Under His Wings: God as Our Refuge
Under His Wings: God as Our Refuge
Ruth 1:19 – 2:14
Merriam-Webster defines refuge as “shelter or protection from danger or distress.” As a verb it means “to seek or take refuge.” Refuge is something you seek, take, or find. How many of you have ever been caught in a storm?
In the fall of 2018, my wife and boys stopped at a truck stop in New Jersey while on the road with her dad in his big rig. When they went into the truck stop the skies were crystal clear. They weren’t in there more than 20 minutes when they came back out to head back to the truck.
When they exited the building there wasn’t a single drop of rain. By the time they got to the truck the cold, giant raindrops came so fast with the wind that they were soaked through their clothes. The cab of the big rig suddenly became a place where they sought refuge from the storm.
Our homes are often a refuge for us. After a long stressful day at work, or just life, how many of you like to curl up on the couch with a blanket and forget your worries while watching Netflix? Home sweet home is certainly a refuge for many, a place of peace, protection, and comfort.
When the storms of life hit, people often don’t know where to turn. Many turn to find refuge in distractions, substances, relationships, disappearing into a crowd, or in isolation. Most often, when the storms of life hit, people try and weather it on their own strength. They might hang on for a bit, white knuckling their way through it, but ultimately they need something, or rather someone, greater than themselves.
We pick up our journey through the Book of Ruth after Ruth has committed herself fully to Naomi as Naomi returns home to Bethlehem after over a decade in Moab and losing her husband and sons.
God brought famine on the land, Naomi’s family left to seek relief from the famine but instead found grief. Then after God removed the famine and restocked the house of bread, Naomi decided to head back, and Ruth would not be separated from her. Let’s read God’s Word together: Ruth 1:19 – 22.
The two of them went on their journey to Bethlehem, and when they got there Scripture says that the whole town was stirred because of them. One could say that the whole town was abuzz with activity because suddenly one of their own who had been gone for over decade was suddenly back.
No doubt that Naomi’s relatives had all heard of the grief she experienced since her and her husband had packed up and head for Moab. It’s easy to see why the whole town was buzzing when she suddenly appears unannounced. And not only does she suddenly show up without warning, but she’s also got a foreign young woman in tow.
The reality of the surprise among the women in the town is seen in the question, “Is this Naomi?” This question describes two things, Naomi’s remarkable sudden appearance, and her likely change in appearance being over a decade older and having withstood such grief and deprivation in a foreign land.
Both her sudden appearance and physical appearance were likely shocking. Naomi’s name meant, “the pleasant one.” The pleasant one who had left Bethlehem had returned a worn out and destitute old woman. This fact isn’t lost on Naomi. Overhearing the question burning through the town like wildfire, Naomi retorts by telling them to call her Mara instead. The name Mara comes from the Hebrew word that means, “to be bitter.”
Naomi’s life had certainly become bitter. She says the Almighty, Shaddai, has dealt bitterly with her. She went away full, with a husband and two sons, a very full future indeed. There was hope of life, of provision, of safety, and a future when she went away.
Instead, the Lord, YHWH, brought her back empty. No husband, no sons, no means of security and provision, no means of survival, and no future. She goes on to ask, why call her Naomi, why call her the pleasant one, when the Lord, YHWH, had testified against her, the almighty has brought disaster upon her.
Don’t miss this. Naomi places blame for her lot in life squarely on the Lord God Almighty. In describing her bitter situation she invokes his name four times, the abbreviated Shaddai twice, and YHWH twice. But Naomi herself is missing something in her equation here.
She says that “I went away full.” God didn’t tell her and Elimelech to take their family to Moab. He didn’t tell them to go seek refuge and relief from the famine in Bethlehem, that He brought upon them, in the land of a people deemed wicked by the Lord God Almighty. They decided that entirely on their own.
Naomi and her family sought refuge by their own wisdom, by their own merits and strength. They took matters into their own hands rather than trust in God to rescue them and provide for them. Naomi may have come back home in faith, but her faith in this moment is a flawed faith.
She couldn’t see the human cause in Israel’s famine and in her own trials and struggles. It was spelled out in God’s covenant with Israel; He told them what would happen if they turned away from him and worshipped other gods. Because she couldn’t see the truth, the woman that the other women of Bethlehem greet is a bitter old woman.
Naomi does indeed ascribe sovereignty to God. She recognizes that He brought her back empty, that He has spoken against her, and the He has brought disaster upon her. Though she can’t see past her bitterness and recognize her role in bringing this on, she recognizes God’s sovereignty.
Though the sovereignty she sees is sovereignty without grace. An omnipotent power without compassion. A righteous judge without mercy. Naomi right now has the same misconception about God that may modern people do when they read the OT.
Many folks view the God of the OT as a punitive, vengeful, and wrathful God. Yes, God is a just God who will have justice, but He is also a God of mercy and grace and love. He is a God who shows His children hesed. He is the same God who so loved the world that He sent His only Son to die, so that those who believe in Him could have eternal life.
Same God, though Naomi can’t see that God through her pain and bitterness right now. But He’s there. He’s already demonstrated his care for His people by lifting the famine in Bethlehem and bringing food to them. And though God brings Naomi back empty, He won’t leave her that way. Let’s go back to our passage: Ruth 2:1 – 7.
The book of Ruth now introduces a new character, Boaz. Boaz is a relative of Naomi’s husband. It says he’s a worthy man of his clan. Really, the phrase translated as worthy is the same phrased used in Judges 6 about Gideon, a mighty man of valor. Here, it’s describing Boaz as a mighty man of wealth.
In its simplest sense the expression means “man of substance, wealth,” so a man of standing in the community. Boaz is not an ordinary, run-of-the-mill Israelite, he’s somebody in their town. The literary connection to Gideon foreshadows Boaz’s role in this story. As Gideon delivered his people from oppression, Boaz is going to do something big here.
Ruth now takes center stage in the story. She takes the initiative now to act and do something, that something is to go out and provide for herself and Naomi in the only way widows can, by the benevolence of others.
Notice how Ruth is again referred to as the Moabite. This reflects the extraordinary nature of her action. Ruth, an alien from a despised land in a foreign country, is absolutely determined to make something of her life. So, she approaches her mother-in-law and asks her to be able to get some food for them by gleaning in the fields.
Gleaning was different than harvesting. Gleaning involves picking up ears of grain, or clusters of grapes, or fruit that is left behind after the harvesters pass through. These are the scraps that were dropped or missed and left standing after harvest. Most would assume that the field owner would want the harvesters to go back and get what they missed, but that’s not the case according to the Mosaic law.
Through the law God gave Moses, He displayed particular compassion for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow by commanding that harvesters deliberately leave behind grain in the corners of their fields for these most vulnerable people instead of going back to get what they missed.
19 When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands (Deuteronomy 24:19).
Though Ruth qualifies on two counts to glean in the fields, she knows she for the same two reasons she cannot count on the goodwill of the locals. As such, Ruth hopes to glean in the field of someone in whose eyes she finds favor. She’s aware that the right to glean was frequently denied to the destitute and that she’s entirely dependent on the mercy of the men in the field.
Naomi says to Ruth, “Go, my daughter,” and she goes. While she’s gleaning she happens to come to the part of the field that belongs to Boaz. Talk about a stroke of luck! That’s literally what’s written in Hebrew, “and her chance chanced upon the allotted portion of the field of Boaz.”
What does luck have to do with it? In a book that right away God’s sovereignty is so brightly highlighted, why would there suddenly be something attributed to luck? Orthodox Israelite belief maintained that there was no such thing as luck, that everything is determined by God.
This is ironic on the part of the writer. The writer isn’t really saying that it was luck that brought Ruth to Boaz’s field. By excessively attributing this to chance, the writer is forcing the reader to say, “wait a minute, luck? No way.”
By doing this the writer of Ruth is screaming, “hey, look over here and see the hand of God at work!” The same hand that had sent famine and later provided food is the hand that brought Naomi and Ruth to Bethlehem precisely at the beginning of the harvest and has now guided Ruth to the portion of the field that belongs to Boaz. There is no stroke of luck here, it is entirely a movement of God’s mighty hand, and God’s providence will become clear as the story progresses.
While Ruth is out there gleaning, Boaz came out to his field to check things out. He greets his workers, and then he finds his foreman. Boaz noticed Ruth out there gleaning, so he asks his foreman about her. The foreman tells Boaz what has already been made known about her, that she’s the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from Moab.
The foreman adds that Ruth asked him to allow her to glean and gather in bundles after the harvesters. And he describes quite the work ethic. Ruth got there in the morning and kept working all day until Boaz got there, except for a short break. Let’s go to our Scripture to see how Boaz responds to this young foreign woman in his field. Ruth 2:8 – 10.
Boaz now speaks to Ruth directly, and rather than indifference or even disdain for this foreign woman gleaning in his field. Instead, he demonstrates such tenderness and kindness and compassion on this woman.
Calling her, “my daughter,” telling her not to leave his field and go glean in another field, and to keep close to his young women who are harvesting for him. His compassion for Ruth is out of this world, and his calling her my daughter not only is reminiscent of how Naomi saw Ruth but also demonstrates the sense of responsibility that Boaz feels for Ruth. Despite him knowing she is a Moabite, he offers her his protection and his resources.
He tells her to watch where the harvesters go, and to follow them. He instructs the men working for him to not touch her, to leave her alone to glean, and he tells her that she can go drink the water the men have drawn. To understand how radically compassionate and caring that is you must understand that in their culture, foreigners would normally draw water for Israelites, and women would draw water for the men.
Boaz allowing Ruth to drink from the water his men had drawn is extraordinary. Indeed, from the first time Boaz opens his mouth in this book to the last words he says in chapter 4, his tone drips with compassion, grace, and generosity. In this man who speaks to this Moabite field worker, true biblical hesed is embodied in the flesh.
Don’t miss the foreshadowing here, the picture of God’s love for His people is developing, the image of Jesus Christ and his bride, the church, is starting to come into focus.
Ruth simply cannot believe the loving kindness she receives from Boaz. She’s so overwhelmed by it that she falls on her face and essentially worships him. She has no idea what’s in store for her, but she is overwhelmed by his grace right now.
Boaz had dignified this destitute widow from a despised foreign land and treated her as a significant person, on the same level as his hired, and likely, Israelite workers. Ruth, who is clearly extremely self-aware of her foreign status, simply cannot believe Boaz’s indifference to the fact that she is a Moabite. So much so, that she just must ask why.
Choose to trust God as your refuge regardless of your status and circumstances in life and experience the hesed that only God can provide.
God draws people to Himself. He draws the from the greatest to the least to Himself. God shows no partiality in whom he has mercy and compassion on.
Instead, he draws the lowly and the wealthy, the despised and the beloved, the bitter and the pleasant, the weak and the strong, the hurting and the happy, the sinner and the saint to Himself and brings them under His wings. Let’s go back and read how Boaz answers Ruth: Ruth 2:11–14.
Boaz acknowledges her extraordinary kindness, her hesed to her mother-in-law and her extraordinary courage in accompanying her back to Bethlehem. Ruth’s response to Naomi releasing her from any obligation to her was radical and irrational, but this answer from Boaz is incomplete. His treatment of Ruth is so much more than just returning the favor.
The providence of God is on full display here. Ruth had expressed her wish to Naomi that she might glean behind someone in whose eyes she might find favor. God heard her wish; Boaz is kind to Ruth because God prepared his heart for her.
And you can see that in Ruth’s acknowledgement that she has indeed found favor in his eyes, that he has comforted and spoken kindly to her even though she isn’t one of his servants. And more than that, Boaz brought her to sit among his harvesters at mealtime, serving her himself, and letting this poor foreign widow eat until she was satisfied and had leftovers.
Naomi withdrew herself away from God, God drew Ruth to Naomi and drew them both back to Bethlehem. It was not by chance that Ruth ended up in Boaz’s field, it was God’s hand at work. It was God who drew Ruth to himself, and it was in God that Ruth sought refuge, under His wings.
Just as Boaz embodied hesed for Ruth, Jesus Christ embodied hesed when came down from heaven and was born as flesh and blood. Just as Boaz had compassion upon Ruth the destitute Moabite widow, Jesus has compassion on the lowliest sinner.
Just as Boaz treated Ruth as someone significant and gave her an equal seat at his table, so Jesus washes us clean from our sins and gives an equal seat at his table. Just as Boaz served Ruth himself and let her have her fill, Jesus serves his disciples, teaching them to serve others, and he alone fills our souls.
Just as Boaz was God’s wings that provided refuge to Ruth, so Jesus is where we find refuge and peace, protection, and provision when the storms of life come blowing our way. And if you don’t know how to find that refuge in Jesus Christ, come see me after church and let’s talk about the gospel.
Psalm 46:1 says, 1 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” God is your refuge and your strength; He sustains you when you feel like you have nothing left to give this life. The truth is, He always sustains you, even when you don’t feel it God is your ever-present help.
When the storms of life have beat you down, choose to trust God as your refuge. When you feel the most unworthy, a foreigner stained by sin among God’s people, trust God as your refuge and as the one whose loving kindness is unmatched and provides for you.
Let’s pray.