“When thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink.”
THIS narrative of Ruth finds its root in Naomi, who had been dwelling away from Israel, in the Moabitish land, “the far country,” as we may say. Naomi signifies “my delight, my pleasure;” but now, having lost all, she calls herself Mara, which signifies “bitterness.” Boaz signifies “strength;” Ruth, “satisfied.” As with Naomi, so with Ruth, in coming up out of Moab they came up out of bitterness; after which they find Boaz, which is “strength.” Then are they “satisfied.” How beautiful the chain, each link of it― “bitterness, strength, satisfied!” What is the uniform history of God’s children―Abraham for example, and Daniel and David, Joseph also, and many others? Did it not begin with bitterness, with sore trouble? And God, who is “strength,” saved from it, and being saved they were “satisfied.” Is it not our own history? Bitterness, strength, satisfied; ―bitterness for sin, strength in Him who died for us, satisfied with Him. Our history as believers is according to all these. Flesh trying to meet the demands of the law is bitterness; the flesh in us trying to be satisfied with itself is bitterness; going down to the world, to Moab, losing our communion, is bitterness; grieving the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption, is bitterness quenching the Spirit, not walking according to the Spirit, but according to the flesh―what is it all but bitterness? Christ having met the demands of the law is strength; Christ for us, and the believer on Christ before God, is strength; the answer of a good conscience in Christ having died for us is strength. Satisfaction made; what more do we require? This is strength. Christ Himself made sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, is strength; yea, is a fountain that can never run dry—a living fountain of life and vigor for the soul. The offices of Christ, the glories of those offices and of His Person, and those which are His reward―these passing before our faith satisfy and sustain our hearts. Fully satisfied we shall be when we see Him as He is, awaking up in His likeness. “I shall be satisfied, when I awake with Thy likeness” (Psa. 17:1515As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. (Psalm 17:15)).
The land of Moab was to Naomi a land of death. Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; her sons also. Moab had been to Naomi what the “far country” was to the prodigal―the land of sorrow and of the shadow of death; so that her very name was no more pleasant to her. She thought of the land of Israel, where the wings of Jehovah had spread themselves over her in her youth. Accordingly she arose, with her daughters-in-law (the widows of Mahlon and Chilion), that she might return from the country of Moab, for the Lord had given His people bread. Her daughters would fain go with her to her own land; but so low was she in her soul, that she wished them to return to their own people, and to their idols. Never can we lift others higher than our own level If not in communion ourselves, we are poor helps to one who is low in spiritual life, or who is a backslider. Think of Naomi enjoining it on Ruth to go back to her idols!
What Ruth wanted was not idols, but provision―rest for her heart. Could an idol satisfy the heart? As we have said, if we are not in grace ourselves, we can never testify to others as we ought. Solemn thought! There may be clearness of the letter without the power of the Spirit; but if no power of the Spirit, there will be no suitable result.
Thus one may be in full intelligence of God, and being in His love can show it to others; another may give clear statements of truth, but, his own heart not being at rest, souls are not saved, and the weary get no rest. The one great qualification for an evangelist is to know the love of God―a love with which his own heart, being in communion, overflows. It is a question if any can be unmoved under the power of such an overflow.
How interesting to think that the want of which we speak was in Ruth whilst she was still in Moab, and that the supply suited to that want was in one to whom she was as yet an utter stranger. How sweet, in our dealings with sinners, to think with ourselves thus: “Ah! they are in want—full of longing; but they do not know what they want, or what there is for them in God”! And how sweet when we can say, “But through His message they shall know!” Naomi was but a sorry evangelist; she did not understand her privilege—her work. Yet her lack did not hinder the longing of Ruth. She tenderly besought: “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried” (Ruth 1:1717Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me. (Ruth 1:17)) Ah! what is life? what is all else if no blessing? “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:6868Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. (John 6:68)). Hence “where Thou diest.” Where did Christ die? He died on the cross, and we have died in Him. And are “made free from sin” (Rom. 6:2222But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. (Romans 6:22)), with our load of guilt gone as we sing―
“O Christ, what burdens bowed Thy head!
Our load was laid on Thee!
Thou stoodest in the sinner’s stead
To bear all ill for me.
A victim led, Thy blood was shed;
Now there’s no load for me.
For me, Lord Jesus, Thou hast died,
And I have died in Thee;
Thou’rt risen, my bands are all untied;
And now Thou liv’st in me:
The Father’s face, of radiant grace,
Shines now in light on me.”
Hence we can say with Paul, “I am crucified with Christ” (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)); also buried with Him; and where He was buried we have been buried; nay, are buried―for there should be no disinterment of ourselves― “buried with Him by baptism into death.” “And where Thou lodgest, I will lodge.” Where, is He? In heavenly places? He has ascended up far above all principalities and powers, and is, for us, in the very presence of God, and we are made nigh in Him. Ruth said, “thy God shall be my God.” Christ’s God is our God. He said: “My Father and your Father; My God and your God” (John 20:1717Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17)). And, oh, what a God is His God! what a people are His people! But do we, indeed, realize, as we ought, that sweet fellowship and communion which we are privileged to have with Him in this, viz., that God is His God and our God; and that His redeemed people are all dear to God, all bought with a price, all the habitation of God through the Spirit, and all with Him to enjoy the same home and to have the same blessedness forever?
“So they two went until they came to Bethlehem” (house of bread). To go back to the land of Israel, or, as we may say, back to God, was the only true way for Naomi. The prodigal must go back to his father; the more the delay, the more the misery. The same with ourselves. It was God who made us happy at first; He alone can make us happy now. We have failed, but grace is the same, the precious blood is the same; that blood tells of sin, of its evil truly―we see it in the cross, and feel it in our folly―but it tells us also of sin put away.
It is well for the child of God to think there may be affliction, sore chastening, for backsliding, but not wrath. Ah! no; the wrath of God abideth on him that believeth not; but never on a child of God. “We have little idea,” remarks another, “what wrath is, or the atonement which has met and forever put it away for those who believe. We have never had experience of wrath; we never can have it. If we have felt the bitterness of remorse for sin we may then, as it were, have learned a little of thy character of it. But it will never again be experienced by any, save by the lost in the second death. For us it has been met once and forever by Jesus on the cross. This was the end of His life―to know it His own Person the wrath of God. Having put away sin, He entered into the sanctuary, there to appeal in the presence of God for us. There is our home, there is our rest. Every evil of our natural heart deserves wrath; not one thought or feeling that does not. And these things remain in one who believes; in him are found all those things against which the wrath of God is revealed. God looks upon us in His Son; and we can say that all that His eye sees there, all that He delights in, is for us. Until we know the sanctuary aright, we shall never know true peace. Is it not often the case when we feel we have gone astray we become weak, and are cast down? But is there not a cloud? Do we say we must seek to confess, to pray, so that the dark cloud may be removed and peace restored? We must take heed what we do when there is this consciousness of sin and distance from God in the soul. All such thoughts come from Satan, and set aside the priestly ministrations of the Lord Jesus, and the efficacy of His blood. When we turn back to God, we find the sanctuary the same unchanged place of blessing. No; when my child has fallen into the mire, I may chastise him (as he ought to be disciplined); but that does not alter my relationship or my love for the child. What is most to be dreaded is, that there should not be this chastisement, this discipline, from God.” As another has said― “God’s grace in restoring gets the greatest victory over the enemy. When the conscience is soiled, and carries with it the remembrance of sin, then to be able to cast oneself still on the unfailing love of God, this is victory of the highest order. It shone in Peter when in spite of his recent denial he could throw himself into the sea to meet the Lord alone. And in the 23rd Psalm, as one has observed, the soul restored before it walks again in righteousness. The value herein is this―that there is a natural tendency in the heart to reach restoration through a renewed walk in righteousness. God’s restoring grace is blessed; for the result is holiness, just as the result with Naomi was blessing.”
“So Naomi returned, and Ruth with her... and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.” The prodigal could not go to the heart of his father without that heart being full for him. When a soul comes to God, it is always, as it were, the “beginning of barley harvest.”
Ruth said, “Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace.” Some of you know what this is―how you have gone after those who, in these days of blessing to souls, have been scattering broadcast in the pathway of sinners the golden grain of divine truth. He who preaches Christ scatters precious grain; and how many have loved to gather up the treasure.
And she “came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz.... Then said Boaz unto his servant, Whose damsel is this?” ―a natural question, Who are you? Where do you come from? answering to the Holy Ghost finding us out. Like Eliezer, in Gen. 24:2323And said, Whose daughter art thou? tell me, I pray thee: is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in? (Genesis 24:23), seeking Rebekah, “Whose daughter art thou?” Ah! who was Ruth? She was a poor Moabite, who had left all in which she once delighted in Moab for the land of Israel, and who is saying, “Let me glean, and gather after the reaper’s AMONG THE SHEAVES.” Bold request!― “among the sheaves.” The supply lies thickly around. “And Boaz answered, Go not to glean in another field;... let thine eyes be on the field.” Often, alas! is the seeking soul tempted to glean in another field, to seek for rest outside of Christ, to cast another look on the vain world, its society, its so-called pleasures. The Lord would have you abide fast in His field; He would indulge you with a place deep down amid the weighty grain of His truth, down among the sheaves of His grace and love, even now, as many a Moabitish one will doubtless have amidst the harvest of that kingdom which in the latter day will be glory.
“And when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn.”
“If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.”
“The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Freely does it flow from Him to us, springing up to its own level. Where is that? Heaven! yea, to God, who is there. Like Simeon, when he saw Jesus, he saw God’s salvation; the life in him at once sought the level of “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation” (Luke 2:2929Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: (Luke 2:29)).
Here now is Ruth among the sheaves. She has much, but there is more. She knows Boaz by name; as in chap. 2, but she does not know her own relationship to him. She does nothing as yet but receive from his hands. Like many a newly-saved one who thinks only of what he has received from Christ, and does not know that Christ Himself is his, with all that that involves through the long heaven of a never-ending eternity! But she abides fast by his maidens until the end of the barley harvest. Still she only knew him by name. Naomi had never mentioned him all the while she was in Moab; yet all this while he is the same “near of kin,” this “mighty man of wealth.” She was as a newborn one whom Naomi would instruct. “When thou art athirst, go unto the vessels and drink of that which the young men have drawn,” for He does give blessings through others.
All this is our own history―every stage of it, as sings our Olney bard―
“I thirst, but not as once I did;
The vain delights of earth to share;
Thy wounds, Immanuel, all forbid
That I should seek my pleasure there.
It was the sight of Thy dear cross
First weaned my soul from earthly things,
And taught me to esteem as dross
The mirth of fools, the pomp of kings.
Great fountain of delight unknown!
No longer sink beneath the brim;
But overflow, and pour me down
A living and life-giving stream!
For sure of all the plants that share
The notice of Thy Father’s eye,
None proves less grateful to His care,
Or yields Him meaner fruit than I.”
We ourselves have learned from those whom God had taught before us. How often have we been refreshed and strengthened by some who are now in heaven. They were vessels bearing to our souls divine treasure―blessed vessels from His hands! To say we can do without such vessels is to deny the arrangements and gifts of God. But where they are not, the solitary ones who never see the face of their teacher have a special promise: “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.”
Ruth said: “Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?” The “why” is easily told. He loved the stranger! Christ loved the Church. This is like our own “why” ―
“Why was I made to hear Thy voice,
And enter while there’s room?”
The effect of the grace of Boaz was to humble Ruth. That Christian will manifest most lowliness who, knowing his place in His deep love, is living nearest the Person of the Lord.
“The more Thy glories strike mine eyes
The humbler I shall lie.”
Boaz answers: “It hath fully been showed me.” Ah, yes; “fully.” The divine Being knows all about us. Away in the far country we lingered long, feeding among the husks, and He knew how dissatisfied we were. He knew how the heart had sought to be satisfied apart from Him. He knew how wretched and miserable we became, and how emptied at last we were of all we held dear. Yes, it is fully known to Him how we have left the land of our wretchedness, and have come to the house of bread, and are seated at His table. How one loves to follow in the footsteps of this child of faith, richly provided for now, but soon to be more rich and more happy with him who owned the field! Soon to be satisfied! Oh, how satisfied then!
This “sufficed” of Ruth is a sort of landing-place in our history. Up to this point she has been one of the gleaners. Now Naomi leads her to something far better and additional. She seeks for her rest, not the rest of food only, but rest founded on relationship. “My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee? And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast?” Mark the word “our kindred.” Naomi herself is restored; she knows the occupations, the ways of Boaz. “Behold he winnoweth barley to-night.” He was separating the precious from the vile, doing it himself. “Night and day work,” as one has said, “with Him who searches the hearts and tries the reins of the children of men.” Boaz himself could not rest; what both needed was rest for the heart. Unless the heart be satisfied there is no rest. Boaz gives her six measures of barley. Before, when she had gleaned all day, there was only an ephah! Thus abundantly more do we receive whilst in communion. Up to this Ruth was but to receive at the hand of Boaz. Like John 4, “If thou knewest the gift of God,... thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.” It was only to know to receive. This is the Gospel. But now she is to dwell near his person, to be clothed with his garment, having perfect rest. “He shall rest in His love; He shall joy over thee with joy.” Such privilege have all His saints. Boaz exercises his right of relationship, for he is her true kinsman. Only One could redeem us. The law could not. The ten witnesses summoned by Boaz were evidence that none but Boaz exercised the right. But for the Son of God who loved us there had been no sinner saved. He is our great kinsman. Because the children were flesh and blood, He Himself likewise took part of the same. He took not on Him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham. Then redemption, redemption through the shedding of His own precious blood.
Now the day of their espousals has come; being his bride, Ruth becomes joint-proprietor with him of all that he has. The field in which she had gleaned became her own. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof” (1 Cor. 10:2626For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. (1 Corinthians 10:26)). In the latter day His saints (the meek) will possess the earth. Especially will the land which is Immanuel’s land be theirs to delight in, and to enjoy with Him―the land in which they once merely gleaned.
What a change for Ruth! No more to glean. She had more than her necessary food. Boaz himself was hers. And what a change will it be for us! How opulent of glory shall we yet be along with Him who will possess the heavens and the earth!
Boaz sets forth the earthly riches of Him who in His own time will be Lord and owner of the earth.
Jacob was in possession of no goodly estates. Isaac was son in his own house. David sets forth rejection, and afterward kingship, the putting down of all rule and authority, as opposed to the kingdom. Boaz possesses the field.
Yet the field itself was not what Boaz mostly prized. As before Eve had been formed in the garden, the garden itself―Eden, with all its fruitfulness and beauty―had no provision for the heart. And as with Boaz, so also with Ruth. She first gleaned in the field of Boaz; then lay at his feet; then fed from his table; but these were not enough; she became one with Boaz himself. Boaz took account of her desire or himself, in that he called her “blessed,” saying, “Blessed be thou of the Lord, my daughter.” She had not gone after others―not even after those who had been the means of supplying her need, as when they let the “handfuls fall on purpose for her.” No; he means, the truth, the Word even are not the Lord. Is not this also in accordance with the breathings of our own hearts, as we sometimes sing―
“All truth and all labors, and even the Word,
How blessed soever, they are not the Lord.”
In conclusion, is it not just here that this daughter of faith answers to her name, which is “Satisfied?” She is joint owner with Boaz of the field in which she had gleaned. She is satisfied with Boaz; and satisfied, she is at rest, for Boaz had given her rest, reminding of Him who has said, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” short word, but of infinite sweetness and fullness. What rest will there be in that day when with the Lord we shall possess the earth! The earth itself will be at rest, and singing. What rest, too, shall we have on high in that heavenly city reigning over the earth. It will be one Sabbath of earth and skies! God Himself will rest in His new creation. Our rest will be perfect like His. We have had our gleaning-time, not only of the world, but of the Church. We have had our time of feasting―not the world’s merely, as in the days of our unregeneracy, but in the days of rich truth displayed by those vessels whom God used for our good. The remembrances do not satisfy. How strange! even our sweetest things here often awaken memories, the echoes of which fall upon our ear only to lead us to long for the time when we shall be satisfied, awaking in His likeness. Then we shall have perfect rest, not only in the bright eternal present, but in the understanding of many a doubtful past―of which now the slightest thing may painfully remind us.