“‘Keep your eyes on whichever field the reapers are working in, and follow the girls. I’ve ordered the young men not to bother you. Whenever you get thirsty, go and drink from the water jars the young men have filled.’ She fell on her face, prostrating herself, and said to him, ‘Why are you showing me such favor? Why are you paying attention to me? After all, I’m only a foreigner.‘”-Ruth 2:9-10
It seems like right from the get-go Ruth was on the receiving end of preferential treatment from Boaz.
He told the young male field workers not to interfere with her gleaning…
He also invited her to drink from the the water jugs that only Boaz’s hired workers were permitted to drink from.
This was huge!
Have you ever been to Israel during the summer time?
I went during the month of August…
And I tell you man it was steamin’ HOT!
My point is it was summertime in Judah when Ruth was gleaning…
Since temperatures were soaring, water would have been critical.
If Ruth had to leave the field to go fetch her own water, it would have seriously cut into her productivity.
Let me make it clear.
This was SPECIAL TREATMENT Ruth was getting.
The other gleaners would NOT have had this privilege.
Why was Ruth getting such special treatment?
Was it because Boaz as an old man wanted to stroke his ego and exercise his power by offering this privilege to a young and beautiful woman.
Well, knowing what I know about older guys, I can imagine that was part of it.
But that’s not the main reason.
Ruth was just as surprised as anyone at the special treatment she was getting.
So surprised in fact that she got down on her knees before Boaz and asked…
…“Why are you showing me such favor?
Why are you paying attention to me?
After all, I’m only a foreigner.”
There it is again, folks.
Can you see the clear reference to Ruth’s gentile heritage?
Yes, it’s true that Ruth left behind her Moabite heritage to take on a new identity and become one with Israel and their God…
But her biological ethnicity never changed (obviously).
Ruth was just blown away by the grace Boaz was showering upon her.
How in the world had she merited such favor?
Boaz answers her question in verse 11:
“I’ve heard the whole story,
everything you’ve done for
your mother-in-law since
your husband died,
including how you left
your father and mother
and the land you were born in
to come to a people about whom
you knew nothing beforehand.”
Boaz was indeed impressed with Ruth’s devotion to her elderly Jewish mother-in-law.
But he was even more impressed with her unwavering devotion to the Hebrew people…
A devotion so fervent that Ruth left her own family (a family that could have guaranteed her a secure life until she remarried) and switched allegiance from the nation of Moab to Israel.
It was this radical commitment and faith to his people and his nation that so fascinated Boaz.
The takeaway here is obvious.
I know a lot of gentile believers (especially those in Christian camp) only view the book of Ruth through the lens of how Boaz foreshadows the future Messiah.
Yeah man, that parallel is certainly there and boy oh boy are we gonna examine it…
But it ain’t the only parallel in the house homies.
Up until this point in the book of Ruth, there’s one other, just as important parallel being presented to us.
But you’re gonna miss it unless you absorb the WHOLE story in its FULL context…
And not allow yourself to be handcuffed by the doctrinal bias that exists in the gentile church…
A bias that says the book of Ruth is only a model of “Christ and His Church”.
You can’t just pick the parts of the story you like and discard the rest as irrelevant.
So understand this:
The first half of the book of Ruth is all about a gentile’s relationship with the children of Israel when she comes to faith in their God.
It’s all about how you can’t separate the two.
You can’t maintain a faith in the God of Israel without the people of Israel.
It can’t be done and it’s NOT Biblical.
Yet isn’t that what the gentile church has been trying to do since day one?
There’s a story in the New Testament about a Canaanite woman who wanted healing from Yeshua (for her daughter)...
But that was all she wanted…
She didn’t express any desire to switch her allegiance to Israel’s God…
Or become one with the Hebrews…
According to the text, she was just pestering Yeshua to heal her daughter…
And I guess afterwards, she would simply go back to her people and their pagan gods.
As a result, Yeshua referred to her and her people as “dogs”.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“A Canaanite woman from that
vicinity came to him, crying out,
‘Lord, Son of David,
have mercy on me!
My daughter is demon-possessed
and suffering terribly.’
Yeshua did not answer a word.
So his disciples came to him
and urged him,
‘Send her away,
for she keeps crying out after us.’
He answered, ‘
I was sent only to
the lost sheep of Israel.”
The woman came and knelt before him.
‘Lord, help me!’ she said.
He replied,
“It is not right to take
the children’s bread
and toss it to the dogs.’
‘Yes it is, Lord,’ she said.
‘Even the dogs eat the crumbs
that fall from their master’s table.‘”
-Matthew 15:22-27
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