Ruth 1-2

“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” (2:3).  Ruth’s story is set during the violent, chaotic, terrible time of the Judges (Ruth 1:1).  However, the story of two vulnerable, poor widows, Ruth and Noami, was dramatically different because Boaz was “a worthy man.” He protected the women who worked in his fields (2:9-11,22), and he in turn admired Ruth’s sacrificial loyalty to her mother-in-law.

Sickness, death, and disaster are unavoidable.  But Boaz and Ruth show us that when God’s people choose to respond to adversity with compassion and self-control, the end of the story is transformed.