The Berean Pursuit
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a certain man from Bethlehem in Judah, with his wife and two sons, went to reside in the land of Moab. The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah, and they entered the land of Moab and settled there.
Then Naomi's husband Elimelech died, and she was left with her two sons, who took Moabite women as their wives, one named Orpah and the other named Ruth.
And after they had lived in Moab about ten years, both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and without her husband.
When Naomi heard in Moab that the LORD had attended to His people by providing them with food, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave the land of Moab. Accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road leading back to the land of Judah.
Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back, each of you to your mother's home. May the LORD show you loving devotion, as you have shown to your dead and to me. May the LORD enable each of you to find rest in the home of your new husband."
And she kissed them as they wept aloud and said, "Surely we will return with you to your people."
But Naomi replied, "Return home, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb to become your husbands? Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons, would you wait for them to grow up? Would you refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me."
Again they wept aloud, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
"Look," said Naomi, "your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; follow her back home."
But Ruth replied:
"Do not urge me to leave you
or to turn from following you.
For wherever you go, I will go,
and wherever you live, I will live;
your people will be my people,
and your God will be my God.
Where you die, I will die,
and there I will be buried.
May the LORD punish me,
and ever so severely,
if anything but death
separates you and me."
When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to persuade her.
So Naomi and Ruth traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole city was stirred because of them, and the women of the city exclaimed, "Can this be Naomi?"
"Do not call me Naomi," she replied. "Call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt quite bitterly with me. I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? After all, the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me."
So Naomi returned from the land of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. And they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Now Naomi had a relative on her husband's side, a prominent man of noble character from the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.
And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "Please let me go into the fields and glean heads of grain after someone in whose sight I may find favor."
"Go ahead, my daughter," Naomi replied.
So Ruth departed and went out into the field and gleaned after the harvesters. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.
Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and said to the harvesters, "The LORD be with you."
"The LORD bless you," they replied.
And Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, "Whose young woman is this?"
The foreman answered, "She is the Moabitess who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab. She has said, 'Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the harvesters.' So she came out and has continued from morning until now, except that she rested a short time in the shelter."
Then Boaz said to Ruth, "Listen, my daughter. Do not go and glean in another field, and do not go away from this place, but stay here close to my servant girls. Let your eyes be on the field they are harvesting, and follow along after these girls. Indeed, I have ordered the young men not to touch you. And when you are thirsty, go and drink from the jars the young men have filled."
At this, she fell on her face, bowing low to the ground, and said to him, "Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me, even though I am a foreigner?"
Boaz replied, "I have been made fully aware of all you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and how you came to a people you did not know before. May the LORD repay your work, and may you receive a rich reward from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have taken refuge."
"My lord," she said, "may I continue to find favor in your eyes, for you have comforted and spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your servant girls."
At mealtime Boaz said to her, "Come over here; have some bread and dip it into the vinegar sauce." So she sat down beside the harvesters, and he offered her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied and had some left over.
When Ruth got up to glean, Boaz ordered his young men, "Even if she gathers among the sheaves, do not insult her. Rather, pull out for her some stalks from the bundles and leave them for her to gather. Do not rebuke her."
So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening. And when she beat out what she had gleaned, it was about an ephah of barley. She picked up the grain and went into the town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. And she brought out what she had saved from her meal and gave it to Naomi.
Then her mother-in-law asked her, "Where did you glean today, and where did you work? Blessed be the man who noticed you."
So she told her mother-in-law where she had worked. "The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz," she said.
Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "May he be blessed by the LORD, who has not withdrawn His kindness from the living or the dead." Naomi continued, "The man is a close relative. He is one of our kinsman-redeemers."
Then Ruth the Moabitess said, "He also told me, 'Stay with my young men until they have finished gathering all my harvest.'?"
And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, "My daughter, it is good for you to work with his young women, so that nothing will happen to you in another field."
So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean grain until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.
One afternoon Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those entering the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.
Peter looked directly at him, as did John. "Look at us!" said Peter. So the man gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!"
Taking him by the right hand, Peter helped him up, and at once the man's feet and ankles were made strong. He sprang to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and leaping and praising God.
When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the man who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
While the man clung to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and ran to them in the walkway called Solomon's Colonnade. And when Peter saw this, he addressed the people: "Men of Israel, why are you surprised by this? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus. You handed Him over and rejected Him before Pilate, even though he had decided to release Him. You rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the Author of life, but God raised Him from the dead, and we are witnesses of the fact.
By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know has been made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through Him that has given him this complete healing in your presence.
And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But in this way God has fulfilled what He foretold through all the prophets, saying that His Christ would suffer. Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus, the Christ, who has been appointed for you.
Heaven must take Him in until the time comes for the restoration of all things, which God announced long ago through His holy prophets. For Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to Him in everything He tells you. Everyone who does not listen to Him will be completely cut off from among his people.'
Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have proclaimed these days. And you are sons of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers when He said to Abraham, 'Through your offspring all the families of the earth will be blessed.' When God raised up His Servant, He sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways."