“So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and dwelt with her mother-in-law.”
She had taken her right place as an outcast, she had owned she was not like one of the handmaids of Boaz, and she found this to be the way of true blessing. In the field of Boaz, during the months between barley and wheat harvest, many happy and blessed lessons were learned.
She learned to keep her eyes on the field that was being reaped. She learned where to find refreshment for her thirst. She learned the mealtimes of the reapers, and found that Boaz was there to reach her a portion of parched corn more than enough to satisfy her own needs.
She learned to glean patiently after the reapers, and to beat out patiently what she had gleaned.
Lastly, she learned the name of Boaz, and the value of his word (vss. 19,21).
These are simple but blessed lessons that flow from the work of grace when the soul has met with Jesus.
Instead of the restless wandering and seeking for some object to satisfy, the heart finds a place where full satisfaction is known.
Instead of a thirst that cannot be quenched at the broken cisterns of the world, the heart finds abiding refreshment and joy in Christ enjoyed by the Holy Ghost, a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.
Then the joy is learned of gathering with the children of God in God’s way, according to the Word, to find that the Lord is always in the midst of His own, to feed His sheep, and fill the heart with His preciousness.
The value of patient study of the Word, and the need of beating out with diligence and prayer the portion gathered. These are real things that the young Christian learns in the field of Boaz, nor does the older Christian ever cease to need them.
But above and beyond all, and indeed through all, the great lesson is the knowledge of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and that His word must be everything to the soul.
“The man’s name is Boaz,” “He said unto me.” These are the words that show what Ruth had learned, though the ephah beaten out bore witness to her labor, and the portion reserved bore witness to the gracious care of Boaz.
Hence the closing words of the second chapter, coming in after Naomi’s witness to the character of Boaz, show that a further lesson has to be learned, another aspect to be discovered of the grace that first met the outcast in the field of Boaz. “She dwelt with her mother-in-law”; but this would not do to close the story, it is not rest, so we are carried by the Spirit of God into another scene in the next chapter, and in the threshing floor of Boaz we find another lesson. But may the Lord give us each to learn in reality what it is to take our true place before Him, and to find out His sufficiency, His grace to meet our needs, Himself as the only object of our hearts.
S. H. H.