Ruth

by Toms, A. F. | Category: Some Women Of Scripture | Oct 1976

In my boyhood home there hung on one of the bedroom walls an artist's drawing of three women standing on an Eastern road. One was obviously older than the other two, and the artist had succeeded in drawing into their expressions something of the earnestness which marked their conversation. Great decisions were made on that road from Moab to Bethlehem that day; decisions which affected not only the lives of the two young women but also, in the purposes of God, the whole of time and the human race; for one of these women came into the royal line of Judah and became the great-grandmother of David the king, of whom came the Christ as concerning the flesh.

They had reached in spiritual things the point of decision to which we all must come at some time in our lives. Persuasively Naomi encouraged Orpah and Ruth to return to their own land and to their fathers' homes. "Turn again, my daughters" she said three times over, and eventually Orpah yielded and midst many tears kissed her mother-in-law for the last time and turned away, never to be heard of again, nor referred to again on the sacred page. "But Ruth clave unto her". Then came the word, "Return thou after thy sister-in-law". Why was Naomi so insistent? Did she not want Ruth to go with her? Did she not know that in the worship and service of the God of Israel lay life's highest good? Of course she did. But she spoke in the spirit of the Master Himself, who when one wanted to follow Him said, "the foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head" (Luke 9:58). No-one should step out to follow who has not first counted the cost. Naomi knew that, and if Ruth would go with her it must be out of deep conviction in her own heart. Her strong persuasion had the desired effect and provoked from Ruth some of the noblest words which have ever come from the heart of a young woman.

"Intreat me not to leave thee, and to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God."

Tremendous words! Her decision was made. She was stedfastly minded to go. Her own people were dear, and the people to whom she was going were all unknown. Yes, that was so, but Israel were God's people and that was enough for her. Did Naomi have no certain dwelling place? That mattered not. Under the wings of the God of Israel she would take refuge. The gods of Maob had never satisfied her young heart. And she had heard enough about the living God to know that He was the One who alone could reward those who put their trust in Him. Her decision was made. Onward she would go.

Nor was she disappointed. "The LORD is good ... to the soul that seeketh Him" (Lam. 3:25) and the story of Ruth is eloquent testimony to that glorious fact. "They two went until they came to Bethlehem", and Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest was just the right place and the right time for the Lord to demonstrate to this young disciple how great is His goodness toward those who fear Him.

"Her hap was to light on the portion of the field belonging unto Boaz". Divine overruling and human choice blended perfectly as they are so often seen to do on the sacred page. Boaz, "in him is strength", was true to his name. In this mighty man of wealth lay both the ability and the willingness to provide all the blessing which God had in store for Ruth. It was all in Boaz. Ruth had nothing but a heart that was fixed. Empty handed she came, and those empty hands it was the pleasure of Boaz to fill. He was full, and out of his fulness she was to be blessed. How true the type, for "in Him (Christ) dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and in Him ye are made full" (Col. 2:9,10). No wonder Paul's heart was just bursting in his prison cell, as in an ecstasy of praise he cried, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3). Every spiritual blessing is in Christ, and "of His fulness we all received, and grace for grace" (John 1:16).

After only one day's gleaning Ruth went home laden. "Enough and to spare" she would say as she poured out her ephah of barley before her wondering mother-in-law. "Where hast thou gleaned today?" she asked. Ah, it was not so much where? but with whom? "The man's name with whom I have wrought today is Boaz", Ruth replied, for he had told her not to glean in any other field, but to abide fast by his maidens. And when she was thirsty he said she could drink of the water that the young men had drawn. "At meal-time he called me to sit with him and eat his bread and dip my morsel in his vinegar. And not only that, but he told his young men to allow me to glean among the sheaves, and he even asked them to pull out some from the bundles for me to gather up. They pulled out handfuls on purpose, all for me". How well we can picture her pouring out her story!

Ruth was overwhelmed. "Why have I found grace in thy sight, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?" Why indeed! Strangers were we also, from the covenants of the promise, but now in Christ Jesus those who once were far off "are made nigh in the blood of Christ" (Eph. 2:13). And those whom God has brought near are the objects of His grace, which He has freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. "All that is Mine is thine" He says in marvellous grace. Fellow-Christian, how favoured we are!

Ruth attributed it all to Boaz. We stress that point. All that she poured into her mother-in-law's lap that first evening was out of his fulness. But despite that fact Ruth would have returned empty had she not gleaned and then beaten out her gleanings. And that was hard work. "She hath continued even from the morning until now", said the servant. "She gleaned in the field unto even". She was not work-shy, this young maiden from Moab. Diligently she worked away at all that Boaz so generously provided, and the ephah of barley she carried home that night told of the lavishness of Boaz' provision and of her untiring labour.

Gleaning and beating out. Surely there is a message in this for the people of God today. Every spiritual blessing is in Christ, and Christ is in all the Scriptures, but if we are going to enjoy Him, and be enriched in Him as God intends we should, we shall need to beat out what we glean. The blessed man of Psalm 1 teaches us this lesson. "His delight is in the law of the LORD; and in His law doth he meditate day and night", and therein lay his blessing.

Meditation takes time and spiritual energy, but it yields royal dainties as aged Anna of Asher's tribe proved as she came up at that very hour speaking of Him. If we are to have something of Christ to feed our own hearts and also to pass on to others it will be as we spend time meditating upon Him. "The heart of the righteous studieth to answer" (Prov. 15:28) and that word "studieth" is the same Hebrew word elsewhere translated "meditate". So is the word "growl" in Isaiah 31:4, "Like as when the lion growleth and the young lion over his prey". That is one of Isaiah's vivid word pictures of the ravenous lion turning his prey over and over, enjoying a bit here and a bit there until the whole thing is devoured. So does the disciple heart, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, turn over and over in his mind the precious things of Christ, until they become food to his soul.

The days are busy and the tempo of life increases. In leisure hours the tendency is to ease, and in this the disciple has to be watchful. Paul saw the danger and writing to Timothy he said, "Till I come, give heed to reading, to exhortation, to teaching... Be diligent in these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy progress may be manifest unto all" (1 Tim. 4:13,15). "Revolve these things in the mind" is Dr Strong's rendering of the phrase "be diligent in these things". We take the point. We turn them over and over in our minds and as we do so the indwelling Spirit of God reveals to us the treasures that lie hidden in them.

That first day's gleaning was but the beginning of so much that was to follow. "Go not empty unto thy mother-in-law" Boaz said that early dawn, as he poured six measures of barley into her mantle. The days of emptiness were over. Naomi had said, "The LORD hath brought me home again empty", but it was now fulness. "He satisfieth the longing soul, and the hungry soul He filleth with good". It is so still. "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled".

Nor was that all. "The man will not rest, until he have finished the thing this day", said Naomi in her intimate knowledge of the man she was dealing with. Boaz was a near kinsman and as such he exercised his right of redemption, purchasing Ruth to be his wife. The lovely story closes with their young son Obed clasped in Naomi's bosom, as she became nurse to him. In chapter one there is death, but that had to be, for out of it came life in chapter four. Mahlon must die before Ruth could be joined to Boaz. "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God" (Rom. 7:4). What a contemplation! Joined to Christ that through the Holy Spirit we might bring forth fruit unto God.

Toms, A. F. | Oct 1976
Some Women Of Scripture