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Rth_4:13-22
These were great honors. Little did this poor foreign woman think, when she left her native home to comfort the destitution of her mother-in-law—little did she suppose when she humbly sought leave of Boaz’s servant to glean in his master’s field—little when she labored homeward beneath the burden of her corn—what high honors awaited her. She was by her marriage with Boaz raised perhaps to the highest station which a woman in Israel could at that time attain—as the wife of one of the most prosperous and honored elders of Bethlehem. Henceforth nothing of comfort or honor were lacking to her; and, although her husband probably died before her, for he seems to have been advanced in years, the station she occupied as the mother of his son—the heir of a two-fold inheritance, gave her a consideration no less honorable and exalted than that which she had before enjoyed. But, far above that was her interest in the great future—in which was given to her that part for which the woman of Israel sighed—which was the object of their most intense desires, excited by the ancient prophecies that from the seed of Abraham should come the bruiser of the serpent’s head—He in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed.
But there was a cause. That cause was in the faith which God had enabled her, under most peculiar and trying circumstances, to exercise for his glory. To her was given the opportunity, which, in the even tenor of their way, few women in that age could find, of honoring God conspicuously by the greatness of her decision—by the marked manner in which she forsook her paternal gods for Him, and cast in her lot with his people. It was no mean sacrifice. One of a nature so affectionate as hers, could not but feel the rending of the human ties, interwoven with most of her past existence, which that decision involved. She did not the less feel the ties she left behind, because she preferred those that lay before. So far as the human abnegation of self is concerned, women have made as great sacrifices for husbands—for children—for parents. They did their duty. She made her sacrifices for her mother-in-law—a relation not usually of the highest or tenderest nature—not so exacting as the others upon the score of duty. No one could have blamed had she, like Orpah, kissed her mother-in-law, and bidden her farewell. Many would have said that that was the right and proper decision for her to make. But Ruth thought not so; she failed not in the trial. God upheld her heavy heart. The words passed—to be no more recalled, no more repented—“Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” There is more in this than simple regard for Naomi, though so mixed with it as to escape much of the attention to which it is entitled.
Ruth, brought up amid the low and limited ideas of the Godhead which idolatry presented, and knowing nothing better than the degrading worship of Chemosh, had learned from this Hebrew family the pure and grand conception of Jehovah nature, attributes, and government, which he had disclosed to the chosen people; and she had been privileged to witness most intimately the effect of these views in the consistent conduct and beautiful life of this pious household. This won her heart; she feared to have any more to do with idols. This God should be hers—this privileged people hers, even unto death. That this is the right view of her conduct is drown by what Boaz said to her in the harvest-field—which, indeed, evinces further that this is the impression concerning her which was generally entertained—for Boaz knew her then only from the appreciation of her motives and feelings which was current in Bethlehem. “It hath fully been showed me,” he said, “all that thou hast done to thy mother-in-law since the death of thine husband; and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come to a people which thou knewest not heretofore. The Lord recompense thy work; and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.”
Boaz knew—and we know—better than Ruth herself did, that from the moment she had cast her world behind her back, and thrown herself in simple trust upon God, his blessing surrounded her and overshadowed her, and would not fail to be manifested in due time. They that honor Him, he would honor. And she had honored him by her faith, and He was bound by all his covenants of mercy, to honor her before men and angels. Boaz knew that godliness has the promise of this life, and of the life to come; he knew that they who truly fear God, and yield up anything for him, are entitled to look up for the recompense of reward, which in due time they shall receive to the full—double measure, and pressed down, and running over—if they faint not. Boaz knew all this when these words were uttered; but he did not then know the important part secured for himself in the providence of God in being the instrument of blessing to her, and of sending down, through her, blessings to distant generations.
It is admitted that the blessings of the Old Testament have generally a more material character than there is any reason to expect since the Gospel brought life and immortality—the blessings beyond the grave—into fuller light than had previously shone upon them. Yet God is one; and he has at all times taken pleasure in the prosperity of his servants, although he has retained the right to judge wherein the true prosperity of all his servants lies. He has fixed our eyes upon the treasures of heaven, and has taught us to garner up all our hopes there. Yet he has not shortened his own hand, or precluded himself from allowing his servants so much temporal prosperity as may be safely permitted to them, without danger to their great spiritual inheritance. If he give trouble—if he withhold prosperity, it is for our sakes; it is owing to the weakness of our hearts; it is because we cannot endure much prosperity without finding this world becoming too dear to us, and our desires less fervent for the treasures which he has laid up for those that fear him. No doubt, if man, who is but dust, were able to bear worldly prosperity uninjured, it might be otherwise; and if, indeed, there be those who, through his grace, are so strong in faith, so raised above the world, as to be able to bear an unbroken flow of temporal blessing—that may be their lot, and in fact is their lot, so far as their real welfare will allow. Indeed, the words of our Lord himself respecting such as had left to follow him, furnish the best commentary and the most striking parallel to the words which Boaz addressed to the woman who had, according to the light of her day, left all, that she might come to put her trust under Jehovah’s wings: “Verily I say unto you, that there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or lands, for my sake, and the Gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life,” Mar_10:29-30. This is as ample a promise as any the Old Testament contains of earthly blessedness, for “now—in this time,” with the gospel addition of far more distinct and still greater blessings for the world to come—the blessings of eternal life, than any which the Old Testament affords. This magnificent extension of the promise richly counterweighs the gospel limitation of “with persecution,” as connected with blessing in this world. But, indeed, that also is part of the blessing; seeing that it pledges that God’s fatherly care is to intermix the temporal benefits afforded to us with such trials as may be needful to hedge up our way, and to prevent the blessings of the life that now is from becoming too dear to us, and from leading us to forget that we are but strangers here, in the midst of all the enjoyments that may be afforded to us in this house of our pilgrimage.