Ruth 2

Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you!” And they answered him, “The Lord bless you!” Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” vv.4-5

Read chapter 2

Now we meet Boaz, who's a man of great wealth as described in verse one.  He's also close family as he's a relative Naomi's husband, Elimelech.  Since Elimelech died there lost the family inheritance, so rightly so the family of the husband would be concerned about loss of the family inheritance and do something to redeem it, which we will see happen later in this book.

I love seeing the influence he is to his employees.  He greets them with the phrase, "The Lord be with you."  Notice there response isn't the catholic tradition of "and also with you" but "the LORD bless you." Boaz is not quiet about his faith at his work and seems to have influence on his employees as they return the greeting bringing the Lord in it.  His employees were mostly all Israelites yet we know because of the famine back in chapter one and the time during the Judges when this book took place that not all Israelites were living to please the Lord, so this isn't just a normal cultural attitude at this time.

We also can tell that Boaz was a man of the Law for in Leviticus 19:9-10 it commands the Israelites to leave gleanings of the harvest for the poor and foreigners to reap.  So it was normal to see these gleaners in Boaz's field and that they were taken notice by Boaz too for him to recognize Ruth so quickly.  

What can you learn from Boaz as either being a boss to your employees or caring and taking ownership of your family's hardships?