WHEN the Lord Jesus, at the close of that wonderful unfolding of the grace that had brought Him down to be the Bread of Life, asked His disciples, “Will ye also go away?” Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go?”
When Paul had come to the end of his pathway of service, and saw dark clouds gathering round, and all his work here threatened with failure, he could say with unshaken confidence, “I know whom I have believed.”
When the clouds that Paul saw on the horizon had gathered heavy and dark, and the threatened failure had already set in, John had still a message for the worst day that can ever come — “And now, little children, abide in Him.”
That is the stamp of God’s own work. When the Father draws, He draws to Christ and nowhere else. It is not a place, a creed, a belief, but a Person.
The heart that is restlessly wandering, beating against the bars of doubt, needs the revelation of Christ to satisfy the deep need that causes this misery and unrest. But this is always God’s end, the purpose for which He draws souls out of the place where all their lives have been lived without Christ. So we find that as soon as God has drawn this Moabitish damsel out of her fields of Moab, the place of distance, famine, and death, He at once brings upon the scene the person through whom His grace can reach even an alien and an outcast.
It is Boaz, whose very name brings confidence, “In Him is strength.” “I have laid help upon One that is mighty,” is God’s word to the brokenhearted sinner, or to the doubting child of God, and in Boaz He presents a lovely picture of the one upon whom He has laid help. Four things are told us of Boaz, brought thus suddenly upon the scene because it is God’s due time; even as that sudden burst of angelic song announced to shepherds of Bethlehem when God’s due time had come that there lay in the manger of the inn a wondrous Stranger in this world of sin, a blessed Babe. God revealed in weakness, confounding the mighty things of the world, and uniting in His blessed Person the four things which we find in this plain, simple picture of Boaz.
1. He was a kinsman of Naomi’s husband. The word kinsman means friend or acquaintance. He was one who knew all about poor Elimelech’s sad history, and yet was his friend. “Unto you” were the first words of the angel’s message. It was One who knew all the depth of man’s need, ours, yea, mine and yours, and who knowing all, had yet come down in love to meet that need. What blessed words — “Unto you,” — the sinner has a friend.
2. “He was a mighty man of wealth.” It needed such a One to meet the full extent of our poverty. “For we know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.” All the riches of God are placed at the disposal of an empty sinner, through Him.
3. He was of the family of Elimelech. Not only was he one who knew Elimelech, he was of the same family, as Naomi says later on, he had the right of redemption. Still fuller the picture becomes of Jesus, the sinner’s Friend, who “took not on Him angels, but He took on Him the seed of Abraham.” In order that He might accomplish our redemption, He came so near to us as to become a blessed Man amongst men. A Man of sorrows indeed, but bringing here the source of eternal joy. All joy had gone, death and ruin had followed sin, and there was no one else who was able to bring out what was in God’s heart for man. No one else could glorify God and meet man’s deep need. He became a man to do it, that God might be glorified in man, and that man might go in to the glory of God. What depths in these simple words!
4. His name was Boaz. All is summed up in the name. God utters, so to speak, in the ear of the one whom He has drawn, a name which in one word tells out all His heart.
The name of Him who knew our lost estate, who knew the hatred of our blinded hearts to Him, and who loved us in spite of all; the name of Him in whom all the fullness was pleased to dwell for the accomplishment of the blessed work on the cross; the name of Him who was born of a woman, in lowliness to walk this sinful world as a man, there to learn Himself, by entering into it all, the woe and misery of the place where we were — there is but one name which tells out all that, and infinitely more of preciousness to God — Jesus.
But here the question comes in, how was Ruth to be brought into contact with Boaz, knowing nothing of him, his very name unknown to her?
That is the next thing God does. First He draws Ruth out of the fields of Moab, after that sad place has told its tale of will and sin and death, then He shows us why He has taken the trouble to draw out in this way one who had no title at all. It is because He has a person with whom His heart is satisfied, and in whom He wishes the stranger to find rest.
Now, having brought the person before us, God shows us the meeting between Boaz and Ruth, between the Saviour and the sinner. What a joy to know that there is a full Christ for empty sinners!
The meeting takes place in the portion of the field of Boaz. Have you met that blessed Saviour, and is His name precious to your heart? If you have, these simple words concerning Him will find a response in your heart.
S. H. H.