Rut 2:17-18 | KingComments | STEP | Ruth has gleaned, but she also needs to beat out. Grain cannot grow without straw. However, straw is not food for humans. In speeches and comments there will often also be some straw, such as examples or repetition, so that the meaning of the Bible section is well remembered. In addition, there is the weakness of the expressions that are used or sometimes wanting to say it more beautifully to impress. All these human elements must be removed. Often, it is those things that we take home from a meeting and we talk to each other about the straw, and little or not at all about the grain. We remember the defective or beautiful form in which something is said, while ignoring the content. Ruth has no interest in straw. She beats the grain out to take it home, because only therein is food. Spiritually, it means that we consider before the Lord what we have read in God’s Word and take into our hearts what it contains. Not everything we hear or read we keep. It’s about what we beat out. We have to work on it and we have to make an effort to do so. Then what we have gathered can become bread. Ruth has gleaned an ephah of barley at the end of the day. An ephah is ten omer ( ) and an omer in the wilderness was the meal of manna for one day ( ). Ruth has collected food for ten days. She takes that home, so others can be fed with it. Beating out also indicates that more work needs to be done to get the full benefit of what she has gathered. It can be compared to the ‘chewing the cud’ – by clean animals ( ) – of what we have taken from the Word, for example in a meeting or a conference. Beating out means to pray and think about what we have read or heard from and about God’s Word. Many impressions disappear like smoke, simply because we haven’t thought about them afterward.

‏ Ruth 2:17-18

The Yield

Ruth has gleaned, but she also needs to beat out. Grain cannot grow without straw. However, straw is not food for humans. In speeches and comments there will often also be some straw, such as examples or repetition, so that the meaning of the Bible section is well remembered. In addition, there is the weakness of the expressions that are used or sometimes wanting to say it more beautifully to impress. All these human elements must be removed. Often, it is those things that we take home from a meeting and we talk to each other about the straw, and little or not at all about the grain. We remember the defective or beautiful form in which something is said, while ignoring the content.

Ruth has no interest in straw. She beats the grain out to take it home, because only therein is food. Spiritually, it means that we consider before the Lord what we have read in God’s Word and take into our hearts what it contains. Not everything we hear or read we keep. It’s about what we beat out. We have to work on it and we have to make an effort to do so. Then what we have gathered can become bread.

Ruth has gleaned an ephah of barley at the end of the day. An ephah is ten omer (Exo 16:36) and an omer in the wilderness was the meal of manna for one day (Exo 16:16 ; 22). Ruth has collected food for ten days. She takes that home, so others can be fed with it.

Beating out also indicates that more work needs to be done to get the full benefit of what she has gathered. It can be compared to the ‘chewing the cud’ – by clean animals (Lev 11:3) – of what we have taken from the Word, for example in a meeting or a conference. Beating out means to pray and think about what we have read or heard from and about God’s Word. Many impressions disappear like smoke, simply because we haven’t thought about them afterward.

Ruth Lets Naomi Share in the Blessing

Ruth takes with her what she has gathered and beaten out. Yet she does not give that to Naomi. She gives Naomi what she had left after she was satisfied with what Boaz gave her (Rth 2:14). The rich Ruth lets the still poor Naomi share in her abundance. With what we have personally received from Christ in abundance, we can feed others. This is not only in the meeting, but especially in our contacts as believers with each other.

How much did we enjoy the Lord Jesus? Is it so much that we can also give to others, out of its abundance? Often our contacts are limited to everyday conversations which we also have with our unbelieving neighbors. This is not necessarily wrong, but sometimes it is the result of spiritual poverty that the level of conversation doesn’t go beyond earthly things.

Naomi can see from the large quantity, that Ruth is particularly blessed by a landowner. Because of the fruit she sees, Naomi asks where she has been. People ask us, when they see what we have and hand out, where we have been. The Thessalonians are known throughout the area to belong to the Lord Jesus and live for Him (1Thes 1:8). If we spend a lot of time watching TV and surfing the internet, if we have been busy in those ‘fields’, and have read nothing of the ‘field’ of God’s Word then we probably can’t hand out anything. I take with me to the meeting, where I have been, and what I have been doing.

In answer to Naomi’s question, Ruth does not mention the place where she worked, but the name of the man on whose place she worked: Boaz. It means something special to Ruth, more than only that he is a friendly man who has blessed her richly. She now knows his name, that name with the beautiful meaning ‘in him is strength’. There is growth in her spiritual development. So, it is with someone who has just come to faith. First, he is happy about the forgiveness of his sins, then he becomes happy with the Redeemer by getting to know Him more personally, by discovering more of the meaning of the name ‘Jesus’ (meaning ‘in Him is salvation’).