Who Are the Poor

4.5.2011

Ruth 2:22 22 Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with his girls, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.” NIV

Who are the poor? Keep that in mind. In the book of Ruth, Elimelech and his wife Naomi and their two boys went on an ill-fated journey to Moab (godless enemies of Israel) to escape the famine where they lived. As it happened all of the men died in Moab and Naomi – a widow – returned to her home in her native land with the widow of one of her sons, a woman named Ruth. Who are the poor?

Through a series of circumstances Ruth, while caring for her mother-in-law Naomi, goes to glean in the fields to find food for the two of them to live (see Leviticus, 19.9 & 23.22). The fields in which Ruth gleans belong to a relative of Naomi, a guy named Boaz. Naomi said to Ruth, “It will be good for you, my daughter, [to glean in Boaz’s fields] because in someone else’s field you might be harmed. [In Boaz’s fields, with his people, you’ll be safe.]

Think of what it took to get home from Moab – two women all by themselves. Think of what it took for Ruth to go out into the fields of strangers and look for food – all by herself. Ruth was poor, Ruth was a widowed-woman in a man’s world, and Ruth was defenseless.

Who are the poor? They are not just those without money. They are those without opportunity, they are those without defense; they are those without means. And, they are those who are watched over by God and helped by God’s people. The poor are the young, the old, the widows and the orphans. The poor are all around us and in the church, it is our duty – our God-given obligation – to care for them.

I can no longer live in this world ignoring the poor. As I read the Bible there is at least one thing I come away from it with: caring for the poor pleases God. The story of Ruth is one of how a poor woman was given back a husband and another poor woman was given back a destiny. Who knows but God what He’s doing through the lives of the poor, and what opportunities presented to them will be a part of His divine plan to the benefit of all mankind… As a believer, I must enlist in God’s service to the poor and lend a hand.