God be pleased to bless us together
this evening as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
book of Ruth and chapter two and we'll read verse seven. The
book of Ruth chapter two and reading verse seven. And she
said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers
among the sheaves. So she came and hath continued
even from the morning until now that she tarried a little in
the house. Harvest times when this was written
were very different to what they are today. At least in our country
we're familiar of course with combine harvesters which are
very efficient and pick up most of the ears of corn and very
little is lost. When I was younger, of course,
there weren't any combine harvesters. When I used to work on a farm
when I was a student and they were reapers, they used to have
a reaper that went round and cut the corn and then it bound
it into sheaves and then it came out of the of the machine and
we used to pick the sheaves up and put them in stooks. And of
course in those days because of that there were ears of corn
which did fall to the ground. But of course going back to this
occasion the reapers would have used sickles to actually cut
the corn. And so you can imagine they were
cutting it, although the sickles would have been sharp, Nonetheless,
they would have shook the actual corn, and no doubt quite a few
ears of corn would have fallen off. And sometimes, if it was
a very heavy ear of corn, and it may have been not too strong
when it came to meet the straw, it may more easily have fallen
off. So sometimes there were some very good ears of corn which
were to be found on the ground. Well, that was really the scene
that Ruth was to find when she ventured to come and to ask the
reapers if she could glean in the field. And it's just interesting
that if we go back to Leviticus, in Leviticus there was a law
which permitted strangers to come and glean in the field. So she wasn't doing anything
which was wrong, she was doing something perfectly right. But
the interesting feature is that she was obviously a gracious
girl, and she didn't just take it for granted. She actually
asked the reapers if she could glean among the sheaves. And so we have the account here
of Boaz coming into this field. And of course, when she set out,
she didn't know whose field she was going to be able to glean
in. But the Lord directed and the Lord guided. And we should
be thankful today that we have a God still who guides and directs. He guides and directs us with
regard to our schools, with regard to our colleges, with regard
to our universities, with regard to our jobs. All these things
the Lord guides us to. He has an overriding providence. And it's very wonderful to recognise
therefore that although things may appear sometimes to be a
bit haphazard and just happen by chance, yet you know they're
all ordained by Almighty God. And as we retouch an account
as Ruth, it's so clear that the Lord touched her heart way back
in Moab and under the influence of Naomi and her husband. And of course, as we ponder the
whole account, the reality is that Naomi and her husband should
not really have left Bethlehem and gone to Moab. But in the
North Providence, it was, they went there, Naomi's husband died,
her sons died, one of her daughters-in-law went back, but Ruth claimed unto
Naomi. And she came, therefore, into
Bethlehem. And we see, therefore, the blessed
influence of the great Spirit of God upon this woman. A Moabitish
woman called out of The vast number of people that surrounded
the children of Israel, very few were called outside of Israel,
but this was one of the people that God had chosen in eternity
past. And we should recognize the wonder
and glory of it and realize that we have the same God today who
does go about in his sovereign will and sovereign purpose. You see, Naomi, was influenced
to speak clearly to Ruth and to obviously declare her religion. It wasn't hidden because Ruth
said she wanted to worship the same God as Naomi. And that's a good word of instruction
for us in the day and age in which we live. We should never
hide our religion. We never know what influence
it may have on someone who perhaps never heard the true God. And we live in a pretty dark
age in our country, don't we? And few people today really know
very much, if anything, about the true God. Many people deny
the true God. I was just very interested yesterday
to read about Richard Dawkins, who we know has been a great
enemy, really, of the Church of God. But he said now it's
a good thing to actually recognise there is a God. Because to recognise
there is a God, that God then influences people. Whereas before
he has ignored it and said, well they carry on as they are. And
he's clearly, very strangely, seems to be changing his view.
And of course he's a man that is taken notice of. So we can
be thankful for that small evidence and we would continue to pray
that a man like that might be moved by the Holy Spirit of God.
to renounce all the erroneous teaching that he's pushed forward
so very powerfully. But you see, God can change hearts. Well, here we have them. Ruth
come into Bethlehem and now they need some food. She doesn't go
and stand on the corner with a begging bowl and hope someone
will come along and drop a few coins in. Because she hasn't
got anything, no, she sets about working. God made us to work. He didn't make us to sit around
doing nothing. And so here we see Ruth then
coming to this field and the servant of Boaz, he explains
what happened. Boaz asks, whose damsel is this? And the servant that was set
over the reapers said, it is the Moabitish damsel that came
back with Naomi out of the country of Moab. And she said, I pray
you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. She came and asked. According
to the law, she didn't have to, but she did. And again, it shows
a good spirit, it shows a tender conscience. And it's good to
observe these things in people. And so she came and she asked
that she might come and glean and gather after the reapers
among the sea. So she came and we're told to
have continued even from the morning until now that she tarried
a little in the house. And the house may have been a
booth or some kind of building which may have been erected in
the middle of the field because When harvest time occurs in the
East, it's very hot. It's not an easy place to have
to work throughout the day. But this woman, Ruth, it's clear
that she worked right through the day apart from a little break,
but when she came into the house. And so again, it's a good example
of somebody being diligent in that which God has set before
them. There was an opportunity to glean
She'd been given permission and she was making the most of it. Isn't it wonderful that the Lord
gives us such examples in the word of God to encourage us that
we are to be diligent in our lives. We shouldn't expect, many
people do today, expect the state should provide a living for them.
Well, this woman didn't expect that. She came and she worked
and we today are called upon to work, not to expect the state
owes us a living, it doesn't at all. And so she came, and
we find that she was gleaning among the sheaves. Now, we may
think, well that's fine, but just again, just thinking upon
the natural side for a moment, it was not easy. First of all,
of course, his ears of corn would have fallen amongst the stubble,
they would have cut the corn, wouldn't have been right down
low and she'd have to have reached among the stubble, would no doubt
have been very prickly. The stalks are very often quite
sharp and she'd have put her hands down and to find the actual
ears of corn and to pick them up and then put them in a bag.
And it wasn't as though it was easy. She'd have had to have
gone low down, almost knelt down, or at least stooped down. to
actually pick up these ears of corn. And there she was then,
in the heat of the day, pursuing this work. Now, again, let's
just remember, here she was, having to work, desiring to work,
willing to work, and to do that which was good. And as we read
on further in this chapter, when she'd had this break, she continued
until the evening. She'd worked all day under the
hot sun. And when she'd finished picking
up these ears of corn, she then stopped and she beat it all out.
You might think, well, poor girl, she must have been exhausted.
She probably was. But she carried on and she beat
out the corn and that she had gleaned and we're told it was
about an ephah of barley, which I believe is about 34 litres. So it was quite a nice little
bit of corn she was able to take home to her mother-in-law. It was a good day's work, wasn't
it? She'd worked hard. And so we have a good example
of a natural, godly person, how they should work. And godly people
are to work. They're not to skive. They're
not to pretend they can't work. They're not to make excuses.
to do a good day's work which brings honour and glory to God. So this Ruth was then, what she
was doing, she was gathering the ears of corn, she was gleaning
among the sheaves. Again I said it's not easy but
it was successful. You may think well why do we
have to consider such account like this. Well there is the
natural scene which I've laid before you in a little way but
also of course there is the spiritual scene and we must never forget
the Bible sets before us a spiritual scene in pictures that you and
I can understand. And so the Church of God are
to be found Galena's. That means they are to be seeking
for spiritual food. And from the example we have
here, it is quite clear that in seeking that spiritual food,
it is not an easy operation. We don't just sit around in our
armchair at home, hoping something will happen. It's not like that. You see, we are to seek the Lord. We are to pray unto the Lord. And again, we're blessed with
the favour of being able to pray. But you know, prayer is not something
that comes naturally to us. And let us remember that we have
a great adversary, the devil, who will do all he can to stop
us praying. You may think, well, there was
every reason why Ruth shouldn't have stopped gleaning. Of course
there was, but she pursued, she carried on. She didn't give up. And it's a great blessing for
you and me in our spiritual life, therefore, to not give up. It
may be difficult. It was difficult for Ruth. It
was a hot day, a hot time. But she pressed on. You know,
you and I are told in our journey of life, as we may be seeking
for spiritual food, as we may be desiring to find it and glean
in the gospel field, We may find it hard work and the Bible of
course tells us very clearly it is through much tribulation
that we shall enter the kingdom. So we should never expect an
easy ride. Although of course our nature
somehow expects that. We always think other people
are going to have a difficult ride and we're going to have
an easy ride. But that's not the way the Lord
works. The Lord causes his church to
depend upon the favour, direction and blessing of Almighty God,
to teach us, to instruct us and to feed us as we journey on through
life with that food which is convenient for us, that food
which is suitable for us. In this case, of course, Ruth
and Noma, they needed this corn to be able, no doubts, to grind
in the flour, to make food and be able to eat. Well, the Church
of God need spiritual food. And one very relevant part of
the Zillert account is this. You see, when she'd got the corn,
she had to beat it out. There was a lot of husk that
had to be blown away. And beating out corn is not a
very easy operation. You may remember that Gideon,
in his life, was behind the wine press, hiding from the Midianites,
and he was beating out the corn. And so it's not an easy operation
to beat out corn, to get rid of all the chaff, and to only
be left with the pure wheat or barley as it was in these cases. It's not an easy thing to do. What does that mean in a spiritual
sense? I believe it means this. When
you and I listen to the Word of God, if you read the Word
of God or we listen to the preaching of the Word of God, and when
we've received it and when we've had what we might think as a
good hearing, we are not to cast it away just like chaff. We are to take it and we are
to beat it out, and we are to get rid of that which is of the
flesh, that which is, we might say, not particularly relevant
to the situation, and that we may therefore harvest the true
food, spiritual food, which will be a blessing for us. And if
we think of that, what does that really come down to? It really
must direct us to the Lord Jesus Christ. See, everything else,
by comparison, will not be of any real, true value. Our religion, the center of our
religion, must be found in what the Lord Jesus Christ has done
in order to redeem our souls. And so as we find that we are
gleaning in the gospel field, it is to find, use another picture,
that pearl of great price, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then,
here we have then the picture of Nehemiah spending all this
day to produce some food and she had, of course, a good result
to her work. She didn't stop. She didn't sit
down. She didn't say, well, I've had
enough today. I'm packing up. No, you see, she carried on.
It is so really in our spiritual life. People today are very lukewarm
and they're very content with just a little bit of religion. not really concerned about benefiting
their souls by labouring on, praying on, reading the Word
of God, seeking for that evidence that they are amongst the household
of faith, that they are amongst those for whom the Lord Jesus
Christ has died, they are amongst those for whom he shed his precious
blood upon the cross at Calvary. You see, that shows that there
is a true hunger for the truth of God. Naomi and Ruth needed
food. My friends, you and I need spiritual
food. We need natural food, but it's
more important that you and I find spiritual food. And in finding
spiritual food, it means that we have to go and we have to
glean. And Ruth, we're told, she gleaned
among the sheaves. Yeah, she had to go in and out.
It wasn't in a straight line. I'm not sure how sheaves were
left after they were tied up, when they were placed in a tidy
pattern or just left where the reaper had tied them up. But whatever the picture was,
she had to move around And she had to look for these ears of
corn. She had to search for them. And
you and I, my friends today, have to search the scriptures.
What are these things are so? We have to seek for the things
of God. We have to pray for the things
of God. We have to seek for the blessing
of God. And we have to pray that Lord
Jesus Christ may be revealed to us as that one who is the
cheapest among 10,000 and the altogether lovely. Well, it's
a very simple picture we have, don't we here, in this account
of Ruth gleaning among the sheaves. And she didn't glean in vain,
because Boaz particularly said to the reapers, Well leave her,
leave her some ears of corn, you know, let them drop down
so that she may find them. Sometimes the Lord is very gracious
and he gives us things perhaps that we did not really expect. And perhaps we found it a bit
easier than we thought we would. It may have been hard work to
begin with. Clearly it was. It was seen for
a big part of the day without any real encouragement. And then
Boaz came, comes and encourages her, not in a particular way,
but to tell the reapers that was they must do to just leave
her handfuls of purpose and leave them that she may glean them
and rebuke her not. And so she gleaned in the field
until evening and beat out that she had gleaned and it was about
an ether of barley. Well, we can think we have the
same God today who is very gracious and does come and bring to us
and leave us spiritual blessings. He blesses us sometimes with
that wonderful access in prayer that we're able to come to our
God. We don't find it always. We often
find it hard work. But sometimes it is as though
the light shines. And by faith we view the Saviour
interceding for us, presenting our prayers to our Father in
Heaven, and realising that our prayers have therefore entered
into the holy place, glory itself. They have not bounced back at
us as we deserve. The Lord has granted us the wonderful
favour and wonderful blessing of access at the throne of grace. And so there may have been that
labour, that may have been that true desire to glean among the
sheaves. We've had to search out the word
of God. You know, we are to seek, the
Lord says, and ye shall find." Well, sometimes we give up, we
don't seek hard enough, we don't look hard enough, and therefore
we don't find. Well, naturally, clearly here
Ruth did seek, and she did find those ears of corn, and they
were enough to be able to beat out and to bring home the corn
to her mother-in-law. So let us not be weary in our
efforts. You see, we tend to give up and
we tend to get sidetracked. We tend to be, find other things
come and confuse us and occupy our minds. Well, it seems here
that Ruth was set upon this gleaning and she went about it wholeheartedly. It wasn't a half-hearted effort.
It was a whole-hearted effort. And she had a good day's gleaning.
You may think sometimes that we'll do a bit of spiritual gleaning,
but we give up. Well, perhaps we find something
else which is perhaps a bit more attractive to us. Instead of
concentrating on the things of God, the things that concern
our soul, we find that we're occupying ourselves with other
things. We might say things that do not
profit, things that won't provide food for our souls. They may
perhaps help our natural intellect, but they won't actually be a
blessing for our souls. What a good thing it is then,
when the Holy Spirit comes and directs us to truly seek after
these spiritual blessings. We might say she was industrious. She was working hard. And how we need to be industrious
in the things of God. Sometimes it would appear that
things of God are pretty low on our agenda. They don't seem
to be very important to us. What a blessing when we are industrious
in the things of God, when The things of God are the most important
things that we do desire to glean. You see, a true gleaner doesn't
expect to come back with nothing. A true gleaner expects to find
naturally ears of corn and searches to find the ears of corn. And it means looking around,
around the sheaves to find them. And so in a spiritual sense,
what a good thing it is when you and I Search around for those
things which will be a blessing for our souls. Those things which
we might say meet our spiritual need. Naturally we need natural
food and we need a variety of natural food to keep healthy.
Well we need indeed the Spirit of God to come and bless us with
that spiritual food which will be good for us. And if we receive that food then
we'll have reason to thank God that he has directed us, perhaps
like he directed Ruth, to the right place. Directed Ruth to
this field. She set out and she went to this
field. Ruth the Moabite said unto Naomi,
let me now go to the field and glean ears of corn after him
in whose sight I shall Find grace. She had an open mind. She wanted
to find the right place. She wanted to find spiritual
food. What a good thing it is for us,
you see, in this situation to be found a true seeker. Yes,
a true seeker. She'd gone to, she said, let
me now go to the field. She wanted to go. She could have
sat at home. She could have relaxed at home. No, she wanted to go to glean
in the field. What a mercy it is when we want
to go and search the word of God. We want to go and pray to
the Lord God. We want to go and hear the preaching
of the word of God. And these things are important
to us. They're not something which we
just pass by I think well I'll just spend a little time here
and well perhaps I'll go and hear some preaching if I get
these jobs done and I get enough time then I might just manage
to go and hear the preaching. Well that's not the picture we
have here of this woman Ruth. No, the gleaning was important
to her and she wanted to go and glean. What a good thing it is
then for us in the day and age in which we live. to go and glean
in the gospel field, that we may have a spiritual need, so
that we do desire to go and find food for our souls. If we don't
find food for our souls, we become very thin and wasted. We're not very healthy in our
soul. We're very lean. You know the
result is? then become weaker, weak in the
things of God. And we're easy praying for the
devil, who tempts us to partake of things which will not benefit
our soul. So easy, isn't it, in the world
in which we live today, to look here and look there, and to find
ourselves going after things which will not really benefit
our soul. Well, may we be blessed indeed
with this spirit that Ruth had, to go to the field, to go to
the gospel field, and to glean ears of corn, to glean food for
her soul, and to go and find it in that place that she might
be directed in. And we might think of that in
the word of God, Well, there's a lot of pages in the Word of
God, aren't there? We may think, well, where should I read? Where should I start? Well, she
wanted to be directed to that place where she might find grace. And the Holy Spirit today can
direct us to the right pages in the Word of God, to the right
accounts, to the right book where we might find food, for our soul. And it means that we have to
get the Bible out. It means we have to open the
Bible. It means we have to read the Bible. And we need to study
the Bible. We don't want to just scan over
it and think, well, that wasn't much benefit to me today. No,
you see there is that searching. Here was Ruth searching among
the sheaves. It means that to us, you and
I need to search the Word of God. Search the Word of God. Study the Word of God. We give
a little time today to those things which are most important. We give a lot of time today to
things which are not important. And as I often say and remind
you, we need to weigh things up. in the balance of eternity. So that will give us some indication
of the relevance and the importance of spiritual things. And you
know, as Ruth came home to her mother in law, what a blessing
it was to be found in this place because Nomai said, blessed be
he of the Lord. who have not left off his kindness
to the living and to the dead. Yes, and it's the same today. The Lord comes and blesses his
people. Because our mother in law previously
said, where is thou gleaned today? And where wrought is thou? Blessed
be he that did take knowledge of thee. What a mercy it is when
almighty God takes notice of us. Just think of it. Almighty God had taken notice
of Ruth and directed her in this specific way. And we have the
same God today who can direct us in a spiritual way to the
gospel field to find blessing for our souls. The blessing of
God which maketh rich must be to direct us to the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, if you're reading the
Word of God, don't think you can only read the Gospels. Don't
think you can only read the Book of Psalms. The whole Word of
God is the Word of God. The Lord can use any part of
the Word of God to bless our souls. that we do glean and I
don't want to let us consider that we can just
get by with not gleaning and to remember that gleaning is
not easy work. Gleaning was difficult and Ruth
was industrious and in a spiritual sense we must not think that
studying The Word of God and praying is easy. No, it's not. But it's a wonderful thing when
the Lord comes and reveals Himself to us in the pages of Scripture. And what does He do? He reveals
to us what we are before a holy God. That we are undone, that
we're lost and we're ruined. in the fall. And you see, when
the Lord shows us something of ourselves, and it's usually only
something, then it makes the gleaning much more urgent and
much more necessary, because then we do want to find Christ. We do desire to know the blessed
Saviour, has died upon Calvary's cross to take away our sins. It's not then a generality. It's a personal condition between
our souls and God. It was personal here with Ruth.
She didn't watch other gleaners. She was the gleaner. She was
the one that needed to glean the ears of corn. What a good
thing that is for us. in our spiritual life, that we
are spiritual gleaners, that we need to glean in the gospel
field, that we need to find grace, that we need to find the Lord
Jesus Christ, that we need to find that he died upon that cross
to redeem my soul, that set our hearts and affections upon things
above and not on things on the earth. Well, it'll be a good
time of gleaning, if we come perhaps to the end of the day,
and we've been able to beat out that which we've gleaned, and
we've seen the husk and that be blown away, and what's left
is the great and glorious truth of the Gospel, the kernel of
the Gospel, which sets before us the great, blessed work of
the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we then can rejoice in what
the Lord has done and we can be joyful and we can be glad
in it and we can bless God that we've been directed in our gleaning
to find that which is so needful and as we've been given that
grace to beat out the corn we found that which is true food
for our souls. How good it is when we are blessed
with this true work, this true spiritual desire for blessings
which are outside of the things of this world, but those things
which will do us eternal good. And so we have this picture in
this book of Ruth. It's a very wonderful account
and you know as you read on how wonderful it was that Boaz, of
course, took Ruth to be his wife. It was a wonderful outcome. And
how we trace out how this all came to pass. And we see the
Lord had appeared. The Lord had determined what
would occur. You know, you might think of
Ruth, well, she'd left her own country, left it all behind. What was going to happen? Great
things, great things. Her desire was not for great
things herself. Her desire was to follow the
God of Naomi. There'd been a wonderful attraction
in Naomi's God. What a blessing for us today
if the great attraction in the God of the Scriptures, the blessed
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is to our souls the one thing
needful, because the Lord, you see, did great things for Ruth. She never came hunting for a
husband, did she? The Lord provided one. And you
young people today, you can just remember that. You can hunt all
round, husband and a wife you may never find one the Lord can
provide and you can be sure of this when
the Lord provides he provides the right one the Lord doesn't
make mistakes and so the Lord provided Boaz for Ruth what a
wonderful outcome there was to that marriage well we can see
the evidence of those words being fulfilled as the Apostle said,
and we know that all things work together for good to those who
love God and to those who are called according to his purpose.
Ruth loved the Lord. Didn't mean to say that Ruth
didn't have to be diligent and Ruth didn't have to be industrious
in the things that she was doing, but nonetheless God was with
her, and God directed her, and God blessed her. So tonight,
if you think upon this little account, may you be encouraged
by it, and remember that these are the words that she said,
let me glean and gather After the reapers, among the sheaves. That was her concern. She wanted
to find. She wanted to seek. And so she
was permitted. And there we're told, so she
came and have continued even from the morning until now that
she towed a little in the house. Well, may all of us be a true
gleaner. and receiving that spiritual
food which can only be centred in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the life. And my friends,
may our souls be on the stretch after him and not be left to
founder and go aside and go away from the great truths of the
gospel. be found amongst those who are
true seekers, because true seekers find. Amen.