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!
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