The Book of Ruth takes us 3,200 years back into the early history of Jewish national life, when the Judges ruled. There we have the record of a life of devotion that is a delight to read and a joy to contemplate. Its setting is a pastoral scene at the time of harvest, usually a very happy season as this one proved to be. From this record, we gain some idea of the prosperity and contentment that was associated with a God-fearing and obedient people.
The famine to which the land and the inhabitants had been subjected doubtless followed forgetfulness, and was broken only when Israel repented of their misdeeds and returned to their source of strength. It is put very beautifully in Chap. 1. 6 thus : “Naomi heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited His people in giving them bread”. Exercising her faith (which was embedded deep in the heart of this mother in Israel), she determined to return to her native village and spend the remainder of her days in the land of promise. She describes her case thus in verse 21 of the first chapter : “I went out full and the Lord hath brought me home again empty”. But she did not return alone and without hope. Her otherwise empty life was gladdened by the love and devotion of her daughter-in-law, Ruth the Moabitess, whose loyalty is a noble example of affection. Her words to Naomi in verse 16 are wonderfully expressed,
“And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or 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. Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried ; the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part me and thee.”
And so they came to Bethlehem.
Ruth was the second Gentile woman who, being adopted into Israel, figured so prominently in the line of David and Jesus. As well as being a source of information regarding the times, the Book of Ruth also serves to inspire godly minded followers of Christ in their walk towards the Kingdom. In the happenings surrounding the lives of these two noble women are none of those baser motives that more often than not intrude into and mar human fellowship. Peace and the desire to act uprightly are the keynotes of this pastoral symphony in the village of Bethlehem. Doubtless we should have been disappointed and pained had it not been so. The souls’ travail of Ruth and Naomi was left in the land of strangers : they returned to the holy ground of God’s land poor in worldly goods, but rich in faith not knowing just how their affairs would work out.
The bringing of a Gentile into the Covenant has a marked significance. It was a type of the sheep of another fold who, because of their faith and acceptance of God’s law were allowed to feed on the pastures of the Gospel under the hand of the Great Shepherd of the Sheep, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of all mankind. This latter phase is typified in the redemption by Boaz of all that was Elimelech’s and his two sons of the hand of Naomi (whereby he was obliged also to wed Ruth the Moabitess, wife of the deceased Mahlon, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance). Ruth was redeemed not only from the pagan practices of the Moabites, but also from the privations of want and its consequences ; for Boaz was a rich man and a prince of Israel. Ruth’s rejection of all things appertaining to her native land, without any expectation of profit, was rewarded to a degree beyond her imagination.
Some thirteen centuries afterwards, the greater Son of Boaz was born in Bethlehem of a virgin as noble and faithful as her ancestor, Ruth. Whereas the redemption by Boaz was confined to one family, that effected by Christ is universal- ‘In him shall all families of the earth be blessed”. Like his great forefather, Jesus sowed seed in the hope of reaping a plentiful harvest. His seed was the gospel and his field was the world, both then and now. The God-given revelation intended to show his servants “things which must shortly come to pass” was the last furrow in the divine tillage. In its concluding chapters it tells of the great end-of-world harvest, of the thousand year divine thanksgiving, and of the marriage of the harvest Lord and his devoted bride whose worth has been proved by great tribulation. The opening verses of chapter three of the Book of Ruth refer to the time of cultivation. The children of God had been greatly increased—in fact, there had been a distinct racial variation in the covenanted people : a door of faith had been opened to Gentiles. Also there was a growing evidence of great change in the occupations of the Jews. Instead of their living on the soil they tended to congregate in cities where they engaged in trade and kindred activities. Customs and religious worship also had changed considerably. The simplicity of the age of the Judges vanished in the establishing of an earthly kingdom during the time of Samuel and in the concentrating of national worship at the Jerusalem Temple during the reign of Solomon. Then again, the nation’s lapses had brought invasion with its consequent evils so that, at the time of Jesus, the one-time strong and prosperous Israel was a helpless vassal state of Rome.
The rejection of Christ, his crucifixion and the subsequent persecution of his followers by the Jews had moved the apostles to declare,
“It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you, but seeing ye put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo ! we turn to the gentiles”.
And thus the type of Ruth the Moabitess was fulfilled : the gentiles were given an opportunity to share the root and fatness of the Israelitish Olive Tree. But the time came when they did not endure sound doctrine, but according to their evil desires they gathered to themselves teachers. Having itching ears, they turned from the truth to fables. Because of this state of the ecclesias, Jesus, through John, sent the messages of the opening chapters of the Revelation. There we read of the great anti-typical woman, Jezebel, the schemer and seducer, through whose insidious actions purity was assailed, harmony destroyed and dissension created. She stands for that spirit of intrigue and lust for power, which has in the process of time brought ruin in its train. How sharp is the contrast with Ruth who, in her labours and life, sought the good and comfort of others.
There are other degrees of laxity and evil referred to in the messages to the ecclesias of Asia, but I would rather draw your attention to the constructive aspect. Associated with every message is the call for endurance, for patience, for faith and for endeavour. The promised reward is “to him that overcometh”—that is to say, he who gains the victory over self. The great harvest-time of God is approaching—in his day Jesus said that the fields were already white to harvest. The time is surely near when the great sickle of God will cut dawn the standing crops of human activities. Until that day comes we continue to labour in the fields which have been planted by the teaching of Christ. It would seem as if the time has arrived for us to enter the house of the Lord of the Harvest and there prepare for the gathering of the sheaves. In olden times there was a period of rejoicing after the harvest had been gathered. For that, preparation was necessary. It was after the harvest in the fields of Boaz, that Ruth was redeemed and was united in marriage with that Prince of Judah.
So we are told that those who are redeemed from among man at the judgment of the great day will sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb in that Kingdom of God —the union between Christ and the called out ones. Therefore, whether we have directed the efforts of God’s toilers or ploughed the furrows, or planted the seed, or cultivated the growing crops, or gleaned among the sheaves, or ministered to the labourers in God’s heritage, we await the trumpet call signifying that the harvest has been garnered and the harvest feast is ready.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One