IN the second chapter of Ruth Boaz appears in the beautiful character of poor Elimelech’s friend and kinsman, a man of great resources, and, moreover, as the one who meets the outcast and stranger with that grace and favor which she in faith had gone out to seek, taking her right place as an alien. We see him meeting her with words of peace, satisfying all her needs, and giving her a place among his handmaids.
It is a beautiful picture of what God has shown Himself to be in Christ for the empty sinner.
But in it all we have little of Boaz personally, and Ruth still dwells with her mother-in-law. Hence, after Naomi has spoken of Boaz’s right of redemption, a point of the greatest importance, and as yet unmentioned, we are brought into a fresh scene, the threshing-floor of Boaz, where Boaz appears in a new light.
It is one thing for the soul to receive grace—God’s grace in Christ, and to rejoice in it, but it is another and a deeper thing to learn that Christ Himself is to have fruit of His work. This is seen in the first seven verses of the first chapter of Ephesians as contrasted with the second seven verses. In verses 1-7 of Ephesians 1 we find a full and marvelous unfolding of the way in which the grace of God has wrought towards us in Christ; they set forth our place in Christ, its blessed source in the Father’s purpose, and its sure foundation in the Son’s person and work; but, not stopping there, the following passage (8-14) goes on to unfold the place that Christ has in God’s purposes, how He is the Center and Accomplisher of them, how all is to be headed up in Him, and then our place with Him appears in a new light, even the light of His own glorious place and inheritance.
Now this contrast is found in a measure in the two chapters of Ruth before us. Ruth 2 shows Ruth’s need met by Boaz in the only place where he in his character as blesser could meet her in her character of an empty outcast having no hope but in the mercy of God.
In Ruth 3 Boaz is seen in his threshing-floor. He has been winnowing his barley. He rejoices in the fruit of his labor, and lies down at the end of the heap of corn which bears witness to his toil completed.
It is here that Ruth comes to seek rest, and all that passes between Boaz and Ruth is in the secret of the threshing-floor at night, not in the publicity of the open field at midday. It is to Boaz in his fresh character of one whose work is completed, and who rejoices in it, that Ruth comes. But not as she came before, a poor outcast beggar. She comes washed, anointed, clothed, as one blessed by his favor. Nor is her answer to his challenge, “Who art thou?” such as she gave when he first met her in the field. There she says, taking her true place, “I am not like one of thine handmaids”; now, in the confidence begotten by his grace, she says, “I am Ruth thy handmaid.”
She now takes her stand upon the grace which he had shown to her, and her request brings out a fresh aspect of God’s work in the soul, the sense of another need, which only he who had filled her heart with his favor could meet.
“She dwelt with her mother-in-law.” What does that mean? It was a continual reminder of her widowed state, of her days of bitterness, of the old life in the fields of Moab. It was a continual reminder, too, of her position as an outcast amongst the people of Jehovah, the God under whose wings she had come to trust.
Could she find rest in such a position? And with the ever-increasing sense of her need, heightened by the contrast with the maidens of Boaz, in whose company her days were spent, where could she turn? who could meet such an extreme case? For as long as she was Ruth the Moabitess she could never have a title to stand amongst the people of God. She was by birth an enemy, not merely a foreigner, but one of whom the law said, “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” (Deut. 23:33An 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 for ever: (Deuteronomy 23:3)). Hence it was no ordinary case. Boaz might be a man of sense wealth and goodness, but wealth and goodness could not meet her case.
This is what Ruth lays hold of in faith, when she lies down at the feet of Boaz after he had finished his work. She wishes to be known no more as Ruth the Moabitess— “Spread, therefore, thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou hast the right of redemption” (ch. 3:9, New Trans.). This is the boldness of faith. It is the first part of the lesson of the threshing-floor. Ruth seeks a new character and position, not now to have her needs met as when she came an outcast to the field of Boaz, but to disappear behind Boaz, to have him for her title to enter among the people of God and into the assembly of God. But many important issues are raised by such boldness, nevertheless she has found one who is able to bring the matter to completion. He will take the whole matter up and settle every question for her. He knows better than she does all that is involved in her request. But his word to her is, “Lie down until the morning.” She has found the right place, she has found the right person, and she can lie down in peace trusting in his word.
What is involved in this right of redemption, and how it is made good are brought out in the last of the four scenes into which the Spirit of God brings us, even in the place of judgment, the gate of the city. But it is worthy of note that from the moment Boaz undertakes everything for her we hear no more of Ruth’s progress and exercises of heart. Henceforth it is entirely a question of Boaz. It is the difference between having our needs met, and learning the end of ourselves before God, that is shadowed out in these two beautiful scenes in the field of Boaz and in the threshing-floor. But what comes out so beautifully is the way the desire is produced in the soul, learning itself, through grace, that it should be, “not I, but Christ.” It is one thing to have the doctrine of the end of the old man clear in our heads, but a very different thing to lay hold practically by faith of the result of Christ’s work for our souls, to find no rest in anything short of the blessed experience of Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)— “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
S. H. H.