And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been showed me, all that thou hast done unto 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 unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore. (12) 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.
Might I be permitted to paraphrase those gracious expressions with an eye to the rich mercies of Jesus, I humbly conceive that the language of our dearest Lord to a poor sinner seeking his face, might be supposed to breathe a tenderness like this. It hath fully been showed me, all the state and circumstances of those awakenings by my grace in thy soul I have long known and viewed the struggles you have encountered. The death you have experienced in your first husband, to whom you were wedded in a covenant of works: and the workings of grace, in prompting you to leave and forget your own people, and your father's house, to cast yourself wholly on the sovereignty of my salvation, and to come to a people you knew not before, to be espoused to Christ; these are things with which I am fully acquainted. A full satisfaction shall be given thee, And thou shalt not be disappointed of thine hope. Oh! how inexpressibly sweet and precious is it to the mind of every poor seeking sinner, when Jesus thus speaks peace, and satisfies the desires of the soul! But how strange doth it seem to the heart, that in the moment when we fear that our case is overlooked, and that neither our person, nor our cries, attract the divine attention, Jesus gives us to understand, that every secret desire, every tear, every sigh of the soul, he lath been a witness to, and knows us better than we do ourselves. That of Nathaniel is a delightful instance in point: See John 1:48-49.