CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—And Naomi had a kinsman. According to Rabinical tradition, which is not well established however, Boaz was a nephew of Elimelech (Keil). Lyra saith Elimelech and Salmon—other Hebrews say Elimelech and Naason—were brethren. Some more probably hold that Elimelech was the son of Salmon’s brother, and so his son the kinsman of Boaz once removed, for there was one nearer (Trapp). Not the kinsman who is meant, but a kinsman, as there were several (Wright). Boaz was only a מִיֻדָּע (Lange); γνωριμος, a friend, a person known (LXX., Wordsworth). This not only explains a certain remoteness of Naomi from him, but it makes the piety, which, notwithstanding the distance (manifest also from Ruth 3:12) of the relationship, perform what the narrative goes on to relate, more conspicuously great than it would appear if, according to an unfounded conjecture of Jewish expositors, he were held to be a son of Elimelech’s brother (Lange). The Hebrew word is not the same as that rendered kinsman in Ruth 2:20; Ruth 3:9-13. Literally, it means only an acquaintance, but it expresses more than we mean by that term. The man was not a very near relative, but one “known” to the family as belonging to it (Lange). A mighty man of wealth [a valiant hero] (Lange). Here it signifies a man of property (Kiel). These words are applied to Boaz in no other sense than to Gideon (Judges 6:12), Jephthah (Judges 11:1), and others, and have no reference to his wealth and property (Lange). The phrase undoubtedly points to his valour and capacity in the field of battle (Cox). It is to be understood in the sense of “a leading man; a great man.” Hence the Jewish tradition that Boaz is another name for Ibzan, the only judge connected with Bethlehem. He was a strong and able man in Israel in war and in peace (Lange). And his name was Boaz. Signifies strength (Fuerst, Wordsworth, Wright). Son of strength (Lange, Cox). Alacrity (Gesen., Keil). To be explained by reference to the name of one of the pillars erected by Solomon (Lange, Wordsworth). Cf. 1 Kings 7:21, 2 Chronicles 3:17, in connexion with Solomon’s temple. The signification alacritas would hardly be applicable to the pillar (Lange). The name Boaz found a contrast to that of Ruth’s former husband, Mahlon, which signifies weakness (Wordsworth). The Chaldee reads “mighty in the law.” Boaz, son of Salmon and Rachab the harlot (Matthew 1:5).
Ruth 2:2. And glean ears. Literally, glean among the ears. Let me gather (Sc., some ears) among those that are left lying in the field by the harvesters (Lange). The right to glean was a legal privilege of the poor in Israel (cf. Leviticus 13:22; Leviticus 19:9, and Deuteronomy 24:19). But hardhearted farmers and reapers threw obstacles in the way, and even forbade the gleaning altogether (Keil). Hence Ruth proposed to glean after him who should generously allow it (ibid). Gleaning conceded, not as a matter of right, but as a favour (Kitto). Of corn. Corn is in Syriac the generic word for grain of any kind (Steele and Terry). After him in whose sight I shall find grace. Whoever he might be. Did not mean Boaz (A. Clarke). The owner had a right to nominate the persons who might glean after his reapers (Steele and Terry). In other words, the poor applied as Ruth did (Ruth 2:7) for permission to glean. Some think, however, that she did this only as a foreigner.
Ruth 2:3. And she went and came. That is, she went out of the house where she was, and out of the city, and came into the field (Gill). According to the Midrash, however (vide Jarci and Alshech, in loco.), she marked the ways as she went, before she entered into the field, and then came back to the city, that she might not mistake the way (ibid). And gleaned in the field after the reapers. Still regarded by the rural poor as one of their rights, though the decision has been against them in courts of law. The popular notion probably derived from Jewish customs (see Kitto). The law of Moses directed very liberal treatment of the poor at the seasons of harvest and ingathering. The corners of the field were not to be reaped; the owner was not to glean his own field; and a sheaf accidentally left behind was not to be fetched away, but left for the poor (Kitto). As landowners were not subject to money taxes for the support of the poor, this claim was liberally construed by them (Kitto), at least by the better-disposed among them. And her hap was to light. More literally, “And her lot met her on the field of Boaz” (Lange). Literally, her hap happened (Schaff, in Lange), her chance chanced to hit upon the field (Keil. Wordsworth). A part of the field belonging unto Boaz. “The field-portion,” i.e., that part of the grain-fields about Bethlehem which belonged to Boaz (Lange). The grain-fields, unlike the vineyards, are not separated by any enclosure. The boundary between them is indicated by heaps of small stones, or sometimes by single upright stones, placed at intervals (Lange).
HOMILIES AND OUTLINES
CHAPTER II— Ruth 2:1
Theme.—THE CLAIMS OF THE WEAK UPON THE STRONG
“Who gain their titles not by birth,
But win them by the lordlier worth
Of noble deeds,—true chivalry,
These men are God’s nobility.”—B.
“Howe’er it be, it seems to me
’Tis only noble to be good:
Kind hearts are more than coronets.
And simple faith than Norman blood.”—Tennyson.
And Naomi had a kinsman [lit. acquaintance] of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth [a valiant hero (Lange)], etc.
The second chapter opens up a new act, as it were, in this beautiful and touching drama; poetry of the highest order, and not the less poetry because it is fact; for far more romantic things are recorded in history, than ever yet were created in novel or romance (Cumming). Mark, too, that thus early in the narrative, what is the key to the whole story is plainly pointed to, viz., redemption, salvation, help, from one near of kin, one of the same family and blood. No wonder the old Puritans saw a spiritual suggestiveness in the character of Boaz. “My Redeemer liveth” is “my Goel liveth,” and the very word is applied to Boaz (Ruth 4), My strength and my Redeemer (Psalms 9:14), in the Hebrew is my Boaz and my (Goel (Cumming).
The text suggests as worthy consideration—
I. The relationship between the rich and the poor. Every branch of the tree is not a top branch (Matt. Henry). Must be and will be subordination, mutual dependence, and mutual responsibility, as long as the world lasts, or as long as the world is what it is. God wills that it should be so. He puts the rich and the poor side by side, and has linked them together a thousand times in this way. Beautiful when life repeats what is seen here, for the narrative goes on to show how Boaz came to respect Ruth and Naomi, first for kindred and then for virtue’s sake. Note. (a) A wealthy man may be a good and godly man, ready to meet the responsibilities which come to him. Riches neither further nor hinder salvation, but as loved and trusted in. Not money, which is “the root of all evil,” but the love of money. It is rare that religion and riches meet, yet Boaz was both rich and religious (Macgowan). Not many rich, etc. (b) Poverty a thing not to be despised in and for itself. The poor may be virtuous and attractive, as Ruth and Naomi evidently were. Boaz had “a poor relation,” a most uncomfortable fact, as many respectable people know (Braden). And yet they neither begged of him nor thrust themselves unduly on his notice. They were an example to all the world of that quiet self-respect which feels the claim, and yet waits the opportunity when that claim is to be presented by circumstances and providential leadings rather than by themselves.
Note. (c) It is not in the outward estate to alter blood and kindred, or the claims which come from thence. Poor Naomi and rich Boaz were of the same stock after all. Joseph, though governor of Egypt, had poor Jacob for his father, and plain shepherds for his brethren (Fuller). Mark the frailty and vanity of worldly dignity. However parents provide for their posterity, these contrasts are common enough in family life. The posterity of the righteous are brought into poverty, that they set not their minds on temporal glory (Topsell).
II. The relationship between the strong and the weak. A link here between the two extremes. Boaz, whose very name signifies strength, a hero and a great man, perhaps a judge in Israel; and this poor bankrupt widow, forced to live upon another’s gleanings. Naomi could say as does the Psalmist, “Thou hast put my kinsman far from me” (Lange). But Boaz had other qualities besides his strength. He shows himself morally brave in every relationship (Lange). All the claims which came to him in life are recognized and responded to,
(1) as master;
(2) as servant of God;
(3) as a man of action;
(4) as one not insensible to worth, hiding itself under the garb of poverty, he is an example of what is meant by the godly and righteous man. He stooped from his high estate, as Christ Himself humbled Himself to rescue the poor from their lot of ignominy and poverty; and he clothes them with his own dignity. His strength like the Saviour’s strength—to compare human things with Divine—is shown in his works. Note. Jesus is our near kinsman and Goel (Macgowan), a mighty man of wealth in a natural and in a spiritual way (Colossians 1:19; Colossians 2:3).
IMPROVEMENT.—Learn from the whole narrative, as shadowed forth here,
(1) The nobleness of strength nourishing weakness, true greatness recognizing the claims of those beneath it, where many would pass by and despise. “We that are strong,” etc. (Romans 15:1).
(2) Recognize the claims, which make the whole family of God as one. We are all of the same blood. Go back far enough, and you will find relationship. Remember the words of that noble Roman, received even then with tumultuous applause, “I am a man; nothing that concerns man can be a matter of indifference to me.”
“The improvement of the ground is the most natural obtaining of riches; for it is our great mother’s blessing, the earth’s; but it is slow. And yet, when men of great wealth do stoop to husbandry, it multiplieth riches exceedingly.”—Lord Bacon.
“It is not the having of wealth, but the having confidence in wealth; not the possessing it, but the relying on it, which makes rich men incapable of the kingdom of heaven: otherwise, wealth well used is a great blessing, enabling the owner to do God more glory, the Church and commonwealth more good.”—Fuller.
“Naomi, though a poor, contemptible widow, had rich relations whom yet she boasted not of, nor was burdensome to, nor expected anything from, when she returned to Bethlehem in distress. Those that have rich relations, while they themselves are poor, ought to know that it is the wise providence of God that makes the difference (in which we ought to acquiesce), and that to be proud of our relation to such is a great sin, and to trust to is a great folly.”—Matt. Henry.
“How came it to pass, then, that a man so bold and generous and pious left Naomi un-helped and uncomforted in the time of her penury and grief? We cannot altogether tell. He may have been absent on military service when she returned from the field of Moab, and have only got leave of absence, as soldiers then commonly did, during harvest. He may only just have heard the tale of Naomi’s sorrow when he met Ruth in the harvest-field.”—Cox.
“One would suppose that to the proud heart of man anything would be preferable to beggary; but so inconsistent are its workings, that more are led to beggary by pride than poverty, as people imagine that a certain distinction attaches to dependence on relatives, or even on friends, while they regard the lower kinds of industry as disgraceful.… It would be well for all classes to remember that meanness is not humility; it is the miserable resource by which disappointed pride seeks to steal that distinction which has been denied it, and to avoid the humiliating and correcting lessons which Providence sends; it is the crouching to man of those who will not bow to God. In proportion as pure religion enters the soul, this hateful spirit leaves it, and a love of independence takes possession of it,—a love of independence arising not from pride, but from the genuine desire not to encroach on human kindness, not to forget the Divine declaration, “That if any would not work, neither should he eat.”—Macartney.
“Behold therefore as in a glass the perfect image of temporal felicity, the father a king, the children beggars, the father honourable, the son not worshipful, the predecessors the chiefest in authority, but the successors the meanest in calling: this made the fathers think that the world was like a sea, here a mighty wave, there a great downfall. Some thought it to be like ice, where a man can never stand sure, but the one will be breaking or he be sliding; some like to trees whereof the tallest are soonest overturned; but all agree in this, that worldly felicity is miserable vanity; for our present wealth is like a pleasant summer which must needs come to an end, though all the world should strive to the contrary.”—Topsell.
“Therefore make you friends of the unrighteous mammon, that when you shall have need they may receive you into their everlasting habitations. Distribute liberally. give plentifully, live peaceably, walk humbly; for the wealth of the world doth not always last, neither the crown from generation to generation.”—Topsell.
“Let this confute such as having gotten a little more thick clay than the rest of their family, the getting of new wealth and honour makes them to lose their old eyes, so that they cannot see and discern their poor kindred afterwards. When Joseph was governor of Egypt, it is said that he knew his brethren, but his brethren knew not him; but now-a-days it happeneth clean contrary. If one of a family be advanced to great honour, it is likely that his kindred will know him, but he oftentimes comes to forget them. Few there be of the noble nature of the Lord Cromwell, who, sitting at dinner with the lords of the council, and chancing to see a poor man afar off which used to sweep the cells and the cloisters, called for the man, and told the lords,’ This man’s father hath given me many a good meal, and he shall not lack as long as I live.’ ”—Fuller.
“Who knoweth whether God hath raised thee up, who art the best of thy kindred, to this very intent that thou mightest be the treasure and the storehouse to supply the want of others which are allied unto thee?”—Fuller.
“There are multitudes of men like the summer vines, which never grow even liqucous, but stretch out a thousand little hands to grasp the stronger shrubs; and if they cannot reach them they lie dishevelled in the grass, hoof-trodden, and beaten of every storm.… As yet the world will not understand that he governs whom love makes serviceable. The strong are few, the weak are many, and God appoints the strong to serve the weak, saying, ‘We, then, that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not Himself; but, as it is written. The reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me.’ ”—Beecher.
“A Christianity which will not help those who are struggling from the bottom to the top of society needs another Christ to die for it.”—Ibid.
“How seldom, friend, a good great man inherits
Honour and wealth, with all his worth and pains!
It seems a story from the world of spirits
When any man obtains that which he merits,
Or any merits that which he obtains.
For shame, my friend! renounce this idle strain!
What wouldst thou have a good great man obtain?
Goodness and greatness are not means, but ends.
Hath he not always treasures, always friends,
The great good man? Three treasures—love and light,
And calm thoughts, equable as infant’s breath;
And three fast friends, more sure than day and night—
Himself, his Maker, and the angel Death?”
Coleridge.
“How blessed he
That feels not what affliction greatness yields!
Other than what he is he would not be,
Nor change his state with him that sceptre wields.
Thine, thine is that true life; that is to live,
To rest secure, and not rise up to grieve.”
Daniel.
Theme.—HUMBLE TOIL, THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS AN AFTER RECOMPENCE
“O woman! in our hours of case
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
And variable as is the shade
By the light quivering aspen made;
When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou!”—Scott.
“Oh, what makes woman lovely? virtue, faith,
And gentleness in suffering,—an endurance
Through scorn or trial,—these call beauty forth,
Give it the stamp celestial, and admit it
To sisterhood with angels!”—Brent.
And Ruth said … Let me now go into the fields, and glean. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.
This is the first movement of the machine which brought such grand things about. From gleaning she arose to be ancestress to Jesus (Macgowan). This request led to the recompence; proved a step towards her highest preferment.
Note. (a) Great things often arise from very small beginnings. A restless night by Ahasuerus produced that great revolution in favour of the Jews (Esther 6) (Macgowan). (b) High buildings are raised upon the lowest foundations (ibid.). Christ’s Church was to be built upon the truth contained in Peter’s confession (Matthew 16:16-18). So upon Ruth’s fidelity the human nature of our Lord is, as it were, to be engrafted.
It reveals,
I. A truly filial spirit. Gentle obedience, willing submission to Naomi. Her nativity of Moab; her behaviour that of an Israelite indeed—a true daughter of Abraham, though she springs from Lot (Lawson). Mark how her meek and beautiful spirit begins to show itself. She did not go of herself, obstinately and selfishly. She consulted her mother-in-law, and this was even more commendable than if it had been done to her natural parents. Possibly, too, she wished Naomi to enjoy the rest suitable to her time of life. Note. (a) A wise, thoughtful, considerate spirit one of the true signs of grace. This not always exhibited, especially where the pangs of want are felt. A parent’s poverty at times the source of discontent (Braden). Many become hard, cold, cynical in reverses. Not so Ruth. (b) These charities of the heart sweeten life (Lawson). We have here a beautiful example of courtesy between children and parents, as in Ruth 2:4, between masters and servants.
II. A truly humble spirit. Mark the lowliness of her employment. She will work in the hot sun as a poor gleaner, and never murmur (Braden). Some way of earning a livelihood was a necessity. Ruth desirous of an honest though never so simple a calling (Topsell). Takes that which is nearest to hand. Will not depend upon Naomi, but would rather that Naomi in her old age should lean upon her. Will not even wait until, perhaps, Naomi’s relatives, out of very shame, step in with succour and assistance. No! Like that one in the Gospel, she cannot dig, and to beg she is ashamed. But unlike that one, she is not above using every honest means to maintain herself and assist her mother. Note. Female feelings are keener than those of men (Macgowan). Contact with the rude, unfeeling world means more to them. Ruth must have shrunk with a woman’s sensitiveness from the step. And yet she adapts herself to the new circumstances. She goes out to glean with the poor around her. So Paul: “I have learned in whatsoever state,” etc. “I know both how to be abased,” etc. (Philippians 4:11-12).
III. A truly noble spirit. The best natures show best when most tried, and they are lovelier in poverty than in wealth. Note. (a) Brave toilers have always made the worst drudgery sublime (Braden). Work is not degradation, and only mean spirits think it to be so. Paul laboured with his own hands as a tent maker. Not what I have, but what I do, is my kingdom (Carlyle). There is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in work (ibid). However humble, it exalts the man. Labour is man’s necessity … is man’s glory (Caleb Morris), and brings its own reward. Especially so when an affection like Ruth’s prompts us to it.
“Offices of love
Wrought for a parent lighten duty’s labours.”—Sophocles.
LESSONS.
(1) Before honour is humility.
(2) Great things come to pass by poor and unlikely beginnings (Bernard).
(3) The way of our abasement may become, in God’s providence, the way of our advancement.
Bernard on this:—
I.
Honest hearts truly entertaining religion, do not forsake it or the godly for worldly wants.
II.
Godly children hold themselves bound to be at the disposing of their parents.
III.
Honest minds will stoop to base means, so they be honest, to relieve their wants in their poor estate. The truly religious will not live idle.
IV.
Gleaning then, as now, was a lawful means for the poor to get food.
In whose sight I shall find favour.
V.
The godly, in using lawful means to live, hope to find favour with one or other for their relief. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.
VI.
Requests are to be granted of parents, unto children, when they be lawful and fit.
VIII.
A meek and loving spirit giveth a meek and loving answer.
“What cold entertainment do they find at Bethlehem, even in the Church of God, for whose sake one forsook her country, the other her wealth, and both of them their welfare.… Is this the profit of your profession, which promises mountains of security, and pays a multitude of miseries?… A man that hath a thousand pounds laid beside him, and layeth it out upon a bargain, whereof he shall receive no profit in many years, but the date expireth and the day of receipt come, receiveth his own and many thousand pounds for his gain.… Even so with religion, it is a pearl for which we must sell both living and lands, and yet it is worth both, and many a thousand times more; if thou feel not the profit at first tarry awhile, thou hast the promise and bond of the Lord of hosts.”—Topsell.
“For this, then, she had left paternal house and land … But the love she cherishes makes everything easy to her. It not only gives utterance to good words, but it carries them into practice. She forgets everything in order now to remember her filial duty to Naomi, and Naomi accepts her offer. Until now she has only silently endured every expression of Ruth’s self-sacrifice. She had indeed ceased to dissuade her from going with her, but she had also refrained from encouraging her.… The meekness with which she asks permission to encounter toil and misery overcomes in Naomi every other ulterior consideration. Such a request could no longer be silently accepted, nor could it be refused. Naomi has no other reward for Ruth’s self-sacrificing disposition, than that she is ready to accept its effort for herself.”—Lange (condensed).
“What prosperity had concealed, adversity brings to light. Nobleness that we never suspected, with powers that would have remained uncultured and unfruitful, have been manifested. They are like some grand mansion surrounded and hidden in summer time by large full-foliaged trees; the passer-by cannot discern the fine proportions and ornamental sculpture that make it ‘a thing of beauty;’ but when winter tears away with ruthless hand every leaf, until the trees stand clear and bare, then behold the magnificent handiwork appears in all its glory and perfection.”—Braden.
“I do not hear Ruth stand upon the terms of her better education or wealthy parentage; but now that God had called her to want, she scorns not to lay her hand upon all homely services, and thinks it no disparagement to find her bread in other men’s fields. There is no harder lesson to a generous mind, nor that more beseems it, than either to bear want or to prevent it. Base spirits give themselves over to idleness and misery, and because they are crossed will sullenly perish.”—Bishop Hall.
“High spirits can more easily starve than stoop; Ruth was none of those. She does not tell her mother. She was never brought up to live upon crumbs. Though she was not brought up to it, she is brought down to it, and is not uneasy at it. Nay, it is her own motion, not her mother’s injunction. Humility is one of the brightest ornaments of youth, and one of the best omens. Before Ruth’s honour was this humility.”—Matt. Henry.
Let this teach even those whose veins are washed with generous blood, and arteries quickened with noble spirits, in their prosperity, to furnish, qualify, and accommodate themselves with such gentile (gentle) arts and liberal mysteries as will be neither blemish nor burthen to their birth; that so, if hereafter God shall cast them into poverty, these arts may stand them in some stead towards their maintenance and relief.”—Fuller.
“There are compensations even in this world, of which we little dream, and God sets one thing, and often a better thing, over against another in human life. Riches fly, but character is developed; we are compelled to work, and out of work spring our truest joys. Our life is paradoxical, but without contradictions; we are made the least, that we may become the greatest, and the way down is, with God as guide, always the road to exaltation.”—Braden.
“Young persons should be cheerfully willing to bear fatigues and troubles for the sake of their aged parents, that they may enjoy such case as the infirmities of age require. Let those who are in the vigour of age, if their parents are feeble, remember what their mothers endured for them in infancy or sickness, how they willingly suffered anxiety of mind, the want of sleep, and many fatigues of body, that their beloved offspring might enjoy pleasure, or be relieved from distress. How selfish are the spirits of those young persons who grudge toil or expense for their parents in that time of life when they can enjoy little pleasure but what arises from beholding the affectionate attachment of their children.”—Lawson.
“I am told that the Court of Common Pleas, which is not infallible, has decided that nobody has a right to glean. It was hitherto supposed to be a universal right; that prescript had made it law; but one of our courts has decided that it is not law, and that nobody has a right to glean. And therefore we have got what I suppose is thought politically a better substitute—the Poor Law, instead of the ancient usage of gleaning in the fields after the reapers.”—Dr. Cumming.
“Labour is, and must be, the foundation of our earthly livelihood, must be the price of our natural, our bodily, our animal happiness. Labour in some shape or other is, in fact, the very foundation of everything that is good for man.”—Caleb Morris.
“Do the duty which lies nearest thee, which thou knowest to be a duty. Thy second duty will already have become clearer.… Hence also our whole duty, which is to move, to work, in the right direction.”—Carlyle.
“As frosts unlock the hard shells of seeds, and help the germ to get free, so trouble developes in men the germs of force, patience, and ingenuity, and in noble natures ‘works the peaceable fruits of righteousness.’ A gentle schoolmaster it is to those who are ‘exercised thereby.’ Tears, like rain-drops, have a thousand times fallen to the ground and come up in flowers.”—Beecher.
Theme.—SEEMING CHANCES, REAL PROVIDENCES
“Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,
When our deep plots do pall; and that should teach us
There’s a Divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will,”—Shakespeare.
“All Nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good,
And spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite,
One truth is clear, whatever is, is right.”—Pope.
And she went and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and her hap was to light, etc.
Inspiration speaks here after our human ways and methods of speech. Christ Himself did so in His wonderful parable of the Good Samaritan. “By chance,” He says, “there came” (Luke 10:31). Note. A revelation from God to man necessarily implies this condescension. Just as the Word was made flesh, so the Divine thought, when it was revealed to holy men of old, must clothe itself with the limitation and imperfection which belong to speech. How else could we receive it—understand it? Elsewhere, however, the Scriptures teach us there is no such thing as chance. “Not a sparrow falleth,” etc. And where men think they appeal to fortune, the hand of God is to be seen. “The lot is cast into the lap, but the disposing of it is of the Lord” (Proverbs 16:33).
Observe,
I. That by what appear mere accidents, we may alight upon our best blessings (Braden). Wandering at her will, going whithersoever she would, she was still treading in the path of destiny. Possibly she had neither choice nor desire, which could bias either to the right hand or to the left. At best, it was only a question as to where she would be allowed to glean that absorbed the mind (Ruth 2:2; Ruth 2:7). Yet it was one of the critical moments of her life. So with ourselves. How many things have happened, about which we were strangely indifferent; yet their issues have proved unspeakably momentous (Braden). Note. Human life itself is made up of little things, of small, and seemingly unimportant events, upon which greater things depend.
“Guard well the boon, ’Tis trivial
In seeming only, and shall win
A dower of heaven for faithfulness,
The curse of hell, if there be sin.”—B.
Observe, II., as following this—
That these seeming chances are real providences. If we could see the end as God does, we should see that every event is for the believer (McCheyne). With regard to Ruth, this was hap or chance; she knew not the fields of Boaz from those of another. With God it was providence. Outwardly, and as men speak, it was an accident, but mark to what the accident led! It brought her to that part of the field belonging to the man to whom, of all others, it was of the greatest importance she should be introduced. Note. (a) That which we call chance, casualty, accident, “good luck,” is included in the all things that work together for good (Romans 8:28). What though it be a catastrophe or a crime!—there may be second causes and the action of human evil, but the great first cause is in all (Spurgeon).
Note. (b) Those things which with us are accidental, are all the determinations of a holy Providence (Macgowan). Ruth’s purpose was to glean, God’s purpose was to direct her into the way of meeting with Boaz. So always. In the eye of man, mere chance brought Jacob and Rachel together (Genesis 29). So with Pharaoh’s daughter going to bathe (Exodus 2:5-10). None the less there was the Divine purpose being accomplished, which had respect to the future of Israel. So with the Syrian arrow drawn at a venture (1 Kings 22:34). God directed it. Note. (c) The way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps (Jeremiah 10:23). We go blindly, not knowing what a day or even an hour may bring forth. All is chance in one sense. We stumble upon the best things that come to us in life. It is all a surprise, and God has intended that it should be so. But then this is only the human side. Look deeper, and there is a plan, a purpose. Life unfolds itself to the wise man more and more as if it were a premeditated thing. There is a fitness, an appropriateness about all that happens, which speaks the Divine direction and control. Note. (d) Providences to the righteous, are but the fulfilment of promises.
Learn,
III. That God does direct and give success to the efforts of the right-minded. David says, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord” (Psalms 37:23). If so, the way and its issue alike must be well. Who can guide himself aright in this perplexing world? (Braden). Ignorance, confusion, the tangled thread of human affairs, everywhere apparent!
“Mystery enshroudeth ever,
Unknown shores on either side,
And for ever through the darkness
Flows the deep and troubled tide.”—B.
So men have said as they travel onward down the stream of time. But faith has its answer amid these perplexities of human life,—“This God is our God for ever and ever, and He will be our guide even unto death.”
Note. (a) That this Divine guidance, however apparent, does not set aside individual responsibility. The angel hands were laid upon Lot when he left Sodom, but he himself must yield to them—the human will working with the Divine will—if his salvation is to be secured. He might have cast off the angel hands, and perished with his sons-in-law, who mocked alike at the threatened danger and the offered guidance (Genesis 19:14-16). Note. (b) “I being in the way, the Lord led me” (Genesis 24:27), the principle upon which God deals with men.
So it was with Ruth. Mark
(1) God’s blessing met her in the way of humble toil. Lange gives as a more literal translation, “And her lot met her in the field of Boaz.” Her destiny was decided there—humble gleaner as she was, she found favour with the man upon whom everything depended. So always. God’s blessing can come to us in the cornfield, or in the workshop, or in the counting house. And He Himself can be with us there. “Not man’s manifold labours,” says Dr. Pusey, “but his manifold cares, hinder the presence of God. Labour ordained by God, and wrought for and in God, invites God’s fuller presence.” Note. A principle in this choice of the humble who are to be exalted [cf. Luke 1:48-53]. He who chose a gleaner to be the ancestress of David, of Christ, chose the fisherman, and the tax-gatherer, and the tent maker, to confound the wisdom and the greatness of the world (1 Corinthians 1:18-28).
Mark
(2) God’s blessing met her in the way of a self-denying as well as a self-appointed duty. Her reward found her where her love led her. This one of the main lessons of the history, a lesson pointed out by the pen of inspiration itself [cf. Ruth 2:12].
Tyng on this (Ruth 2:2-6) condensed:—
Theme.—THE GLEANER
God brings His children by ways they know not. The manifestation of His plans gradual. No accident in our lives. How ample was the portion He had provided for Ruth, a kinsman prepared to protect, to sustain, and to exalt her—a mighty man of wealth. But as yet she had no personal knowledge of him—no means of knowing the gracious purposes of God regarding her. So God has prepared an all-sufficient and waiting Saviour for the poor and perishing sinner, a Saviour able to meet his wants, his dangers, his future need. But the perishing one knows nothing of Him. The way in which God is pleased to lead us to Jesus illustrated in the method of Ruth’s introduction to her rich kinsman.
I. The first step is to reduce her to the deepest necessity. In great poverty, and with no apparent means of relief, Ruth proposes to glean. The very necessity brought out a proof of her excellency. So God brings the soul to an experience of utter want. Looks round in vain for relief. His conscious necessity urges him to come as a beggar. And it is when he can say, “I am willing to be the lowest of the low, if the Saviour will receive me,” that the day of his salvation draws nigh.
II. The next step is to take away all feeling of rebellious pride in this state of want. Sinful pride, a most common attendant on earthly distress—a very different feeling from self-respect. Ruth had great self-respect, and yet she was not ashamed to be poor. Willing to glean—to do anything. So the sinner must be made to feel his deep unworthiness, his complete nothingness, etc.
III. The next step is one of gracious providence to bring her, as it were by accident, to an unexpected introduction to her rich kinsman. God had disposed and prepared her way before her; and leads her to the very place where He designs to bless her. Her coming seemingly accidental, but far enough from accident in reality. So the gracious providence of God is often manifested in bringing poor, perishing souls under the ministry of the Word! This the point to which everything else is tending, and to which everything else is subordinate.
IV. The next step in Ruth’s history is the peculiar crisis at which she came into the field. The time of a gracious visit from the master, etc.
Bernard on this (condensed):—
And she went and came and gleaned. She craved leave to go, and when it was granted, she accordingly went.
(1) Honest motions and intentions to well doing are to be put into practice, else they are worth nothing. Paul had a mind to visit the brethren, and he did so; the prodigal son had a purpose to return home, etc. If motions be good, it is good to put them into execution, and that speedily … and not to lose the fruit of good thoughts.
(2) Whom necessity moveth, and confidence in God encourageth, they fear no danger. Trusting in God, and being urged of necessity to use honest means to live, she feared no peril, though in those days, every one did what they listed (Judges 18, Judges 21:25). When men have faith in God, when the duty of their calling warranteth them, they grow courageous and bold, and put on a resolution without fear.
And her hap was. When things fall out beside a man’s purpose, or otherwise than was intended, and whereof a man is ignorant before the thing come to pass, then it is counted hap, or luck, or as the heathen used to speak, fortune.
(1) It is not unlawful to speak according to men thus: It happened, it chanced, it was my luck; so that we understand thereby that which happened beyond our purpose and expectation, but yet guided by God’s hand and providence … always excepting in clear cases, where the apparent hand of God is seen; for thus offended the Philistines (1 Samuel 6:6-9).
(2) God doth so govern men’s actions, as things fall out beyond expectation, and as they were to be wished. See it in the success of Abraham’s servant sent to fetch a wife for Isaac (Genesis 24); in Elijah coming to the poor widow of Sarepta in a most fit hour, etc. This should make us to rely upon God’s providence as Abraham did (Genesis 24:7).
(3) God will prosperously direct the well-minded which use honest means to relieve themselves.
“She went out, not knowing whither she went; taking either the right hand, or the left, scarcely being able to assign a reason why she preferred the one to the other.”—Toller.
“The misery or happiness of our life is often derived from accidents that appear quite trivial. Time and chance happeneth to all men, and no man can tell what consequences the slightest accident may leave. Connections, happy or pernicious, riches or poverty, life or death, may be the consequences of a walk or a visit intended for the amusement of a single hour.”—Lawson.
“As the star (Matthew 2) guided the wise men to Judea, to Bethlehem, to the inn, to the stable, to the manger; so the rays and beams of God’s providence conducted Ruth, that, of all grounds within the compass and confines, within the bounds and borders of Bethlehem, she lighted on the field of Boaz.”—Fuller.
“We take our steps without thought of consequences, and imagine that we are following out our own arranged designs, when all the while we are unconsciously fulfilling the purposes of a sovereign Providence.”—Braden.
“How comes the Holy Spirit to use this word—a profane term which deserves to be banished out of the mouths of all Christians? Are not all things ordered by God’s immediate providence, without which ‘a sparrow lighteth not on the ground’? Is not that sentence most true, ‘God stretcheth from end to end strongly, and disposeth all things sweetly: strongly, Lord, for Thee; sweetly, Lord, for me’? So St. Bernard. Or was the providence of God solely confined to His people of Israel, that so Ruth. being a stranger of Moab, must be left to the adventure of hazard? How comes the Holy Spirit to use this word ‘hap’?”—Fuller.
“Things are said to ‘happen,’ not in respect of God, but in respect of us; because oftentimes they come to pass, not only without our purpose and forecast, but even against our intentions and determinations. It is lawful therefore in a sober sense to use these expressions. ‘It chanced,’ or ‘It fortuned’ (Luke 10:31). Nor can any just exception be taken against those words in the collect. ‘Through all changes and chances of this mortal life,’ provided always that in our forms of speech we dream not of any heathen chance. It is observed that τυχή is not used in all the works of Homer; but sure St. Austin, in the first of his ‘Retractations,’ complaineth that he had too often used the word fortuna, and therefore, in the pagans’ sense thereof, we ought to abstain from it.”—Ibid.
“Scripture speaks of all things as being what they appear to be: were it otherwise, its language would be incomprehensible to us. We would not talk to a savage of chemical affinities, in endeavouring to explain to him the uses of salt or soap; we would speak of their apparent properties, and thus be enabled to carry his mind with us. Were God to speak to us of things as they are, that is, as He sees them, how utterly unintelligible would such address to us be! Let us mark attentively the course of events connected with, and depending on, this chance event—the birth of Obed, and through him of David—the promises made to the man after God’s own heart fulfilled by the appearance in that family of God manifest in the flesh; … and let us cast from us as unscriptural and absurd the theology which would teach us that great events are indeed ordered by God, but that smaller matters are beneath His notice, and unworthy of it. While the greatest events are made to spring from minute causes, the Lord of the universe must be recognised alike in the smallest as in the vastest of His works, whether of providence or of creation. ‘The very hairs of your head are all numbered.’ ”—Macartney.
“The story describes it as a fortunate incident, a curious coincidence; that is, it speaks in a natural human manner about it, because, when unable to trace the immediate action of a Divine hand, we are inclined to speak of chance rather than law, and of fortune rather than God. But we believe that it was by a supernatural guidance she was led there that day.… It was ‘her hap,’ but it was God’s will.”—Braden.
“Things do not happen—casualty, accident, chance, are mere words used to conceal our ignorance. Look deep enough, and you will find law, order, and purpose in the most chaotic circumstances; listen attentively, and you will hear the sound of a Divine harmony beneath the discordant and confusing noises of our present existence.”—Thomas Jones.
“People say, ‘How fortunate it is that things have turned out just as they have—that I was prepared for this!’ As if God did not arrange the whole! One might as well say, ‘How fortunate it is that I have a neck beneath my head, and shoulders under my neck!’ ”—Beecher.
“Doubt Providence—and what the better are you? You have the liability to accident, and nothing to control it, nothing to throw light upon it, nor to which you yourself may fly. You are the creature of chance, driven to and fro as a fallen leaf, and when you cry, there is none greater than you to help you.”—Wardlaw Mc All.
“This circumstance was with Ruth merely accidental, and not the result of choice and contrivance; but it was the effect of the Lord’s secret direction, in whose providence great events depend upon apparently trivial incidents.”—Scott.
“Accidit accidens vel eventus. By mere chance in respect of Ruth, who, being a stranger, knew not whose field it was; but by a sweet providence of God, who led her hither by the hand, as it were, for her present encouragement and future advancement.”—Trapp.
“Little do we know, when we go forth in the morning, what God means to do with us ere night. There is a providence that attends on us in all our ways, and guides us insensibly to His own ends; that Divine hand leads Ruth blindfold to the field of Boaz.”—Bishop Hall.
“Blindfolded and alone I stand,
With unknown thresholds on each hand;
The darkness deepens as I grope,
Afraid to fear, afraid to hope:
Yet this one thing I learn to know
Each day more surely as I go,
That doors are open’d, ways are made,
Burdens are lifted, or are laid,
By some great law unseen and still,
Unfathom’d purpose to fulfil
Not as I will.”—Helen Hunt.
“I do not deny that these things happened in the natural order. I say I am grateful for what happened; and look back at the past not without awe. In great grief and danger, may be, I have had timely rescue. Under great suffering I have met with supreme consolation. When the trial has seemed almost too hard for me, it has ended, and our darkness has been lightened. Ut vivo et valeo—si valeo. I know by whose permission this is, and would you forbid me to be thankful? To be thankful for my life; to be thankful for my children; to be thankful for the daily bread which has been granted to me, and the temptation from which I have been rescued? As I think of the past and its bitter trials, I bow my head in thanks and awe. I wanted succour, and I found it. I fell on evil times, and good friends pitied and helped me.”—Thackeray.