Scripture: Ruth 4:13-22.
Stream or download Truth for today #35
In this book we have come from the darkness of Moab right up to the light of the promised coming of the Messiah. To the very last it is full of instruction for the child of God.
First of all consider the practical lessons.
I. THE WONDERFUL GRACE OF GOD TO THE SINNER
1. The honoured wife. Ruth had forsaken all for the name of the Lord. Now she has found abundance as a result. She is the wife of “a mighty man of wealth . . . and his name was Boaz,” Ruth 2:1. Psalm 113:7-8.
2. A fruitful mother. She no children in Moab. “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward,” Psalm 127:3. “He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD,” Psalm 113:9. “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life,” Rom 6:21-22. “For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries,” 1 Pet 4:3.
3. A blessed daughter. Verse 15. What a benefit to Naomi Ruth was! She was better than seven sons. Here is what God can make the sinner to be.
4. A privileged ancestor. She who was an obscure idolator has by the grace of God been brought into the family of God and intimately related to Christ after the flesh. So it is with all who believe. “Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother,” Matthew 12:48-50.
II. THE MERCY OF GOD TO THE BACKSLIDER
“And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him. And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it,” Ruth 4:15-16. She had earlier said: 1:11-14. Hopelessness and weeping was the lot of Noami. She was “empty”, 1:21. But now look! She nurses the progenitor of Christ.
III. THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD TO THE SAINT
Boaz was a good and holy man. He had prayed most generously for Ruth, 2:12. His prayers were answered, not only upon Ruth’s head but also upon his own. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,” Gal 6:7.