Ruth invited by Boaz to eat at his table and to glean from his fields.

Ruth 2:13-17

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“Then she said, “Let me find favor in your sight, my lord; for you have comforted me, and have spoken to the heart of your maidservant, though I am not like one of your maidservants.” Ruth 2:13

Ruth was not like the Jewish maidservants because she was a Moabite. Even so, Boaz gave Ruth a place of belonging and comfort by speaking to her heart. This is like Jesus who gave the non-Jewish culture the right to become the children of God, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:11-13

Ruth desired the favor of Boaz as she said, “Let me find favor in your sight, my lord…” and this is what we should be asking of Jesus Christ, for His mercy and grace to be on us. Being a Moabite in a culture of Judaism could have been a terrifying experience for Ruth since the Moabites were known for serving the false god, Chemosh, and the Jewish people served the living God of Jesus Christ. She could have been beaten, stoned, and otherwise persecuted. As Christians, we are living in a world that has completely different values than what we have through our Lord Jesus. Even so, Jesus speaks to our heart and comforts us through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus prayed to His Father for us,“…Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept…I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world…I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me…I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” John 17:11-12,15-16, John 17:20-21, John 14:16-18

“Now Boaz said to her at mealtime, “Come here, and eat of the bread, and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed parched grain to her; and she ate and was satisfied, and kept some back. And when she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. Also let grain from the bundles fall purposely for her; leave it that she may glean, and do not rebuke her.” So she gleaned in the field until evening, and beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.” Ruth 2:14-17

Boaz invited Ruth to sit at his table and to eat her fill, and this points to our Lord Jesus who invites us to sit at His table to eat, “‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’” Revelation 19:9 Jesus is the Bread and Water of Life.

In Mattthew 14:15-24, Jesus tells a Parable of the Great Banquet, and here are some excerpts, “Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’…the owner of the house ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ …‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’…Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.”

Boaz sat Ruth, the Moabitess, at the table beside the Jewish reapers, as an equal, and passed grain to her so she could eat to her satisfaction, and she had some leftover. Our Lord Jesus made everybody an equal at His banquet table, as quoted, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:26-28 Jesus gives everyone the grain of His word, to fill our mind, spirit, and soul, and there is plenty left over to share with others.

Boaz gave his men orders to allow Ruth to glean from the sheaves, meaning to fill her basket with the grain that was harvested by the Jewish reapers. These gleanings would come as the Jewish reapers would purposely let grain fall from the sheaves just for Ruth. At the end of the day, it was a lot. Today, we could say that the gleanings we have from the Jewish people is the Old Testament, the sheaves of the Old Testament from where we glean the “scarlet cord” that points to Jesus as the Christ and Savior of the world. Our Lord Jesus left those gleanings purposely for everyone who believes in Him as the Jewish culture no longer holds a monopoly on the word of God. What we Christians glean from the Old Testament is a lot.

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:1