RUTH 2
It is important for the good and joy of our souls that we should apprehend Christ in a definite and personal way as the Kinsman who has the right of redemption. He is the Kinsman, in infinite grace, of every soul that is exercised in the fear of God. Wherever there is the true owning of the rights of God, Christ can be claimed as Kinsman. Elimelech being dead, and Mahlon and Chilion being dead also, made it clear that they could not take up the inheritance. Everything was hopeless unless there should be one with the right of redemption, and with willingness and ability to exercise that right. The hopelessness of everything on man’s side is set forth in the death of the three men; the exercises that are becoming under such circumstances are seen in Naomi; divinely awakened interest and desire appear in Ruth. But the meeting of those exercises, and the satisfaction of those desires, is seen to depend on the kinsman with the right of redemption. It is a beautiful picture of how Israel will be shut up to Christ to secure all that is in their inheritance, and it is not less beautiful as portraying how — notwithstanding individual and collective failure — the inheritance can be enjoyed today.
God would call our attention to One who holds and enjoys all that is the portion of man according to the thoughts of divine love. A living glorious Man at the right hand of God is in possession of all that it was in divine purpose to bestow [p. 203] upon men, and He is such a Kinsman with the right of redemption that He can bring us into it. All the wealth and blessedness of what God has purposed for men as the subjects of His love and calling, is substantiated in Christ as the risen and glorified One, and eternally secured there. In being brought to Christ we are brought to the true Boaz, in whom is strength to hold all that God would give to men, and who holds it in such a way that it becomes available for us. He has “the right of our redemption”. This applies particularly to a day when the divinely allotted portion has been lost as to present enjoyment. For that is the point of view in the book of Ruth.
It comes to light that Naomi has “a relation of her husband’s”, and though SHE was impoverished, HE was “a mighty man of wealth”. This brings out, typically, the place which Christ has taken in relation to “the seed of Abraham”, who are spoken of as “the children”, and as His “brethren”. See Hebrews 2: 11 - 16. Those who fear God, and love Him, and desire His blessing, find that they have a Kinsman who has the right of redemption. There is One who restores that which He took not away, and who has the right and ability to reinstate in the inheritance those who have forfeited it. When He was here He found a company of persons going to John to be baptised, confessing their sins. He would be Kinsman to such, He would go that way with them; they were to Him “the saints that are on the earth” and “the excellent”. His delight was in them.
An interesting feature of this beautiful history is that the initiative is taken by Ruth. She finds Boaz by the diligence with which she sought to become possessed of some of the good with which God was favouring His people. It was one of the provisions of God’s grace that there should be something for a gleaner. See Deuteronomy 24: 19 - 21. He thought, too, in this connection, of “the stranger”, as well as the fatherless and the widow. Ruth in proposing to go and glean showed that she had laid hold of the thoughts of divine favour which were in the heart of the God of Israel towards even a “stranger”. She wanted what was of the inheritance, even if only as a gleaner. And we have ALL to come in as gleaners in the first place. That is, we have no rights of proprietorship, or any title or claim save that which divine favour gives. Ruth proposed to glean “after him in whose sight I shall find favour”,
[p. 204] verse 2. She knew enough of God to confidently count upon favour. This is a blessed state of heart. Not saying, I am unworthy, and therefore I must not presume to glean in the inheritance of the people of God. But counting upon favour, even if consciously unworthy. And, in a beautiful spirit of subjection, submitting her exercises to Naomi. She would not act independently of the one who had brought divine and spiritual influences to bear upon her. There is no surer mark of a work of God than the spirit of subjection, and subjection is easy when affection rules. Naomi represents the moral exercises that are suitable in a day and state of departure, and love that desires spiritual good will never be disregardful of such exercises, but will move in accord with them.
Opportunities to make personal acquaintance with Christ are found as we move, like Ruth, on the line of desire and diligence and affection and subjection. If such features mark us we shall light on the portion of field which belongs to Christ, and we shall come under His personal notice. The presence and blessing of God are there (verse 4), and they are available for all who desire and seek them. Ruth came under the notice of Boaz as one who was truly and diligently interested in the favour which God was showing to His people. She was only a humble gleaner, but she was gleaning in the divine inheritance, and in a field which belonged to a kinsman who had the right of redemption.
“And Boaz said to his servant that was set over the reapers, Whose maiden is this?” verse 5. Christ observes every humble gleaner in His field. We need not expect to come under the notice of Christ by choosing the company of the unspiritual by reading worldly books, or conversing on worldly topics. Those allotments are not His field, But when Ephraim says, “What have I to do any more with idols?” Jehovah says, “I answer him, and I will observe him”, Hosea 14: 8. And Jesus said to Nathanael, “When thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee”, John 1: 48. How good to be moving in such a way that we attract the attention of Christ! We see typically in this chapter a state of soul that appeals powerfully to His heart. When you are in your chamber crying to God to increase your knowledge of Himself, and to show you more of the preciousness of Christ, to give you more of the wealth of the inheritance, you come under the personal notice of divine Persons. How favourably does Christ regard a soul who [p. 205] would rather have Him, and the blessing of God in Him, than all the wealth and honour or good that the world can offer! He says of such, “I will observe him”. The book of Ruth is largely a history, typically, of movements of affection on our side, and of diligence in the pursuit of what is spiritual.
Ruth was not only a gleaner of the blessing of God, but a diligent gleaner. “She came, and has continued from the morning until now; her sitting in the house has been little as yet”, verse 7. I have no doubt the Spirit reports to Christ just how we are acting with reference to His things — the true measure of our interest and diligence. I have found that even a small measure of interest in God’s things secures blessing, and perhaps none of us knows what wealth we might have secured if we had manifested greater diligence in the pursuit of spiritual things.
We may glean in all that belongs to Christ. Ruth gets every encouragement from Boaz and his servants. He speaks directly to her for personal comfort (verse 8). He encourages her to continue and “not to glean in another field”. He says, “Let thine eyes be on the field which is being reaped, and go thou after them”. The Lord loves to be recognised as the Director of operations in His own fields, and wherever His young men and maidens are at work is the place to keep our eyes on. It is good to follow up the reaping and the gleaning of the present day. The wealth of the inheritance is being reaped today in mutual co-operation; the young men and the maidens are working together. The young men represent the energy that apprehends spiritual things and makes the good of the inheritance available. This was seen in the apostles first, and it is seen in a subordinate degree in all the gifts of the ascended Christ. The maidens would represent a subjective state that follows up what is ministered, and seeks through exercise that it shall be formative in us. It is good to be in company with that.
Ruth was made welcome to glean, and to drink of what the young men drew. This latter, as being in “vessels”, would appear to typify what is standing ready to be used at any time for spiritual refreshment. The Holy Scriptures take the first place as such a store, and there is also much that is permanently available in the way of printed ministry. There are vessels from which we are welcome to drink, and which are open to be used by every humble Ruth who gleans in the [p. 206] field of the true Boaz. Indeed, the whole wealth of the inheritance is open to us as when the Holy Spirit came down from a glorified Christ. Love can have everything. The last verse of the epistle to the Ephesians — which is the epistle of our inheritance — intimates to us that love gives access to everything. “Grace with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption”.
Ruth’s own feeling was that she was a stranger (verse 10), but to the eye of Boaz her affectionate link with what was new to her was her distinguishing feature. She had severed herself from what was of Moab, and had identified herself with what was of God, though she had only known it in exile. She had been moved in heart to come and take refuge under the wings of Jehovah; Boaz had pleasure in her; she obtained personal recognition from him. It is a precious moment in the soul’s history when we have the consciousness for the first time of Christ’s personal recognition, and can say, I am altogether unworthy, but I desire the blessing of God, and the Lord has taken knowledge of me! As Naomi said, “Blessed be he that did regard thee”, verse 19. Ruth got direct comfort from Boaz as he spoke to her heart, though she had a deep sense that she was not like one of his hand-maidens.
Then “mealtime” comes (verse 14), and it brings special marks of favour. Boaz provides for his young men and maidens, and Ruth learns how he cares for them, and what provision his wealth affords. But what THEY have SHE can have; his heart and his hand are as open to her as to them, all unworthy as she felt herself to be. It was all HIS favour — the thoughts of His heart. There is such a thing as “mealtime” now, when the reapers and the maidens sit down to eat and to drink. It speaks of the fellowship that is available through the grace of our Lord. No one comes spiritually into it save by His invitation. Many stand off as feeling unworthy, but this is, at the bottom, unreadiness to owe all to Him. In partaking of what HE provides, the humblest self-judged soul can sit, by His invitation, beside the reapers. Such have equal right with the greatest labourers in His harvest, for it is the right of Christ to call them all to partake of what His grace gives. So, after Pentecost, “they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles”. They all “sat beside the reapers”, and they knew something of what it was to receive “parched corn” from the hand of a risen and exalted Christ, for it was [p. 207] Himself in heaven who had now become their food. The history of Ruth shows how a soul comes into fellowship as led by affectionate desires, and as welcomed by the Lord Himself.
The bread and the vinegar represent what can be enjoyed in common in Christian fellowship. There is a portion covered by the term “the Lord’s table” of which it is our privilege to partake; it is provided for all His saints. Practically, as to enjoyment, it is only reached as we, like Ruth, choose the good part. At the present day things are reached experimentally by way of love that seeks them. This is illustrated in the two who heard John speak, and who followed Jesus. He said to them, “What seek ye? And they said to him, Rabbi ... where abidest thou? He says to them, Come and see”, John 1: 38, 39.
The “parched corn” of verse 14, and the ears drawn out, of verse 16, represent what is in excess of the general supply; they are marks of personal favour. Every Ruth will get something that is not quite of a general character. The fellowship is general, but manifestations of the Lord are personal; it is the lover who gets them; John 14. There are many sweet expressions of the Lord’s favour which are not general. For instance, the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1: 19) is only known to the one who gets it. “The Lord stood with me, and gave me power”, (2 Timothy 4: 17) was very personal to Paul, and so was “My grace suffices thee”, 2 Corinthians 12: 9. And the Lord speaks of a “white stone” and on it a “new name written, which no one knows but he that receives it”, Revelation 2: 17. The Lord loves to give personal marks of favour and support. Such do not remain solely in result for our own enjoyment. Ruth ate the parched corn “and was sufficed, and reserved some” which she took home to her mother-in-law. Paul’s experiences of personal favour were a great encouragement to him in his soul and service, but he has spoken of them to encourage us, and that we might look for personal favours also. We should covet to receive marks of the love and favour of Christ, so that the sense of His personal regard is in our hearts; we are not sustained altogether by what is general, but we have our personal secret with Him. The tendency is to live solely upon what is general, but love would not be satisfied with this; it appreciates what is general, but it has its own special delight in what is given as personal favour.
Ruth gleaned, and she beat out what she had gleaned. She [p. 208] was marked by intense diligence in the acquisition of all that grace put within her reach. And then she learned that Boaz was “near of kin”, and that he was one who had the right of redemption. The one who had so graciously regarded her, and shown his personal favour to her, was one who had right to secure everything for her that her heart desired. She was now getting, typically, an enlarged view of Christ — a dawning apprehension of the possibility of a more intimate personal link with Him than she had ever contemplated.
The great thought that underlies the book of Ruth is that spiritual affections are brought into rest; satisfied love is the subject of the book. Both Ruth and Boaz were brought to rest through realising the thoughts of God as set forth in Leviticus 25: 25 - 27 and Deuteronomy 25: 5, 6. God’s love would not be in rest if what He has given were not enjoyed. Hence if poverty or death came in on the heirs, God had a reserve in the Kinsman-redeemer. He foresaw all that would come in, and Christ was His provision to meet it all. The inheritance was there, but in the mind of God it could only be taken up as redeemed. Naomi had no seed to inherit; her sons were dead; Israel was truly in that case morally as having no spiritual seed suitable to take up what was in the mind of God. Ruth, though a Moabitess, was the representative of the dead, but she could not claim the inheritance in her own right, nor secure a seed to hold it on behalf of her dead husband. If taken up at all the inheritance had to be taken up according to the ancient statute of the right of redemption. Israel never truly had the inheritance in any other way, and never will have.
This is a principle on which all can be secured that is for the pleasure of God and for the blessing of men, in spite of the fact that all has been departed from and forfeited on man’s side. The right of redemption, as vested in Christ, will secure the reinstatement of Israel in a coming day when such exercises as were seen in Naomi, and such interest as was seen in Ruth, get a place with them. When the remnant commit themselves to Christ as Ruth did to Boaz He will exercise the right of redemption, and there will be a seed suited to inherit the promises. On the line of the natural all hope is dead, but through Christ all will be secured in a spiritual way for the glory of God. “He shall see a seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand”, Isaiah 53: 10.