Unexpected Help

GETTING STARTED

I love cycling. Once, I was riding and picking up good speed when I attempted to adjust something on my left handlebar with my right hand. Not very smart! The bike weaved and I crashed—hard. A man watched my nasty fall. I tried getting up, saying I was just fine, but I couldn’t even stand up on my own. I wondered why stars appeared in daylight. My new friend helped me collect myself and get off the street, then he drove me and the bike home in his truck. I was in a state of shock—trying hard to recover, but needing help.

  • When has help appeared out of nowhere to rescue you?

READ THE WORD: RUTH 2:8-13 (ESV)

8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. 9 Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.” 10 Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” 11 But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. 12 The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” 13 Then she said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.”

DIGGING DEEPER

  1. In what different ways did Boaz offer help to Ruth (vss. 8-9)?
  2. How did Ruth respond to Boaz’s generosity in verses 10 and 13? Was Ruth claiming any rights or privileges of her own?
  3. Although the reports of Ruth had come to Boaz (who was in a position of wealth/strength), to whose care did Boaz commit Ruth (vss. 11-12)?
  4. To whose care was Ruth entrusting herself—to the extent that it was obvious to others (vs. 12)?
  5. Where do you find yourself in need today, and where do you seek refuge? To whom are you entrusting yourself?

RESPOND TO GOD

Ruth could never negotiate her way out of her desperate situation. She was an outcast, a foreigner living by the generosity of others—even strangers. It required the personal intervention of another (Boaz) to rescue Ruth out of a horrible life. I, much like Ruth, needed someone else’s help after my bicycle crash. But more significantly, instead of working to make ourselves acceptable to a holy God, we need someone worthy and capable to intervene for us. That man is Jesus, who rewards us for taking refuge in him.

  • Thank God for redeeming your life through Jesus.
  • Allow God to use you, as he did with Boaz, to accomplish his will in someone else’s time of need.