Was opportunity knocking? When Boaz opened the door, the will of God was standing there.
Two women walking down the main street of Bethlehem were a sight to behold. The womenfolk peered intently, wondering who they were. But there was something about the gait of the older one. “Is this Naomi?” they asked (Ruth 1:19). No, she replied, for her name means “pleasant.” “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home again empty” (vv 20-21). But wait, Naomi. Didn’t you go out empty, during famine time? Ah, yes, but the hardest times under the Lord’s hand are still better than the best times away in Moab. But the Lord didn’t take long to fill her up again! They never did call her Mara. We are told, “they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest” (v 22), the first field crop harvested in the spring. And who is the richest man in the countryside? Boaz, “a relative of Naomi’s husband, a man of great wealth” (2:1) who had stayed and submitted to the discipline of God. “No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb 12:11). Immediately upon arrival, Ruth asked her mother-in-law, “Please let me go to the field, and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor” (v 2). Gleaning was the workfare, not welfare, that Israel’s God provided the poor. Naomi gave her approval, but no directions. But her hap happened, as the Hebrew has it, that she began working in “the part of the field belonging to Boaz” (v 3). Well, that was a happy happening! Soon Boaz came to inspect his workers, and what did he see? A young woman in his field! This year’s harvest could be a very fruitful one indeed.