King Benjamin taught his people how a person in authority should treat people with less worldly influence. Even though he lived hundreds of years earlier, Boaz understood and exemplified those principles in his interactions with a poor Moabitess who had just arrived in Bethlehem.
Scene #1 – The Field (Ruth 2)
I have not commanded you to come up hither that ye should fear me, or that ye should think that I of myself am more than a mortal man.
Mosiah 2:10
Soon after settling in Bethlehem, Ruth went among the reapers in Boaz’s field to glean grain. Coming into the field, Boaz noticed her and asked who she was. The gleaners in his field weren’t nameless faces to him, and he noticed when someone new appeared. After learning of her story, he encouraged her to glean exclusively in his field. In response, “she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?” (Ruth 2:10). But Boaz explained that he was impressed that she had left family and home to accompany her widowed mother-in-law back to her homeland. He invited her to eat and drink with his paid laborers and instructed the reapers to let some grain fall intentionally for Ruth to glean.
Scene #2 – The Threshingfloor (Ruth 3)
Ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.
Mosiah 4:16
Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, told her that Boaz was a near kinsman, and that he might be willing, according to Israelite law to marry her and raise children on behalf of her deceased husband. She told Ruth to find Boaz at the threshingfloor, where he had been winnowing barley all day and would be sleeping in a public place. Waking in the middle of the night, Boaz was startled to find a woman sleeping at his feet and asked who she was. “I am Ruth thine handmaid,” she replied. “Spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman” (Ruth 3:9).
Boaz treated her with kindness. He complimented her for choosing him instead of a younger man. He acknowledged that she was known to be a virtuous woman. He protected her reputation by having her leave while it was still dark. And he sent her home with six measures of barley. He could have reacted differently, with annoyance, with disdain, or with ambivalence. His response demonstrates his willingness to “succor those that stand in need of [his] succor” (Mosiah 4:16).
Scene #3 – The City Gate (Ruth 4)
And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order. … And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.
Mosiah 4:27
When Ruth returned home, Naomi told her to be patient and leave the matter in Boaz’s hands, “for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day” (Ruth 3:18).
Boaz knew that there was another man in Bethlehem more closely related to Ruth than himself. Following the customs of the time, he sat by the city gate, invited that man to sit beside him, and invited ten other men to witness their conversation. After giving that other man the opportunity to raise children with Ruth, which he declined, Boaz announced his intention to marry Ruth. The people who were present gave him their blessing: “We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Beth-lehem” (Ruth 4:11).
By the time the book of Ruth was written, this ceremony already seemed foreign. The author had to explain, “Now this was the manner in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing” (Ruth 4:7). Boaz demonstrated respect for his neighbors and for Ruth by doing this service in the proper way, with the full acknowledgment of the people of his city.
Boaz was a kind and generous man. Book of Mormon readers will also recognize him as a Benjamin figure — a man in a position of authority who is kind to a poor woman gleaning in his fields, who treats her with respect when she approaches him as a beggar, and who follows Israelite law and town customs as he provides for her. Benjamin’s teachings illuminate the virtue and nobility of Boaz.
Today I will follow Boaz’s example in implementing Benjamin’s teachings on kindness. I will look for opportunities to serve others. I will respond generously when others request my help. I will serve within appropriate guidelines, so that all things can be done in order.
Thank you, Paul, for providing more context for your title. Your identifying Ruth as a “poor Moabitish” lends an applicable identification of the poor as humble and just wanting to work hard from morning to past dawn, gleaning, almost altruistically, and asking their supervisor, “Why do you find favor in me? (I’m just working hard, like the others),” as it were. And as you later contextualize, Ruth was part of the family, although as an in-law, but duplicating, as did Sarah and Leah and Tamar, what God had in store as what would become a fulfillment of God’s plan, and for Ruth, the stem of Jesse. Thank you!
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