Grace Upon Grace

Read Ruth 2:17–19a

WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT?

Ruth has found favour in the eyes of Boaz and now she returns to Naomi
after probably the strangest day of her life. But as she’s reunited with her
mother-in-law, the spotlight of the narrative is firmly not on them, but on
everything that Ruth brings back with her.
The amount of barley that Ruth has gleaned is about an ‘ephah’ (v. 17).
Some Bible footnotes suggest this is perhaps as much as 13 kilograms.
Whilst we don’t know precisely, the point is that clearly it was loads!
Notice the way the narrator keeps drawing our eyes to Ruth’s harvest: she
carries ‘it’ home; Naomi sees ‘how much she had gathered’; then Ruth also
pulls out ‘what she had left over’ from her lunch with Boaz (v. 18). In other
words, there’s a growing mountain of food that Ruth has placed before
Naomi!

ABOVE AND BEYOND

As we saw previously, the Old Testament law commanded landowners to
allow widows, orphans and foreigners to glean at the edges of their fields for
leftover scraps. In a sense, that was a display of grace. But what we see here is
so far beyond what was expected or commanded. This is grace upon grace
upon grace.
In this book, Boaz and Ruth are both living embodiments of the Lord’s
graciousness to Naomi. Here, the focus is on the abundant generosity of
Boaz, but we’ve already seen the way Ruth promises to be committed to
Naomi – even until her own body lies in the ground (1:16–17).
The clear implication throughout these chapters is that both Boaz and Ruth
know the character of the Lord. He is a God who is defined by loving
kindness (Exodus 34:6–7). Just as Naomi learns to trust in that gracious
character, we’re invited to trust in God’s graciousness too.

GRACIOUSNESS RECONSIDERED

As we experience God’s love, it begins to transform us. That’s what has
already happened to Ruth and Boaz. Likewise, we too are challenged as to
whether we’re displaying the character of the God we know and love.
Of course, being spiritually transformed doesn’t work like a vending
machine. We don’t programme in God’s graciousness and then out comes
the character of graciousness in return. As we saw yesterday, it’s only as our
hearts are warmed by God’s graciousness to us, that greed, pride and selfobsession will slowly be melted away.
The seventeenth-century pastor Richard Sibbes advised Christians that if
we want to keep our hearts tender towards God and others, we should ‘be
always under the sunshine of the gospel’.
4 We’re to meditate upon and
marinate in the graciousness of God shown to us in Christ.

REFLECTION

How much do you value graciousness in your life? What would today look like
if you did value it? Perhaps you would be more gracious with the kids when
they’re grouchy, or with a seemingly inconsiderate work colleague or friend or
spouse? And what about being gracious with those who are ‘the least and the
lost’ in your community and across the world?

Listen to ‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel’ by Rain for Roots, featuring
Sandra McCracken and Skye Peterson.

Richard Sibbes, sermon on 2 Chronicles 34:26, ‘The Tender Heart’, in The Works of Richard Sibbes,
Volume 6, p. 41