Taking Refuge Under God's Wings | Ruth 1:22-2:23

Waiting is not easy. Mark Vroegop suggests five times (or reasons) waiting is hard:

• Uncertainty about the future forces you to wait with more or less discomfort.

• Unexpected delays put you in a holding pattern, which can be frustrating. 

• The devastating disappointment of unfulfilled desires (like singleness or infertility or a wayward child) dooms you to waiting.

• Pain. Few things make time seem to crawl than the presence of pain, whether physical or emotional. When we hurt, the only question is, When will it end?

• And powerlessness. Waiting is hard when you are dependent on others.

Advent is a season of waiting. We just sang the words of Charles Wesley’s Christmas hymn:

Come, thou long expected Jesus,

born to set thy people free;

from our fears and sins release us,

let us find our rest in thee.

Life in a fallen world is full of uncertainty, delays, disappointment, pain, and weakness. What do you do when you are waiting for God to act? What do you do when you trust the Lord but his promises remain unfulfilled? Do you grow weary and lose heart? Do you give in to doubt and unbelief? Or do you wait with patience, full of hope, trusting that God will keep his word?  

Fighting the fight of faith requires knowing how to wait with hope. And in Ruth 2, God reveals himself in a way meant to fill you with hope.

Ruth 1:22–2:23

22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

2 Now Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. 2 And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” 3 So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech. 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 favor 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 favor 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. 18 And she took it up and went into the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied. 19 And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” 20 And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.” 21 And Ruth the Moabite said, “Besides, he said to me, ‘You shall keep close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’” 22 And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, lest in another field you be assaulted.” 23 So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

When you rely on God—when you take him at his Word and act accordingly no matter what your eyes can see, no matter what your heart feels—there will always be a period of time when the fulfillment of God’s promises remains (to you) future and unseen.

Imagine you’re a character in a story. The author exists outside of the story, but you exist entirely within the story. The author weaves the plot and knows the end from the beginning. But you experience the story one page at a time, one line at a time.

Think about Naomi’s limited perspective within her own story. When she arrived in Bethlehem after more than a decade in Moab—bereaved of husband and sons—she had no idea where her story was heading. She knew there was an author, but based on the uncertainty, the disappointments, the pain in her life in Act I, she concluded (wrongly) that God was against her: 

“She said to them, ‘Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?’” (Ruth 1:20–21). 

But Act II of Ruth and Naomi’s story continues. And Ruth 2 exists to assure you that God is always working for the good of those who trust him. The main point of Act II in Ruth is that God rewards those who seek him. That is the truth about God revealed here that will sustain your hope in suffering.

I get that from the words of Boaz located in the structural center of the story. We’ve seen this before in Hebrew literature, where the author uses a carefully crafted structure called a chiasm—an up and down pattern like A-B-C-B-A. This is a long chiasm with many pairs, but I’ll mention a few. The story begins in 1:22 “at the beginning of barley harvest” and it ends in 2:23 at “the end of the barley and wheat harvests.” The drama commences and concludes with dialogue between Ruth and Naomi (2:2; 2:21–22). Ruth goes to the field to glean, then she’s offered water (2:8–9); later she is offered food, then she continues gleaning in the field (2:14–20)

At the very center of the chiasm—which is like the peak of the mountain or the tip of the spear—is the main point. And it comes from the lips of Boaz, the story’s newest character. In verse 10, Ruth asked Boaz a question expressing great humility and gratitude: “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” (Ruth 2:10).

And in vv. 11–12, Boaz answers: “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. 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!’” (Ruth 2:11–12).

That’s the main point: God rewards those who seek him. God shows steadfast love and kindness to those who take refuge in him. My aim is to convince you that God always rewards those who seek him so that you will persevere in faith through times of uncertainty, frustration, disappointment, pain, and powerlessness.

The Recipients of God’s Favor

To whom does God show his favor? God's common grace is his general kindness to the just and the unjust. He causes the sun to shine and the rain to fall on the righteous and the wicked. But God treats some people with saving grace—his divine favor directed toward some for their deliverance and salvation and eternal good (not just temporal good).

To whom does God show such favor? Who are the recipients of God’s favor? The answer is found in Boaz’s words to Ruth, a foreigner from the pagan, idol-worshiping people of Moab: “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!’” (Ruth 2:12). The recipients—the objects—of God’s favor are those who trust in him.

When Boaz talks of the LORD repaying and rewarding Ruth for what she did, is Boaz talking about works-righteousness? Is he thinking in terms of salvation by works, or what we would call legalism?

No! Boaz’s blessing asks God to fulfill his promises to work on behalf of those who rely on him. 

What was Ruth’s work? What were Ruth’s deeds? Boaz describes her as seeking refuge under God’s wings (2:12). The image is a mother bird spreading her wings over helpless chicks to protect them. That happened when she left her father and mother and land and gods and clung to Naomi. Her profession of faith is worth repeating: “For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16–17).

It’s impossible to construe what Ruth did as a service rendered to God that met some kind of need in God and therefore left God in her debt. Seeking refuge is the action of one in need. What kind of reward does one who seeks refuge in God hope for? The reward would be to find refuge, shelter, and help.

Psalm 57:1 records a desperate prayer of David while he was run for his life from Saul in a cave: “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.”

That is not the prayer of someone in a position to demand payment from God. Pay careful attention to David’s logic. David bases his plea for mercy, not in some service he rendered to God, but simply in the fact that he is seeking refuge in the shadow of God’s wings. “Help me because I’m looking to you for help.”

I picture a vessel caught in stormy seas, taking on water. The captain radios the Coast Guard and cries in distress, “Mayday, mayday, mayday!” And the Coast Guard will respond immediately. What condition must a vessel meet? They must be in distress and call for help. They do not earn or deserve their rescue.

God's favor is unmerited. That is, it’s not earned or deserved. But it’s not “unconditional.” To be a recipient of God’s favor, you must trust him, rely on him, seek refuge in him. That is the condition! God delivers those who call upon him; he rewards those who seek him … like Ruth.

Ruth displays what James, in the New Testament, calls living and active faith. She didn’t merely say she believed in the God of Israel. Her faith was evident in her works (Jas 2:18).

Ruth was proactive, not passive. She took initiative (and risk) to go work in the field (v. 2). She was industrious and diligent, not lazy. The foreman tells Boaz, “So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest” (v. 7). And it says in vv. 17–18, “So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. [That’s probably 30–50 pounds of grain.] And she took it up and went into the city.”

Have you ever said when facing some crisis or challenge, “I’ve prayed and I’ve prayed, but nothing has happened”? Pay attention to Ruth’s example of living and active faith. Praying about a problem is good and right. And then by faith you have to do the next right thing God puts before you.

Ruth was also grateful, not entitled or demanding. She saw herself as a recipient of undeserved favor: “Then she said, ‘I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants’” (Ruth 2:13). Ruth is not merely stating fact, she is expressing gratitude. She’s saying, in effect, “You are too kind!” And gratitude is a mark of humility.

Who can confidently expect to receive mercy and grace from God to help in time of need? If Ruth the Moabitess could find refuge by faith, then you can be sure that God will be gracious and merciful to you if you come to him trusting in his Son, Jesus Christ.

The Means of God’s Favor (Boaz’s Grace)

How does God graciously work in the lives of those who trust him? In Ruth 2, we see that God works providentially through circumstances and people.

Notice God’s providential timing: “So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest” (Ruth 1:22). The reason Elimelech and Naomi left Bethlehem to sojourn in Moab was because of a famine (Ruth 1:1). And the reason Naomi decided to return from Moab to Bethlehem after more than a decade was because “she had heard in the fields of Moab that the LORD had visited his people and given them food” (Ruth 1:6). And Ruth and Naomi arrived in Bethlehem—which means “house of bread,” by the way—just in time for the first harvest of the year.

Then there was providential placement. “So [Ruth] set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech” (Ruth 2:3). “She happened to come ….” Literally, “her chance chanced upon” Boaz’s field. The expression is redundant, emphasizing how serendipitous this was.

But why does the biblical author attribute Ruth’s success to luck and not explicitly to God? It seems the author is describing things from the human vantage of the characters in the story, in a way meant to grab our attention. One commentator says the author is “screaming, ‘See the hand of God at work here!’” When you are the suffering character in the story, events might feel like random chance. But Ruth 2 reveals that there is a wise and good Author behind it all.

God also works providentially through people. Verse 4 says, “And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem.” Behold! That’s like saying, Wouldn’t you know it, Boaz arrived. It just happened that Ruth ended up in Boaz’s field. And it just happened that Boaz came to visit his field.

The author foreshadowed Boaz’s importance in the story at the very beginning: “Now Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz” (Ruth 2:1). Not only was he a relative of Elimelech, but he was also “a worthy man” (ESV). That word can have a range of meanings, as seen in various translations: “A man of standing” (NIV), “A prominent rich man” (NRSV), or, “A mighty man of wealth” (KJV). Some of these capture the two senses of the word: means and maturity, competence and character.

And when Boaz arrives on the scene, the first thing we notice is his faith: “And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, ‘The LORD be with you!’ And they answered, ‘The LORD bless you’” (Ruth 2:4). Boaz believed God was present with his people. He speaks to his workers with kindness, and his workers bless him back.

From there, our admiration for Boaz’s character only grows. “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” (Ruth 2:14).

Boaz invited Ruth, a foreign woman, to come near. He offered her food, and it says that he himself served her. And he gave her so much that she had leftovers to take home to Naomi. Boaz enfleshes God’s steadfast love and kindness toward Ruth. In the kindness of Boaz we discern the kindness of God, who works providentially through people.

Another hidden providence of God in this story is the very law of God that created a social environment where an impoverished foreign woman had economic opportunity. “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands” (Deuteronomy 24:19).

Gleaning was different from harvesting. Gleaning was the work of picking up ears of grain dropped or missed by the harvesters. And God’s Law expressed concern for the poor and needy by requiring landowners to leave gleanings behind (Lev 19:9–10; 23:22; Deut 24:19).

Of course, the fact that these events happened “in the days of the judges” means there was no guarantee God’s law would be applied. But that just adds to our amazement at God’s providence in Ruth’s life. She happened to come to a field owned by a man who happened to be a relative, who happened to trust God and obey his wise and gracious commands.

That’s all good for Ruth and Naomi’s story, but what about your story? It’s true: this text does not reveal the specifics of your story. It’s not a key to decoding the hand of Providence in all of the timing and placement and people in your life. But it is meant to assure you that God—whom you cannot see—is at work in this world through means you can see, whether or not you see how.

The Heidelberg Catechism’s definition of Providence remains unmatched: “God's providence is his almighty and ever present power, whereby, as with his hand, he still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures, and so governs them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things, come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand.”

Are you convinced, not just that God’s hand is mighty, but that his hand is fatherly? You must trust him if you are to wait with hope through uncertainty and pain.

The Effect of God’s Favor (Naomi’s Hope)

By the end of Ruth 2, we’re only halfway through Ruth and Naomi’s story. Only a sliver of God’s good purposes towards these destitute women has been revealed. More twists and turns will come. But don’t miss the effect of God’s favor on their lives in the middle of their story.

Remarkably, it’s Naomi who begins to express hope at the end of Act II. Ruth had left empty-handed but full of faith (2:2). She returned laden with abundance after one day gleaning in the field

And listen to Naomi’s response: “And her mother-in-law said to her, ‘Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you. … May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!’” (Ruth 2:19–20).

She saw the provision of daily bread as a reassurance of God’s kindness and faithfulness to her family, both the living (Naomi and Ruth) and the dead (Elimelech and his sons). Naomi interpreted Ruth’s success as evidence of God’s grace.

Do you hear the change in Naomi’s voice? Remember her words in chapter 1? She told her daughters-in-law that her situation was hopeless (1:12). “No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me” (Ruth 1:13). When she returned to Bethlehem, she told her old acquaintances, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?” (Ruth 1:20–21).

Listen to Naomi’s judgments about herself, her situation, and God: I am bitter and empty; my situation is hopeless; God is against me.

If you detach the sovereignty of God from the wisdom and goodness of God, you will be tempted to think hard and bitter thoughts toward God. “You did this to me!” Instead of producing comfort and peace, that thought will always provoke bitterness.

But by the end of chapter 2, Naomi begins to recover hope. When Naomi learned that the name of the kind and generous landowner was Boaz, she remarked, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers” (2:20). We can almost see the wheels in her head turning. Naomi has begun to hope that God may be acting for her good.

A redeemer was a person with specific legal rights and responsibilities under Israelite family law (cf. Lev 25, 27; Num 35; Deut 19). In ancient Israel, a person who fell on hard times would sell property and/or persons. But God’s Law protected property and people by guaranteeing the right to buy them back. If the person in poverty couldn’t afford to buy his land or his freedom, his closest family relative—called a redeemer—had that right. The role of the redeemer was to recover for the family anyone and anything that had been lost in hard times. 

So when Naomi realized Ruth had met Boaz, a generous man who happened to be one of their redeemers, she began to hope. Perhaps the kindness of God might just exceed what Naomi could ask or imagine.

And look at the power of hope in Naomi’s life. When the chapter began, Ruth brought up the idea of working in the fields, and Naomi responded flatly, “Go, my daughter.” She consents, but she sounds depressed, perhaps resigned to her fate.

But by the end of the chapter, Naomi is energetic and optimistic. The last scene (vv. 17–23) is a flurry of excited conversation between Ruth and Naomi. They are both full of hope.

Hope is powerful; beware of hopelessness. Seasons of bitter providence are exponentially worse without hope. Prolonged suffering of any kind has the potential to turn into a problem of hopelessness and despair. You know you’ve hit that point when you start saying things like, “It’s been like this for so long. I’ve tried everything. Nothing will ever change.” And hopelessness quickly spirals into fear, anxiety, depression, and bitterness. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12).

Conclusion

Are you facing uncertainty, unexpected delays, unfulfilled desires, or unresolved pain? Seek your refuge under God’s wings.

God has given you his Word—the story of Ruth and all Scripture breathed out by God—in order to fill you with hope and assure you that God is working for your good. God rewards those who seek him.
And the greatest proof of that is not found in Ruth or Boaz, but in the One descended from them, born in their village of Bethlehem.  As we sing in the Christmas song There Blooms a Rose in Bethlehem:

There blooms a rose in Bethlehem

From tender stem hath sprung

Of Jesse’s line this flower grows

As men of old have sung

Isaiah told us long ago

About this rose we’d find

In virgin arms we shall behold

The Savior of mankind

This flow’r in bloom, a scent so sweet

That greets us in the air

It has dispelled with hopefulness

The sting of death’s despair

Foretold, this rose was born to die

But would not see decay

So those who place their faith in Him

Shall blossom from the grave