Ruth 3

Ruth 3:1-4

Section 3. (Rth 3:1-18; Rth 4:1-22.)Redemption realized. All is now to be changed for Ruth; and thus, also, for Naomi. What follows is based upon two laws in Israel: the law as to the redemption of an inheritance (Leviticus 25:25), and that of raising up a brother’s name on his inheritance (Deuteronomy 25:5-12), -things which are here brought together, and which in application to Israel belong clearly together. Heir and inheritance, in their case, need alike to be redeemed; yea, and the name of the dead raised up, which is accomplished for Israel by a true spiritual resurrection, the breath of a new life breathed into them, as in Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-28). In Ruth the story is, indeed, differently told, but it is essentially the same, and here has a tenderness and beauty all its own. (1) In this section we find Ruth no longer a gleaner. She is putting forth new claims and cherishing high aspirations. And here her mother-in-law is her instructor once more. She has already pointed out Boaz as a kinsman of Elimelech, and one of their redeemers, but for some time this seems to have no practical significance for either of them. Now she is full of a new interest. Ruth must have a resting-place for herself, and to find it she must seek it.

Very simply and naturally her mind turns to Boaz: ignorantly, indeed, and yet with a knowledge such as the heart teaches, and which in the end proves right. Ruth is bidden by her to put forth a personal claim upon Boaz, according to the law of Deuteronomy, and this she does, -to find in the first place that she has made an apparent mistake, but which in the end proves none. It is only upon the failure of a nearer kinsman than himself that Boaz can act. Naomi herself has called him one of their redeemers. It must be proved satisfactorily if there is more than one. The remnant (whom Ruth represents) learns, first of all, from the nation (which is Naomi) certain lessons as to redemption, which personal experience, however, alone can interpret, and get right. The only religion that avails anything is that of experiment: in making which both heart and conscience get searched out, their needs thoroughly explored, and then met. The believing that avails for us is one that shows itself in coming to Him; yet the soul coming may find at first disappointment. The power of the “nearer kinsman” must be thoroughly and practically understood before Christ can show His power. “Rest” can only come from a Redeemer. Naomi makes no mistake there. When Christ says, Come unto Me, and I will give you rest," He is declaring Himself this; and it is as such -the only and all-sufficient One -that He will or can give it to us. This we must learn aright. Thank God, He has proved His power to fulfill this word of His, all the centuries down. Boaz is winnowing barley at night in the threshing-floor. And Israel is such a floor, which the Lord is going to purge, according to the Baptist’s testimony. (Matthew 3:12.) A night of affliction is coming for them, in which He will winnow the chaff from the grain, that He may gather to Himself that which has value for Him. “The fan is in His hand.” Judgment, alas, must come; but He means by it to take forth the precious from the vile. And this is the very time when the remnant, therefore, in the darkness of as black a night as the earth has ever seen, shall creep to His feet, and claim Him as their own. Assuredly it will be a bold act then, if even Ruth’s seems so; yet this grace has been dawning upon them, and His voice has seemed to speak amid the voices of the prophetic promises, yet but beginning to be intelligible. At midnight, suddenly, just at the darkest, comes His voice with a question -how necessary a one, when it is redemption that is to be realized -“Who art thou?” How blessed to know that the right answer is but to own, “I am Ruth, thy handmaid,” for this is the name of the barren woman whose natural hopes are dead. To such an one it is that the law applies and pledges itself: no other has any claim. “Spread, then, thy wing over thy handmaid,” -this soul with its need of shelter, -“for thou art a redeemer.” But not yet can the prayer be answered fully. Always is there, indeed, encouragement for the needy from these lips that speak here. Still she must await the morning. She is to be answered; some way redemption will surely come: so much she knows, but is he -will he be -the redeemer? This question, is it not answered for the remnant also only fully in the “morning,” -a morning which He makes by His own coming, the glory of His presence. Ministered to they are, sustained by His hand, still sent back, as Ruth to her mother-in-law, to await the morning! Ah, but His heart will not have its rest till the matter is finished, and redemption is found for Ruth, -“shepherd-tended” Ruth! (2) Now we are to be introduced to the other kinsman: there is but one other in the story; and strange it is, when we know our Boaz, that he should have the prior claim! Is there, then, another redeemer? Does the word of God give any ground for such a supposition? Yes, as a supposition. Hypothetically, there is a mode of salvation other than by Christ: test it, and you find by experience (once more the teacher) that there is, and can be, only one. “When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.” This is the voice of God by the prophet Ezekiel (18: 27), and every word of God shall stand. It is a way of salvation, too, that is declared, -not simply of a righteousness that needs none. It is the wicked man who is spoken of, -the man who can already be called that, and who as that needs salvation. Forgiveness of sins is announced for him: “All his transgressions that he has committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he path done he shall live” (v. 22). Thus the mercy of God is pledged to a returning soul: and, of course, one must say, in all sincerity and truth, or it could not be from Him. Yet this is not the salvation which we find in Christ. Its condition is not of faith in Him but of works: to obtain it one must have a righteousness which is of works. And these two principles -of faith and of works -are principles that cannot be united together, so that it will not do to say that although faith in Christ is not here formally made mention of, it must in fact be found. On the contrary, it is most certain that the principle here declared excludes faith in Christ in any evangelic sense. “For if it be of grace,” says the apostle, “it is no more of work, otherwise grace is no more grace.” (Romans 11:6.) As surely, then, as the principle here is that of righteousness by work, so surely is it not a righteousness by faith: it is contrastive and contradictory to faith. It is the principle of the law as given the second time, after the people had sinned and made a golden calf. It is not pure law, but law modified and tempered by mercy, so as to give man as failed the means of self-recovery, if self-recovery were possible. But it was not possible for them, and is not possible for any. Of this law the mediator was Moses, and not Christ; and so entirely unavailing was it, that the very mediator of the law becomes of necessity the accuser of the people: “there is one that accuseth you,” says the Lord to Israel, “even Moses, in whom ye trust.” (John 5:45.) Thus we see the redeemer who is not Boaz, but the redeemer who cannot redeem. The law is, indeed, the nearest kinsman that man has, and the one to which, apart from the teaching of divine grace, man naturally turns. One of the reasons of the delay in Christ’s coming was that the law should first of all be tried; for this is but the trial of man’s righteousness. And so in the history of a saved soul, the law’s claim must first be set aside, that Christ may not be to it as “one of our redeemers,” but the only Redeemer possible, the Boaz “in whom is strength.” It is a matter for judgment, and therefore Boaz goes up to the gate, where causes were habitually tried. Presently, behold, the redeemer of whom he had spoken passes by. Notice, the man is quite indifferent: he has none of the loving interest that we find in the heart of Boaz: he would pass by, as the priest and Levite did the man on the road to Jericho. And such is the heartlessness of the legal method. Law has no personal interest, and cannot have. It speaks in the third person: if one comes under the rule, be it so; this is its impartiality, its indifference. But thus it cannot represent the heart of God. Boaz calls the man, and he sits down; then ten men of the elders of the city are called, and they sit down; the ten commandments are our Boaz’s witnesses that the law is incompetent to do aught for a sinner’s salvation. How soon and simply could the case be settled, if always the ten and no others were witnesses! But people make this great mistake, that, because, in fact, God is merciful, He will not require the righteousness which the law requires, which the ten commandments specify, but something, they know not how much, under this. Whereas, though He may be patient and give time, and give repeated opportunities, He never lowers His demand, never can accept less than what is lawful and right." Above all, He has never proposed Christ as a makeweight for our deficiencies. “If righteousness come by the law,” says the apostle, “then Christ is dead in vain.” Boaz begins with the question of inheritance: “Naomi, who is returned from the country of Moab, has sold the allotment of the field that was our brother Elimelech’s. . . . If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it. . . . And he said, I will redeem it.” We see here the connection between the land and the people of Israel. In fact, how carefully has the land been guarded for them, keeping sabbath while the heirs are exiled! God has given it by absolute promise to the seed of Abraham, and that according to the flesh. But here is the difficulty: “And Boaz said, What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou buyest it also of Ruth, the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance. And the redeemer said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance.” Elimelech is dead, that is Israel looked at as identified with the faith of God as King; yet Israel, in fact, remains, though as Naomi, widowed and destitute. But there is a young life, a new generation, through whom the name of the dead may be raised up. Yet these are as the Moabitess’ whom the law cannot bring in, but must keep out: for it is written that “a Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of Jehovah forever.” Well may the kinsman fear, therefore, lest in taking Ruth he should mar his own inheritance. Throughout the story this is the title that everywhere comes into prominence. Despite all Ruth’s attractiveness and piety, she is always spoken of, emphatically, as Ruth, the Moabitess. And the law, in presence of this conceded truth, can make no exception in her favor. The law is against her wholly, -accuses, convicts, and cannot justify. So hopeless is Israel’s case in the hands of Moses. If we look at the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel of Matthew, we shall find there, without the stigma of her origin, the name of Ruth. She is the third of four women only who stand exceptionally in the record there. At a first glance, we might think, uselessly. also: for of what use are they in establishing His title to be David’s Son? None, clearly; and so they must have another purpose: for everything has purpose in the word of God; yet what purpose in a genealogy? But the genealogy is not merely His as Son of David; the title of it adds to this that it is Christ’s as Son of Abraham. And the three names that end with Ruth are in this part, as we see: can they have part, then, in showing that Christ is Son of Abraham? Now here light breaks in at once: for the Seed of Abraham is He in whom all families of the earth are to be blessed, -Gentile as well as Jew; while these three names are Gentile. How vain, then, to think of denying the Gentiles their part in Christ! But more: in each of these names we may discern what might be easily taken as a blot upon the genealogy. What was Tamar? what Rahab? what even Ruth, the Moabitess? But does not this, then, show us all the more the Seed of Abraham, the blesser of the nations? Yes, and each name tells out, and in perfect order, the reality of grace. Tamar, whose sin alone brings her into the list, begins the story; for sin is the fundamental fact for the gospel; and our sin owned gives us title to the Saviour of sinners. But then Rahab (no less the sinner) shows us faith, a faith that separates from judgment and brings into blessing: that is as clearly the second foundation. What, then, does the name of Ruth emphasize in this series? Can it be anything but this, that the law therefore is not the way of blessing, does not furnish the redeemer, but grace only does? -for Ruth the Moabitess is debtor to the grace of Boaz! Here, surely, all is consistent, all is harmony. And how Ruth’s character, so different from that of those who precede her in this list, assures us that not those whom men would class as sinners, but those also whom they might class as saints, are all together by the law convicted and condemned, and that for all who receive salvation grace must reign! No, assuredly the law cannot raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance. The power of God in grace can alone meet the need that is here symbolized. The kinsman passes his shoe the sign of entering upon possession -to him in whom power is. The law testifies and yields its rights to Christ, and He is declared the only possible Redeemer. Such will the remnant find Him in the day that comes. (3) Boaz proclaims his title and his grace. The inheritance becomes his by purchase; and Ruth also, once more and for the last time spoken of as the Moabitess, he acquires for himself. Israel’s land is yet to be known as Immanuel’s, for indeed He has bought it at its full value. The people, also, are the purchased of His love. In Ruth’s case the figure falls necessarily short, and the word used does not positively convey the idea of purchase. All types must, indeed, fall short, whether as picturing our need or the way that He has met it.

This we are prepared for. The outline may be slight, but is sufficient. When it is followed up in the day to come, how it will be seen that here is One who has strength in Ephratah, and His name in Bethlehem; and how will the remnant “break forth” like the house of Pharez, “breaker forth,” as it is written, “For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shalt inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited, . . . for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.” And how Ruth’s story is transfigured here! “For thy Maker is thy husband, Jehovah of hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel: the God of the whole earth shall He be called.” (Isaiah 54:3-5.) Naomi, therefore, is built up by Ruth, and her son becomes (in another sense, of course,) her redeemer, the restorer of her life, and the support of her old age. For the son’s name is Obed, the “servant,” and the sweet adoring service of the new generation of Israel will be in those days the restoring of life indeed. Fit it is that the “women, her neighbors,” should give the name to this new seed; as the nations round (then neighborly!) will speak the praise of the new nation. For then for the first time shall they completely fulfill the word: “But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.” (Isaiah 41:8-9.) This is indeed a sign of perfect redemption, whatever the dispensation: “O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.” (Psalms 116:16.) Redemption is thus the spring of service, and gives character to it; and if we are indeed in the nearer and more wonderful place of sons of God, the service of sons is only the fullest, the most joyful service. Yea, the only-begotten Son, to the wonder and delight of heaven, has come forth and served; yea, and still serves; and in that day will serve; as He has Himself said: — “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth, and serve them.” (Luke 12:37.)