The Daily Fountain Daily Devotional of the Church Of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) 14 May 2020 – TOPIC: A KINSMAN-REDEEMER
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DATE: THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2020
TOPIC: A KINSMAN-REDEEMER
READ: RUTH 2:13-23 (NKJV)
13. Then she said, “Let me find favor in your sight, my lord; for you have comforted me, and have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your maidservants.”
14. Now Boaz said to her at mealtime, “Come here, and eat of the bread, and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed parched [grain] to her; and she ate and was satisfied, and kept some back.
15. And when she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her.
16. “Also let [grain] from the bundles fall purposely for her; leave [it] that she may glean, and do not rebuke her.”
17. So she gleaned in the field until evening, and beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.
18. Then she took [it] up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. So she brought out and gave to her what she had kept back after she had been satisfied.
19. And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where have you gleaned today? And where did you work? Blessed be the one who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today [is] Boaz.”
20. Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed [be] he of the LORD, who has not forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead!” And Naomi said to her, “This man [is] a relation of ours, one of our close relatives.”
21. Ruth the Moabitess said, “He also said to me, ‘You shall stay close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’ “
22. And Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “[It is] good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, and that people do not meet you in any other field.”
23. So she stayed close by the young women of Boaz, to glean until the end of barley harvest and wheat harvest; and she dwelt with her mother-in-law.
THE MESSAGE:
Ruth expressed deep appreciation for the unusual kindness and favours shown to her by Boaz (verse 10, verse 13). Three additional favours are described in verses 14-16 and 21 namely, a meal invitation, special permission to pick up whole bundles of grain, and an extension of the “gleaning permit” to cover the entire harvest period! The processed grain from the first day’s gleanings amounted to about an ephah (some 22 litres), which could provide enough food for two people for several days (verses 17-18)! As Ruth returned home, she learned that Boaz was actually a relative, a kinsman-redeemer who had been helping the family for a long time (verse 20). His wealth notwithstanding, Boaz did not overlook the underprivileged, but took practical steps to help them (verse 1, verses 21-22).
There could be someone around you that may need your help today and this help may not always be financial, but could be material, social or even spiritual. Try to identify genuine needs around you, and prayerfully take steps to meet some of them! Hebrews 2:14-18 shows us that Jesus is our brother who came to redeem us from sin and death. Have you identified with this Jesus, our kinsman-redeemer?
PRAYER: Oh Lord, make me an instrument of blessing to someone today.