I please the Lord to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let's turn to the
book of Ruth and chapter 2 and we'll read verse 17. The book of Ruth chapter 2 and
reading verse 17. So, she gleaned in the field
until even and beat out that she had gleaned and it was about
an ephah of barley. It is very encouraging to read
this little account of Ruth and to realize God's wonderful mercy
to somebody who was not of Israel, she was a Moabitess and generally
speaking in Old Testament times There were very few who were
called by grace who were outside of the nation of Israel. But here was one woman, a woman
called Ruth. And we observe in this little
book how the Lord caused numerous things to occur so that she was
brought into the position of coming back to the land of Nehemiah. And in the earlier chapter we
read, of course, that Ruth and Limanek, her husband, went out
to Moab because, you know, there was a famine in the land. Well,
naturally speaking, of course, they shouldn't have done that
because they were the children of Israel. They should have stayed
there. But nonetheless, we see God's providence and purposes
sometimes in overruling things which appear to be wrong. And
so they went and came into this country of Moab with their two
sons, Marlon and Chilian, and they married two of the Moabites. And then the two sons died, and
also Eliminak, a very different position, presented himself. No doubt they'd hoped Naomi and
Iliminec that things would be good and prosperous, but they
didn't turn out that way. Sometimes we might find that
if we do wrong things, they don't turn out the way that we expect
them to turn out. And clearly it didn't turn out
that way for Iliminec, he died, and neither for Naomi. But nonetheless, God's purposes
were being worked out. And that's the wonderful thing
to be able to notice. And so there was the occasion
when Naomi heard that they got caught in her country once again,
heard that the country might have, how the Lord had visited
his people and given them bread. And so she spoke to her daughters
and said that she was going to return. and told her daughters
really to go back to their own families. And eventually, one
of them did, but the other one didn't. And the one who did was
Opa, and she kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth claimed unto her. And she said, behold, thy sister-in-law
has gone back unto her people. And unto our gods, return now
after thy sister-in-law.' Then we read what Ruth said, and it's
very beautiful really what she said. Entreat me not to leave
thee, or to return from following after thee. For whither thou
goest, I will go. And where thou lodgest, I will
lodge. Thy people shall be my people,
and thy God my God. Where thou diest, will I die.
there will I be buried the Lord's do so to me and more also if
ought but death part thee and me.' That was a very wonderful
statement really. Clearly the blessed spirit of
God had influenced Ruth to see there was something in Naomi's
religion which was so very different from that which she had been
used to and so the two returned to Bethlehem and came there in
the beginning of barley harvest. And then we read together in
this second chapter what occurred. Well, Ruth had now come back
and we might think well surely now the Lord is going to provide
a nice easy journey for her. Everything will be nice and comfortable
and she won't have to do anything really because she'd done that
which was right. The Lord had blessed her. But
we see how the Lord is gracious and initially she didn't really
have a very easy time because there was a need for Naomi and
Ruth and what was that need? They needed foods to be able
to eat. And that wasn't just provided
for them, it didn't just arrive at their door. It wasn't just
something which happened. No, Ruth had to go and she had
to glean amongst the sheaves, she had to find the grain. so that she could bring it back
to her mother-in-law. It wasn't something which just
occurred. And it's very good for us to
realise in our lives, sometimes we think, well, everything's
going to be plain sailing, everything's going to be easy. Well, Ruth
has to prove that she has to work to provide natural food. And we do. We are told right
from the very beginning in the Garden of Eden that when Adam
and Eve were told that they should have to earn their living by
the sweat of their brow, it wouldn't be easy. And so we see that Ruth
came and she came to this field and she went and came and gleaned
in the field after the reapers and her hat was, that means it
happened, It was to light on a part of the field belonging
unto Boaz, who was the kindred of Elimelech. Now there must
have been many fields around Bethlehem. And we see how the
Lord graciously led this woman Ruth to a particular field, a
field of Boaz. And it's good for us today in
our lives when we have the clear leading of the Holy Spirit to
a certain place, to a certain place to worship, to a certain
place to be able to come and to glean spiritual food. And so when Boaz came from Bethlehem,
he came to the Reapers. And it's very wonderful, I always
think, what he said. We don't read it anywhere else
in the Word of God. But it's very significant. He
came to the Reapers. And what did he say? He said,
the Lord be with you. Now that's a good statement,
isn't it? It's a good statement to be able
to make to people, the Lord be with you. Really, there's no
greater desire than to see the Lord will be with people. Because
if God be for us, who can be against us? And we also see there
the wonderful response. There was a response. It didn't
just pass the time of day. They said, the Lord bless thee. You see, there was a good response.
A good response that God would bless him as his response had
been for the reapers. We should note these things as
we read the word of God and desire. that our conversation might be
in accordance with the Word of God. The Bible gives us these
precious examples to show us how we should act in our life
and not to pass them by and find ourselves taken up with the spirit
of the world, the spirit of the age. But we should testify that
we do serve the living and true God. Well, Boaz asked who this
servant was. He didn't know her, and the reapers,
they told him what had happened and who she was. And then Boaz
addressed Ruth, and he said, here is thou not my daughter,
go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence but abide
here fast by my maidens.' Now it would seem that probably Boaz
at that time didn't actually know who she was and yet you
see he dealt kindly with her and he told her to let thine
eyes be on the field that they do reap and go there after them
Haven't I not charged the young men that they shall not touch
thee, and when they are out of thirst, go unto the vessels and
drink of that which the young men have drawn? And her response
was one of humbleness. She didn't think, well, I've
got a right to glean here. I can do just what I want to
do. She was humbled at the position that Boaz had, how he had addressed
her. She fell on her face. and bowed
herself to the ground and said unto him, why have I found grace
in thy eyes? Thou shouldest take knowledge
of me, seeing I am a stranger. Now we can see how wonderful
that is naturally. My friends, it's very wonderful
when that is so in a spiritual sense. And I believe that is
true in our spiritual life. when the Lord comes and deals
with our hearts, deals with our souls, shows us something of
what we are and what we deserve, and then to realise this grace
of our God, like Boaz de Ruth, had taken us in hand, really,
and was directing us. And it was so wonderful that
she bowed herself to the ground, and then she said, why have I
found grace in thy eyes? And I'm sure that is an expression
which those who are taught by the Spirit are surprised. And
they say, why? Why should God have taken notice
of me? I wonder if you said that. I
wonder if this morning in your life, you've come to a place
where you acknowledged the Lord has been mindful of you. And
how humbling. And you've had to say, why me?
Why blessed God? why such a wretch as I who must
forever lie in hell were not salvation free. What a wonderful
blessing it is then to be humbled and to acknowledge the greatness
of God, the compassion of God, the mercy of God, that he should
take notice of us who don't deserve any notice. Now this morning
then we ought to answer before God whether We can say that ourselves,
whether God has taken notice of us. And if he has, we have
found grace in his eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge
of me, seeing I am a stranger. And by nature, we are all strangers
to God. Until the time when the blessed
Lord comes and touches our heart, then we are no more a stranger. But in that condition, in that
situation, we acknowledge the goodness and mercy of Almighty
God. And Boaz then said, it has been
fully 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. The Lord recompensed
thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of
Israel under whose wings thou come to trust." Well, we see
there a beautiful expression and we observe what it means.
Safety is of the Lord. We are safe under the wings of
almighty God, safe in the arms of Jesus. And then she responds,
let me find favor in thy sight, my Lord, For that thou hast comforted
me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid,
though I be not like unto one of thine handmaids." Well, again,
this is a wonderful expression, isn't it? To think that God,
Almighty God, speaks to His people, and He comforts us, and He grants
us favor which we never deserved. These things are very wonderful. they're very humbling to realise
that we have such a God who we have the picture here in this
account of Ruth being gracious unto Ruth and to realise that
God is gracious unto his people still today. What a mercy it
is that we have such a kind and gracious God who doesn't deal
with us as our sins deserve. She says, though I be not like
unto one of thine handmaidens, she was a stranger. And yet you
see the Lord had looked upon her. And what a mercy that is
for us today. We may perhaps sometimes have
felt a stranger. And yet if God looks upon us,
we're no more a stranger. But as the hymn writer says,
like a child at home. You know, a child feels at home,
doesn't he? Or she? In their own home, they
feel very comfortable there. What a blessing it is when God
makes us feel comfortable in his home, in his church, to realize
that we are amongst those who he is guiding and directing.
And then he goes and he directs her, and he says, how she should
eat and what she should drink. And then Boaz said at mealtime,
come hither and eat of the bread and dip thy morsel in the vinegar.
And she sat beside the reapers and he reached her parched corn
and she did eat and was sufficed and left. And when she was risen
up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men saying, let her glean
even among the sheaves and reproach her not. Now this is very wonderful
really if you think of that. We think of it sometimes perhaps
in a spiritual way because we must always recognize that the
Word of God is for our spiritual instruction. And here we have
a position shown to us that here was Boaz, he didn't speak to
Ruth, she'd gone out, she didn't hear what he said and he spoke
to the young men and told them to leave some corn amongst the
sheaves so that she might be able to glean them. And it's
specified like this, and let fall also some of the handfuls
of purpose for her and leave them that she may glean them
and rebuke her not. Now Ruth didn't know this. That's often the case in our
lives. We don't always know what the
Lord has prepared for us, how gracious the Lord is to us. We may not observe it, we may
not see it to begin with, and we may have to just continue.
And it may not be very easy. It wasn't easy for Ruth. We read this account, And we
read this 17th verse, so she gleaned in the field until even,
and beat out that she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of
barley. She wouldn't have known that they were leaving some corn
for her to pick up more easily. The Lord is very gracious to
his church today. Sometimes he provides spiritual
food they were able to, as it were, pick up more easily. You can imagine the position
here of Ruth, you know, the Middle East, the harvest, it is very
hot, it's not a very easy thing to labour in the hot sun, and
it wasn't just something she was going to find, she had to
look for it, she had to hunt for it, she had to pick it up,
she had to carry it, she couldn't just leave it, There was indeed
seeking, seeking it out, searching it out, wasn't there? Isn't that
the same really in our spiritual life? Isn't there not a seeking? Isn't there not a searching? And it's not always easy work. It doesn't just suddenly appear.
She had to look around for it. She had to seek it. She had to
search for it. And in a spiritual way, we today
are also in a similar position. We have to seek the truth of
God. We have to search for it. And
we can find all the food we need in the word of God. But sometimes
it doesn't appear to really be there. And we have to search
it out. We have to read the Word of God.
We have to study the Word of God. And then sometimes the Lord
is very gracious, as it were, and he leaves for us a handful
of purpose. He leaves us something which
will be spiritually a blessing for us. We're able to read it. We're able to be encouraged by
it. The Word of God perhaps is opened
up to us. We see the glorious truth contained
in it, which we never observed before. You see, there was Ruth
in Mayab. She wouldn't have known anything
of the truth of God. She wouldn't know anything about
God until she met with Naomi. And now you see, she's seeking
for that natural food, and she's having to search for it. And
she's having to glean. It's not something that just
was given to her, not something that just arose. And so in our
spiritual life, what a blessing it is when the Lord comes and
gives us grace to search the scriptures. Search whether these
things are so. we might receive food for our
souls. And of course that spiritual
food is centred in nothing less than the knowledge of our Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and what he means to the Church of God. And what a blessing when that
comes personally to you and to me, and to what it really means
to you and to me. It's not then just an account
which you read of in the Word of God, it's something which
then is really good for us and really a blessing for us. As
we search out, we glean. So she gleaned in the field until
evening. She worked all day, Real religion is not easy. There's
work involved. And we have to search out. We
can't just sit down and expect everything to fall into our laps. No, my friends, there is a labouring. That's why the blessed Lord tells
us, come unto me all ye that labour, and I'll have you laid,
and I will give you rest. What a blessing it is then to
be able to recognise there is labour. Because here we have
the example of Ruth. She gleaned in the field until
evening, and beat out that she had gleaned. Again then you see,
it wasn't a question of just gathering up the corn, there
was then a beating it out. And what did that mean? It really
meant that it needed to get rid of the husk, that which is really
of no value, and to have retained the true corn, that which would
be food. And that again required careful
work to beat it out. When she had gleaned, she beat
it out. When she had gleaned. And so you and I are to expect
to carefully search and to examine and to meditate upon the Word
of God. You see, if you just read the
Word of God and then stop there, that would not really be of any
true benefit. But when the Holy Spirit enables
us to read the Word of God, and perhaps a verse, a word, a sentence,
may perhaps attract our attention What a good thing it is when
we're able then to, as it were, beat it out. What does that mean? It really means to meditate upon
it, to trace out what is in the word, what is in the phrase,
what is in the verse, perhaps what is in the chapter, what
is really being spoken to our souls. If we are to benefit from
the Word of God, there will be this beating out, there will
be this meditating, there will be that searching and seeking
that we may find the truth because we will need our souls to be
fed. Ruth needed this corn to be able
to take home to eat and also she was able to provide for her
mother-in-law Well, there is that in our spiritual life, that
we need to be fed. We need to be fed. We need to
receive spiritual food. And so what a blessing it is
when the Lord provides it for us. You see, it was provided
here for Ruth. She was able to go and glean
among the sheaves. It was provided for her, but
she had to glean it It didn't just jump into her bag, she had
to glean it out, she had to pick it up and no doubt put it into
her bag that she was no doubt carrying to take these handfuls
of purpose, the corn that she was actually desiring. And then having gathered it,
she then had to go and to beat it out. So you see, as you and
I come and bless God, when we are able to come and to gather
truth from the Word of God, gather it together and be thankful for
it, but then just not just leave it, we then need to take it,
we need then to beat it out, to meditate upon it, to see what
there is in the Word and to find there the true corn, that which
is true food for our soul. Well, the reality is, what we
then find is we trace out the work of God. We trace out what
the Lord is doing for us. We trace out what the Lord has
done for us. And this gleaning and this beating
out, in a spiritual sense, without any doubt will be food for our
souls. If there's no gleaning, if there's
no beating out, there's no food. We should starve. We should die. There'll be no life. So what a blessing when the Lord
grants us this desire, Ruth desired to go into the field. And Ruth
the Moabite said unto Noma, let me now go to the field, and glean
ears that call after him, in whose sight I shall find grace.
She didn't just say, well now, I'm going to sit down, I'm going
to take it easy. She said, let me now go to the field. What
a blessing that is for us, if we desire to go to the word of
God. Go to the word of God. We have
the Word of God, but you see, if the Word of God stays as a
closed book, it won't do you and me any good at all. And if we open the Word of God
and read the Word of God, it won't do us any good, unless
there is this spiritual gleaning, and unless there is this beating
it out, unless there is that meditating upon it. There won't
be any spiritual growth. We shall either be left as we
were, or we shall not find where we're growing. Now, it's of importance
to notice that Ruth was clearly converted when she was in Moab,
because of the statement that she made with regards to the
God of Naomi, when she says entreat me not to leave thee, or to return
from following after thee. With thy ghost I will go, and
with thy lodgest I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people,
and thy God my God." She obviously had the work of the Holy Spirit
proving to her the reality of the true God. But having been
blessed like that, there was still a need then to come and
to glean. We should never think that, well,
I know everything now, the Lord has been very good to me and
now I can just sit down and carry on. The true prayer should be
that you and I might grow in grace and in the knowledge of
our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We don't want to stagnate in
the things of God. Surely we want to prosper the
things of God. Surely we want our souls to be
fed and our souls will not be fed unless there is that gleaning,
unless there is that finding, searching, unless there is that
meditating upon the truth of the Word of God. And so it should
be a concern to us that we are amongst those who do glean, and
we are blessed to receive these handfuls of purpose for her. See the Lord God provides that
which will be good for us. He provides that for us which
we need. It won't always be what we expect. Now we should note that first
of all this gleaning was to receive very basic food. There wasn't
anything fancy about it. My friends, you and I need basic
spiritual food. And what a blessing it is when
God grants it to us as we search for it, as we earnestly seek
it, the Lord leads us into all truth as it is in Jesus. And what that means is the Lord
Jesus becomes a living reality, he becomes precious and he becomes
more precious and we rejoice more and more as the Word of
God is open to our understanding, as we're able to come and to
meditate on it. And these things never become
old, they never become that which is distasteful. We always need
to return to very basic fundamental truths. We all need to feed upon
Christ in all His glory, in all His beauty. We all need to be
found truly seeking Him, and that He will reveal Himself unto
us as it is not unto the world. You see, when we find Him, as
it were, in the Word of God, then you see we need to pray
over it, to meditate upon it, that He will open our spiritual
eyes to see something of the glory which is contained in the
revelation of the Word of God to our souls. To have a wonderful
understanding of what the Lord Jesus Christ did when he came
into this world. You see, many people can say,
well, I believe in Jesus. And that's all they can say.
But it's good if you and I can say that. But we need to understand
why we say it. And we understand why we say
it when the Holy Spirit opens the word to our understanding.
It's as we meditate upon it and we see what the Savior did when
he came into this sinful world. He lived a perfect life so that
he might be the one who could stand in our place. the one who would bear the punishment
for our sins instead. So when the Holy Spirit shows
us that we can never redeem ourselves, we can never save our own soul,
we can never do that because we are sinners. We cannot therefore
produce anything of ourself which is acceptable to God. But it's
a great blessing when He gives us faith to believe that Lord
Jesus Christ has come to seek and to save such an unworthy
sinner, someone who was never worthy of any notice. And yet
God in His great love and mercy has looked upon us. Now this
will be a very humbling realisation, a wonderful truth. when the Holy
Spirit reveals it to us. And it shows to us that the Lord
Jesus loved us. He loved us with everlasting
love. He loved us so much that he came
into this sinful world to die, to pay the price for our sins. Now, when the Holy Spirit comes,
and enables us, therefore, to seek, to glean, and to meditate,
to beat out the great truth of God, to realize what it means,
and what food it is to our soul. It's simple, but it's very wonderful,
and it's very glorious. My friends, bless God, the gospel
is simple. Bless God, gospel is for sinners. Bless God the gospel is for those
who are ignorant, those who are foolish. What a mercy it is to
realize we have such a God who has been so wonderfully merciful. You know we read it when the
Apostle wrote to the letter to the Corinthians in that first
chapter. He speaks about the Position
and that they are and he says but we preach preach Christ crucified
Unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called Both Jews and Greeks Christ the
power of God and the wisdom of God he goes on to say because
the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of
God is stronger than men and For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men are to the flesh, not many mighty,
not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.
And base things of the world and things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught
things that are. Now this will be a mercy when
the Holy Spirit directs us to view ourselves as we read the
Word of God and as it's open to our understanding, as we're
able to meditate upon it, we realise we're not what we perhaps
thought we were. We find we're indeed a very bad
person, a very wicked person, a very foolish person, a very
weak person. And why should Almighty God have
ever taken notice of such a person? Well, we're told the answer,
that no flesh should glory in His presence. You and I will
never be able to glory of what we've done. But we will be able
to glory in what Christ has done. And that's where, by the grace
of God, you and I will find this meditating, this beating out
after there's been that gleaning, the glorious truth of God revealed
in the face of Jesus Christ. It will then be a wonder of wonders. The Almighty God has looked upon
us and has not left us to ourselves, but he's shown his love toward
us. What a mercy. What a meditation. What profit there is to our souls. So she leaned in the field until
evening. It was all day. It wasn't just
a five-minute thing. Don't think therefore you're
going to pick up the Word of God and suddenly have a wonderful
revelation of it. Sometimes, occasionally, that
might be so. But generally speaking, it's
the other way. It's like this, there's a gleaning. There's a continual looking for
that which will be good. And then when we've found something,
to take it and to meditate upon it. and then to realise what
a mercy it is when the Lord comes and shows us the glory of the
truth of God. Because the Apostle tells us
that it is through the foolishness of preaching, the preaching of
the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which
are saved it is the power of God. So when this meditation
leads us to the cross of Christ, when that becomes powerful to
our spiritual heart, to recognise what a blessing it is that the
Lord God Almighty, the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, should have
suffered upon that cross, so greatly, so much, when he had
to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It was so that
he might endure hell for us. How very humbling, how very glorious
a Saviour we have. And to think that he went to
the end of the law for righteousness. He did all that was necessary
to redeem our souls, all that was necessary to grant to us
the great blessing of eternal life. Surely this will be beating
out, won't it? And she had gleaned and she beat
it out. And it wasn't negative. There was grain. There was corn. It wasn't as though she found
nothing at the end of it. She didn't have anything. Yes, she
did. She had an ephra of barley, which is about, I think, about
30 litres. It was a considerable amount.
And perhaps we might start the day, we might think, well, there's
nothing. And then as the Lord gives us
grace to search and to seek, and then we find Something here
and something there. Sometimes it's like this. Here
a little and there a little. Line upon line. Line upon line. Precept upon precept. Yes, it's
a bit here, a bit there. We search there. We find something. We take it. We meditate upon
it. The Holy Spirit opens it to our
understanding. It's food for our soul. We take
it home. We feed upon it. That's what
Ruth did, didn't she? She took the corn home. It was
food for her and also for Naomi. And sometimes it's a wonderful
blessing, you know, when the testimony of one is food for
another. Testimony one, food for none. That which has been beaten out,
that which has been meditated upon, that which has been open
to the understanding that they were to come and to tell of what
it means. And what it was food for, Ruth. And it's food for the Church
of God. We rejoice. The Church of God
rejoices. It's food when they hear of God's
work in the heart and soul of one and another. And so this
wonderful account we have in Ruth, there's a lot of teaching
in it. A lot to think about, isn't there? We've just gone
over some parts of it very rapidly. You can go on to the rest of
the book. It's very simple, it's not hard,
and it's very short. But there is truth. There's truth
which will feed the soul. Now, she here in this account
was looking for natural food. My friends, you and I need the
blessing of spiritual food. Spiritual food is far more important
than natural food, because our natural bodies must die. our soul will never die. And therefore, without spiritual
food, our soul will never be blessed. We shall find ourselves
in that abject situation of eternal wrath, the devil and his angels. My friends, may we come and be
found gleaning, searching, seeking, beating out, meditating upon
the truth of God so that we find food for our souls. And remember that food is centred
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord tells us in the sixth
chapter of John, except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood
of the Son of Man, there is no life in you. we must feed upon
Christ. May we found meditating therefore
upon what he's done and to have that interest that it was done
for us so that we may go on our way praising and glorifying God
for his wonderful love and mercy to such unworthy sinners and
for that great blessing that we have received a faith to believe. You know, Ruth was given that
faith to believe what she was told by Naomi. She didn't know
what Bethlehem was like, but she believed it. And what a blessing
when God gives us faith to believe the truth of the word of God
and to rest upon it and to go in the strength of it throughout
our life. Amen.