The Invitation
“At mealtime Boaz said to her, ‘Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.’”
Today’s Text: Ruth 2:8-16 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
In the Bible, Ruth and Boaz present a practical model of what hesed looks like in the lives of ordinary people. There is no one English word that adequately translates the Hebrew word hesed. It means something like a combination of covenantal lovingkindness, faithfulness, and mercy. When we say God is Love, really what we are trying to say is God is hesed.
Boaz intentionally took steps to welcome Ruth into the company of “his people.” We can imagine that Ruth, as an outsider and a foreigner, was sitting alone. So he says to her, “Come over here,” inviting Ruth to share a meal with the harvesters—that is, with him and his people. In every culture, sharing a meal together is an outward symbol of creating and building relationship.
The fact that Boaz took the initiative to invite her reflects the character of his heart—his hesed—in having consideration and compassion for the disenfranchised.
It is always the responsibility of the insiders to extend the invitation to the outsiders. Outsiders who try to force their way into a community invite suspicion, and rightly so. Insiders are easily recognized as insiders and don’t really need an invitation; they are already inside!
Of course, the insiders are always going to try to gauge the character of the outsider, and maybe that is a necessary process. However, the heart of God would have the insiders hold back any judgment against the outsider just because they are different. And they will be different.
And if insiders are going to judge (and communities of people do need to exercise sound judgment), they should judge outsiders on the character of their hearts and not on outward cultural or social differences. And even then, we all need to judge others with a sense of examining the plank in our own eye first (Matthew 7:3-5).
Would it be an exaggeration to say that every single person who ever lived desires to be in a community where God’s hesed is the culture that everyone aspires to? God’s hesed in a community is a powerful and attractive force that will lead to the salvation of many.
Father, You are hesed. And it is Your hesed at work within a community that led to my salvation. Thank You for leading me there. Thank You for saving me. You are raising up Canvas to be such a community as well. And for that, I praise You. Continue to grow us in hesed, and use us, Lord, to seek and to save the lost, and may many be saved because of Your hesed at work in us. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
