Ruth chapter 2 What’s Your Reputation?
Boaz shows great kindness to Ruth and treats her very very well. Ruth's reputation went before her. Because of her reputation, she was shown much respect and given privileges.
What is our reputation? What do people say about me when I'm not around? What do people observe when they watch me? What do they see?
If I want people to speak poorly of me then I can make that happen by being a selfish person, arrogant, thinking of myself over others.
If I want people to speak highly of me, then I need to display God's love to others.
- Put others before myself.
- Compliment others so they feel good about themselves.
- Help those in need.
- And be willing to go the extra mile when helping someone, which means being willing to help someone more than they expected you to.
As for me, I need to remember my number one person to love is my wife. I need to keep her as my number one priority.
Also verse 20, we see Naomi complementing the kindness of God which shows healing with her broken heart. She's just starting to speak with words of Hope after the death of her husband and two sons. There is hope in every situation!
Proverbs 22:1 tells us that a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.
I know that I’ve shared this verse before, but I thought that it fit well here especially with what Pastor Blair wrote about reputation.
It sounds like gleaning must not have been a very safe thing to do from what we read in verse 22. Those who were gleaning were people who were poor, many who were probably desperate and I’m thinking that there may have been some people in these groups with bad reputations. These people may have been looked down upon by others, but Ruth stood out to Boaz. He noticed her and learned more about who she was. He wanted to protect her and try to make her life easier. Ruth may have been considered a bad, foreign girl because she was a Moabite, but Boaz didn’t see her that way.
What Boaz chose to do reminded me of Proverbs 3:27.
“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.” May we have a reputation for displaying God’s love to others.
Today’s ApologetiX song is called Bad Foreign Girls, a parody of Fat Bottomed Girls. (A part that stuck out to me in the video was when David was just about to commit adultery and then it states “Get out your Bible and read!” right at that moment as if to warn David to stop!)
https://youtu.be/g0UFCMgt8TU
Boaz (means standing in strength) lived in the time of the judges when every man did what was right in his own eyes yet we see a man who went way beyond the intent of the gleaner’s law (see Deut 24:18-20). Not only did he let Ruth glean his field but he had his workers drop grain in her path. It makes me stop and question if I go beyond the norm of helping those less fortunate. I want to do more than the minimum. That’s exactly what Jesus does. Boaz is a beautiful picture of our kinsman redeemer, Jesus Christ.