Finding Safety in God's Care, the Story of RuthSample

Ruth takes care of Naomi

“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.’” (Ruth 2:2)

When Naomi and Ruth returned to Bethlehem, they did not have any source of income. But the Lord God had provided for the poor in Israel.

When someone had a field, vineyard, or orchard, he could only harvest it once. He could not pick up anything off the ground or go over the field or the trees a second time. Whatever was still there was free for “the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow” — so for those who were poor and vulnerable since they did not have any fields of their own. This way, nobody had to go hungry.

Ruth proposes to use this opportunity: being both a foreigner and a widow, she wants to go to a field and pick up the leftover grain. She shows courage, takes the initiative to provide for her mother-in-law, and is working hard all day, as the overseer on the field reports: “She came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest” (Ruth 2:7).

Ruth is not arrogant or lazy but takes the opportunity offered to her with both hands. Do you do the same?