“Oh that I knew where I might find Him!” was Job’s cry (Job 23:33Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! (Job 23:3)). “When He hath found it” was the blessed word of the Lord Jesus (Luke 15:55And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. (Luke 15:5)). And, truly, when the heart deeply feels its need, it is not far from meeting with Him whose joy it is to meet that need.
So it was with Ruth. They had heard in the distant fields of Moab that the Lord had visited His people with bread; they had returned to the house of bread, two poor desolate widows with no resource but God, but what was the next thing? The bread was there, but how were they to get it? The simple faith of the outcast Moabitess lays hold of her true place and of the provision God had made in His Word for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow (Deut. 24:1919When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands. (Deuteronomy 24:19)). She has only to take her place as one who is nothing and has nothing, in order to claim God’s promise. And so she goes out in faith to cast herself upon the goodness of God, to glean after him in whose eyes she may find favor.
Where to Begin
Acres upon acres of harvest field stretch before her. She needs a little plot of some unknown friend in whose eyes she may find favor.
How is she to choose? She leaves the choice to God, and guided by His hand in that mysterious way, which down here seems chance, she lights upon a plot belonging to Elimelech’s friend, Naomi’s kinsman — that wealthy man, Boaz.
Favor to Sinners
So in simple language that the needy heart can understand, God points the needy to Him in whose eyes the stranger and the outcast may find favor. There is but One, the One who was born in the manger in Bethlehem, who ate with publicans and sinners, who went to be guest with a man who was a sinner, who suffered a woman who was a sinner to weep out her tears of repentance over His blessed feet, who hung between two sinners on Calvary’s cross, who took a sinner with Him into paradise — Jesus, the friend of sinners.
Boaz Speaks
Boaz, then, comes from Bethlehem, the house of bread, to meet the outcast woman who was seeking bread; his eye travels straight to her as she stoops to glean in the heat of the day, humbly following behind the reapers, taking the stranger’s place. Little rest has been hers as yet, says the steward, who knows his master’s heart. The meeting has come; how will the wealthy man receive the poor outcast?
It is most beautiful, yet simple, to see how God’s way of grace shines out in this meeting. First Boaz, calling her by the gentle name, “my daughter,” teaches her the first simple lesson: “Go not to glean in another field.” There is only one place where the sinner’s need can be met; there is only one person who can meet it.
Go Not to Another Field
Elimelech had wandered away to the fields of Moab and there had found only bitterness and death. Now God had drawn the outcast from the fields of Moab to the field of Boaz by a chain of love whose links Ruth could not have known at the time, and the lesson is driven home: “Go not to glean in another field.”
Are there not some who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, but who, nevertheless, have not learned this simple lesson? Are we, as believers, seeking satisfaction out of Christ? Are we trying to find something for our heart in the fields of Moab? This leads only to bitterness and emptiness.
The Bread of Life
How beautiful: “Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst” (John 6:3535And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. (John 6:35)). Thus the first lesson leads quickly to the second: “When thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn” (Ruth 2:99Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them: have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? and when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn. (Ruth 2:9)). The well is deep, as the poor woman of Samaria truly said to the Lord, but He has drawn the water of life from the deep well of the heart of the Father, and now says to whosoever thirsts, “Let him take of the water of life freely” (Rev. 22:1717And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. (Revelation 22:17)). Jesus gives it: “He would have given thee living water” (John 4:1010Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. (John 4:10)).
Perhaps some will say that this is all very simple; we know all this. That may be, but have we really learned what it is to be drawn from the fields of Moab to find that there is One and only One who can satisfy our hearts? Have we learned what it is to come as an empty sinner, one who has nothing, not even a title to God’s goodness, to be met by all the fullness of God’s grace in His own beloved Son? If we have, we will certainly not grumble at these simple things, but will bow down, like Ruth, before Him in joyful worship. We will not want to leave the field of Boaz.
H. H. Snell (adapted)