Things Written Aforetime For Our Learning - The Story Of Ruth

by N.D.Millar | Category: For Young Believers | Apr 1933

CHAPTER 2.

Beth-lehem! To Naomi it was a familiar spot: but to Ruth the surroundings were entirely new. She was now in a land, and among a people, she had not known heretofore. Both land and people belonged to the only true God. Of old He had said- "Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto Me I will surely hear their cry ... for I am gracious" (Exodus 22.).

"When thou reapest thine harvest in the field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands" (Deuteronomy 24. 19).

And the same thing applied to the oliveyard, and to the vineyard. "How precious is thy lovingkindness, 0 God! And the children of men take refuge under the shadow of Thy wings.

They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy House; and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures" (Ps. 36. 7, 8). Such, in God's goodness, was part of His gracious provision.

How fully, how perfectly, was the heart of God revealed by Immanuel in the days of His Flesh! That touching example, for instance, which Luke, the beloved physician, records in his narrative about Nain. It follows immediately after the story of the Centurion, than whose faith the Lord Jesus had found none so great, no, not in Israel. And besides having great faith, he could count, in his distress, upon an influential deputation, both of elders, and friends-elders who approached the Lord and besought Him earnestly, saying, "he is worthy that Thou shouldest do this for him: for he loveth our nation, and himself built us our synagogue." Some might say, such a character, with such a record, deserved well of the Lord-little wonder the Centurion's servant was healed!

But in the midst of the procession that came out of Nain that day we see the bowed form of a widowed mother-not, as far as we know, possessed of great faith, or of any faith at all; and with no deputation of either elders or friends to plead her cause. They were carrying out "one that was dead, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow." "If they cry at all unto Me," God had said of old; but here, there was not even a cry. But there was grief-unmitigated anguish, combined with utter helplessness and hopelessness. With her grief, that Blessed One, the Man of Sorrows, would become acquainted; and voluntarily He drew near. "When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not." Ah! Never man so spake as to dry instantly the weeping eyes, and beget hope where despair was reigning. In a word the dead man was raised, "And He gave him to his mother" (Luke 7.). How lovely! Pardon, if needs be, the digression: it serves to shew something of the God of Israel, under Whose wings Ruth came to take refuge in her day. This is He Who is typified by the kinsman of Ruth 2.

Barley harvest in Beth-lehem was about to begin. "And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz" i.e., "in him is strength."

In verse 1, the word "kinsman "means to know (to ascertain by seeing) "one to be known," and differs from the usual word to redeem-" one that bath the right to redeem "-as in verse 20 (according to the Hebrew law of kinship), i.e., to be the next of kin (and as such to buy back a relative's property, marry his widow, etc.).

"One to be known " presents some very precious thoughts. For example, it suggests to the writer, such an one as Job longed for in his day. Said Job, "there is no daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both" (Job 9.). Then, at last, Elihu could say-" Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's stead; I also am formed out of the clay" (Job 33. 6. R.V.M.). Here, is there not in the language of typology, some trace of likeness between Elihu and the God-Man, Christ Jesus ? So too, with Boaz. Boaz typifies the Redeemer, for Boaz was one who was able, and willing, and ready (and, eventually, having the perfect right) to redeem.

Ruth's was a double need. The need of both widow and stranger. And God, through Boaz, met both.

Provision is always in view of need. And such was the desperate need of the human race-enslaved to sin and Satan, and under sentence of death--that God in pity, sent His Son. The Son became Incarnate-the Word became flesh. He partook of blood and flesh: "that through death He might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is the Devil: and might deliver all those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage " (Hebrews 2. 14). And such was His grace "that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might become rich "(2 Corinthians 8. 9). Here is the substance of all the shadows-the great antitype of all the types-our precious and all-glorious Kinsman-Redeemer. Kinsman, Avenger, and Redeemer, are all expressed by the Hebrew word god.

To become our Kinsman, the Lord Jesus took blood and flesh of the Virgin Mary, that, as Avenger, He might avenge us of our great Adversary the Devil; so that as Redeemer, He might deliver and redeem.

Thus, God who provided for the need of the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, in the days gone by, is the same

blessed God who has made such wondrous provision for the sinner to-day, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

God's provision for the stranger, and for the fatherless, and for the widow, was in the fields of His people; and God's provision for Ruth lay in the field of Boaz, the mighty man of wealth. All that she required was the empty hand of faith to take what God had graciously provided.

"And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean among the ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter."

"Let me now go "is language characteristic of Ruth. It manifests something of that "meek and quiet spirit which is, in the sight of God of great price." There was nothing of "Miss Modern" about it--a toss of the head, and, "I'm off" Oh no! child-like obedience was a divinely implanted feature of Ruth's character. "And she went ... and behold, Boaz came.

But before Boaz came, when she reached the field that day, she said to the servant that was set over the reapers-" Let me glean, I pray you, and gather after the reapers among the sheaves." "She went ... Boaz came." No waiting. "I the LORD will hasten it in its time." Viewed in relation to God's sovereignty, this was no chance work that she lighted on the field of this mighty man (yet compare verse 3, "her hap," as indicating the human side) it was the guiding hand of God who loved the stranger and the widow, and who was drawing Ruth after Himself.

Thus we see her in all her need-stranger and widow, but out to seek for God's provision. How quickly God acts in such a case. The sinner who begins to feel after God, realising his lost and ruined state, has not long to wait. It is such the Saviour came to seek and to save.

Let us then picture Ruth, amid her new and strange surroundings, when Boaz came.

First impressions have generally a lasting effect upon us. With quiet dignity Boaz entered his field; and Ruth saw and heard that day what Moab never could have produced. To the reapers, Boaz said, "The LORD be with you. And they answered him, The LORD bless thee." This was the usual salutation, yet we have Capital and Labour portrayed as they ought to be. "The LORD be with you"! What more could reapers desire! "The LORD bless thee"! What more could Boaz wish? God had blessed him, but the entire absence of envy and jealousy made the field of Boaz a delightful place indeed. And so must Ruth have thought. First impressions! We referred to Sheba's Queen in her visit to King Solomon. What a mercy she came when she did. As "a poor and wise youth," "Solomon loved the LORD" (compare Ecclesiastes 4. 13 with 1 Kings 3.3). As" an old and foolish king,"" Solomon loved many strange women" (1 Kings 11. 1). These first impressions of Ruth and the Queen of Sheba provide a useful lesson. They illustrate-" As we have heard, so have we seen." "Prepared for review" is a good motto. "Only let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ; that, whether I come and see you or be absent, I may hear of your state," and so forth. Is it not so that when Mr. So and So is on a visit to the home, or to the Assembly, then all are on their best behaviour? But when Mr. So and So is not present it may not always be so, and yet we should remember, the Lord is there. If we just strove to be ensamples; and sought to "Adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things, would not the precious truth of God be commended to others more than it is? Scripture, I think, will bear this out.

"Whose damsel is this?" said Boaz. "And the servant answered and said, It is the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab: and she said, Let me glean, I pray you, and gather after the reapers among the sheaves: so she came, and hath continued even from the morning until now."

"She came, and hath continued" are fitting words which may well be applied to-day to such as manifest the true disciple spirit.

N.D.Millar | Apr 1933
For Young Believers