What is this sermon about?
In Ruth 2:14–17, Boaz has already done everything the law required by letting Ruth gather grain at the edges of his field. Then he goes much further. He brings her to his workers’ meal, quietly tells his men to let her gather among the bundles, and has them drop extra grain on purpose. She walks home with about thirty pounds of barley from one afternoon.
- Grace goes beyond the minimum.The law told Boaz what he could not take. He decided for himself how much he would give.
- Real generosity is often quiet.Boaz arranged everything through private instructions instead of making a show of it.
- Provision often comes through ordinary means.A field, a day’s work, grain threshed by hand. The abundance did not remove the work. It multiplied the fruit.
Ruth 2:14–17 explained
What was the vinegar Ruth dipped her bread in?
It was not harsh, sour vinegar. Pastor Tim explains that it was a diluted wine vinegar that helped quench thirst during field work. He compares it to dipping bread in oil and herbs at an Italian restaurant. By inviting Ruth to share it, Boaz was bringing her into the ordinary meal his own workers ate.
What is parched grain?
Parched grain was a common food in the harvest field. Heads of grain were roasted over a fire until the kernels dried and could be chewed, and then eaten by the handful as a snack. Pastor Tim compares it to corn nuts or sunflower seeds. Ruth ate until she was full and kept some back, which the next passage shows she saved for Naomi.
What did the gleaning law in the Bible require?
Three passages give the law: Leviticus 19:9–10, Leviticus 23:22, and Deuteronomy 24:19–22. Landowners were not to harvest the corners of their fields, go back for a forgotten bundle, or pick their vines and olive trees clean. What was left belonged to people in need. Every command is a “do not.” The law never told a landowner to go find the poor and hand them grain. It only forbade him from harvesting so thoroughly that nothing was left.
Who was allowed to glean?
The law names four groups: the poor, the stranger or foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. Ruth fit three of the four. She was poor, she was a foreigner from Moab, and she was a widow. The law also gave Israel a reason: they were to remember that they had once been slaves in Egypt and had needed provision themselves.
How did Boaz go beyond what the law required?
Letting Ruth glean at the edges and telling his workers not to bother her already fulfilled the law. Then Boaz told his young men to let her gather among the sheaves, inside the harvested rows where the bundled grain lay, and to pull grain out of the bundles on purpose and leave it for her. Pastor Tim puts it this way: the law protected Ruth from being turned away, but Boaz made sure she thrived.
Why did Boaz give these instructions privately?
Boaz spoke to his workers instead of announcing special treatment in front of Ruth. Pastor Tim believes he was protecting her from the discomfort of visible favoritism and from the jealousy of other gleaners, which could have put her in danger on the way home. It is also a picture of generosity that does not need credit.
How much is an ephah of barley?
An ephah is roughly 22 liters, commonly estimated at about thirty pounds of grain. That is far more than ordinary leftovers would provide in a single afternoon. The amount is meant to be noticed. It is the heavy, literal result of Boaz arranging provision for her.
Questions for reflection and discussion
Use these on your own as a devotional, with your family, or in a small group. You do not need to have heard the sermon to use them. Reading Ruth 2:14–17 first will help.
- Boaz had already met his obligation and kept giving. Where could you go past the minimum for someone this week?
- Boaz brought Ruth to the table with his own workers. Who is on the edge of your church, workplace, or family that you could bring in?
- Why do you think Boaz gave his instructions privately? When is it hard for you to be generous without getting credit?
- God’s law asked Israel to remember they had once been poor foreigners. How does remembering what God has done for you change the way you treat others?
- Ruth still had to gather and thresh the grain. Where might God be providing for you through ordinary work?
Related resources
Sermon transcript
This transcript has been lightly edited so it is easier to read. Scripture readings are noted in brackets. You can read Ruth 2:14–17 here and follow along.
Engineered Abundance: full transcript
Introduction 40:25
As most of you know, we have been going through the book of Ruth. Today we continue in Ruth 2, verses 14 through 17.
Here is a brief reminder. Naomi was married and had two sons. There was a famine in the land, specifically in the city of Bethlehem in Judah, and Naomi, her husband, and their sons moved to Moab. The sons found wives. Then all the men died. Naomi turns to her two daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, and says, “It is all right. Go back home to your family, to your people, to your gods.” Orpah does the socially acceptable thing and goes home. Ruth clings to Naomi and says, “Where you go, I will go. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die.” She forms this bond with her mother-in-law.
Last week we got into Ruth chapter 2, where Ruth goes to glean, to gather leftover grain from the fields, to find food for herself and Naomi. Today we see exactly what that gleaning looked like, because it was not standard gleaning. I am preaching on only three or four verses today, because there is a lot of background that goes with them.
Reading the passage 42:00
[Pastor Tim reads Ruth 2:14–17 from the New King James Version.]
Where we left off 44:10
Last week we talked about how Ruth “happened” to come to this field. The Hebrew doubles the word, which is something the author wants you to notice. It is emphasis, like putting words in bold. When something is repeated three times, like “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,” it means the most holy. Here the repetition tells us, the readers, that God had provided something. It was not a miracle like blind eyes opening or the lame walking, but it was a miracle in its own way, because God was laying the foundation for Ruth and Naomi’s story.
So she comes to Boaz’s field. He hears that she is the Moabitess who came back with Naomi, that she has been gleaning hard and has only rested for a minute. Boaz calls her over and tells her, “Stay in my fields for protection. Stay next to my young women.” That is where we pick up today.
Verse 14: come and eat with us 45:40
[Reads Ruth 2:14.]
At mealtime Boaz tells her, “Come here. Take some bread and share a meal with us. We are already on our lunch break. You don’t have to stay out in the field.”
Dip your bread in the vinegar. I don’t know about you, but if I dipped bread in vinegar today, it would not taste very good. This is not that kind of vinegar. It was a diluted wine vinegar, so that when you dipped your bread and ate it, it actually helped quench your thirst. The best comparison I can give you here in Arizona is an Italian restaurant, where they set out oil and rosemary and you dip your bread in it. It is the same idea, with a watered-down, slightly sour wine. He is telling her, “Come be a part of what we have going on here. Eat, drink, take a load off, and rest.”
Parched grain 47:42
Then Boaz passes her parched grain. If you have not heard of it, parched grain was a common food in the harvest field. Heads of grain were roasted over a fire until the kernels dried and became chewable. Then you ate them from your hand like a snack.
We just did Italian bread, so now for an American snack. The best way I can describe it is corn nuts. Ranch is the best kind. If you disagree, you can leave the church now. I’m kidding. Don’t leave. Obviously it was not corn. Corn was not known until the Americas were discovered. But it is the same idea: roasted kernels, probably salted, eaten by the handful the way you and I might eat corn nuts or sunflower seeds. It is something you can keep in your pocket and eat while you work.
What we see at this table is not Boaz staging a special banquet for her. He did not say, “She is new. She is kind of attractive. I might have a chance. Let me put on a big, beautiful banquet and impress her with my wealth.” That is what Tim would have done. It is not what Boaz did. He simply said, “Come join us. Come sit at our table.” He folds her into the same meal all his workers were already eating. This is inclusion in the ordinary rhythm of his household. It is not charity held at arm’s length.
She kept some back 50:20
The verse says she ate, was satisfied, and kept some back. The Scriptures take care to mention that, and I think it is intentional. Next week we will see why. Ruth did not put that grain in her pocket only so she could snack later. She did it because she knew Naomi was at home. She is always thinking about her mother-in-law. She is an incredible woman.
The gleaning law 51:30
Before we get to verses 15 and 16, we need to pause for some background. To understand them, we need to read two passages from Leviticus and one from Deuteronomy. Let’s talk about the gleaning law.
[Reads Leviticus 19:9–10.]
God is telling them, “Do not reap all the way to the corners of your field. Do not go to the very edges. Do not go back over it again and again to get every little piece for yourself. Leave some for the poor,” people with no money to buy food, “and for the stranger,” the foreigner living in your land without access to resources back home.
[Reads Leviticus 23:22.]
A different passage, the same idea. Do not go back and pick up everything you missed. Leave it for the poor and the stranger. Pretty clear.
[Reads Deuteronomy 24:19–22.]
This one is longer. If you forget a sheaf, a bundle of grain, in the field, do not go back for it. When you beat your olive tree, do not go over the branches again. When you gather your grapes, do not go back through the vineyard afterward. Each time, it is for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. And then the reason: remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt.
Put all three passages together and they form one unified provision for the poor. It was built into Israel’s agricultural life. It was not administered as a separate charity. This was not an afterthought for God. It was forethought. He thought about it before a field was ever planted. He was saying, “It is going to be part of our farming to be generous. It is going to be part of our farming to take care of people. We are going to do this right from the start.”
Three things about the law 56:50
Three things stand out to me.
First, it is entirely passive. Every command is a “you shall not.” Do not reap the corners. Do not go back for the dropped sheaf. Do not strip the vineyard bare. Do not go over the olive branches twice. The law tells Israel over and over what they cannot do in their own fields. It never tells a landowner to go find poor people and give them grain. It simply forbids him from being so thorough in his own harvest that nothing is left for anyone else.
Second, it names specific groups of vulnerable people who should be gleaning: the poor, the stranger or foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. Of those four, Ruth fits three. She is poor. She is a foreigner from Moab. She is a widow. The law was written with someone just like Ruth in mind.
Third, its stated purpose is blessing and memory, not just charity. “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore I command you to do this thing.” God is telling them, “You were just like these people. As a nation you were poor. You had no land of your own. You were foreigners when you came to Canaan. You needed provision every step of the way. I am going to make sure you remember that when it is time to give to others.”
Verses 15–16: beyond what the law required 59:45
[Reads Ruth 2:15–16.]
Boaz’s basic legal duty was already satisfied last week, when he allowed Ruth to glean at the edges of his field and told his workers not to bother her, in verses 8 and 9. That alone fulfilled Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Nobody could have faulted him if he had stopped there.
What verses 15 and 16 show is Boaz doing something the law never asks for. He instructs his young men to let her glean even among the sheaves, meaning inside the harvested rows where the bundled grain was already lying, not just at the edge the law protected. “Come in to where we have already bundled it. Get the good grain on the inside.”
Then he goes a step further. He has them pull grain from the bundles and let it fall on purpose for her. “Leave it, that she may glean, and do not rebuke her.”
The law told Boaz what he could take. Boaz decided, on his own initiative, what he would give. Leviticus and Deuteronomy say, “You may take this and this, but leave that. What falls to the ground, what is on the edges and in the corners, leave for the people passing by.” Boaz takes it a step further, and he gives and gives and gives.
This is engineered abundance, not tolerated leftovers. It is intentional. The law protected Ruth from being turned away. Boaz made sure she thrived.
Why he did it quietly 62:40
It is worth noting that Boaz gives these instructions privately, to his workers, instead of announcing special treatment to Ruth’s face. He is protecting her from the discomfort of visible favoritism in front of the other gleaners, even while he arranges extraordinary provision for her.
Other people were there. They could have said, “Why can’t I do what she is doing?” And when she left, I can see some of them being jealous. Remember, this is the time of the Judges. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. If someone decided it was not fair that Ruth got to glean on the inside, I can see real trouble for her on the road home to Naomi. Boaz says, “No. We are not going to let that happen. We are going to do this privately. I am not going to make a big deal of it in front of her.”
Verse 17: about an ephah of barley 64:00
[Reads Ruth 2:17.]
An ephah is roughly 22 liters, commonly estimated at around thirty pounds of grain. That is a remarkable yield for a single afternoon of gleaning, far beyond what the ordinary leftovers of a harvest would provide. Most gleaners might get a little and carry it home. She had a thirty-pound bag on her shoulders.
The text wants us to notice the scale of it. This is not incidental luck. It is Boaz’s arranged provision landing in Ruth’s hands as the very literal, very heavy result of her work. Thirty pounds. And she carried it home.
What does this mean for us? 65:20
Three short verses, but a lot in them.
First, grace goes beyond the minimum the law requires. Boaz’s private instructions in verses 15 and 16 are a concrete picture of it. He goes past obligation into something far greater. And I think Boaz is a mirror of Jesus.
If Jesus had only saved us from going to hell, that would be enough. I would be doing cartwheels if I could. But He does not only save us. Boaz could have let Ruth glean from the edges and corners and stopped there. Jesus could have said, “I died on the cross. That is enough.” Instead, the way Boaz intentionally, purposefully takes care of Ruth every step of the way, Jesus does the same with us. Yes, He died on the cross. Yes, He took the punishment for our sins. Yes, He was buried, and three days later He rose from the dead. And my friends, He is coming back again to take us with Him. Where we are going, in His harvest, is so much better than even what Ruth received. Boaz points us to a God so generous that He stopped at nothing so that you and I could come into a relationship with Him.
Second, I don’t believe generosity should always be announced. Boaz arranges all of this quietly, through instructions to his workers, without making a public show of his kindness to Ruth’s face. That is worth holding up against our tendency to want credit for generosity and charity. The reality is that a lot goes on behind the scenes in this church that you don’t get to see, and honestly, some of it is none of your business. There are things that go on here that I don’t get to see, and they are none of my business. There is a generosity woven into a community of believers that is done in love, not for the eyes watching. That is how we are called to be generous.
Third, provision often looks like ordinary means. For Ruth it was a field, a day’s labor, and grain that had to be threshed by hand. Even when it comes from an extraordinary source, provision often looks ordinary. Ruth still had to labor and thresh. The abundance did not remove the work. It multiplied the fruit.
A lot of times we as Christians think, “God is going to take care of me. He takes care of the birds of the air and the beasts of the field, so He will take care of me.” Yes, that is true. But did you know the Bible also says that if you don’t work, you are a sloth and you are doomed for hell? We don’t like talking about that one, do we? A man who doesn’t work isn’t worthy of salvation. We don’t like saying that. It is the truth, though. Just because God provides does not mean He does not require us to keep moving forward and doing something.
We cannot sit here as Christians and say, “God, change my world,” while we sit on the couch and watch TV. We cannot say, “God, I want Gold Canyon to be on fire for You,” and then go home and watch our movies. We cannot expect our children to come to know Jesus if we do not invest in them and tell them about Jesus. It does not work that way. You do not get a pass because you are a Christian, or because you pray, or because God says He will take care of you. Yes, He will take care of you. But we have to do the work, and as we do the work, God’s provision lines up. We cannot be lazy.
Can I be a little pointed? We cannot expect people to simply come to our church, and our church to grow, if we are not going to do the work. We have to go. We sang it earlier. I prayed it earlier from Luke 10:2: the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. The harvest is there. The workers are the issue.
So I am asking you today: if the harvest is there, will you take the necessary steps to do the work? Just as in the story of Ruth, provision often looks like ordinary means, even when it comes from an extraordinary source. That is why Matthew 28:19–20, the Great Commission, says, “Go therefore,” which is better translated “as you are going,” make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them everything I have commanded you. Those are not past-tense things or future-tense things. They are present tense. As you are already going, make disciples.
We want God to do something big in Gold Canyon. We want God to do something big at this church. If you want God to do something big in your own life, in your marriage, in your family, you have to take that step. See where He is working, and join Him there.
Closing prayer 74:06
God, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for Boaz. Thank You for the reminder that You are constantly taking care of us, and that You ask us to join You in that work.
Lord, I pray that we would not be a people who only pray for good things to happen. Help us to step out in faith, the way Ruth went to that field in faith. May we talk to the people at our work, to our friends, to our families, and tell them about a loving God who did so much for them that He even died on the cross.
Help us to be generous in private. Help us to see that grace goes beyond the minimum. Help us see where You are working, and help our community. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Join us this Sunday
We meet Sundays at 9:00 AM at 6320 S. Kings Ranch Rd., Gold Canyon, AZ 85118. If you have never been to church, or have not been in a long time, you are welcome here.