You Talk a Good Game But Can You Back It Up
Early on in the book of Ruth, Boaz shows up to the grain fields and bless his workers. Then over lunch during the harvesting he gives a blessing to Ruth. He says,
“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 2:12
Ruth finds encouragement from Boaz and from his generosity. And she listened closely to what he said to her. Later on in the story, she decided to push him. It’s as if she’s saying, “You talk a good game but can you back it up?”
The situation is this. As part of her proposal for him to marry her and for her to finance Naomi’s future through the purchase of her land, she says this:
“Spread the corner of your garment over me” - Ruth 3:9
The Hebrew word for ‘corner’ is the same as the Hebrew word for “wings” up above in Ruth 2:12. So Boaz says God will cover her with God’s wings - and Ruth follows that up and asks, “So will you participate in what God is doing… and cover me with your wing as you said God would cover me with God’s wing?”
In a world where it’s statistically proven that Christians are more racist than the non-religious, Ruth’s question is still as relevant today as it was then. We talk about loving God and loving others, but will we put our money and our security and our comfort and our time where our mouth is? Will we love and serve our neighbors in real time, or will we just talk about it? Will we pray “Give us this day our daily bread” but not actually share our bread with those who need it?
Talk with Jesus about these things today.