The Harvest

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Today we are going to take a journey to another Messianic Check Point. Where? to an ancestor of Jesus, David! What stock did he come from? Ruth. This is a very short book in the bible consisting of four chapters. I hope that you take the time to read all of them. It is a short and easy read. To give you a backdrop let’s start in Judges 21 verse 23. In those days there was no king in Israel, every man did what was right in his own eyes. Hmm. That doesn’t sound like a very pleasant time to live in with no clear authority. No king. No one to protect you. There was also a famine in the land at that time and a man named Elimelech took his wife Naomi and two sons Mahlon and Chilion to Moab. When they arrived the family was met with some hardship and grief. Elimelech dies leaving his wife in the care of his sons. They marry Moabite women and then they too die. So Naomi is left with her two daughters-in-law. It was a custom at that time that if your sons died leaving no inheritor, the nearest of kin was to marry and raise up sons for the deceased and to care for and protect the ladies. These men were called kinsman redeemers.  It was tough for widows at that time. With no protectors, they were nobodies. They had no income and were looked down upon.

Well, the famine was less back in Bethlehem so Naomi decided that she would return there. She has nothing to live for here in Moab. She loves her daughters in-law and bestows blessing on them hoping they will find joy in a new home with a new husband. The wife of Chilion, Orpah and the wife of Mahlon, Ruth, weep for they love her and beg her to let them stay with her. But she says to them, “Even if I were to marry tonight and have a son for each of you, would you wait till they were grown and marry them? No, go back to your mother’s house and gods so that you at least have a chance. You have been good to me and to the dead. The Lord has dealt bitterly with me why should you suffer my grief?” They weep because Naomi has been kind to them. Like their own flesh and blood mothers. Orpah kisses her mother-in-law and returns to her people but Ruth clings to Naomi. She will not leave her! How could she allow such bitterness to rule her and overcome her? God is faithful. Somehow she knows this and wants to help and care for Naomi and show her this. She will be a companion. Ruth said, “Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God; where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you.” And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. – The Book of Ruth 1:16-18

So they continue on their way to Bethlehem. When they arrive, they cause quite a stir. “Is that Naomi? She has been away so long!” She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi,*(pleasant) call me Mara,*(bitter) for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has afflicted* me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?” – The Book of Ruth 1:20-21 We are told that they arrived at the time of the Barley Harvest. Why is this important? To find the answer to this we need to go back to Deuteronomy 24:19. “When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow; that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. Ruth knows this law and says to her mother-in-law, “Let me go and glean in the field of whom I shall find favor.” She unknowingly arrives in the field of one of her kinsman redeemers, Boaz. She is very beautiful and catches his attention. He talks to his foreman, “Whose maiden is this?” “That is Ruth, the Moabite, who came back with Naomi. She asked me if she could glean among the reapers and has been here since sun up with my permission and has not stopped even for a little rest.”

He approaches her and says, “Now listen my daughter, go to no other field, stay here until the end of our harvest. I have instructed my men not to molest you. If you are thirsty, go and drink from the water over there that my men have brought.” Ruth falls on her face before him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?” Boaz answers her, “I have heard all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, leaving behind your father and mother and land to come to a people you did not know before. The Lord recompense you for what you have done. And a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” He further instructs his reapers to leave more behind than normal so she has what she needs for sustenance and then when it comes time for lunch he calls to her and gives her what she needs from his own until she is full and has some leftover. That night she tells Naomi all about it as she gives her the leftovers and her bundle of barley. Naomi asks, “Whose field did you glean? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!” “The name of the man with whom I worked today was Boaz.” Naomi finally recognizes the provision of the Lord, “He has taken notice of us! Boaz is a close relative of ours. He is one of our kinsman redeemers!” You can almost hear all the excitement in their conversation. Ruth likes him. She hopes for something to come of it. You can hear her longing and see Boaz’s attraction. Both have a holy recognition of the other and not lust. Ruth stays in his fields for the entire harvest of the barley and the wheat with Boaz’s maidens.

God’s Provision
Naomi thinks of how she can provide for her daughter-in-law and give her a home and a future. She proposes a plan. “Adorn yourself with your best garments and perfume. Boaz will be threshing barley at the threshing floor tonight. Do not approach him until after he has eaten and drunk. Observe where he lays to sleep. Uncover his feet and lay at them. He will tell you what to do.” Wait a minute!!! What? Lay at his feet? What in the world? Yuck! This is also another custom. When a maiden lay at the feet of a man, she was proposing to him and asking him to take notice of her and to become his wife. She is placing herself at his disposal and even possible derision. What if he doesn’t accept? Ruth does all that Naomi asks and goes to the threshing floor. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came softly, and uncovered his feet, and lay down. At midnight the man was startled, and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your maidservant; spread your garment over your maidservant, for you are next of kin.” And he said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter; you have made this last kindness greater than the first, in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear, I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of worth. – The Book of Ruth 3:7-11

He accepted and more! He invites her to stay the night and saves her dignity by telling his people not to let it be known that the woman came and before people could recognize one another in the morning she left. He wanted her and yet unfortunately remembered that there was one closer kinsman redeemer than himself. He shrewdly comes up with a plan that will secure her hand. You can imagine the joy the two of them had that night. Perhaps they talked of plans and hopes and dreams. Just like any other newly engaged couple. He tells her to hold out her mantle and she does and he fills it with six measures of grain so that she does not return empty handed to Naomi. It is a pledge of his care for both of them. “How did you fare daughter?” Naomi asks her. And Ruth fills her in. Naomi tells her that he is a man of worth and will not rest until he settles the matter. And that she should not rest either. That very morning he goes to the gate with all the elders and catches the next of kin, “Come and sit here friend. You are closest to Elimielech. He is selling his land and I wanted to let you know that his lands are being sold as next in line as kin. Will you take it? If not, tell me so that I can. I tell you in the presence of all the elders.” “Yes!! Of course, thank you!” “Congratulations for you have bought with the land, Ruth, the Moabitess.” “No! I cannot redeem it for myself. A Moabite? I will not endanger my own inheritance! You take my right of redemption for yourself!” And he took his sandal and gave it as a pledge to Boaz. And Boaz took it and proclaimed to all the elders, “Let it be known and you are all witnesses that I have bought all of Elimilech’s land and of Chilion and Mahlon and his widow Ruth from Naomi to raise up their inheritance for the dead.” All the people rejoiced and gave them the blessing of Racheal and Leah and that he would be like the house of Perez whom Tamar bore to Judah.

So Boaz took Ruth and married her. He went into her and she conceived and bore a son. The people again rejoiced and told Naomi that God had been faithful.Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without next of kin; and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him.” Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom, and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed; he was the father of Jesse, the father of David. – The Book of Ruth 4:14-17 At the very end we learn the genealogy of Judah through Perez. This was very important in those days as it was a promise of God’s blessings on the line of Judah and that a king would come from this line from Abraham and the Messiah. It seems to be laying the groundwork for David and what kind of people he came from. It is very probable that David was with both his grandmother and great grandmother and learned from them the faithfulness of God because of how all life centered and came from the matron of the family in the Jewish culture.

The Significance
So what is the significance? Sure Ruth is famous for the line she spoke to Naomi, “For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God; where you die I will die, and there will I be buried.” But there is more to that than meets the eye. I want to bring you to two truths that we see in Naomi and Ruth. We are going to get very scientific because there is rather a large significance when it comes to mental health. This has to do with how we heal from wounds. Are we open and receptive to God’s hand? Or do we resist it and put up walls around our heart? The answer to this question is very important because genetically, we pass this on to our children and they will have the same tendencies. Noami could not receive healing at first and tried to drive away all that were close to her. She didn’t think herself worthy. She thought God had forgotten and forsaken her. Call me Mara (that is bitter). She personified this. She was bitter. When we have bitterness in our heart and our emotions become negative our natural body responds to this upheaval. How? Many ways like hormone imbalance, Hashimotos and Thyroid problems, Insulin resistance, weight gain ect. Can a negative thought like, “I’m not good enough!” really do all that? Yes.

When we have issues in our health, it is important to take a look at our inner voice. What is it saying? “I am beautiful. I am enough. I am blessed. God will provide,” Or is it saying, “I never get it right! I’m so ugly and fat! Why am I so stupid? Is God really listening to me?” These latter thoughts give us doubt and real physical maladies that will not heal. We become depleted and our trace minerals that we need to thrive, disappear or build up to too much. Your body will put a calcium field around your cell to protect it. Your hormones become imbalanced. However the former allows us to receive what God can give us if we ask Him. We can be taking all the supplements in the world, and it won’t help if we are not in the frame of mind to receive what God wants to give us. Emotions are passing and we need to take every thought captive unto Christ as St. Paul says. Ruth shows us the other path. One of trust and hope. She believes that good will come. That God will take care of her under the refuge of His wings under whom she has put her trust. She watched for His hand and followed it in obedience under the authority that God placed over her life, namely, devotion to Naomi and Boaz. Her humility was very attractive and gave her beauty radiance. She saw the opportunities before her and recognized them as stepping stones to a better life if God wanted to give them to her and she trusted. And He did. She also helped bring healing back to Naomi.

When we have faith that God will do something, He will. He wants us to draw close to Him and to ask Him for things with an open heart. It is a process to grow and heal. It is a process to learn to live in hope. It gets stronger like a muscle, this capability to receive from God or not. We choose to have atrophy or strength. Pay attention to the inner child and what she is saying. You’d be surprised. Often we say things to ourselves that we wouldn’t dream of saying to a close friend or relative. If we wouldn’t say it to a friend, then we have no business saying it to ourselves. We have to call out the evil in us and try to live the opposite virtue. The evil one will try to plant doubt and he can be very subtle in his methodologies. “That didn’t happen! Oh that was a joke! Do you seriously think that wasn’t a coincidence?” The moment we catch something slightly off, we have to renounce, refuse, and reject it and soon we find we are back to equilibrium and peace. Emotional Health is the most important. We must control our emotions and not the other way around. They become the wind that fills our sails when we form ourselves to be better. They push and pull us to Jesus. What is hell? The opposite. It is a separated life from Jesus. It is one where we selfishly love ourselves and become miserable. A huge notch against and between us that we choose to inflict on ourselves. If we have lived that way on earth we will have an eternity that is separated. Let this drive you and mold you. We will never be far from His mercy if we choose to run to Him the moment we fall out of habit or inclination. God never refuses us Mercy when we fall on our faces before Him and ask for His help. God cannot resist a broken heart that cries out to Him.

We have to remember that evil exists in the world that tries to catch us off guard and devour us. It tries to steal our joy and peace. When we struggle, it is against spiritual entities that we face this battle in our daily lives. God has given us at His disposal many graces to overcome and conquer these entities. He has given us the nine choirs of angels to fight for us and guard us. They can be even more effective when we open ourselves to them. There is a powerful devotion to the angels that might help you if you are especially struggling right now. It’s called the Chaplet of St. Michael. The promises to this prayer are quite amazing if you need some bolstering and confidence in God’s power. Also, I have some exclusive Merch (1)Mother Angelica quote (2)Ps 20 quote (3)Padre Pio quote for you to have around to help claim your victory in a variety of different options. If you want more information on the medical stuff I presented to you, listen to the following podcast, The Hormone Genius, Thyroid, Minerals and Emotional Balance; to hear what the OB says and the interview she has with a life-coach who works in this field all the time. It really impacted me.

I am always here if you need someone to talk to or pray over you. You can always reach out to me at twoheartstruehealing@outlook.com or on my website www.twoheartstruehealing.com . I am also on FaceBook, Instagram, and YouTube. Until next time, know I am holding you in prayer! May God Bless you in this Season!