[Ruth] asked [Boaz], “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?” 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 have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge” (Ruth 2:10-12).
Heavenly Father, how awesome and amazing You are—how unsearchable are Your judgments and Your ways past finding out (Romans 11:33 NKJV)!
Long before Bethlehem became the celebrated location of our Savior's birth, You set plans in motion in that "little town" to prepare for the monumental event it would host. In Your salvation plan for all humanity, You had given a covenant promise to Abraham, that "all nations on earth will be blessed through him" (Genesis 18:18).
And as You unfolded Your plan to draw all nations into Your promise, You brought Ruth, a "foreigner" and an "outsider", to a then largely unknown Bethlehem to set up the earthly lineage of the coming Messiah. In Your wisdom and Your providence, You used her life to demonstrate Your boundless, all-encompassing love to the world.
Sovereign Lord, it is amazing to see how You worked in Ruth's story—in the immediate—restoring and sustaining the bitter and destitute widow Naomi—and in the future—continuing the progression towards the line of David, and towards Emmanuel, God with us. We see Your hand marvelously weaving the threads of so many different lives and circumstances together to fulfill Your ultimate purpose.
And through it all, You show us the incredible outcome of following Your commands—of applying Your principles to everyday life. You had given Your people the instruction:
“‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God’” (Leviticus 23:22).
As Boaz simply followed this command in his daily business, we see his obedience and generosity resulting in a double blessing to him as giver, and to Ruth as receiver, not only in the present, but for generations to come.
We see You work all things together—Naomi's pain, grief, and bitterness; Ruth's loyalty and determination; Naomi and Ruth's desperate circumstances; Boaz' kindness, obedience and integrity—for ultimate good, and for the fulfillment of Your purpose. Even then, You were unfolding Your plan in the obscure little town of Bethlehem.
And hundreds of years later when Messiah was born, and Magi from the east came seeking Him, the chief priests and teachers of the law knew from the meticulously preserved and vigorously defended sacred Scripture handed down through centuries, exactly where He was to be born:
“In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied [to King Herod's devious inquiry]"for this is what the prophet [Micah 5:2,4] has written:
“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a Ruler who will shepherd my people Israel’” (Matthew 2:4-6).
Father, we are in awe of You, and Your flawless plan. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God (Romans 11:33)! Thank You for Your grace that reaches to all, for the wide-reaching embrace You emphasized throughout Your nation's history:
"And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to Him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be His servants...these I will bring to My holy mountain and give them joy in My house of prayer" (Isaiah 56:6-7).
Thank You for showing us Your heart for the foreigner and the outsider, the poor and the marginalized, the excluded and the ostracized. Thank You that by Your grace, no person, no place, is "by no means least". Thank You that You leave no one lost in the the shadows of obscurity. Thank You that the angels' message of "good news...will cause great joy for all the people" (Luke 2:10). Thank You for including each one of us in Your redemption story.
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