Gleanings From the Book of Ruth

Samuel Ridout

Prefatory Note: Ruth

THERE is always a charm in typical and allegorical interpretation of Scripture, when undertaken soberly and in accord with the general teaching of the word of God. Scripture itself abounds in illustrations of this method, while the parables of our Lord show how constantly He made use of it. No apology then need be made for finding the gospel in the Book of Ruth.

That which appeals to the heart, too, has a place which must not be overlooked in these days of mental activity and selfishness. Heart history appeals to all who have hearts, and thus this story which is an appeal to the affections throughout has ever had an attraction for the people of God. The following pages contain little or nothing that is new; if they freshly bring to the memory well-known truths, and induce simpler faith in a well-known Lord, their purpose will have been met. The reader will notice that the dispensational features have been touched upon throughout. It should be remembered that the book is Jewish, and the first application must be to God's earthly people. This, so far from hindering its application to the present time, will be found to give an added charm.

One slight correction should be made by the reader. In commenting on chap. 2:18, the passage was treated as if Ruth after reaching home ate of what she had gleaned before giving to her mother-in-law. No doubt what is referred to in that verse is what she had left over from the midday meal spoken of in ver. 14 of the same chapter. She ate and was sufficed and left some of what had been given her. Of this she gave to Naomi. The lesson remains the same, but the charge of apparent selfishness is removed by this interpretation which is entirely permissible. The passage will be found on page 46 of the "Gleanings.”

These pages are but "gleanings" in a field whose golden grain is offered to us with a largeness of heart and a freedom of which that of Boaz was but a type. That they may stir to fresh zeal in the searching of Scripture which will be most richly rewarded, is the prayer of the writer. S. R.

Ruth 1

Solitary

1. The Loneliness of Departure From God (Vv. 1-5.)

THERE is perhaps no sadder book in the Scriptures than the one called Judges. The darkness is not only intensified by contrast with the brilliant narrative of Joshua, but we are saddened at the thought that the state of things was foreseen by him, and was the result of the people's departure from God, spite of all warning.

Throughout the book, the darkness deepens. At the beginning, there is a crying to God, confession of sin, and recovery in His mercy; but the work of deliverance grows more and more shallow, the deliverers themselves less and less men of faith, until the last deliverer, Samson, himself dies in captivity. The remainder of the book contains the shameful narratives of idolatrous departure from God, and its concomitant corruption of man, with the bloody civil war that well-nigh exterminated an entire tribe. There are glimpses of God's mercy all through, so far as the wretched people would permit Him to show Himself in their behalf, but the tendency of everything is downward and away from the light. Nationally, the people were proving themselves without faith and everything pointed to the necessity of a new order. There was no king in Israel. While later they did have a king, it was only as a type of the true King for whom the nation must yet wait, whose coming shall be as the morning without clouds.

In Ruth we have the bright picture, not of man but of God's grace. It begins, morally, as we shall see, where Judges ends, in departure from God. But it is a history of mercy all through, mercy beyond all thought, abounding thus in the surprises which mercy delights to give. Historically, it is evidently the link between the times of the Judges and those of the Kings. It gives us the lineage of the man after God's heart, and typically shows how all blessing comes from David's Son.

Primarily, it has to do with Israel; and we shall find that it unfolds clearly the nation's past course, present condition and the way of future blessing.

But grace is the same, whether shown to Israel or to the Gentiles; to a nation, or to the individual. It will be found therefore that, while the form is dispensational and national, the lesson can be applied to the individual as well. There is a common life and a common bond that links together all the people of God, in all dispensations. Family traits can be easily distinguished all through. Abraham is our father, and the family of faith is ever marked by the same humility, obedience and dependence that justified him before God and men.

We will find therefore in this book the history of blessing for the soul, as real and profitable for ourselves as for Israel of whom it is directly the type. While seeking to get the lesson in both, we will see the unity in all God's ways of grace.

The narrative begins at Bethlehem Judah, at a time of famine. The names here, as doubtless throughout the Scriptures, are significant. Bethlehem is "the House of Bread," fittingly the birthplace, long afterward, of Him who as the "Bread of God" came down from heaven to give life to the world. Judah, "praise," is the royal tribe through which in grace the "King" was to come. Praise ever flows from a knowledge of the fullness of blessing which is ours in Christ. Thus food and worship are intimately connected Bethlehem is in Judah. And it is most natural to find them linked thus together: "I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy" (Psa. 132:15, 16).

It seems a strange contradiction to have a famine at Bethlehem. If there is no food at the "house of bread," where can it be found? And yet famines are not unknown in God's land. Abraham found one in his day, and so did Isaac. The character of the country, with its rugged hills and hot climate, without many perennial streams, made it particularly susceptible to drouth. It was dependent upon the periodic rains, and if these failed there was no river, as in Egypt, to take their place. Thus the land was in a marked way dependent upon heaven, which but illustrates the spiritual meaning. Our heritage is a goodly one, none so fertile, and supplying spiritual food in abundance. But it must be in constant intercourse with heaven for this richness to be made good to us.

If then, for any reason, divine blessing is withheld, the house of bread becomes a place of famine. Well do we know that it is not the desire of God that His people should suffer. He is no niggard, and if the rain is withheld, the fault is with His people and not with Him. He had emphasized this for them, so that they well understood that when heaven was "shut up" it was in chastening.

It need hardly be said that for us the withdrawal is on our side, and that if joy and spiritual food and power fail, we are straitened in ourselves alone. God does not hide Himself, the Spirit is not grieved away, but the barrenness and loneliness of soul are just as real as though it were so. Thanks to His grace, the presence of the Spirit with us is a pledge of our recovery to the joy of the Lord.

The famine then was God's call to repentance, and should ever have been so considered: "When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain because they have sinned against Thee." Even where there had been no public departure from God, such an affliction should always have brought them upon their faces, in heart-searching inquiry, Why is this?

Further, the saint's walk is not by sight, and God will sometimes test his faith. This seems to have been the reason for the famine in the time of Abraham. God would see whether he had such confidence in His goodness that even a famine could not shake it. Alas, Abraham did as we are all too prone to do; he sought relief from his difficulties, rather than profit from the trial. How true this is with most of us. Is sickness or distress of any kind sent? At once we seek to extricate ourselves from the trouble, rather than to learn the lesson God would teach us. In sickness the attention is given to thoughts of recovery, and to methods of healing rather than to hearing God's voice to us in sickness. Without doubt we should take knowledge of the sickness, and seek also to find relief. But that should not be our first thought.

We should be with God about our sickness, and after bowing under His mighty hand, we may rest assured that He will raise us up. This is not at all a question of so-called faith cure. There is often more pride in what is called that than in the humble employment of proper means for recovery. God may, and doubtless often does, heal in answer to prayer, and without the use of medicines, just as He often blesses the instrumentalities used. But the point of importance is that recovery is not the first object. What would God have us learn in our sickness? Has there been disobedience for which we are feeling His chastening hand? Or, if there has been no direct act of disobedience, has there been a low, carnal, worldly state, worse than actual out breaking evil? How foolish to expect or want recovery to bodily health before the soul is healed.

So that along with prayerful use of means, or whatever one is led to do for recovery, there should be the ardent, constant prayer, "Search me O God and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Abraham failed here, and his failure had most disastrous and enduring results. He could not stay in the land and learn his lesson with God, but he must go down into Egypt, at a distance from Him, and there learn by shameful experience what it is to depart from God. May we, dear brethren, be kept from seeking relief in any but God's way.

We have dwelt upon this, for it is of the greatest importance, and explains what follows. No matter what the sorrow, how great the distress, it can never be right or wise to turn the back upon God. Relief can never come in that way. What seems to be that is but the prelude to deeper sorrow.

Moab, as we know, was the child of Lot's sin. Lot was a child of God, who was not content with the life of obedient dependence upon Him, but had rather go down into Sodom for worldly advantage. Moab represents the results of this departure. It is fitting therefore that the nation springing from him should be typical of mere profession, an outward connection with God without any reality.

This man from Bethlehem, the house of bread, departs into the place of empty formalism. Perhaps the pressing distress was relieved for the moment, but at what a cost! the death of himself and his two sons. But let us look a little closely at what is here.

The man's name was Elimelech, "My God is King." He figures Israel under the benign government of God. What a blessed relationship, had there been faith to recognize it. Alas, the nation soon grew weary of the holy government of God, and desired a king "like all the nations." The famine was but part of His government, and should have been accepted as that. Instead, they desired another ruler, and practically forsook their divine King. So it was when Saul was chosen.

The names of the two sons seem to show both the unbelief of the father and the results of God's chastening. Instead of giving them names suggesting His goodness and love, the parents fasten upon them that which was but a temporary cloud, and thus render it permanent by their unbelief, and prophetic of the final and sorrowful culmination.

Naomi, "pleasant," reminds us of those ways of wisdom which are that. Had the nation but remained in subjection to God, how pleasant would all have been. The very trials would have but sanctified them and brought them into a fuller knowledge of His love, holiness and care. But alas, they will not learn in that way. "Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly,... behold the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many" (Isa. 8:6, 7). Because the nation would not remain in subjection, they must be given up to the enemy.

Elimelech dies. What else could there be for one who turns his back upon his King? When Israel turned from God, it gave Him up, and that, so far as relationship with Him was concerned, was the end of the nation. It is now, "Lo-Ammi," not my people. Naomi's pleasantness is turned to ashes. The nation has become a widow; God is no longer her King.

But the end has not yet been reached. There has been dreadful chastening but apparently without effect. Instead of turning to God in her affliction, the widowed mother stays on, and sees her two sons form permanent alliances with the enemies of her people, in direct disregard of God's prohibition. Evidently there is no remedy, no hope of recall for those who refuse even to hear the rod; and nothing remains but the final cutting off. Mahlon, "sick," and Chilion, "pining," make good the names which apparently had described the state of their parents' hearts long before. Their faith had been a sickly, pining thing before any outward sign of declension was visible, and now death puts its seal upon the unbelief of long years. The Lord in His mercy keep us, beloved brethren, from such weakness of faith: its end is the bitterness of death.

There seem to have been two stages in Israel's history, answering to the deaths successively of Elimelech and his two sons. The captivity to Babylon would seem to answer to the death of the father, for the nation was never recognized as the people of God after that. God was not their king, the scepter had been delivered to the Gentiles. After the seventy years, there was a restoration to the land in some measure; but "Elimelech" was not there. It was but a sickly, pining thing after all, that allied itself with mere pharisaic profession, and after the full period of responsibility had passed, the last vestige of national existence ceased in the destruction of Jerusalem, after the rejection and crucifixion of our blessed Lord.

Such now is the condition of Israel, a widow, hopeless and desolate, an alien from the home of her youth and from her God. The witness of her departure from God is seen in her Gentile daughters-in-law. So now the very existence of a Jewish people, scattered among the Gentiles, is a solemn witness that God has been forsaken by them, that they have no further claim upon Him. It is a widowed, desolate nation.

We need hardly speak of the application of all this to the individual soul. Alas, it is only too common, this declension from God in soul, and settling down into mere formalism. Christian parents have to mourn the spiritual death of children, who after all are but the reflection of their own hearts. There is no peace and no safety save as we abide near to God.

Are you alone, dear reader? Have you lost the joy of God, and wandered into distance from Him? Pause and ask why it has all been. Go back to the time when your heart first became dissatisfied with God and His government, and there you will find the root of all your sorrow. Do you mourn that your children are unconverted? Ask yourself if their state is not the result of your own sickly, pining faith. If you are a widow, let there be the widow's tears, the widow's heart-break. There is still One who is the Husband of the widows.

2. Faith: Its Separations and Companionship.

(VV. 6-18.)

A more hopeless condition than that of Naomi could scarce be imagined—bereft of husband and sons, in the land of a stranger and an enemy. And yet how true it is that the darkest hour is that which just precedes the dawn. It was in divine fitness that our Lord should have selected the cockcrowing as the time to mark Peter's denial. It was the darkest hour in his history—he thrice denied his Savior, Friend and Lord, with cursing. And yet that awful outburst of evil brought it to the surface, where it could no longer hide behind loud protestations of devotedness. Peter sees himself, nevermore could trust himself, and in that darkest hour is heard the herald of the coming day. So widowed Naomi, in the hour of her desertion, turns in dim faith to the One from whom she had so deeply revolted.

The same is true in the history of the nation's return to God. Typically, it was in the time of famine that Joseph's brethren returned, unconsciously though it be, with confession to the one they had so grievously injured. In the coming day, it will be "in the cloudy and dark day" that the Lord's wandering sheep will be sought out and gathered. In like manner, each soul is recovered by divine grace when all seems darkest, when the evil is brought out into the light.

But the rekindling of faith makes at first but a feeble flame, with more smoke than light in the flax. It is a selfish motive that induces her to return, much the same as that which stirred the prodigal to turn his face to the father's house: "She had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited His people in giving them bread," There does not seem to have been any sense of wrong in having left the "house of bread," or of having sinned in turning to the people of Moab. Ah, even our repentance has nothing in it that we can boast of-all is tainted.

This comes out more clearly in her interview with her daughters-in-law. They had accompanied her on her homeward way, with the apparent intention of identifying themselves fully with her future fortunes. Surely faith would have recognized mercy to these daughters of the stranger in this, and have encouraged them to follow. But Naomi was not yet restored in her own soul, and therefore could be no help to others. She urges them to return home, and expresses the hope that they may find rest in the house of a heathen husband! Her own resources having failed, she thinks God has also failed, and has nothing to put before these to encourage them to seek the Lord.

But such is unbelief, never more evil than in a saint. It can see no hope for others for it sees none for itself, and would even discourage those who would be seeking God. Let the wanderers among God's people beware. If out of communion themselves, they not only suffer individually, but are stumbling-blocks to any who might be seeking the Lord. Alas, how the cold, wretched spiritual state of God's people serves to repel rather than attract the seeking soul. If not in words, at least in demeanor and acts, the world is too often given to understand that there is nothing in the things of God to satisfy the cravings of the soul. What else can the distaste for divine things mean, the gloom of soul that speaks from the manner, the evident hunger for worldly pleasure—ah, brethren, let us not think that the world fails to understand all this; it says as plainly as Naomi's words, "Go return each to her mother's house.”

But what an awful responsibility is this. Our Lord has left us here as lights in the darkness to attract souls to Himself: what if we by our failure to "adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things" are driving them away? There is but one remedy for this—to be in a state of active communion at all times; then we will attract others to Christ, our very lives will be a witness.

On the other hand, God's sovereignty makes use of all things, and the coldness of Naomi becomes the test of the reality of faith in her daughters-in-law. Without exonerating her, the discouragement she offers brings to light the state of heart of the two. There is evident natural affection in both, in fact Orpah shows more than Ruth. The names of these two are suggestive. Orpah, "her neck," or "her back," suggests the turning away which marked her. She kissed Naomi, but returns to the land of Moab.

Ruth does not, so far as we read, kiss Naomi, but she clave unto her. Ruth most probably means, "having a shepherd." Her faith here shows that she is one of the sheep, though a Gentile, who is to be brought into the fold.

Let us now look a little in detail at the meaning of this, first for the nation, and then for the individual. Naomi represents the widowed nation, Israel according to the flesh. They have lost the relationship to God suggested by the husband's name, "My God is King," and have, as we were seeing, no claim upon Him according to the flesh—all that has been forfeited. The desolate state of the nation is seen in the widow; and in the two daughters-in-law we see the two states that will mark the people after the close of the present or Christian dispensation, when God will again "visit His people.”

In Orpah we see the mass of the people quite content for fancied gain to give up all that faith holds dearest, and to identify themselves with the Antichrist: "If another shall come in his own name, him they will receive." They will see no hope for relief of the wretched condition of the people except in one who will link them with the power of the world, and with all the blasphemy and idolatry which will run riot under the "Beast and the false Prophet.”

Ruth, on the other hand, represents that remnant of the nation, which will hold fast to the promises of God, in a dim and cloudy way at first, without claiming aught as a right, but distinctly in faith laying hold upon God. This is seen in her answer to Naomi. It is not mere nature, but faith in the living God that speaks in her reply: "Entreat 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 aught but death part me and thee." This was in answer to Naomi's desire, that she should return to her people and her gods. It was thus real faith which made use of the covenant name Jehovah, which expressed itself in Ruth's reply—a faith which had stood the test of having no attraction for nature offered to it.

This will be the state of the believing remnant in the last days. In spite of all opposition and discouragement; in spite of persecution, misrepresentation and loneliness, it will take hold on God, the God of Israel, Jehovah. It will have no worthiness to plead, it will be only an outcast, even as a Gentile. But there will be a living faith, and this at all costs, in life or death, will claim a place with the Israel of God. How precious in His sight will be the faith of that feeble and despised remnant.

The lesson for the individual soul, at the present time, is the same. Faith cannot be turned back, and it ever identifies itself with the people of God. As with the Syro-phœnician woman it cannot be deterred by the prohibitions of disciples or even by the apparent neglect of the Lord. She must have her need met; what is discouragement as compared with that? Such faith is never disappointed, for it has struck its roots in God's own truth. It does not judge according to sight, and when all seems against it, goes forward without dismay.

This faith separates and it unites. We have seen how, when tested, Orpah turned her back upon Naomi and the people of God. This also separated her from her sister-in-law, for they were going in opposite directions. It is ever thus. Faith separated Abraham from home and country, as it did Moses from the dignities and emoluments of Egypt. Even the ties of human affection cannot hold together souls drawn asunder by opposite motives, one going heavenward and the other earthward. Of course, they may outwardly walk together, but how far apart are they spiritually. It is impossible to prevent this, and what a mercy that it is. Faith separates.

On the other hand, it unites with all who are walking in the same path. Many things may combine to make this seem difficult: there may be differences of taste and of habits, but if the great fact of a common faith remains, it links together in spite of all else. Those who have "like precious faith," are by that fact united in bonds that nothing else can sever. "Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.”

3. The Return to Bethlehem.

(VV. 19-22.)

THERE are several features to note in connection with the return. When they reach Bethlehem, the whole place is moved, "Is this Naomi?" What havoc her departure had wrought, and she is forced to confess the sad truth herself. How her few words tell the story, her heart not yet fully restored. "Call me not Naomi (pleasant), call me Mara (bitter): for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me." She calls Him by that dread name which emphasizes His power rather than His love and care. As she thinks of her once happy home, forgetting her own responsibility for the change, she seems to charge the Almighty with it all. But the next words confess the truth, "I went out full." It was voluntary; she had not been compelled to go, and she was full when she went. "The Lord (Jehovah) hath brought me home again empty." Self-will took her away: grace brought her home (ah, it was home still). Is this not the confession of every restored soul? We may have made many excuses for our departure from God; circumstances were against us, friends became cold, we were misunderstood—ah multiply them as we will, the one reason for departure from God is expressed in that one brief sentence, "I went out full.”

But in that confession the soul reaches God, for true confession can only be in His presence. So the next word is the covenant name, "Jehovah hath brought me home again." We would never come back ourselves. It is only the power of unchanging grace that restores the wanderer; but for that we would still remain in the land of Moab. Nor could we be brought back in any other condition than empty. There must be the brokenness suggested by that, to make the soul willing to yield to God's love.

But her condition is a witness of what an evil and bitter thing it is to depart from the Lord—a warning to all against the folly of turning away from the house of plenty.

Dear brethren, look at that poor desolate widow, crushed with apparently hopeless sorrow, her brightness all behind her—and see a picture of the soul that wanders from God. Ah! how many blighted lives, filled with bitter, unavailing regrets are there among the saints of God.

“It might have been," says the aged man, looking back upon a lifetime of wasted energy and time.

Who can measure the loss suffered by those who spend the life in gathering the "wood, hay, and stubble" of this world? Nor is such departure necessarily a moral declension. The world can be very upright, but it makes widows of God's people who yield to its seductions.

It is always the time of harvest when the wanderer returns. Ah, let the proud, stubborn will be broken, let there be the words of confession, and how soon will the poor wanderer find the ripened harvest with all its abundance and its joy.

Who but the God of all grace could have blessing for His people at all times, no matter how great their unfaithfulness. But in His presence, plenty abides. None can hunger there, and even for you, poor wandering child of His, there is more than enough. His voice is ever, Eat, yea drink abundantly, O beloved.

The prophets abound with pictures of this return of the widowed nation to God. The whole of the Lamentations of Jeremiah might be called Naomi. "How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow!... She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks.... From the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed.... Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old.... Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me.”

Here we see her wretched state, and a little later we hear the confession of the remnant: "The Lord is righteous; for I have rebelled against His commandment.... I have grievously rebelled.... My sighs are many and my heart is faint" (Lam. 1).

We see too the recovering mercy of the Lord in the prophet Hosea, though there the house of Ephraim is prominent. "How shall I give thee up Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee Israel?... My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God and not man" (Hos. 11). "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.”

Such passages abound throughout the prophets, showing the wretched yet repentant state of the nation on the one hand, and on the other the everlasting love of our God. What a day will it be when the Lord will again speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and when the land will again be married to Him.

But before that time there must be a season of sorrow and deep exercise—the time of Jacob's trouble,—but at this we will look later.

Ruth 2:1-17

4. A Gleaner in the Fields of Grace.

BETHLEHEM is true to its name, "the House of Bread," and its white harvest fields speak of the plenty there must be where God's blessing rests. The time of harvest and ingathering is one of joyous labor. It is the crown of the year, "Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness." All the long patience of the husbandman is at an end, and his care now is but to reap the fruits of his labor. "The valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.”

God's harvest is without doubt a time of special joy to Him, as He sees the results of divine care and patience in the world. Spite of the unbelief of men, the malignity of Satan, and the slowness of heart' even in His own, there is fruit to His praise. Nor is it necessary to divorce the thought of the seed sown, the Word, from the fruits gathered in, souls saved and conformed to that Word. Our Lord does not separate them, and as a matter of fact, it is the Word that produces saints: "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God that liveth and abideth forever" (1 Peter 1:23). How precious is the thought that every child of God will be conformed to that Word through which he has been begotten, and thus also to Christ who in the perfection of His person is the embodiment of all that the word of God is. So we think of the harvest time as the season of gathering in the souls who have been brought under the saving power of the word of God. At the same time, we do no violence to the figure when we apply it also to the full grace that is in the Word for souls, and above all to Christ Himself, "the old corn of the land," who as we have said, in Himself has all the fullness of the Godhead.

Thus we are introduced to but one person at Bethlehem, Boaz, who is the lord of the harvest and the dispenser of bounty. His name, "in him is strength," reminds us at once of the One of whom he is the type. He is "a mighty man of wealth," or valor, as the word more naturally means; for He has reached His place as the Lord of the harvest, and the bountiful Giver through the conflict in which He was the Victor over the "strong man." He has reached the place of wealth through the path of poverty—laying aside the riches that were His by right, in order that He might have associated with Himself those objects of His love and grace. This also reminds us of His long patience and the "travail of His soul," when He poured out His soul in tears and shed His blood that there might be fruit for God in a lost world. Surely to Him those words of the Psalm could apply in a special way, "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing His sheaves with Him" (Psa. 126:6).

Thus in Boaz we see the Lord in resurrection, after His toil and suffering, entering upon His joy, and the One in whom is everlasting strength. He is of the kindred of Elimelech, for our Lord took hold of the seed of Abraham and is not ashamed to call them brethren. His relation to Elimelech also recalls what Israel should have been to God, but which she lost, for Elimelech is dead. Here is One, however, who in His life ever manifested the relation to God which Israel failed to do, but who in grace went into the death and judgment which Israel deserved. He is thus ready to maintain the relation forfeited by them, and in resurrection to make good what they had lost.

This is beautifully brought out in Isaiah. Jacob was God's servant, but he proved unfaithful and had to be set aside; then the true and perfect Servant is presented, the One who in life and death always did God's will and is now exalted; then a remnant will turn in faith to this Servant, and finding forgiveness through Him, will themselves become the servant of the Lord, and the seed of a holy nation, which will finally be brought back to its proper allegiance and subjection to God. All will come through the kinsman, who we shall see is the Redeemer. But we must return to our narrative.

The scene is a beautiful and attractive one even in a natural sense. The relation between Boaz and his reapers is all too rare in a world where selfishness in the master and suspicion in the servant are the rule. This must ever be the case where God is left out, and the gulf between "labor and capital" will only widen till the reign of grace be established in the hearts of men. How futile are labor laws and efforts for universal prosperity, when the root of the evil—the sin and selfishness of man's heart—is not reached. It never will be reached until He come of whom Boaz is the type. Then there will be the greetings we have here, "The Lord be with you;" "The Lord bless Thee.”

What a flood of memories must have well-nigh overwhelmed Naomi as she gazed on those familiar fields! When she last saw them her life was bright with hope; now all was changed. No doubt she looked through her tears at all the joy and abundance before her, but which had for her passed to come again no more. How sad to the widowed heart is the joy to which she must ever be a stranger. No wonder then that she makes no effort to better herself. Memory was busy, and doubtless for the present employed all her time and thoughts.

Doubtless there will be, as we have been seeing, this sense of desolation on the part of the remnant of Israel. For them there will be no joy, and all the abundance of God's house will but intensify their sense of poverty, and thus, in His mercy, deepen the work so needful in their souls. Whether for Israel, or the wandering saint, there must be a deep work in the soul if God's restoring mercy is to be enjoyed. This is often forgotten by the Lord's people, and the "hurt" is healed slightly. It is good to be in the house of affliction, and a proper preparation for the house of feasting. So Naomi's sorrow and her silence is natural and proper.

But with Ruth it is different. She represents, as we have seen, the faith in the remnant, which makes no claim of right, but comes to glean in the fields of divine mercy. Hence she is called the Moabitess here, her gentile origin debarring her from all legal claim to any portion in Israel. And yet God had made provision for just such. "When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger" (Lev. 23:22). Here are the crumbs which fall from the Master's table, and which will prove for Ruth, as for the woman of Canaan, an abundance for all her need.

This passage, coming between the feast of Pentecost and that of Tabernacles, would suggest just this widowed state of the remnant, which must precede their time of joy, and the fullness of blessing when "every man shall dwell under his own vine and fig tree." Pentecost signifies the blessing of the Church associated with Christ in resurrection. When the Lord has taken her to Himself as His heavenly bride the widowed remnant of Israel will appear as one who has forfeited her rights, but whose faith as in Ruth, will begin to glean according to the special provision of the mercy of God.

Naomi gives her consent to Ruth's gleaning and thus is identified in all that happens to the younger woman. How blessed it is to know that the brokenhearted desolation and the budding forth of faith are thus identified before God. Faith looks through the tears of penitence, and both are one in God's sight.

It is all grace, and Ruth realizes that her gleaning is to be in the fields of him in whose eyes she shall find favor. It is always a mark of an unbroken spirit, or one but partially restored, when this lowly sense of absolute unworthiness is lacking. Oh, how we rob ourselves when we maintain a high place and a bold attitude. Grace is for the lowly only, whether sinner or saint, and there can be no enjoyment of it without the broken heart which God will not despise. We see how everything is ordered of God, not by Ruth. She does not know in whose field she is gleaning: "Her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz." Humanly speaking, it was Rebekah's hap to be at the well when Abraham's servant came in search for a bride for his master's son; it was the hap of the woman of Samaria to meet the Stranger from Judea, who had such words of life and grace to tell her. But we know that what is man's "hap" is God's purpose, the purpose of love of Him who sees the end from the beginning and plans it all. His eye was upon Rebekah, and He made her go out to the well the first to meet the servant of Abraham. He constrained the woman of Samaria to go where she would meet the Son of God, and have her life transformed by the message He brought her. He knows and He draws each of us, at the appointed time and in the appointed way, to the place of blessing. How wonderful are His ways, and what love there is behind what seem to be the merest incidents. God is absolutely sovereign. All our blessings are from Him alone. The work of grace, from beginning to end, is His. Therefore to Him alone is all the praise.

5. Recognition and Encouragement.

THE presence of a stranger is soon noticed by Boaz, whose question to the chief servant brings out Ruth's identity. She is described as the "Moabitess," a name that would at once mark her out as separate from the daughters of Israel; but along with that which declares her alien birth is mention of a faith which has led her to follow the widowed Naomi back to the land of Israel, in preference to returning to the house of her father with its false gods. In addition the servant tells of the desire on her part to glean, and of her diligence in the lowly task with its small remuneration (VV. 5-7).

Israel, as we have already seen, having forfeited all rights to a place before God in her own righteousness, must realize that she is nothing but a Gentile. When she turns to God, she must be willing to be described as a Moabite, a Gentile. Thus Jerusalem is described by the prophet in the pleading with the defiled and guilty people: "Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite" (Ezek. 16:3, 45). Samaria and Sodom are called her sisters, no more corrupt and guilty than she. When restored, it will be in association with these whom she had despised, and the effect of learning her own moral condition will for all time prevent her from that haughtiness which had marked the days of her assumed superiority over the nations. There was indeed a superiority of position, but where the grace of it is despised, circumcision becomes uncircumcision. The apostle dwells upon this in the second chapter of Romans, where, quoting from the prophets, he declares that God's name was blasphemed among the heathen through the sins of Jews (Rom. 2:17-29). Isaiah had addressed the leaders of the people as "rulers of Sodom" (Isa. 1:10).

Had the people but entered into the thought of God, and accepted their true condition when in mercy they were laid hold of, there would have been no need to learn the lesson through bitter shame. For in connection with their entrance into the land at the first, when they were to offer the basket of first-fruits, this confession was put into their lips: "A Syrian ready to perish was my father" (Deut. 26:5). But prosperity and the evidence of God's special favor made them forget that all was of grace, and as a result in bitter sorrow and humiliation they will have to learn again the lesson. "Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee; know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God" (Jer. 2:19). So that the repentant remnant, with the first glimmer of faith, will not resent being looked upon as Gentiles, without a claim upon God. "Moabite" will properly designate them.

Applying it to the soul seeking for the first time the mercy of God, the designation is no less appropriate. It reminds us how the Gentile centurion disclaimed all worthiness that the Lord should even enter under his roof, or, as we have just seen of the Syrophenician woman who does not refuse the name of "dog". How opposite to all self-righteousness is this lowliness which takes the lowest place.

But she came to glean, to get that which will satisfy her hunger, even if but little more than sufficient to prevent starvation. Faith while disclaiming all worthiness or right, has come to get something, nor will it lightly take a refusal. How the woman, oppressed by her adversary, and with a heartless judge to deal with, emphasizes this importunity of faith which takes no denial. We will remember, too, that the widow there figures the remnant just as Naomi and Ruth do here (Luke 18). But faith is the same at all times, and whoever has set himself to seek the Lord's face will take no refusal. The necessity of the case compels to earnest perseverance, and this is in itself the pledge that the desires will be granted, for are not those desires themselves the proof of grace at work in the soul?

It is never wise nor right to occupy the soul with its own frames even when they are the product of the Spirit of God, but may we not remind ourselves that this lack of earnest purpose is the principle cause of so much superficial work? Earnestness that will glean with but small results, that will continue all day in the fields gathering little grains of blessing such earnestness will reap far more than its expectations. Alas for the shallow convictions, the halfhearted desires, the feeble exercises of soul! We need not be surprised at the vast number of empty professions which like the seed upon stony ground, soon wither away, “wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom.”

And even where grace has wrought, and there is but partial response to it, what feebleness of testimony and walk result, what world-bordering with all its attendant shipwrecks! May the Lord give more earnest seekers like Ruth.

This poor stranger girl, shrinking from every curious glance, and feeling most keenly her isolation, need not think she is unnoticed. Boaz at once marks her, and his inquiries tell of his true interest. Nor let us forget for a moment that the eye of our Lord falls at once upon each poor soul who is seeking for help. Joseph detected at once his brethren when they came down into Egypt at the time of famine to buy a little food for their hunger, and though he did not make himself known to them till after all needed exercises of soul had been gone through by them, yet he has seen and known them. So will it be at the very moment when the remnant turns to God, and so is it in the case of each soul. He sees, and He knows. What a comfort is this, and how it explains the fullness of grace, as we look back upon the Lord's ways with us in bringing us to Himself. He was thinking upon us when we least thought of it, and even before we turned to Him, He had turned in mercy to us. He knew and could distinguish the touch of faith from all the thronging and pressing of the careless crowd. Trembling soul, His eye of love is upon thee now.

But grace can never rest till it makes itself known, and so from looks and questions of interest, Boaz comes to words with the poor stranger. "Hearest thou not my daughter? Go not to glean in another field." The first word is not only one of welcome for whatever she may have already gleaned, but the positive command to continue where she had begun. Disciples may try to send away the seeking soul, but the Lord, never. No matter how apparently unsuccessful, with the consequent discouragement; no matter how long the seeking has continued, the first word is, "Go not to another field." Many are the temptations to do this, both for the seeking soul now, and for the remnant in the coming day. How the enemy would allure away or drive away the soul from the word of God, the fields of grace.

There are other and easier ways of getting peace; reformation, happy feelings, religious professions-thousands of substitutes are offered for the simple way of God. Or the soul is terrified, there is no hope for one so guilty and hardened, the day of grace is passed, why throw away even the few days that remain of life in futile efforts to get what never can be ours? Ah, who that has been under exercise of soul can forget how many and often were the temptations to go to some other field. And how cheering is this word from the Lord of the field to remain where we are, to get nothing except from Himself.

We remember too what fearful inducements will be held out to the remnant, and the threats if they do not comply. When Jerusalem was besieged and apparently on the eve of capture by the Assyrians, the taunting Rabshakeh not only threatened the trembling people, but held out special inducements if they would yield to his master. But neither threats nor persuasions could move them from their loyalty to their king. In the latter days the bulk of the nation will have accepted the rule of the willful king, all human prudence will dictate the same to the feeble few who are at his mercy. The great emperor whose image must be worshiped, it will be argued, will be the only one to acknowledge, for does not certain death threaten all those who fail to have his mark in hand or forehead? But thank God, faith will ever hear the one word of Him whom she may but dimly know, and refuse to go to another field.

May it not be well too for us who know and love our blessed Lord to remember the folly of going elsewhere than to Him and His word for our food or help? Many alas of His own forget this, and bitterly have to regret wasted days of gleaning in what must ever be but fruitless fields for the child of God. How much that is plead for as needed change and recreation is but a snare to draw us away from One in whom we are to find "all our rest and pleasure.”

“Fast by my maidens." There are others besides ourselves engaged in the fields of grace, and rare indeed is it when the soul cannot have help from those more advanced than itself. Ruth is to follow those connected with the household of Boaz, and enjoy the immunity from all molestation which his authority imposed. When the seeker in the Song of Solomon asks where her loved one feeds his flocks, and where they rest at noon, for she fears to turn aside to any other flock, the answer is similar: "If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents" ( SoS. 1:7, 8). If there be but few in the narrow way, we can find sufficient companionship with that few. And while faith cannot imitate, it can follow the faith of those who love Christ. It is always dangerous when a soul loses taste for real fellowship with those who have a heart for the Lord.

Already, too, the tender pity of Boaz provides beyond what she can glean. She has need for drink as well as grain, and to that he now invites her: "When thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn". His servants are for her need too, their labor for her refreshment. How the ministry of the water of life, intended for the people of God, is also for every seeking soul, and how often does the stranger get a refreshment without which he would have fainted with despair. Well does our Lord know this, and often does He invite the thirsty soul—in all ages and dispensations—to come and drink. "He every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters" (Isa. 55:1). "If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink" (John 7:37). "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17). Divine mercy would never refuse the water, so long as there is a soul that will have it. Only when in the eternal abode on the other side of the "great gulf" will the cry be unavailing for a drop of water. How this aggravates the guilt of those who despise the offers of grace and the pleadings of love.

Such grace, so unexpected, moves Ruth to deepest gratitude, and falling at his feet, she asks why he should show such kindness to a stranger like herself. His reply shows how familiar he is with her history, which he interprets as far more than filial kindness to her bereaved mother-in-law. She has come to find shelter under the protecting wings of the God of Israel, and her devotion to Naomi cannot be separated from that.

And has not the heart often asked a similar question of our Lord? He has manifested some special thought of us, given some refreshing to our thirsty souls, and we wonder why it should be so. Is not His answer to be found in the fact that He has marked our path, and seen the beginnings of that faith which He now rewards. Nay, is not the faith itself the fruit of His own sovereign grace, and is He not but setting the seal upon His own divine work? He knows those whom He has drawn to Himself.

Ruth beautifully illustrates that lowliness which is the mark of a young faith: "Let me find favor in thy sight, my Lord; for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken to the heart of thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens". Like Mephibosheth, when David showed him grace, she was humbled. She did not doubt the grace, much less did she refuse it, but she confesses her utter unworthiness. True humility does not doubt. How strange it is that it has been thought the mark of a lowly mind to question the sincerity of the grace that has been shown. Of course it is not put in that way, but the result is the same, God is doubted and the soul is unblessed. Let such treatment be called by its proper name, not humility, but the most contemptible form of pride, which would wear the garment of poverty to establish its claim to riches.

Humility confesses its unworthiness, but emphasizes the grace of God by accepting with thankful heart what He so freely offers.

We see now how she illustrates the principle "to him that hath shall more be given," though Boaz was but continuing his previous kindness. Grace leads the soul along by blessing. So she is now offered food, and wine, and parched corn, as much as she will.

Our Lord never leaves a seeking soul to hunger, and in the provision for Ruth's refreshment we see His hand of bounty, even for one who little realizes the fullness of His grace. She is welcome to dip her morsel in the vinegar, to receive along with her feeble apprehension, her bit of bread, the strength and refreshment suggested in the wine. Have we not in like manner, in the days of the beginnings of our faith, brought our little mite of truth, our little glimpse of Christ, and found it made delicious and strengthening by the sense of a love which we did not bring? Surely that wine must speak of Him whose love is "better than wine," and who cannot have any near Him but He makes them know something of that love.

“And she sat beside the reapers." Food and rest must go together, and our Lord will have none take their food like the beasts, standing. The first command for the multitude who were to be fed was that they should sit down. What a foretaste of the gospel itself, which invites all who labor and are weary to come to Christ for rest; and what a foretaste of that eternal rest at the marriage supper of the lamb, where each will be "the disciple whom Jesus loved," with our heads upon His bosom.

But of this Ruth knows nothing, nor of the relation she is soon to hold toward this kindly man. It is simply the shadow of what is to be. But though a stranger and an alien, no distinction is made between her and the reapers. They are gathering in the golden grain and adding to the wealth of their master, while she, practically a beggar, is the very picture of poverty. But there can be no difference in such a presence. Grace obliterates all lesser distinctions, because it emphasizes the one man's nothingness and God's fullness. All other distinctions are lost sight of in that presence. There the richest is poor and the poorest is rich. It is not merely, "The rich and the poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them all"—which levels distinctions in the presence of the Creator. It is, "this Man receiveth sinners and eateth with them." All who partake of His feast are sinners; Pharisees have no place there, nor would they have it. How sweet too it is to see that service gives no place nearer than grace. The feeblest babe is as welcome as the oldest, most faithful and most successful servant. Let us remember this as we gather about our Lord, and let it silence all thought in our heart of any right of nearness beyond that which grace gives to all who are the Lord's alike.

“And he reached her parched corn." She gets food from his own hand. The heart of our Lord is not satisfied till He Himself is ministering to the soul. How He longs for this personal contact, not satisfied merely with feeding, but passing the food from His own hand to the needy one. No doubt many have known what this means. It is touching to see what it is that is suggested by the parched corn. Corn is the figure of the person of our Lord, of His perfect humanity. It is what He was in His life here, in all the lowliness that brought Him to earth for, man's need, to be the bread of life. But in order that He might be our food He had to die; so the fire must pass over the corn, reminding us of that fire of divine judgment which fell upon Him in our place. It suggests also the delight of God in Him even in His death. It was a sweet savor to God. More than this, the parched corn was part of the first fruits (Lev. 2:14), and as such recalls our Lord in resurrection, “the first fruits of them that slept." Thus from His hand we get the reminder of His person, His work and His resurrection. Dear brethren, how He yearns to impart these precious things to our souls!

Who could fail to enjoy such open-hearted bounty? So we find Ruth profits by it: "She did eat, and was sufficed and left (thereof)." There is an ascent marked here: she ate, but she might only have eaten what would have stayed the pangs of hunger for a little. She was sufficed: all her hunger was satisfied and she wanted no more. This would have suggested the sufficiency to meet her individual case, but beyond her need, there was a sufficiency for the needs of others; she left. We are reminded again of the multitude fed by our Lord, of whom it is said, "They did all eat and were filled and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full" (Matt. 14:20). This is the way of grace; there is always an abundance beyond our need, no matter how great that may be.

Still is she pursued by the kindness of Boaz, all unknown to herself. He commands his servants to let her glean wherever she will, even among the sheaves, without reproach. The natural thought for a gleaner would be afar from the reapers. She would only glean the ground where they had been, and from which all the sheaves had been collected. It would look like presumption for a gleaner to follow too closely, a presumption very likely to meet a sharp rebuke. But this is all anticipated and guarded against. She is to go where she will, even among the sheaves, and gather wheat which could hardly be considered as left yet.

How like grace is this. There is no hard line behind which the needy seekers are to keep, fearing to draw near lest they might pick up some comfort which is not intended for them. Let the reapers remember this, in trying to check souls that are seeking. Let them glean: there is no limit. The whole field of grace is before them, the whole word of God, through which they may hunt at will for all they can get. All true food is for them, all they can find. What a precious thought it is that we can welcome the soul to search the entire word of God and make his own all that he finds there. To be sure there are scriptures which apply to Israel, and others which refer to the Church, but wherever he finds Christ as food for his soul, he is welcome to Him. The trembling one may say, "This is a precious thing I have found, but it applies to believers, and I am not sure I am that." Ah, glean where you will, even though it be among the sheaves: it is no presumption. A faith that gleans, is a faith that has the right to appropriate.

More than this, well knowing her need and her possible reluctance, Boaz charges his men to let some handfuls of grain fall on purpose for her. This is very beautiful, and shows the loving thought of our Lord. Have we not found just such handfuls of comfort, little suspecting whence they came? We have found some precious assurance, some view of God's love and grace. We say we found it, but it was let fall on purpose for us. The word of God is full of such handfuls of grace left on purpose for the needy soul. How many a word has brought its message of blessing, which has apparently been left almost at random. "He could not be hid, for a certain woman" had a need which He alone could meet. That word "for" we might say was dropped on purpose for anyone who doubted in the least the Lord's willingness to bless. "Go tell my disciples, and Peter." Why those, added words unless the risen Lord had in mind others who false as Peter, need his encouragement? Why are such lovely gospel pictures to be found scattered over the Old Testament history, between the denunciations of the prophets, enclosed in some Levitical ordinance, unless the Lord of all grace has let these fall of purpose for the timid gleaner? The historian may &ay the Bible is an unsatisfactory book, because it fails to give as full a narrative as would satisfy his curiosity; the scientist says it is not sufficiently explicit in matters upon which he desires to be informed. But, when did needy gleaner ever turn to its pages and not find just the word for himself? How it declares the heart of God, that He has scattered from end to end of His Book handfuls of blessing, messages of love and grace.

Nor is it a niggard supply; handfuls are strewed everywhere, an abundant supply. We will ever find that the amount is measured not by the supply, but by the faith of the gatherer. As with the manna, he that gathered much had nothing over. He gathered according to his need. Had the capacity been greater, the supply could never have been exhausted.

May we not gather a lesson for servants and ministry in these handfuls let fall of purpose? Do they not suggest that in all ministry there should be a word for the simplest and the poorest? No matter how high the theme, nor how wide the range of the subject that occupies us, there should ever be room for the heart of God to express itself. The gospel will be our eternal theme of praise; let us weave it into all the truth of God that is ministered to His people. It keeps one's own heart fresh and tender, while many a weary one has received the message intended for it through these handfuls of blessing let fall apparently at random. May the Lord give us the wisdom of His own love.

So the gleaner keeps on till set of sun, gathering here a head of grain and there a cluster of heads, with varying success, but ever adding to her store.

It seems slow work and tedious; she may be tempted to discouragement, but it is all gain. At last the day is over, and she gathers up her little hoard, beating it out. It was about an ephah of barley. It seemed a small amount to one accustomed to fullness and plenty, but not to the poor gleaner. Of how much more too was it the foretaste. But of this she does not even dream. It is enough that her present need has been supplied.

There is instruction in the fact that she beats out the grain she has gleaned. Her labor is not ended when the fields have been traversed all day. She must now get the grain out of its enclosure and have it ready for food. In spiritual things it is to be feared that this beating-out process is too often neglected. It is not enough to gather the word of God, and to see intellectually its meaning, or even its applicability to ourselves. It must be made practically our own, be prepared for our food, so that it can be assimilated. How much exercise and diligence of soul this suggests. It need hardly be said that the word of God contains no chaff in the sense of having anything worthless in it; but it must be transferred, as it were, from the general to the personal. For instance, this case of Ruth must be applied to ourselves. One might understand both literally and spiritually all that we are endeavoring to learn here, and yet not "beat out" any of it for his own soul.

We are told that the sluggard roasts not that which he took in hunting. He may be very zealous in scouring the fields for game, and when it is caught his interest is gone, and his hunger unsatisfied. It is not likely that a hunter would impress us as being a sluggard: it requires considerable energy to go afield and spend the day in search of game. And yet Scripture describes such a man, if he fail to make use of that which has cost him so much, as a sluggard. He gets no food, and like Esau, he returns from his hunting faint with hunger, ready to sell his birthright for any mess of pottage that offers itself.

This beating out means much prayer and much meditation. It is not a thing to be passed over lightly, nor taken for granted. How many impressions to say nothing of the knowledge of the word of God pass away like the morning cloud and early dew, simply because they are not followed by the exercise of soul here suggested.

Thus we leave Ruth, with her little measure of blessing, doubtless little realizing how much was in store for her, and how the present blessing was a pledge of more and greater. So surely as the Lord has begun to give, will He continue till our fullness of joy shall express itself in fullness of worship.

Ruth 2:18-23, Ruth 3

6. the Kinsman-Redeemer.

IN what has just preceded, we have been regarding Ruth as a type of the seeker in general, apart from the dispensational application. But we must not forget that the connection with the history of God's earthly people in the latter days is clear and continued. While every seeker is depicted in the patient gleaning and beating out, no doubt the faith on the part of the remnant is particularly suggested. There are touching and pathetic intimations throughout the first two books of the Psalms of this reaching out of a faith after a blessing which it but feebly apprehends, and with an evident ignorance of Him who is to be the kinsman-redeemer. There is integrity of heart, a separation from the mass of the ungodly nation, and yet an evident veil upon the eyes. In the sixth psalm, for instance, there is the deepest pressure upon the soul, not only from the persecutions without, but from the sense of wrath from God Himself. It is with apparent difficulty that a little comfort is gleaned at the close. Again, in the thirteenth, under the persecutions of the "man of sin," the soul makes its complaint to a God but dimly apprehended, although real faith is in exercise, and at the close the testimony is that the Lord has "dealt bountifully" with the needy one. Even after the wondrous unfolding of the work of Christ, and His person in the series of Psalms from the sixteenth to the twenty-fourth, we find in the twenty-fifth but a gleaner, gathering comfort and pleading for pardon in view of the remembrance of the sins that will rise up. These will suggest what would be an interesting and profitable line of study, the rise and development of faith in the remnant, as seen in the Psalms. We see, too, brighter days, and hear the "voice of the Bridegroom," if not of the bride, in such lovely psalms as the forty-fifth. But the time of that psalm has not yet been reached in Ruth, and we must follow her through some deep experiences before she reaches it.

After she had beaten out the barley—a grain itself suggestive of poverty and feebleness (Judg. 7:13) —she returns to her mother-in-law and shows her little store, sharing it with her. It will be noticed that she first satisfies her own hunger before giving to Naomi, and in this there seems to be suggested the thought that faith must receive before it can give. The nation of the Jews, typified by Naomi, can receive comfort and encouragement only at the hands of the believing remnant, which itself must feed on the store it has gleaned before it can impart it to others. The "Maskilim," the instructors who are to "turn many to righteousness" (Dan. 12:3), must themselves learn the lessons they are to teach. The very first of these lessons is found in the first of the "Maskil" Psalms, the thirty-second, on the blessedness of forgiveness. And so must it be with all other lessons; Ruth must first be sufficed before she can give to Naomi.

Passing to a more general application, the lesson is as self-evident. Faith must feed on its gathered store before it can impart to others. In John's gospel we see this strikingly illustrated in the "Come and see" of those who had themselves already come and seen the Christ. It is the poor Samaritan, who in her position resembles Ruth, who can take the message to the people of the town.

We are living in days not only of great activity, but when the doctrine of activity is put in the place of feeding upon the truth of God. We are told that the way to grow is to work; but how can we work without strength and guidance and all else suggested in that word, "communion"? We can only give the overflow to others, in any true sense, and that, as its name suggests, is spontaneous.

But how simple this makes all service. We eat and are sufficed, and out of a full heart we minister to the needs of others. Let the evangelist remember this. Does the deep full joy in a personal salvation fail, and does it seem in any way irksome for him to tell out the same old story? Let him turn in deep penitence to his Lord and Savior, confessing his emptiness and find again that "grace is the sweetest sound." The same applies to the teacher both in public and private, the pastor, and to all who would be witnesses for our Lord. Thus what might seem like ungraciousness on the part of Ruth conveys a lesson of deep importance to us all.

Naomi, with busy memory going back over familiar scenes long past, asks where her daughter-in-law had gleaned such abundance as it doubtless seemed to her widowed eyes, long familiar with poverty. Her heart already warms to one, whoever he might be, that would permit the lonely stranger to gather in his fields: "Blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee." It is interesting to gather from the blended picture of these two women the faith and exercises of the latter day. Ruth has the faith, we might say, and Naomi has the knowledge So it is the elder of the women who now is prominent, and who imparts to the younger the wondrous news that her benefactor is a kinsman. The knowledge that the Jews will have of the promises of God in regard to restoration and the blessings of the coming Kingdom through the Messiah, will no doubt serve to awaken and quicken the zeal of their newly born faith. Naomi recognizes in Boaz a kinsman, and sees in Ruth's experience the hand of God, "who has not left off His kindness to the living and the dead." The breach between the happy past and the present is spanned by the love and care of One who, whether with the individual or the nation, will prove that "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”

How it cheers the heart of the one whose eyes fail with longing to remember this. How Paul, as he developed the counsels and ways of God in the epistle to the Romans, from the ninth to the eleventh chapters, finds a love stronger than his own, though he had once wished himself accursed from Christ for his brethren according to the flesh. Ah, blessed forever be His name, He has not left off His kindness to His beloved people, and one day the sad heart of the widowed nation will warm into praise as it catches a glimpse of that love.

God will yet make good every one of the faithful promises made to Abraham His friend, and to David the man after His own heart. It will be found that "He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock" (Jer. 31:10). Those who fail to see this fact lose one of the most important illustrations of the faithfulness of God. If all the promises to Israel which fill the pages of the Prophets and the Psalms are to be spiritualized into blessings for the Church, what becomes of the gifts and calling of God for His earthly people? Well might we, without the hope of an answer ask, with the psalmist of old, "Lord, where are Thy former loving kindnesses, which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth?" In the face of such a promise as the following, how could we think that God had forgotten the nation of Israel? “Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night ... , if those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation from before Me forever " (Jer. 31:35, 36).

It is this that is suggested by Naomi in linking together God's past kindness to Elimelech and His present care for her, the poor widow. How good it is to remember that His love will yet find its rest in this now despised people. How it thrills the heart to dwell upon it. Little wonder that Paul breaks out in worship as he contemplates it: "O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!”

With this unchanging purpose of God in our mind, we can understand how the Church is left out of view in all passages that concern Israel, both in the Old and New Testaments. We understand how our Lord, in sending out the twelve to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel," leaves out of view entirely the present interval of the nation's rejection, and says, "Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come" (Matt. 10:23).

So the glimmers of faith in the end will connect the little bits of blessing gleaned with the past mercies promised to the Nation. But like Naomi, the people will be slow to apprehend the wondrous meaning of this. She says to Ruth, "The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen." It will be noticed that for her Boaz is not yet the unique and only kinsman but simply one of whom there are others. So when our Lord asked His disciples, "Whom do men say that I the Son of man, am?" the answer was, "Some say that Thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets." They discerned that He was not an ordinary person, that He was a messenger from God, but how feebly did they see the reality, or rather how entirely they failed to apprehend it. For if Christ is but one of the prophets, He is not our redeemer. Thus Naomi is yet far from the truth.

But faith is on the right track, and in her words to Ruth we have an echo of what Boaz had already said, "It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other field." In fact it was Ruth, "the Moabitess," as we are touchingly reminded, who repeats the words of Boaz to her mother-in-law. Thus there is a glimmer of encouragement, and happy Ruth goes all through the barley harvest and the wheat harvest, not in the widow's sackcloth like the mourning Rizpah (2 Sam. 21:10), but with the light of a great hope growing more and more definite in her soul. Such doubtless will be the attitude of the remnant, during that time of exercise in which God's purposes will be learned. Not all at once will they know the blessing that is theirs, but faith grows with exercise, and will soon take no refusal.

So too, in the history of the individual soul, faith grows, and the more it gleans the more does it want. That which satisfied it yesterday will not suffice today. The One who supplies the handfuls is Himself behind it all, and gives a craving which none but Himself can satisfy.

Ruth's diligence in gleaning has not only supplied the wants of herself and her mother-in-law, but has evidently awakened in Naomi the slumbering hopes which had apparently been dead. The knowledge of Scripture becomes her guide, and as faith has increased, so it will now make use of that which, though well known before, had seemed to be of no special value. How true this is in every case. How Scripture seems to lie dormant in the mind of the child of God away from Him, and yet when once faith and desire are quickened, the neglected Word is found to be bright indeed with its provisions exactly suited to the needs.

There was a merciful provision in the law (Duet. 25:5-10) that no man's family should be allowed to die out, while a brother survived to perpetuate the line. In Israel, to be childless was a reproach, and for a man's name to be blotted out-his family to become extinct-was regarded as a special mark of God's displeasure. The Sadducees, in our Lord's Day, might seek to ridicule the truth of resurrection by bringing in this merciful provision, but they only showed their ignorance of "the Scriptures and the power of God." It was provision for the earthly not the future life, that God had made. Most appropriate was it, therefore, that He should see that names should not be blotted out in Israel, save to mark, as in Achan, His solemn judgment of an awful sin. There seems, too, to be a recognition in His provision of that hope in the heart of every Hebrew woman, that through her in some way the promise of "the woman's seed" might be fulfilled. This was to be done literally in the line which was to be preserved through Ruth.

Naomi is the leader here. It is her knowledge both of the kinship of Boaz and the law of Deuteronomy which guides Ruth in the most trying of all her experiences. "Shall I not seek rest for thee?" Ruth had been gleaning food, but it had been through constant toil, and but for present needs. She was now to have rest, all her needs met, her labor over. What a change in the state of Naomi, from her unbelief at the beginning, when she would have turned Ruth back to find rest in the heathen home of some Moabitish husband. Would she not now be ashamed of such unbelief, and shudder at the thought of her own folly, which might have resulted so disastrously both for herself and her daughter-in-law? Yet unbelief in the nation checked any turning that it saw in the people to our Lord when He was here, and did not rest till there was no hope—as they thought—of a national acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah.

So too in the days of national return to the land, the spirit of unbelief will turn the newly formed hopes of the nation, to seeking rest in some union not of God. False prophets and false Christ’s will claim, and receive, recognition from many—the man of sin will draw off the most into alliance with "the beast." But faith and the word of God will seek rest for the widowed remnant only with One who is a Kinsman, with a divinely given right to redeem the inheritance and perpetuate the name of those whose hopes had long since died.

In the history, too, of every soul, there comes a yearning for something more than the merest satisfaction of pressing hunger. Every gift from the hand of such a Giver makes us long, not merely for more gifts, but for the rest which can only be found in Himself. It is a blessed fact that the Person of Christ is the necessary goal toward which the Spirit of God ever leads. Nothing short of the Lord Himself will do: "Our souls were made for Thyself, and can never rest save in Thee.”

It is this longing after the Person of our blessed Lord which gives the peculiar charm to the Song of Solomon. The affections are the same in all dispensations, and anything that describes the longing of the heart after Christ meets a response in every Spirit-taught heart. From the beginning of the Song throughout, there is a good measure of acquaintance with the Lord, and a conscious though not clearly defined sense of relationship with Him. In Ruth this is not so clear. She is rather seeking an acknowledgment of relationship, which she is not sure will be recognized. But the resemblance between the two books can be seen. We must, however, return to the narrative.

Harvest time is now over, and threshing and winnowing have succeeded. All work will soon be over, and Naomi recognizes that if anything is to be done, it must be immediately. The plan is a simple and bold one; Ruth is to prepare herself, and on that night, at the threshing-floor present herself to Boaz, claiming kinship and pleading the divine provision for cases such as hers.

It was a bold stroke, and would either succeed or ignominiously fail. She would either leave the threshing-floor recognized by Boaz as the proper and honored object of his affection, or, spurned from his feet, be forever after branded as a bold and shameless woman. All hung in the balance; how would it be decided?

Is it not significant, when we pass from the narrative to its spiritual application, that this trial was to be made at the threshing-time and at night? It is in connection with "the great tribulation,"—literally the great threshing-time,—when the remnant will put forth their claim to the Kinsman, whom yet they so dimly recognize. This is the testing time for the nation, when, through the trials of persecution, the wheat will be separated from the chaff of mere profession. When all goes well, it is easy to profess, but "when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word," the stony-ground hearers are manifested. Thus the time of threshing is the suited time for faith to be manifested as truly that, and for all else to fall away.

The figure of threshing is found quite frequently in the prophets, and nearly always as applied to the nations (See Isa. 21:10 with Jer. 51:33; Isa. 41:15; Mic. 4:13; Hab. 3:12). Israel herself will one day thresh the nations, but before that time she herself must pass through the purifying chastening, which will result in the chaff being driven away, and the pure grain alone remaining. It is during this separating time of suffering and trial that the remnant will in faith lay claim to Him who is Lord of the threshing.

Is it not also suggestive that the site of the temple was the threshing-floor of Ornan, and that it was at the time of God's chastening the people that He revealed Himself to David, and thus established the basis for His dwelling-place? David offered sacrifices, and the place where sacrifice and chastening had met was to be the lasting abode of a holy and faithful God. So at the last will the Lord reveal Himself to His people, and re-establish His sure house to all generations.

Ruth is now to lay aside the garments of her widowhood, washing and anointing herself, and thus to present herself as a bride to Boaz. So too the remnant will lay aside their hopelessness, and washed by the Spirit and the Word, will array themselves in a beauty not their own, claiming in faith Him whose mercy they have tasted. They will have learned of Him who gives "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." They will have heard the voice calling to them, " Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem the holy city... Shake thyself from the dust; arise and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.”

Carrying out the directions of Naomi, she is recognized by Boaz at midnight, the darkest hour, and makes her bold claim. Instead, however, of being repulsed, she is blessed by Boaz, who declares it is kindness on her part, greater even than she had shown to her mother-in-law at the beginning. She is reassured, he promises to do all, and affirms that which slander might have denied: "All the city of my people Both know that thou art a virtuous woman.”

So will the King, reassure the trembling remnant who draw near to Him in the dark midnight hour of trial and persecution. The joy of His own heart in their faith will be greater far than their own. "He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing." Who indeed can measure that joy, save He who wept over Jerusalem? Who can know the delight of seeing them turn to Him, save the One who was rejected by His people? "As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.”

All this part of the narrative is so entirely typical of Israel's relations to our Lord, that we can only in a secondary way apply it to the history of the individual in the present dispensation. Yet, as we have seen, the affections are the same in all dispensations, and faith nourished will develop in strength and intensity. It is most blessed to know that God has provided infinitely beyond our highest thoughts and strongest faith. So that we have not to obtain, as did Ruth, a place of the nearest and closest relationship, but to apprehend that which is already ours-the gift of grace.

But in the soul's experience, there is much that answers to this progress which we have been tracing. We come as poor outcasts, gleaning bits of blessing with faint heart,

“Not worthy, Lord, to gather up the crumbs,

With trembling hands, that from Thy table fall,

A weary, heavy-laden sinner comes

To plead Thy promise and obey Thy call.

Such is the language, not surely of intelligent faith, but of the soul as it dimly sees mercy even for it. But grace leads on, as we have seen, encouraging and strengthening, until at last the soul, entering into the marvel of divine love, lays hold upon the wondrous secret of Christ's heart—"we are members of His body".... "Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it.... that He might present it to Himself." We see Him not only as Savior, Lord, Shepherd, but find our rest upon His bosom the beloved of His heart, forming with all the redeemed of this age the Bride who shall be His companion throughout the endless day of God. "That in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace.”

Not at once does the soul grasp this wondrous relationship; alas at best how feebly do we respond to His love. But if the soul follow on under the leading of the Spirit of God, it will surely find its place at the feet of Him who is indeed "a near Kinsman," "not ashamed to call us brethren.”

Ruth returns to Naomi with the distinct promise of Boaz, to do all that her heart desired, should there be no obstacle. That possible obstacle is, as we shall presently see, a nearer kinsman. But, even during the suspense of waiting to know the outcome, she receives from Boaz ample provision for all needs.

What a contrast are the six measures poured into her veil, to the ephah of barley gathered by painful gleaning. He would not allow her to go empty to her mother-in-law, and this in itself was a pledge of more bounty to come, yea of himself lord of it all. Thus Joseph feasted his brethren and sent them back with full loads before the union with his family was consummated. And thus the Lord in grace provides for those who yet do not know the fullness of blessing that is theirs.

Naomi meets her returning daughter-in-law, not with her previous question "where hast thou gleaned to-day?" but "Who art thou my daughter?" It was not a question of benefit, but of relationship. It was not "What hast thou," but "Who art thou." For the bride is called by the name of the bridegroom. "One shall say, I am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel." Fitting words are these to describe the changed relationships of one but lately called Ruth the Moabitess.

But, as we have seen, there must still be a brief delay. Brief indeed it is, for, as Naomi declares, "The man will not be in rest until he have finished the thing this day." Ruth can well afford to "sit still" and wait, for all is now in the hands of Boaz himself.

What a glimpse these words give of the tireless love of our Lord both for His Church and for Israel. He did not rest till He had accomplished redemption, and now His love will not rest till all is consummated. What force this gives to those words "the patience of Christ." How He longs to have His people with himself.

“Thy love had not its rest

Were Thy redeemed not with Thee fully blest.”

He waits now, He longs and looks for the time appointed. How is it with us? Can we say "Lord tarry not but come."?

Ruth 4

7. Nearer Than the Nearest.

WITH the promptness and energy of a heart fully engaged, Boaz goes up to "the gate." This was the place of rule, where all matters were settled, all transfers made. It would correspond to the courts of to-day, where all legal transactions are consummated. In the matter upon which he was engaged, nothing was to be done "in a corner," but all was to have the full concurrence of those concerned, and be witnessed in the light of open day, by those judicially authorized to give their sanction.

The first person who appears is this "nearest kinsman," whose claim must first be met, or whose right of redemption must first be set aside, before Boaz, no matter how willing he might be, could interpose as redeemer. It is significant that this person is not named. The nearest kinsman of Elimelech, and the natural redeemer of his inheritance, we have no clue to his name; and this of itself has significance when we look at the spiritual meaning.

Who then is this nameless person who has the first claim upon Israel, and the right to redeem the inheritance? Who or what is "nearest of kin" to Israel according to the flesh? We have under the simile of the marriage relationship, but the reverse of what is before us here, a scriptural hint that is suggestive. The two sons of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac, were children respectively of Hagar, the bondmaid, and Sarah. We are told that these things are an allegory: `for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children" (Gal. 4:24, 25). It would seem clear from this that, with slightly altered conditions, the nearest of kin would be this same "legal covenant." Just as Hagar first brought forth a child before Sarah,-"that is first which is natural, afterward that which is spiritual" -so the law was the first basis upon which Israel sought to bring forth fruit to God.

This is clearly seen from the history of the nation. They never nationally and consciously entered into God's thoughts of sovereign grace. They did not realize that He had taken them up to fulfill the promise made to Abraham-the promise made in purest grace. Some feeble glimpse they may have had of it, but when they had passed through the Red Sea, and had experienced nothing but grace and mercy at the hands of God, they were ready at Sinai to enter upon a legal covenant, without a thought of how it set aside the mercy and grace of God.

To be sure, they never tasted the bitterness of a purely legal covenant, for Moses broke the first tables of stone before he came into the camp, after the giving of the law and the idolatry of the golden calf. It was indeed mercy that he did so, for what would have been the judgment upon that guilty people, had God dealt with them upon the basis of pure law? Surely, as Jehovah said to Moses, "Let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them." But as a matter of fact He spared them for the time being—a thing utterly impossible under pure law—and went on with them on a basis of mingled law and mercy. The second tables of stone were prepared and given to the people in connection with the revelation made to Moses of, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty" (Ex. 34:6, 7). Here is a mingling of mercy, with a final intimation of judgment on the guilty, which formed the basis of all further dealing with the nation.

They went through the wilderness on this covenant, entered the land and settled there on the basis of obedience to the Lord. Provision was made for failure, by sacrifice; and yet all provisions failed just where most needed. There was no sacrifice for presumptuous sins, only for those of ignorance. There could therefore be no peace for the most guilty, and king David in his broken-hearted prayer (Psa. 51), must turn from the sacrificial provision of the law to a mercy to which he held fast in spite of the law.

It was under this covenant that the nation divided, became mingled with the heathen, and were finally carried captive. This is dwelt upon to a great extent in the twentieth chapter of Ezekiel, where the Lord enlarges upon Israel's disregard of His covenant, their failure to hallow His Sabbaths which were the sign of the covenant, or to walk in His statutes. When Daniel made his confession of sin, for himself and the nation (Dan. 9) it was in the light of that first covenant. So was it with Nehemiah after the return from captivity (Neh. 9:29). In the last chapter of the Old Testament (Mal. 4:4) the people were exhorted to "remember the law of Moses My servant which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.”

Thus throughout their entire history there was a distinct covenant relationship recognized by God and the people. There was a provision made for forgiveness and recovery, oftentimes made in the most touching way. "Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword" (Isa. 1:18, 19). "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon" (Isa. 55:7). "If the wicked will turn from all his sins which he hath committed... he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live" (Ezek. 18:21, 22).

These and many other scriptures show the close relation between Israel and the legal covenant. They have never had any other relation to God-save the secret one, on His part, of electing grace and promise. So when the remnant turns in repentance to Him in the latter days, this legal covenant will have, so to speak, the first right to put in its claim of kinship.

Returning now to our narrative, we find Boaz, figure of the risen Lord, calling in and offering to this kinsman the right of redemption. We have already noticed the provision of the law for raising up a deceased relative's family (Deut. 25). We have now an allusion to another law of similar character, the redemption of a forfeited inheritance. The law will be found at length in the twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus. In brief, it declared the divine right of "eminent domain." The land was God's, and could never be finally alienated from those to whom His grace had given it. All was to go free in the year of jubilee, or could be bought in by a near kinsman.

The land of Israel is literally the Lord's, for His ancient people. In spite of all their sin and folly, it abides—strange fact in these days of universal ownership on man's part, of the earth—practically a land without a people, as though it were waiting for its rightful owners; and such is without doubt the case. The land itself will yet be redeemed for Israel, and they will yet be put in full possession of that which they have forfeited by their sin and disobedience.

But who will redeem it, and for whom will it be redeemed? These are the questions to be settled "in the gate.”

The nearest kinsman promptly consents to redeem the inheritance for Naomi. The law, as we have seen, had this merciful provision, and whenever one or the people turned truly to God and kept His law, He would be "merciful unto His land and to His people." So long as it was of Naomi's hand that the purchase was to be made, and for her, the kinsman consents at once, for she was the widow of "our brother Elimelech." So long as it is Israel according to the flesh, and merely disobedient, the law, with the merciful provision to which we have referred, could interpose and bring back the forfeited inheritance.

We have more or less complete illustrations of this in the history of the people. Again and again, during the period of the Judges, they sinned against the Lord, and were delivered over to the hands of their enemies to be oppressed. But when they turned in penitence to Him, He raised up a deliverer who restored them to their heritage. But the nation went on in the downward path of declension, until the ten tribes were carried off into hopeless captivity and merged into the Gentile nations by whom they were taken captive, beyond all human recognition. The two tribes also were carried off to Babylon and the throne of God, the Ark of the Covenant, permanently left Jerusalem. Truly a brighter Light shone in the temple at a later time, but not to be accepted by the people. Of this we will speak in a moment. Even after the captivity at Babylon there was a partial recovery (though the throne had passed from the house of David to the Gentiles). It was as though the law, the nearest kinsman, was going as far as possible in seeking to buy up the inheritance.

But at last after the restoration from Babylon, God sends His Son, the rightful heir of the inheritance. "This is the heir, come let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours"—how fully this shows a mind absolutely alienated from God and His thoughts. God's Son, the true redeemer, the only deliverer, is slain. The blinded leaders cry "we have no king but Caesar," and thus they deliberately and permanently forfeit all right to be considered the people of God. They have identified themselves absolutely with the Gentiles and are now on the same ground as the despised Moabites or Ammonites. They are "lo-ammi, not my people," and are as fully Gentiles as though they were not of the seed of Abraham.

The law, even with the most merciful construction, could no longer interpose. "An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord forever" (Duet. 23:3). The apostate people had deliberately given up all claim, and so far as the law was concerned, were cut off.

This explains why the kinsman, no matter how willing he might be to restore the heritage to Naomi, could not take it to raise up by Ruth the name of the deceased kinsman. His own inheritance would be marred. How truly that law, "holy, just and good'' would be marred if the smallest jot or tittle of its righteous demands were abated. It abides in all its majesty and perfection. It is not made void, as it would be were a single item of its requirements ignored. So for the guilty people who rest in the law and vainly boast in their privileges as a nation there is nothing but condemnation. They are in the place of the Moabite.

But if the law does not and cannot do aught in such a case, it does and can relinquish all right to the inheritance, and transfers those claims to Another. The kinsman draws off his shoe, the usual mode of procedure when property changed hands. The shoe was that which trod upon the land, and to draw it off and pass it to another would seem to indicate that all claims upon the property had passed from the one to the other. How good it is to know that "the law was our schoolmaster till Christ." That it transfers all its own claims to Him.

But let us notice also that this is done before a jury of ten men, witnesses of the law and facts. These ten may well remind us of those "ten words '' or commandments which bear full testimony to the claims of God, the ruin of man, and their own powerlessness to redeem. All is done legally." I through the law, died to the law," says the apostle. The law itself witnesses to its own powerlessness to redeem. "That I might live unto God," he adds—the law transfers its claims to Another. All is settled righteously and "witnessed by the law and the prophets." Thus "we establish the law.”

Boaz is now left free for his heart to act upon its own gracious impulses, and in presence of the same ten who had witnessed the refusal of the first kinsman to purchase the inheritance he buys all—the inheritance and Ruth too, the Moabitess, as she is called to remind us of the grace of the transaction. It is now his, and she is his, truly owned as his bride, and yet linked with poor Naomi the barren, widow of the dead Elimelech.

How beautifully does all this speak of the grace of Christ shown to a poor and unworthy people! Christ risen, beyond death, beyond all claims of the law, betroths to Himself forever in righteousness; the poor stranger and the wanderer finds rest at last.

Such, in some feeble measure, is the teaching of this lovely portion, and we will presently look at the further teaching of the prophets upon this subject. But it is important to dispose of that which too often disturbs the beloved people of God, through ignorance or misapplication of the word of God.

This nearest kinsman, the law, was, as we have just seen, absolutely debarred from taking a gentile into association with himself. And yet, in face of this plain fact, Christians will persist in looking upon all men as under law, and then upon the saints now being still under it as a rule of life.

As to the first, the apostle in the early chapters of the epistle to the Romans, shows the difference between those "without law"—the Gentiles, and those "under law"—the Jews. The law was given only to Israel. God was trying man under the most favorable opportunities. A nation was rescued from servitude, brought into an inheritance and fenced off from the surrounding nations. They were the recipients of God's bounty, the object of His constant care. What more could He do for a people? He challenges the disobedient nation, and waits in vain for a reply. Thus the law was tried under the most favorable circumstances and proved helpless.

But this practically settled the question of justification by law for all mankind; so it is written, "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Thus "every mouth is stopped, and all the world becomes guilty before God." In the trial of Israel, God has tried the world, and settled forever the question of justification by the law. That trial need never be repeated, it is final and conclusive.

But should one say that he desired to be put under the law, he is not as a fact under it, though as a matter of fact it always works in the same way, and he will find—if he truly and honestly makes the effort—that he is condemned before God. He will learn that God's trial of Israel was perfect and complete, and he has but confirmed the results of that divine probation.

A great deal has been made, however, of the distinction between the law for justification, and as a rule of life. It is impossible to separate these two—in fact Scripture does not separate them. Under law, in any way at all, is to be under the curse. The law can only pronounce a curse upon disobedience. Thus if a saint were under the law as a rule of life he is, "debtor to do the whole law," and if he sins in one point is guilty of all, and condemned. Sinai has but one voice. What folly to think of a rule of life from a place which but thunders out death and judgment for the least disobedience. "If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law" (Gal. 3:21).

As a matter of fact the law is "the strength of sin," and the apostle, in that wondrous seventh chapter of Romans, shows that it is as powerless to produce righteousness in a saint as in a sinner. Would to God that His people realized this. How much abortive effort, and despairing longing would they be spared!

No, beloved brethren, we are in no sense under the law; as a matter of fact we never were. Let us then not mar that perfect witness which perfectly declares God's mind for man, but as perfectly declares he failed to answer to God's mind. We leave it with its testimony, and bow our heads to that testimony, humbly acknowledging that were life or liberty to be gained in that way our case was as hopeless as the widowed Naomi, or the Moabitess Ruth.

But, blessed be God, this leaves our risen Lord free to pour out His heart's love to us in fullest measure. We are dead to the law by the body of Christ that now we might bring forth fruit unto God, being joined in links of everlasting union to Another, even to Him who is raised from the dead. So our Lord has His way, and the very law but witnesses to it, and to its own relinquishment of every claim upon the poor helpless "sons of strangers," who find their home close the heart of the Mighty One.

As we have already seen, Boaz takes Ruth as his wife in the presence of the kinsman and of the witnesses. Nothing is "done in a corner," no righteous demands are ignored, or any necessary claim set aside. The very law which witnessed against the apostate nation will witness also to the righteousness of Him who restores to Himself on the basis of grace the penitent and believing remnant. The prophets bear abundant witness to this, linking, as we have already seen in some measure, the people's past unfaithfulness as Jehovah's espoused, and the future grace which will restore them. "Of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest playing the harlot" (Jer. 2:20). God had rescued them from Egypt, and they had promised, at Sinai, not to transgress. Alas, the golden calf was set up before the law was brought into camp, and the long list of subsequent idolatries told how they had broken the covenant. "High places," for idolatrous worship had dotted the whole land, while in the shade of every green tree the abominations of heathenism had been practiced. Spiritually and literally did these unholy and unclean rites deserve the name of harlotry so frequently given them in the prophets. What could God do with such a nation but put them away?

“They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? But thou halt played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the Lord." "Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you." "Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord.... Return ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold we come unto Thee, for Thou art our God" (Jer. 3). This whole portion of Jeremiah is exceedingly beautiful and touching. The tender pleadings of divine love to a bold, faithless, and wanton people, the assurances of forgiveness and everlasting mercy are touching in the extreme.

“Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant,... and I will establish My covenant with thee and thou shalt know that I am the Lord" (Ezek. 6:60, 61). Here again, after depicting in the utmost faithfulness, the originally helpless condition of the people, their "time of love" and the beauty with which He adorned them, their wanton shameless, faithlessness, and hopeless degradation. God assures them of a recovery and a re-union in the bonds of a marriage covenant "never to be broken or forgotten.”

Similarly, in the familiar passage in Hosea, the past unfaithfulness of the people, their present rejection as "Lo-ammi," and their future restoration are presented. "Behold I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.... And I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord" (Hos. 2:14-23).

These touching and beautiful passages may well serve as the link between Naomi and Ruth. The nation departed as Naomi, they are restored-the remnant of them-as Ruth, in deep and true penitence and a faith which renounces all claims in themselves, yet for that reason cleaves all the more fully to the Lord and His grace.

So, as Boaz calls the elders and all the people to witness to his having purchased all the forfeited inheritance and the Gentile widow Ruth, will our Lord call all to witness to His redemption of His desolate people. "Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins" (Isa. 40:1, 2). "With a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, the Lord hath redeemed His servant Jacob" (Isa. 48:20).

The grace too which will redeem the people will also restore the land to them for their enjoyment. In fact all during their captivity and estrangement from God, the land has enjoyed its Sabbaths—sign of the covenant between God and the people. So in a sense the very desolations of the land are a reminder of the unfailing promise of God, who would not give to others that which was reserved for His own. "Thus saith the Lord, Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.... Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and take witnesses... for I will cause their captivity to return, saith the Lord “(Jer. 32:42, 44).”And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them as at the first. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against Me.... Again there shall be heard in this place... the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts; for the Lord is good; for His mercy endureth forever; and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land as at the first, saith the Lord" (Jer. 33:7, 10, 11). Mercy to the people must necessarily be accompanied by mercy to the land. The one will not be without the other. "He will be merciful unto His land and to His people" (Deut. 32:43). "I will hear the heavens and they shall hear the earth (or land); and the earth (or land) shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel" (Hos. 2:21, 22).

This is dwelt upon at length in the beautiful sixty-fifth psalm. Praise silently waits upon God in Zion until the hour appointed for the overthrow of enemies and the final establishment of peace in the land. Then God's mercy to His land will be celebrated; "Thou visitest the earth and waterest it; Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water.... Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness, and Thy paths drop fatness.... The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing" (Psa. 65:9-13).

Thus the purchase of all that was Elimelech's and his two sons', the land and inheritance, includes also Ruth the widow. And Christ's redemption of His people includes the land as well. How suggestive it is that at this present time we have not only a people without a land, the Jews, but a land without a definitely settled people. Each is waiting for the other, and both, yea all things, wait His time who surely will fulfill all His word. "If My covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; then will I cast away the seed of Jacob" (Jer. 33:25, 26).

Gladly do the witnesses respond to the declaration of Boaz. "And all the people that were in the gate" —the ten men, representing the law, and all the others—said, "We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel." These two mentioned were the mothers of the twelve patriarchs, the founders of the nation. When all has apparently failed, the Mighty One comes in and restores, nay far more, the nation to its original greatness. The original redemption from Egypt will no more be the standard, but that last and final one, when He will gather His beloved people, and Rachel, to whom allusion is here made, will refrain from weeping for her children. "There is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border" Jer. 31:17).

They also allude to Tamar and her children—the one who, we might say, founded the tribe of Judah to which Boaz belonged. Looking back at that history, we find it a sadly blotted page. Sin seems to be written all over it, yet a faith that desires, and Jacob-like will get by artifice, the blessing. Here is the blessing without the stain, but reminding us, as we have been seeing, of grace to a sinful and unworthy people.

Thus the law, magnified and made honorable, not only transfers all its rights to Christ, but claims for the people—unfruitful so far as the law was concerned—a blessing beyond its own through this new relationship.

All is consummated and Boaz takes his bride to himself. Ah soon will the poor cast-off nation be gathered to the arms of Eternal love and "as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.”

A son is born to Ruth, but in a beautiful way it is not Ruth but Naomi who comes into prominence here. The aged mother, with blasted life and bitter memories, is before us now with the young babe in her arms. All the past is forgotten save to contrast it with the joyful present. They bless the Lord, as they rejoice, who has not left His desolate people without a Redeemer, and who is indeed "famous in Israel." Ruth too is not forgotten, and her faithful devotedness is acknowledged by all. "Thy daughter-in-law which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath borne him." Israel according to the flesh would indeed have been utterly worthless towards restoring blessing, but this Gentile daughter-in-law—speaking, as we have seen, of faith and penitence—is better than all excellence of the flesh.

This child is to be, as they tell Naomi, "a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thy old age. "So the child is called Obed," servant.”

Passing to the spiritual meaning of all this, we can hardly fail to connect this child with that other wondrous Child born of this same line, and who will invert while He makes good all we have been seeing, being Himself also Boaz, the Risen and glorified One; "For unto a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6).

It is fitting too that He should have this name of "servant." Israel was God's servant, but how unfaithful! Then this faithful One comes, who is indeed God's servant, "Mine elect in whom My soul delighteth." Through Him and by His grace the remnant is called out and they too are designated by that same title; while finally all the nation will be restored and rejoice, as once they did in disobedience, to be called the servants of the Lord.

And how perfectly has our blessed Lord illustrated the beauty of faithful service! He came to do God's will, and His meat and drink it was to do it. All along His earthly path He was ministering to the suffering and the sin-sick. Upon the cross He served blessed forever be His Name!—that we might never know the awful penalty of sin. All this He did gratuitously. He was one who owed no service—the heifer upon which no yoke had come. Yet He took the form of a servant and did a servant's work—to God and for man's need. Even now in glory He serves His needy people by His Spirit, His word and His all availing work as advocate and intercessor, and His crowning act of service will be to gird Himself and serve His own faithful ones—faithful only by His grace—in token of His approval. Well has He gained this title, and for us no higher honor exists than to follow, in our measure, His own lowly path.

“And Naomi took the child and laid it in her bosom." So the aged Simeon took the Babe in his arms and, as we might say, vanishes out of sight in his own song of praise, leaving us to gaze upon the cause of his joy. How the aged widow found joy and warmth as that fresh young life nestled near her heart. Ah, there is the nation's hope, and till He is taken to the people's heart they abide in widowed loneliness.

Returning to ourselves, here we see the one great remedy for all our wretchedness. Has the heart grown cold? Has our joy like Naomi's waxed faint? It is our privilege in reality, as it was hers in type, to clasp to our bosom Him who once a Babe, still in glory yields Himself to His people's embraces. We never grow warm save as He has His place in the heart.