What an eloquent “Moreover”! “Moreover I want her to be my wife.”
Nothing but Christ and a definite personal link with Him will avail for us in our need. We have to learn under divine teaching the utter inadequacy of the legal principle, and this is brought out typically in Ruth chapter 4. Man has the knowledge of good and evil, and conscience applies this to responsibility. Every man knows he ought to do what is good, and not to do what is evil. This is represented by the one who had the prior claim in the case of Ruth; the law is nearer to us naturally than Christ. It is true that Gentiles have never been put under the law by God, but obligation to do what is right is upon all men by the knowledge of good and evil, and by conscience. Many would tell us we have only to use our inward perceptions and keep a good conscience, and we shall be all right. But we have to learn that we have no power. The law, or any kind of obligation you can think of, cannot undertake to meet conditions which are exactly opposite to what they ought to be.
That principle cannot do anything for a dead man. The raising up of the name of the dead involves the power of life in Another on his behalf. Such power is in the true Boaz. The object of the statute in Deuteronomy 25:5-6, was that the inheritance might be secured to one on whom death had come “that his name be not blotted out…” (DARBY). This was pure grace, acting in regard of one dead; the legal principle could do nothing in such a case. So the nearest kinsman— representing the law, or the legal principle— says, twice over, “I cannot redeem it.” He drew off his sandal, as much as to say, I have no standing in such a case as this; I must give place to another.
Everyone has to learn this lesson. The early part of Romans 7 gives the solution of the problem before showing us in detail what the problem is; it is like a boy being given the answer to a sum before he is set to work it out. That is how grace would help us; we are shown that we have become dead to the law by the body of Christ, so that we might be alive to Another, even to the One who has been raised from the dead.
The nearer kinsman could not undertake what was really needed; he could not take up Ruth, nor bring in a seed to inherit when death had come in. I may feel as a Christian that my ways should be this or that, but this does not give power. Power is in Christ. Without Him we can do nothing, but having Him there is sufficiency to achieve everything.
The gate of the city would suggest a definite public witness to what Christ has become to those who love Him. There are no people in the world so much observed as Christians; they are in the “gate”; the eyes of the world are fixed on them. Do they see clearly that we have a mighty and wealthy Husband—One who has given us rest from selfishness, worldliness, and earthly-mindedness?
Our Boaz alone has the true right of redemption. He has established a title by purchase; it is an “acquired possession” (Eph. 1:14). He holds it by an unquestionable title for He has discharged every claim upon it and made it His own. The precious thoughts of divine love in all their fullness could not be held by any other; in this regard Israel, and the Gentiles too, are “the dead.” If their names are raised up on the inheritance, it must be in virtue of the power of life in Another who acts in grace towards them.
All that God has in love purposed for man is held by Christ in the strength of resurrection, and it becomes the portion of those who, like Ruth, come to Him, and are married to the risen Christ.
And if, like Israel, the saints of the present period have lost the possession and enjoyment of their Godgiven portion, the way is open for Naomis and Ruths to return, and to find such a Kinsman who delights to secure for them all the wealth that they have left.
This book belongs to the time of the judges; that is, it stands in relation to a time of failure and departure. It shows how love will reach Christ and find Him sufficient for everything—sufficient to secure the enjoyment of the inheritance for us, sufficient to answer perfectly every affectionate desire for what is of God, sufficient, by giving us the Spirit, to constitute us suitable heirs. In Romans 8 we see that saints are suitable to inherit; they are sons and children, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. Without heirs the inheritance would lapse; God’s thought would be invalidated. This could never be.
The effect of reaching Christ as the true Boaz, and being married to Him, is that a seed is secured which is capable of enjoying the inheritance. A son is born (4:13) who has the right of redemption, for the woman said, “Blessed be Jehovah who hath not left thee this day without one that has the right of redemption, and may his name be famous in Israel” (v. 14 DARBY). This refers to Obed, whose name means “servant” or “worshipper.” The right of redemption becomes practically valid in the saints as they bring forth fruit to God in service and worship. Not only are things secured on God’s side in Christ, but He brings about conditions on our side that are suitable in heirs. This is the result of the work of God in His saints, brought out in Romans 8.
The general state of things today is evidence that the people of God are in the fields of Moab rather than in Bethlehem. Death has come in, for the Lord says to Protestantism, “Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead” (Rev. 3:1). But Christ is great enough to bring in life where death has been. If God has assigned a portion to His saints, He is glorified in their being in possession of it, and enjoying it, and bringing forth its fruits. He is not glorified by there being famine in the land, and by His people being in Moab. Such a state of things is to say publicly that Moab is a better place than Canaan. When Christians turn to the world and to earthly things, they say publicly that these things are better than what God give. I am sure that none of us would like to continue to give such a testimony as that.
But through the rich grace of our God there is opportunity for any who are in such a condition to acknowledge it, as Naomi did. And if hearts are attracted to the blessing of God as Ruth’s was, the result will be that Christ will be reached as the Mighty Man of wealth. He will be known as the source of everything, the Restorer of all that was in God’s original thought for His people. And as saints abide in Him they become capable of taking up the inheritance. The reason why many fail to enjoy the inheritance is that they have never realized that they are not enjoying it; they lack the deep exercises seen in Naomi. Their spiritual standard is low; they believe that their sins are forgiven, and that they will go to heaven when they die or when the Lord comes, but they have very little conception that there is a vast wealth of spiritual blessing which they might be enjoying now.
On the other hand, how often is there a lack of affectionate interest in God’s things such as was seen in Ruth. She had never personally been in the land, so that she could not have the sense of having departed from it. Yet under the influence of Naomi her affections went out to what was of God. If this is so with us, it will lead to reaching Him who can fully secure us the blessedness of the inheritance.
Then Obed begets Jesse—“Jah exists”; we are brought into the changeless certainty of all the things which are of God. And it only remains that Christ shall come as the true David to publicly introduce the rights of God as King, and to give the heirs of promise their full place in the inheritance in glory.