The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee.
Ruth’s reward; or, cheer for converts
I. what has the young convert done? We illustrate the subject by the instance of Ruth.
1. Many young converts deserve encouragement because they have left all their old associates. Ruth, no doubt, had many friends in her native country, but she tore herself away to cling to Naomi and her God.
2. Next, Ruth, having left her old companions, had come amongst strangers. She knew Naomi, but in the whole town of Bethlehem she knew no one else. She felt herself to be alone, though under the wings of Israel’s God. Boaz very properly felt that she should not think that courtesy and kindness had died out of Israel; and he made a point, though he was by far her superior in station, to go to her and speak a word of encouragement to her. Come, let us pluck up courage, and encourage every Ruth when she is timid among strangers. Let us help her to feel at home in Immanuel’s land.
3. The new convert is like Ruth in another respect: he is very lowly in his own eyes. Ruth had little self-esteem, and therefore she won the esteem of others. She felt herself to be a very inconsiderable person, to whom any kindness was a great favour; and so do young converts, if they are real and true.
4. Once more, the young convert is like Ruth because he has come to trust under the wings of Jehovah, the God of Israel. This is what our young converts have done: they have come, not to trust themselves, but to trust in Jesus. They have come to find a righteousness in Christ--aye, to find everything in Him.
II. what is the full reward of those who come to trust under the wings of God? I would answer that a full reward will come to us in that day when we lay down these bodies of flesh, that they may sleep in Jesus, while our unclothed spirits are absent from the body but present with the Lord. But there is a present reward, and to that Boaz referred. There is in this world a present recompense for the godly, notwithstanding the fact that many are the afflictions of the righteous. Even in losing the present life for Christ’s sake we are saving it, and self-denial and taking up the cross are but forms of blessedness. Do you ask me, “How shall we be rewarded for trusting in the Lord?”
1. I answer, first, by the deep peace of conscience which He will grant you. Can any reward be better than this? That, however, is only the beginning of the believer’s reward.
2. He that has come to trust in God shall be “quiet from fear of evil.” What a blessing that must be! “He shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.”
3. More than this: the man who trusts in God rests in Him with respect to all the supplies he now needs, or shall ever need.
4. Another part of the believer’s great gain lies in the consciousness that all things are working together for his good. Nothing is, after all, able to injure us. Neither pains of body, nor sufferings of mind, nor losses in business, nor cruel blows of death, can work us real ill. Is not this a reward for which a man may well forego the flatteries of sin?
5. Then, let me tell you, they that trust in God and follow Him have another full reward, and that is, the bliss of doing good. Can any happiness excel this?
6. Many other items make up the full of the reward; but perhaps the chief of all is communion with God.
III. what figure sets forth this full reward? I do not think that Boaz knew the full meaning of what he said. He could not foresee all that was appointed of the Lord. In the light of Ruth’s history we will read the good man’s blessing. This poor stranger, Ruth, in coming to put her trust in the God of Israel, was giving up everything; yes, but she was also gaining everything. Ah! when you come to trust in Christ, you find in the Lord Jesus Christ one who is next of kin to you, who redeems your heritage, and unites you to Himself. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
God’s reward
A military gentleman once said to an excellent old minister in the North of Scotland, who was becoming infirm, “Why, if I had power over the pension list, I would have you put on half-pay for your long and faithful services.” He replied, “Ah, my friend, your master may put you off with half-pay, but my Master will not serve me so meanly--He will give me full-pay. Through grace I expect a full reward.”
Under whose wings thou art come to trust.
The wings of God
1. They were swift wings under which Ruth had come to trust. There is nothing in all the handiwork of God more curious than a bird’s wing. You have been surprised sometimes to see how far a bird can fly with one stroke of the wings; and, when it has food in prospect, or when it is affrighted, the pulsations of the bird’s wings are unimaginable for velocity. The English lords used to pride themselves on the speed of their falcons. These birds, when trained, had in them the dart of the lightning. How swift were the carrier-pigeons in the time of Anthony and at the siege of Jerusalem! Wonderful speed! A carrier-pigeon was thrown up at Rouen and came down at Ghent--ninety miles off in one hour. The carrier-pigeons were the telegraphs of the olden time. Swallows have been shot in our latitude having the undigested rice of Georgia swamps in their crops, showing that they had come four hundred miles in six hours. It has been estimated that, in the ten years of a swallow’s life, it flies far enough to have gone round the world eighty-nine times, so great is its velocity. And so the wings of the Almighty, spoken of in the text, are swift wings. They are swift when they drop upon the foe, and swift when they come to help God’s friends.
2. The wings under which Ruth had come to trust were very broad wings. There have been eagles shot on the Rocky Mountains with wings that were seven feet from tip to tip. When the king of the air sits on the crag the wings are spread over all the eaglets in the eyrie, and when the eagle starts from the rock the shadow is like the spreading of a storm cloud. So the wings of God are broad wings. They cover up all our wants, all our sorrows, all our sufferings. He puts one wing over our cradle, and He puts the other over our grave. Yes, it is not a desert in which we are placed; it is a nest. Sometimes it is a very hard nest, like that of the eagle, spread on the rock, with ragged moss and rough sticks, but still it is a nest; and, although it may be very hard under us, over us are the wings of the Almighty.
3. The wings under which Ruth came to trust were strong wings. The strength of a bird’s wing--of a sea-fowl’s wing, for example--you might guess from the fact that sometimes for five, six, or seven days it seems to fly without resting. There have been condors in the Andes that could overcome an ox or a stag. There have been eagles that have picked up children and swung them to the top of the cliffs. The flap of an eagle’s wing has death in it. There are birds whose wings are packed with strength to fly, to lift, to destroy. So the wings of God are strong wings. Mighty to save. Mighty to destroy.
4. The wings under which Ruth had come to trust were gentle wings. There is nothing softer than a feather. You have noticed when a bird returns from flight how gently it stoops over the nest. The young birds are not afraid of having their lives trampled out by the mother-bird; the old whip-poor-will drops into its nest of leaves, the oriole into its casket of bark, the humming-bird into its hammock of moss, gentle as the light. And so, says the psalmist, He shall cover thee with His wing. Oh, the gentleness of God! But even that figure does not fully set it forth; for I have sometimes looked into the bird’s nest and seen a dead bird, its life having been trampled out by the mother-bird. But no one that ever came under the feathers of the Almighty was trodden on. Blessed nest! warm nest! Why will men stay out in the cold to be shot of temptation and to be chilled by the blast, when there is this Divine shelter? (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Jehovah’s wings
Some have imagined the reference to be to a hen, beneath whose wings her little birds flee for shelter and warmth, according to one memorable and touching comparison used by our Lord (Luke 13:34). It has been suggested by others that the allusion is to the mercyseat in the holy of holies in the ancient tabernacle, over which the wings of the cherubim stretched from the one extremity to the other, and above which the Divine glory shone with benignant radiance. Nothing could be more sublimely descriptive of dedication to the service of the true God--committing oneself to Him for providential protection and salvation, and seeking the loving fellowship of His Church--than “coming to trust beneath Jehovah’s wings.” (A. Thomson, D. D.)