“And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, ‘Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.’ And she said to her, ‘Go, my daughter.’” (Ruth 2:2)
When Naomi and Ruth returned to Bethlehem, they did not have any source of income. But the Lord God had provided for the poor in Israel.
When someone had a field, vineyard or orchard, he could only harvest it once. He could not pick up anything off the ground or go over the field or the trees a second time. Whatever was still there was free for “the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow” — so for those who were poor and vulnerable since they did not have any fields of their own. This way, nobody had to go hungry.
Ruth proposes to use this opportunity: being both a foreigner and a widow, she wants to go to a field and pick up the leftover grain. She shows courage, takes the initiative to provide for her mother-in-law and is working hard all day, as the overseer on the field reports: “She came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest” (Ruth 2:7).
Ruth is not arrogant or lazy, but takes the opportunity offered to her with both hands. Do you do the same?