Ruth 2:11 – 12 “Boaz replied, ‘I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband – how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the Lord repay you for what you […]

Ruth 2:10 “At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, ‘Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me – a foreigner?” When Ruth followed Naomi to Bethlehem, she knew what she was in for. She had been fairly warned. She was a foreigner – the […]

Ruth 2:8 – 9 “So Boaz said to Ruth, ‘My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch […]

Ruth 2:6 – 7 “The foreman replied, “She is a Moabitess who came back from Moab with Naomi. She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She went into the field and has worked steadily from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.” Do you […]

Ruth 2:4 – 5 “Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, ‘The Lord be with you!’ ‘The Lord bless you!’ they called back. Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, ‘Whose young woman is that?” Boaz was one of the most eligible bachelors in Bethlehem. He was rich. He was powerful. And […]

Ruth 2:1 – 3 “Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, from the clan of Elimelech, a man of standing, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, ‘Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.’ Naomi said […]

Ruth 1:22 “So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.” When Naomi and her family left Bethlehem ten years earlier, they were hoping to find life. Her husband had heard there was more food in Moab, so off they went. But instead […]

Ruth 1:20 – 21 “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” Naomi, Naomi. What happened […]

Ruth 1:19 “So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” Ten years ago, I was still in my twenties. (Just barely.) In the last ten years, Mark and I have been […]

Ruth 1:18 “When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.” I love this little verse. Hidden within its words is the wisdom of the ages. Or at least the wisdom of the aged. Those of us who have lived a little, who have experienced some difficult things have […]