Help! Love, MOM

Part 2 of “The Smell of Hard Work and Success”

Two posts ago, we visited Naomi, who, having been providentially led by the LORD to return home at the time of a God-provided harvest — for [Naomi] had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread, Ruth 1:13 — declared that the hand of the LORD had “gone out against her” and that she had returned to Israel “empty.”

In other words, according to The Gospel Coalition , Naomi shows that she “understood that her adversity was not due to chance or mere circumstance, but history was playing out according to the providence of God.”

Naomi, therefore, at this point, does not take a balanced view of God. Her sorrow paints God as punitive, pitiless, merciless.

This mindset is a common in the midst of tragedies, failures, heartbreaks, disasters.

If we are invited to do so, let us enter into these broken spaces with Christ’s gentle compassion and genuine kindness toward the wounded, the weak and the weary.

We ended with a question: What does waiting on God actually look like?

The LORD in the book of Ruth gives the context for at least 6 ways in which Naomi and Ruth demonstrated or benefitted from “waiting well.

Waiting Well Reveals Purpose

God in His sovereignty gave humans agency. We who are made in the image and likeness of God, that’s everyone, possess the ability to get “the job” done!

But what “job” and why that particular one are crucial life questions.

Through waiting, the Lord, provides answers to the what and the why of our lives.

In Naomi and Ruth’s case the purpose for their waiting was to bring the outsider, Ruth into the very heart of God’s plans. Through Boaz and Ruth — and others! – the heavenly Kinsman Redeemer, Jesus would be born.

Also, in the nearer term, Ruth and Naomi received blessing and favor in their present and future despite the bitterness and failures of the past. Their waiting was well rewarded!

Ruth goes to work – for Naomi

When Ruth asked could she go to glean in a field, Naomi gave her permission. To glean was to pick up leftover grain; it was a form of social charity or relief for the very poor.

Naomi’s permission to do so was also a way for her to accept help and her current situation; that of poor widowed woman.

Naomi’s permission may also signal a new relationship with Ruth. In the update Ruth is not a daughter-in-law but a beloved daughter.

The surrogate mother, Naomi, and the new daughter, Ruth, are “in it” together.

Do. The. Work.

Surprised? Yes, waiting well has a working well component.

After Naomi agreed to Ruth’s request to work to support them, Ruth completed the work of gleaning grain in the field. It is not enough to talk about work. We have to energetically and consistently do the work.

In this case the work was not especially or obviously spiritual. Ruth engaged in the mundane yet momentous work of breadwinner.

Biblically, work need not be glamorous to be great. Given by God from the beginning, work is inherently dignified.

• Work on the marriage.
• Preach the message.
• Apologize.
• Attend the game.
• Ask for, then work the extra shift.
• Apply for the grant.
• Meet with the team.
• Practice another hour.
• Rethink the plans.
• Do. The. Work.

Change Your Perspective!

A pivotal breakthrough happens in the narrative:

And Naomi said unto her daughter in law, Blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen. Ruth 2:20

When Naomi discovers that Ruth went to work in the field of a relative of her deceased husband, faith begins to rise in her heart.

Her perspective shifts from emptiness to possibility that God is at work in their wandering. It is as if she says to herself, “The LORD, the LORD God sees me.”

This is not the bitter, unbalanced viewpoint which lamented, “call me Mara (bitter).” This is the voice of covenantal promise where Naomi could rightly expect…

[The kinsman redeemer] to perform the Levirate Law by marrying a widow in the family who had no male heirs and produce a progeny for the dead husband (Deut 25:5–6; see comment on Ruth 1:11); from The Gospel Coalition

Somehow, when Naomi discovered that Ruth harvested in Boaz’s field, she could see and sense God at work. Naomi was on a journey from bitter to blessed.

While a changed perspective can take time to be birthed and to build, it is evidence of waiting well.

Naomi Went To Work- for Ruth

When Naomi could see God better, she saw people more clearly as well.

What she observed was an opportunity for Ruth to marry wisely and, therefore, Naomi secured a future for herself.

Naomi guided Ruth, the Moabite in the social and legal protocols in Israel to alert Boaz to her interest in marriage through the provisions of the kinsman redeemer relationship.

Wait a Minute

We humans have the, sometimes, desperate desire to do what we want to do; to accomplish tasks, to be effective, to please ourselves and others. In other words, we have a powerful orientation toward busy-ness. Therefore, waiting is challenging.

For the most part Ruth and Naomi had been moving about from Moab to Israel. When they arrived in Israel, Ruth enters the work world of the equivalent of a migrant farm worker in the fields of Boaz.

In this last part of the story, however, they both have to wait on the LORD in the sense that we usually think of waiting. They can do nothing to affect their situation. Simply put: they must be still and wait.

Waiting can be the hardest part of the journey.

Pleasing the Lord by doing His will and receiving what He has for us requires that we wait well. Whether that waiting is active or passive, if we are the people of God, we must wait for Him to open His divine hand of favor and bless His people.

Providentially, in the context of the book of Ruth, Naomi and Ruth, the dedicated daughter-in-law lead a masterclass in waiting well.

“Those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength.” — Isaiah 40:31