(Continued from page 214.)
4. A GLEANER IN THE FIELDS OF GRACE.
(Chapter 2:)
Bethlehem is true to its name, "the House of Bread," and its white harvest fields speak of the plenty there must be where God's blessing rests. The time of harvest and ingathering is one of joyous labor. It is the crown of the year,- "Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness."All the long patience of the husbandman is at an end, and his care now is but to reap the fruits of his labor. "The valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing."
God's harvest is without doubt a time of special joy to Him, as He sees the results of divine care and patience in the world. Spite of the unbelief of men, the malignity of satan, and the slowness of heart even in His own, there is fruit to His praise. Nor is it necessary to divorce the thought of the seed sown, the Word, from the fruits gathered in, souls saved and conformed to that Word, Our Lord does not separate them, and as a matter of fact, it is the Word that produces saints:"Being born again, not
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God that liveth and abideth forever" (i Pet. 1:23). How precious is the thought that every child of God will be conformed to that Word through which he has been begotten, and thus also to Christ who in the perfection of His person is the embodiment of all that the word of God is. So we think of the harvest time as the season of gathering in the souls who have been brought under the saving power of the word of God. At the same time, we do no violence to the figure when we apply it also to the full grace that is in the Word for souls, and above all to Christ Himself, "the old corn of the land," who as we have said, in Himself has all the fulness of the Godhead.
Thus we are introduced to but one person at Bethlehem, Boaz, who is the lord of the harvest and the dispenser of bounty. His name, "in him is strength," reminds us at once of the One of whom he is the type. He is " a mighty man of wealth," or valor, as the word more naturally means; for He has reached His place as the Lord of the harvest, and the bountiful Giver through the conflict in which He was the Victor over the "strongman." He has reached the place of wealth through the path of poverty-laying aside the riches that were His by right, in order that He might have associated with Himself those objects of His love and grace. This also reminds us of His long patience and the "travail of His soul," when He poured out His soul in tears and shed His blood that there might be fruit for God in a lost world. Surely to Him those words of the Psalm could apply in a special way, " He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing His sheaves with Him " (Ps. 126:6).
Thus in Boaz we see the Lord in resurrection, after His toil and suffering, entering upon His joy, and the One in whom is everlasting strength. He is of the kindred of Elimelech, for our Lord took hold of the seed of Abraham and is not ashamed to call them brethren. His relation to Elimelech also recalls what Israel should have been to God, but which she lost, for Elimelech is dead. Here is One, however, who in His life ever manifested the relation to God which Israel failed to do, but who in grace went into the death and judgment which Israel deserved. He is thus ready to maintain the relation forfeited by them, and in resurrection to make good what they had lost.
This is beautifully brought out in Isaiah. Jacob was God's servant, but he proved unfaithful and had to be set aside; then the true and perfect Servant is presented, the One who in life and death always did God's will and is now exalted; then a remnant will turn in faith to this Servant, and finding forgiveness through Him, will themselves become the servant of the Lord, and the seed of a holy nation, which will finally be brought back to its proper allegiance and subjection to God. All will come through the kinsman, who we shall see is the Redeemer. But we must return to our narrative.
The scene is a beautiful and attractive one even in a natural sense. The relation between Boaz and his reapers is all too rare in a world where selfishness in the master and suspicion in the servant are the rule. This must ever be the case where God is left out, and the gulf between "labor and capital " will only widen till the reign of grace be established in the hearts of men. How futile are labor laws and efforts for universal prosperity, when the root of the evil-the sin and selfishness of man's heart-is not reached. It never will be reached until He come of whom Boaz is the type. Then there will be the greetings we have here, "The Lord be with you;" "The Lord bless Thee."
What a flood of memories must have well-nigh overwhelmed Naomi as she gazed on those familiar fields! When she last saw them her life was bright with hope; now all was changed. No doubt she looked through her tears at all the joy and abundance before her, but which had for her passed to come again no more. How sad to the widowed heart is the joy to which she must ever be a stranger. No wonder then that she makes no effort to better herself. Memory was busy, and doubtless for the present employed all her time and thoughts.
Doubtless there will be, as we have been seeing, this sense of desolation on the part of the remnant of Israel. For them there will be no joy, and all the abundance of God's house will but intensify their sense of poverty, and thus, in His mercy, deepen the work so needful in their souls. Whether for Israel, or the wandering saint, there must be a deep work in the soul if God's restoring mercy is to be enjoyed. This is often forgotten by the Lord's people, and the "hurt" is healed slightly. It is good to be in the house of affliction, and a proper preparation for the house of feasting. So Naomi's sorrow and her silence is natural and proper.
But with Ruth it is different. She represents, as we have seen, the faith in the remnant, which makes
no claim of right, but comes to glean in the fields of divine mercy. Hence she is called the Moabitess here, her gentile origin debarring her from all legal claim to any portion in Israel. And yet God had made provision for just such. "When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest:thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger" (Lev. 23:22). Here are the crumbs which fall from the Master's table, and which will prove for Ruth, as for the woman of Canaan, an abundance for all her need.
This passage, coming between the feast of Pentecost and that of Tabernacles, would suggest just this widowed state of the remnant, which must precede their time of joy, and the fulness of blessing when "every man shall dwell under his own vine and fig tree." Pentecost signifies the blessing of the Church associated with Christ in resurrection. When the Lord has taken her to Himself as His heavenly bride the widowed remnant of Israel will appear as one who has forfeited her rights, but whose faith as in Ruth, will begin to glean according to the special provision of the mercy of God.
Naomi gives her consent to Ruth's gleaning and thus is identified in all that happens to the younger woman. How blessed it is to know that the brokenhearted desolation and the budding forth of faith are thus identified before God. Faith looks through the tears of penitence, and both are one in God's sight.
It is all grace, and Ruth realizes that her gleaning is to be in the fields of him in whose eyes she shall find favor. It is always a mark of an unbroken spirit, or one but partially restored, when this lowly sense of absolute unworthiness is lacking. Oh, how we rob ourselves when we maintain a high place and a bold attitude. Grace is for the lowly only, whether sinner or saint, and there can be no enjoyment of it without the broken heart which God will not despise. We see how everything is ordered of God, not by Ruth. She does not know in whose field she is gleaning:"Her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz." Humanly speaking, it was Rebekah's hap to be at the well when Abraham's servant came in search for a bride for his master's son; it was the hap of the woman of Samaria to meet the Stranger from Judea, who had such words of life and grace to tell her. But we know that what is man's "hap" is God's purpose, the purpose of love of Him who sees the end from the beginning and plans it all. His eye was upon Rebekah, and He made her go out to the well the first to meet the servant of Abraham. He constrained the woman of Samaria to go where she would meet the Son of God, and have her life transformed by the message He brought her. He knows and He draws each of us, at the appointed time and in the appointed way, to the place of blessing. How wonderful are His ways, and what love there is behind what seem to be the merest incidents. God is absolutely sovereign. All our blessings are from Him alone. The work of grace, from beginning to end, is His. Therefore to Him alone is all the praise.
(To be continued, if the Lord please.)