Day 16: Ruth 2:14-23

***Today I will finish Ruth 2 and tomorrow I hope to be back to vlogging."

See Ruth 2:14-23.

Now we see Boaz also offering her bread dipped in wine vinegar and a seat with the harvesters.  She ate until she was full and had some leftover, just like I talked about yesterday.  She can now feed someone else if she chooses with the overage. When He fills us to overflowing, we can feed others with His provision.

Boaz instructs his men not to embarrass her if she picks up in areas where she was really not allowed.  But instead he tells them to pull some of their own stalks out and drop them so that she can glean them.  She continues gleaning until she has 22 liters worth of barley.  Can you imagine?  Sounds like a lot to lug around to me.  She goes back to town at the end of the day to Naomi.  She does choose to feed Naomi with her leftover bread.  Naomi wants to know where Ruth worked and blesses the man who took care of her.  Ruth tells her that she worked for Boaz.  And now, for the first time, Ruth finds out who Boaz is to her and to Naomi.  He is their close relative and kinsman redeemer.  As Ruth talks, Naomi reinforces what Boaz has said to Ruth about working with his girls and says that in another field she would be harmed.  And Ruth continues working there until the end of the harvest season.

This is a really big deal for Naomi to find out that Ruth is working for Boaz - her kinsman redeemer.  Perhaps in her heart she is swirling with the possibilities of what might happen with this situation.  Remember Naomi doubted God's goodness to her, but here is more hopefulness, and she acknowledges God's goodness.  In verse 20 she says, "He has not stopped showing his hesed to the living and the dead."  She planted seeds of doubt in Chapter 1, but God is going to be faithful to plant hope and faith to reap a harvest of blessing.  You see His covenant with His people depends on no one but Himself.

The kinsman-redeemer was to buy back a relative from bondage, to avenge a kinsman's murder, to redeem and object such as land through payment, act as a redeemer for a deceased kinsman as in marry his widow.  This is huge!  I want to shout Hallelujah for Ruth and Naomi, don't you?  But wait, it's gonna get even better!

You may be in a situation of doubt and hopelessness, but if you are His child, God is working it out for your good.  You may be in a situation of desperation, where you have nothing, but He is working it out to provide for you!  He is faithful to His children.  And He is faithful to those who put their trust in Him.  Allow Him to show you to measure of His goodness and send His reviving to you. 

Listen to this song, "Give Reviving" by Chelsey Scott.