G'day, Dave here.

Welcome to Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

Have you ever heard anyone say, oh that was lucky?

Or have you ever said, I was so lucky?

It kind of makes me wonder, what is luck?

Is it an invisible monster that goes around pushing

people out of the way of cars?

Tripping up one person so someone else can be first in line for concert tickets?

Turning the electricity off in kids houses?

So their parents have to go and buy pizza for dinner.

What is this thing called luck?

Actually, even though people talk about it all the time, it isn't really anything.

People just use the word to describe when good things happen,

when they're not expecting it.

Actually though, there is someone in charge of the world, and

every good thing comes from him.

Every good thing, big or small.

If it's good, he's given it to you.

Not luck.

And when he gives good things, we call that a blessing.

God blesses people.

Sometimes we don't realize when God's blessing us.

Which is really sad.

Sometimes people think that God can't bless them.

Or he won't bless them.

For whatever reason.

Which is also really sad, but because God loves to give good things, and

because he has good, perfect plans, then he can be getting on with blessing

people, even when they don't notice, even when horrible things are happening,

even when they think it's impossible.

And that's what we're going to see today.

Get ready for our next episode of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

At

the end of our last episode Naomi was bitter.

She felt like God had made her life bitter.

She felt that God was against her, and that there's no way he'd even think about

blessing her or her daughter in law Ruth.

They've arrived back in Bethlehem very poor and very sad.

As chapter 2 begins, we're introduced to a man named Boaz.

We're told in verse 1 that Boaz was one of Naomi's close relatives.

More importantly, we're told that he's a good man, a man

who likes to do what's right.

Meanwhile, back in Naomi's house, Ruth, the woman from Moab, has been thinking

about how they're gonna eat and survive.

She says to Naomi in verse 2,

Let me go to the fields.

Maybe someone will be kind and let me gather the grain he leaves in his field.

Remember, God's made lots of barley grow, and it's the time

to collect it or harvest it.

In those days, they don't have tractors or machines.

They have to do it all by hand.

Usually, the men walk through the field, bending over to cut the

grain, and then the women follow behind, bending over and bundling it

all up into bunches called sheafs.

Naomi and Ruth don't have any land that's already got gro

Ruth wants to go into someone's field and pick up the pieces

that get dropped or missed.

Now, remember how Naomi thought that God wasn't going to bless her anymore?

Well, straight away, I can spot three ways God's already blessing her.

One, He's made all the barley grow, so there actually is some

food for her to go to and collect.

Two, Ruth is willing to go and get the grain.

Naomi is older and may find it too hard, but Ruth is

willing to do the work for her.

And three, well, you've got to know your Bible to see the third one.

Years before this, when God had given his good law to Israel, he'd actually

made a law about this very thing.

You see, God loves and cares for people who no one else often cares about.

Poor people are often ignored.

But God loves them.

People who have come from other countries to a new country are often

in danger in their new country.

People and governments can treat them really badly.

But God loves and cares for them.

And God told his people to love and care for them too.

He told the Israelites, When you harvest, make sure you let poor people and people

who have moved from other countries, make sure you let them come into your fields,

and do exactly what Ruth wants to do.

So God's blessed Naomi by making the food grow, He's blessed her by giving

her Ruth, and He's blessed her by making a law where she can be looked after.

And we're only in verse 2!

Well

Ruth goes out into a field, following along behind the

workers who are cutting the grain.

And verse 3 says, It just so happened that the field belonged to Boaz.

In other words, She doesn't know Boaz.

She doesn't know he's a relative.

She doesn't know it's his field.

She just randomly chose that one.

And this is the great way God works.

Sure, we like reading about his big spectacular miracles.

But even in the Bible, they don't actually happen as often as you think.

That doesn't mean God isn't doing things, though.

Just like here, he's working invisibly to make good things happen.

I wonder what good thing is going to happen here.

Wait a minute, let me check the gap.

Well.

Boaz has been off in town, and now he arrives back at the farm.

He says g'day to his workers, and then he calls the head worker over and asks him

who that young lady is out in the field.

The servant explains in verse 6, she's the Moabite woman who came

with Naomi from the country of Moab.

Please let me follow the workers and gather the grain

that they leave on the ground.

She came and has remained here from morning until just now.

She has stopped only a few moments to rest in the shelter.

Now, it's got to be said, people in Israel, even though they're

the people of God, aren't always interested in obeying God.

And so here, it's quite possible that Boaz could say, She's not allowed in my field.

Get her out of here.

He could call some of his men over to start treating her really badly.

He could do all sorts of horrible things.

But Boaz isn't that sort of guy.

He's a good man.

He loves God, and he loves other people.

And so he works to protect Ruth and make sure she's looked after.

He says to her in verse 8, Listen, my daughter.

Stay here in my field to gather grain for yourself.

Do not go to any other person's field.

Continue following behind my women workers.

Watch to see which fields they go to and follow them.

I've warned the young men not to bother you.

When you're thirsty, you may go and drink.

Take water from the water jugs that the servants have filled.

Whoa, that's super kind.

Ruth knows it's super kind.

She knows she's in danger.

Plenty of people could say, A woman from Moab!

Who cares about people from Moab?

And treat her really badly.

She is so thankful to Boaz.

She's also confused.

She says, I'm a stranger.

Why have you been so kind to notice me?

I know about all the help you've given to Naomi, your mother in law.

You helped her even after your husband died.

You left your father and mother and your own country.

You came to this nation where you did not know anyone.

The Lord will reward you for all you have done.

You will be paid in full by the Lord, the God of Israel.

You have come to him as a little bird finds shelter

under the wings of its mother.

Boaz knows that it's such a blessing to come under the protection of God.

He knows it's the best thing you can possibly do in all the world.

It reminds me of a song I've just added to the SFG4Kids Spotify playlist.

It's called The Chooky and Her Chickies by Colin Buchanan.

It's about how God cares for his people like they're his baby birds.

And God's caring for Ruth like that.

He's protected her by bringing her to Boaz's field.

Ruth says to him in verse 13, You are very kind to me, sir. You have

said kind words to me, your servant.

You've given me hope, and I'm not even good enough to be one of your servants.

Well, they work through the morning, and then all the workers stop for lunch.

Ruth may not have any food.

She's very poor, remember.

But Boaz keeps being kind.

He calls her over to sit with his workers.

He gives her so much food that she gets full.

She even has leftovers!

She really kindly keeps those leftovers in a safe place, so she can give

them to Naomi when she gets home.

But Boaz's kindness doesn't even stop there.

We know how God said to let people pick up the bits of grain

that were accidentally dropped.

Well, Boaz knows that God loves it.

Well, Boaz knows that God loves it when people work even

harder to care for his people.

So Boaz tells his workers not to just let her pick up the accidental bits that are

dropped, but to actually deliberately pull some out of the bundles for her to get.

This is so kind!

Every bit that he lets Ruth get is a bit that he's not getting.

God's made him a really kind man.

As well as making Boaz a really kind man, God's made Ruth a really hard worker.

She works all day until the evening, but she doesn't stop there.

Once you've picked all the long stalks with grain on the end, you've got

to go and beat the stalks against the ground to get the grain off, and

Ruth does that with all the grain that she's gathered during the day.

When she gets home, Naomi's eyes nearly pop out of her head.

Ruth's got enough grain to feed them for weeks.

Where did you gather all this grain today?

She says in verse 19.

Where did you work?

Blessed be the man who noticed you.

Ruth told her about whose field she'd worked in.

She said, The man I worked with today is named Boaz.

Even though Ruth doesn't really know who Boaz is, Naomi knows.

She tells Ruth, Boaz is one of our close relatives, one who will take care of us.

And she also says something that she probably,

and she also says something that she probably wouldn't

have said in the last chapter.

Remember how she'd said that God had made her life really bitter?

She'd said that God is against her.

He wanted bad things to happen to her.

Well, now, she says something completely different.

She says in verse 20,

the Lord still continues to be kind to all people, the living and the dead.

Wow, that's really different.

Now she can see God's faithful kindness.

Now she can see that God hasn't given up on being kind.

Now she can see that God has paid attention to her, even though she said

some pretty nasty things about him.

Ruth says how Boaz told her to keep working in his fields until

the harvest ends, and Naomi says, Oh, it's good for you to continue

working with his women servants.

If you work in another field, someone might hurt you.

So that's what she does.

She keeps working in Boaz's field while they're harvesting the barley, and then

when they harvest the wheat as well.

You know, sometimes it feels like God doesn't care.

Sometimes it feels like nothing good's gonna happen.

There are gonna be times in your life when it feels like God's turned against you.

Those times are really hard.

But in those hard times, We need to remember what we know about God.

Is he faithful in keeping his good plans?

Yes, he's always faithful.

Has he stopped being kind?

No, kindness is a part of who God is.

Is it possible for God to do good things by using bad things.

Well, if Naomi hadn't been through all those hard things.

She wouldn't have ended up having Ruth with her, but there's actually

an even bigger example than that.

Do you know that the most horrible thing that's ever happened in

all of history, God used that for the best thing in all of history?

The most horrible thing in all of history is Jesus being killed on the

cross, but God was able to use that to save all his people from their sins.

Win us eternal life and show the universe his glory.

Hard things are hard, but they're not the end of the story.

God writes the end of the story, and he's faithful and kind.

When things are hard for you, remember that God is faithful.

Back in Israel, that could be the end of the story.

Ruth and Naomi are looked after.

They have enough to eat.

Life is looking good, but God has more to write for their story.

He's even going to use their story for something amazing in our story,

but that's a story.

for next time.

Thanks for listening.

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Keep trusting Jesus.

Bye for now.