A Foreigner's Table

With the last two days to complete the week, we continue with tables, and conclude with the Foreigner’s Table.

Our text is a very pretty one indeed which comes from Ruth 2: 14. At mealtime Boaz said to her, Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar. When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. I described this text as pretty, for it speaks of pure, unadulterated beauty, kindness, love and inclusion in a most open and genuine way. It is that which warms the heart and injects nothing but hope into one’s spiritual veins. It is a picture that reels you into it and lets you see your Jesus in similar light. However, before we get into the meat, as it were, we need to have a healthy and vibrant understanding of where we are coming from.

The text tells us of a man called Boaz, who is speaking to a woman. We need to know who the man is and who the woman is. Boaz is described as, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek. Ruth 2: 1b. We also know that he owned a field. This is what we are told in Ruth 2: 3. So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek. The woman referred to as she, in the text, is Ruth. She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. Ruth 2: 6b.

As a Moabite, she is a foreigner, one who does not belong and one who does not hold status as other citizens of Bethlehem. Ruth is a stranger, not known and without friends and family, except for Naomi, her mother-in-law, who belongs to Bethlehem, but who has been away in Moab for a very long time. Now she has returned home in a depraved state, a state of poverty, emptiness, barrenness and fruitlessness. Ruth is in a strange land and needs to do something to feed herself and Naomi.

She can only hope to find one of the most menial of jobs, to put food on the table. She is gleaning, scavenging as it were, in the field of Boaz, when he sees this foreigner in his field. He does not approach her, but he asks his foreman about her. He is given a report about her philosophy, attitude, seriousness and steadfastness in the most menial work in the field. Boaz receives this testimony about her and observes it all himself. It is now mealtime and he does what only the lord and owner of the field, can do. He spreads a table before her in the presence of all the genuine, called and chosen workers, the foreman, gleaners, and all others. She deserves not one iota of this, yet a stranger, one who does not belong, no matter how you turn it, one who is not considered, is specially spread a table by the owner.

This touched me deeply for it was made abundantly clear that the owner did not just tell his servant workers to feed her, he did it himself. He could easily have ordered anyone to do this but no, he served her himself. It’s like Jesus, serving His servants. He never even dreamt of asking the servant who washed feet to come and wash the dirty feet of His disciples. No! Absolutely not! Jesus, got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. John 13: 4 – 5. Jesus did it all Himself. He never even asked for a basin of water. He poured the water Himself. Does this not send you wild with gratitude and love for our very human, humble and down to earth Jesus?