His glorious pattern.

Today, as your life and workdays unfold, and even unravels, do remember that “coincidences” are no such thing, that all our uncertainties and difficulties are opportunities to trust in God, and that behind all of them He is weaving out His plans to prosper His people in faith and godliness, and to bring them all home.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Dear God, may I be a witness for you in all my words and deeds. And may I realize your providence, that you weave, use events in time to affect eternity. In Jesus, Amen.

Psalm 16 New American Standard Bible 1995

The Lord the Psalmist’s Portion in Life and Deliverer in Death.

A [a]Mikhtam of David.

16 Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You.
2 [b]I said to the Lord, “You are [c]my Lord;
I have no good besides You.”
3 As for the [d]saints who are in the earth,
[e]They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.
4 The [f]sorrows of those who have [g]bartered for another god will be multiplied;
I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood,
Nor will I take their names upon my lips.

5 The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You support my lot.
6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.

7 I will bless the Lord who has counseled me;
Indeed, my [h]mind instructs me in the night.
8 I have set the Lord continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will dwell securely.
10 For You will not abandon my soul to [i]Sheol;
Nor will You [j]allow Your [k]Holy One to [l]undergo decay.
11 You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

https://translate.google.com/