Saturday Reading: Ruth 2:1-3
Key Verse: Ruth 2:2
2 And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.
Devotion:
Being able to sit down and study any book in our bibles should be something that we yearn to do; something that we strive to do each and every time that God allows us time for. I wonder what was going through Naomi’s mind at this stage because she does not complain nor make a fuss about things but rather tries to get on with life as best she can. This clearly did not go amiss from Ruth because she wanted to get out there and do what she could as well. The first thing she did was to offer to go out and work in the fields to get some food in.
Thankfully the famine was no longer blighting the area and the barley harvest was just starting. To be able to freely go into the fields and pick up the pieces that were left behind by the reapers was something that was expected and something that God even stipulated in the law for the people of Israel. Being able to allow poor people to gain some food without having to have something to start with was God’s way of making sure everyone was looked after in some way. Notice that the poor would not just sit back and expect things to come to them – much like our modern society expects – but rather they would be expected to get out there are work for their own food.
Ruth was clearly one who did not sit around and wait for things to happen but went forward and made things happen. She went out to glean from the fields to provide for her and Naomi; and God watched over her as she did exactly that. He made sure that the right people came out at the right time, that the right field was chosen and that everything was in place for her to be a part of God’s exacting plan.
It is not until the end of the book that we find out what God’s plan was – to make sure that the lineage of Mary and Joseph was kept and strengthened. God’s plan was to make sure that Ruth was married into the right family in the right place…
Points to Ponder:
Do you see what God has done in your past?
Are you looking forward to what God has in store for you now?
