Boaz and his bride.

Boaz did not have the advantages that we have in our Scriptures. We can read The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit Psalm 34:18, and imagine the Lord whispering to Naomi.

When Paul wrote the second letter to Timothy, it was in the knowledge that his ministry was coming to an end, and as he contemplated his death from his prison cell, encouraging his successor to carry the baton, his words could have been an echo from the past, when Boaz decided to take his problem before the elders of the town.

I know whom I have believed and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him …

Boaz had no need of help in understanding what was happening when he woke to find the young widow lying at his feet. She was showing that she was willing to offer herself as his wife. When Naomi advised Ruth as she did, it was not as a brazen or seductive act, it was a reminder of the law to a man who was law abiding, and who followed the commandments as laid down in Scripture.

If one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells some of his property, his nearest relative is to come and redeem what his countryman has sold. Leviticus 25:25. In fact, land was not to be permanently taken from the possession of the owner to whom it had been given when the tribes were allocated land after their possession of the Promised Land. In verse 23 God said to Moses, in His commandments, The land must not be sold permanently because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants...

(What does this mean to Israel today?)

Amongst God’s laws was the one we read of in Deuteronomy 24:19 When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

In Deuteronomy 25 we can read of the need, after death, for the widow not to marry outside the family and the nearest kinsman to continue the family name. In Ruth’s obedience, she was asking Boaz to take her into his household, protect her and provide for her. Boaz, as the close relative of Naomi , was actually required by Israeli custom to marry a childless widow, and although other close relatives of Naomi could have been asked to fulfil this duty, he was chosen. In the time in which this love story was set, life was hard, and heroes were scarce. Even those we read of in those times. (the book of Judges) were badly flawed. Finding  a kind, gentle, God fearing and law abiding man like Boaz was a real bonus, and not to be ignored.

I wonder when his heart was first stirred by the young Moabite woman working in his fields. Was it the first day when he asked who she was? He was most probably old enough to be her father. My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here… Ruth 2:8

Was it later when he noticed how diligently she worked to support her mother-in-law?

Was it at the table when he saw how she saved food for Naomi?

He continued to watch her throughout the barley reaping season which lasted through the month of April, and maybe, just maybe she invaded his thoughts as he lay in the makeshift tent that he had erected at the threshing floor. Picture a large flat rock in an open space. This was where the farmer had his oxen trample out the grain, and then, with huge winnowing forks and the help of the prevailing winds which usually obliged in the afternoon, sort the grain from the stalk and chaff. Then he would lie down in his tent, often large enough to accommodate some of the workers, in order to guard and protect the crop from marauders during the night.

When Boaz sent Ruth back to Naomi with a shawl filled with barley, it was with the objective of sorting out the matter of inheritance without delay. The politics of the land were carried out at the city gates, where the wise men, or elders, sat and discussed the daily state of affairs, being called upon as judiciaries, character witnesses, and now, on this occasion, presiding over the legalities of redeeming property and taking a wife. There was to be no doubt about his intentions.

Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion and Mahlon. I have also acquired Ruth, the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from the town records. Today you are my witnesses. Ruth 4:9,10

It was in the days when the judges ruled, when Israel had no king, and everyone did as he saw fit. Good men were few, but amongst them one stood out as being worthy of remembrance, and acceptable as an ancestor of Jesus;  Boaz, great grandfather of David. A man of integrity; a man to be trusted and emulated.

Grandchildren are the crowning glory of the aged; parents are the pride of their children. Proverbs 17:6

Like Ruth, Reaching out to Reap.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17

For of Him and through Him and to Him, are all things… Rom 11:36 Rom 11:36

Nothing touches our lives but it is God Himself speaking. Do we discern His Hand or only mere occurrence? (Oswald Chambers)

Elimelech thought he was taking his wife and sons to a place where they would have better opportunities for survival and prosperity. He did not expect to lose his own life or that his sons would not survive for long after him. He could not have known that his death was a part of a saga of redemption for his family, and that his wife would become an ancestor of the Messiah.

When the eyes of Boaz were drawn to the young woman gleaning in his fields, he was not to know that he was looking at his future wife

Naomi, for all her wealth of wisdom through experience, was not aware of the repercussions awaiting her daughter-in-law Ruth, when she encouraged her to lie down at Boaz’ feet.

Full life in Christ was pictured in Ruth’s marriage to Boaz. No longer gleaning, but reaping, in abundance. An example of gleaning is a devotional reading, which is insight given to someone else, and which is available to the reader in order for his or her knowledge and understanding to grow. When we reap for ourselves, we understand from the Word of God a message He wants to impart, and we gain the strength of the Word. The Husbandman reaps the crops from what He has sown; we eat at His table, and the Word is rich, chewable. We progress from the milk, which we receive in our early days, and progress to the meat of the Word, by which we grow spiritually.

Growth must be grounded in our Personal responsibility. A tender shoot is dependant on others for its growth, (discipleship) but as the roots settle, it pushes down to find sustenance! So must we accept personal responsibility for growth. We will not be reaching into dry ground, but are assured of the Living water, if we ask for it!

If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. John 4:10

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds. Can such faith save him? James 2:14.

Can we profess our faith without desiring to grow in it? Can we desire to grow in faith without commitment to our ongoing relationship with the One who feeds that faith? Can our faith grow without the gleaning from the Word? And then, once fed at the table of the Master, do we expect to be given only crumbs?

Ruth reached out expectantly in hope and trust, and received abundance from her kinsman-redeemer.

We too have a Kinsman-Redeemer, who invites us to eat at His table.

Reflections on Ruth and Relationship

Ruth 1:15 - 17 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people, and her gods. Go back with her.”

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”

Here we see devotion, learnt through what trials? What had Ruth seen in Naomi to make her feel so strongly about remaining with her?

In verse 13 Naomi said, “The Lord’s hand has gone against me.”

I remember saying, “Lord, if you love me ---” then, later, when I had not received the response I had hoped for, I said, “Lord, if you loved me, You would have ---” I thought His hand had gone against me.

Look again at Naomi, and her problems and needs as a widow. How can her experiences bring us to an awareness of our potential, and the need to be within the Will and Way of God? His plans and purposes will prevail, with or without our obedience and knowledge.

I lost husband and children, albeit temporarily, but in that loss found Christ as a reality, and as Husband! This experience brought about a whole new set of priorities in life, the main one being obedience – spiritually – to the One who is all in all to me, and who provides abundantly, meeting all my needs. I made a choice, but God remained sovereign. He never fails us. Whatever choice we make, His sovereignty remains.

Ruth ‘found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech’ Ruth 2:3. How did the Lord direct her steps?

When I left England for Africa, it was in partial rebellion. I had no idea of the Lord’s direction – I wasn’t even looking for it. I had backslidden from my youthful faith and built around myself a silent cynicism that remained for several years. Then the Lord used circumstances to make me look His way again, and looking back through the years I can see His hand of discipline, His directives, (not always followed), and His will being superimposed on my own.

Meeting with Christ marks the entering into the land of our eternal home as Bride, and starting to glean from the abundance of the wealth of our Husband.   

Ruth did not know, when she started to glean from the lands of Boaz, that he would become her husband. She merely worked according to her own and Naomi’s needs. She knew Naomi’s God, and had promised to follow Him and serve Him. Understanding what she was promising came as she grew in the faith. Gleaning in the lands of Boaz was part of the growing. After our profession of faith, we do not know what God has in store for us. He gives us His Word, though, and that should be used as a land from which we can glean, in order to survive. As we start out in obedience to that, we find that we are fed in abundance. Ruth was first asked to share at the table of the workers, and was able to save extra food for Naomi! She was given protection and offered clear water. Her work was recognized, her character was analysed, her loyalty was acknowledged; she was encouraged and offered continued support, besides being favoured by a blessing on her future by the man who would later become her husband.  What a wealth of provision accompanied her relationship with her mother-in-law.  

Becoming a Bride of the Groom brings wealth, and that wealth only starts to appear after the initial meeting. We don’t know what lies ahead, but God does! 

Naomi, the pleasant influence of a godly mother-in-law

“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” Ruth 1:20,21

When going through tough times, I am sure we can all relate to the feelings of Naomi. Depression seizes us in a stranglehold, and we see no way out. The far horizon, where the good times were, seems too distant to recall, and the present envelops us so closely that the future is hidden behind its dark clouds. Happiness and contentment are part of a dim and almost forgotten dream that will fade, never to be recalled. The “to do” list of each day is too heavy and lengthy to consider so it gets pushed to one side, adding to the ever increasing daily load. Don’t call me Naomi, for she is gone. I am another person now; Mara, bitter and disillusioned.

The name Naomi means ‘pleasant’, and looking at the relationship that has been built with her daughters in law, we can see that she was indeed a pleasant lady. A Hebrew, well versed in the knowledge of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, she would, as an obedient and caring wife, have submitted to her husband’s decision to escape the famine in Judah by going to live for a while in Moab. We can surmise that because they were living in an alien culture, the two boys were influenced by it, and after the death of their father they were unwilling to wait for an opportunity to meet women of their own culture, succumbing instead to finding wives from amongst the women of their acquaintance in Moab. A mother’s influence has far reaching effect though, and the wives were obviously willing to embrace the life-style of their mother-in-law. The fact that they were both willing to follow her after the deaths of their husbands shows a natural affection that had blossomed from her loving acceptance of them. What beautiful bonding, and how precious it is to have a loving relationship with one’s daughters, received not by natural birth, but developed, in devotion and approval of the choice of one’s sons.

We can see in Naomi a wife of noble character, whose husband, and later her sons, had full confidence in her, for she had cared for them and provided for them in such a way as influenced their wives to want to emulate her goodness. Used to hard work and well able to run her household with wisdom and thrift, yet, in the throes of depression after losing her loved ones, decisions had to be made, and it seemed expedient for her to return to the land of her origins, leaving behind those she had come to love in her adopted country. Selflessly, she ordered their return to their own families, with the hope that they would again find happiness and contentment with new husbands.

“Go back, each of you,” she told them, “to your mother’s home. May the Lord show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Ruth 1:8,9

She kissed them, and they wept. One at last agreed, but not without proclaiming her love for this woman who had shown her such respect and set such a good example of domestic strength and stability. Orpah returned to her people, perhaps better equipped for her future because of her mother-in-law’s influence.

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Proverbs 31:30

Surely, these are qualities that shone through Naomi even in her distress, and encouraged Ruth to stay with her as support and comfort for her journey back to Judah.

Naomi proclaimed herself as Mara, bitter and bereft of hope, feeling abandoned by her God, and reliant only on her own initiatives. She was as yet unaware of what God had planned for her, as He watched over her, prepared the way, and gently influenced her spirit.

We have the benefit of hindsight, and can read Proverbs 31:31 in confidence.

Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gates.

Gleanings from the Book of Ruth

In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name, Naomi … Ruth 1:1,2

The Bible gives us two descriptions of marriage when it teaches of the marriage of God to His Bride, Israel, (Hosea) and Christ to His Bride, the Church (Ruth).

Think of our marriage to the world, before we know Christ. Then we are married to earthly pleasures, - child of Adam in our sinful nature. We are born into the world, and live according to our earthly wisdom and knowledge. Hopes and dreams center around our self will. Sin is predominant with the “I” in the middle of a sea of delusions sent by satan into the neighbourhood of our natural egotism.

   Sin can be illustrated as:

Sea of delusions Sent by Satan 

I

Neighbourhood of our Natural egotism 

In the Book of Ruth we see how Elimelech tried to solve problems himself by moving away from Bethlehem, the “House of Bread” to a land where he could supposedly find better things - the land of milk and honey in his own mind. But whenever we try to solve problems our way by moving away from the House of Bread, which is God’s Living Word to us, we will only take the problems with us, though perhaps in another guise. Only the Living Bread can feed us with the Truth we need. Only the Living Bread can feed us with solutions to our problems and assuage our hunger for help.

Elimelech felt that the Lord was blessing his move, for he was being provided for in various ways. During his 10 to 20 year sojourn in Moab, he was well fed physically, and had two sons who married well, giving two lovely daughters-in-law. We don’t know whether Elimelech knew the extent of these provisions, but certainly he would have felt secure in the knowledge of his wife’s needs being met.

We are so often “blessed” in our lives because we look at our circumstances and ourselves from a human and self focused perspective, even persuading ourselves that we are doing God’s will. We live on the physical plane, and see things from our physical standpoint. Only when we recognize the need of a spiritual side to our life can we start to glean real sustenance as we seek new meaning to our existence.

Physical life as we know it starts at birth, and is followed by the most intense learning process that sets our course for the future. In the first 7 years of our lives we learn to speak, walk, feed, think, relate, reason, excuse, procrastinate, argue, desire, fight, cry, sulk, demand --- and so the list goes. Blessed in a true way is the child who is taught in those early years of his need for a Spiritual side to his existence. Blessed is the child who hears and understands, and accepts Christ as His Saviour. Then, as his physical learning increases, it will be fed by his Spiritual knowledge also, and the gleanings from God’s Word will nourish his heart into eternity. Sadly, few are so blessed! Like Elimelech, we see only the needs of our physical being, and seek our own versions of the land flowing with milk and honey. We recognize only the draught that affects our natural character, so often failing to recognize our need for Living Water to feed our souls.

No crop grows without water. There will be no harvest without good growing conditions. Our hearts and minds need to be receptive to the provisions available to us as children of God.