March 16, 2026 - Ruth 2

The heading for chapter 2 in my Bible reads “Ruth Meets Boaz.”  I thought I would take a look at the internet to discover other life changing meetings between people, and I came up with “10 Chance Meetings That Changed the World.”  Among the encounters were F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and Henry Ford and Thomas Edison.  From these “chance” encounters emerged changes that have shaped our contemporary world.  Of course, the coming together of Ruth and Boaz was not by chance at all.  Chapter two begins, “Now Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz” (2:1).  A family connection.  But, of course, not just any family connection; rather, a wealthy, land-owning connection.  Ruth and Naomi were hungry, 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” (2:3).  Just “happened’ to come to that field?  I don’t think so!  Nothing in this story suggests mere happenstance.  After Ruth has gathered her grain, Naomi pronounces, “May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” (2:20)  Who is the referent of “whose,” Boaz or the Lord?  Likely both, and Ruth has received blessing from the Lord through the Lord’s chosen vessel, just as Israel and we have experienced time and time again.  I read a headline, this morning, concerning the actor who, last evening, won the Oscar for best actor.  The first words of his acceptance speech were “God is good.”  However he meant those words, we, along with Ruth, can testify that the Lord is good!  No merely chance encounter, here!

O God of Bethel, by whose hand

thy people still are fed,

who through this weary pilgrimage

hast all our fathers led;

Our vows, our prayers, we now present

before thy throne of grace;

God of our fathers, be the God

of their succeeding race.

Through each perplexing path of life

our wandering footsteps guide;

give us each day our daily bread,

and raiment fit provide.

O spread thy covering wings around

till all our wanderings cease,

and at our Father’s loved abode

our souls arrive in peace.   -- Philip Doddridge (1736)