Page 132 - BACK TO BETHLEHEM

that sentence in order to win somebody to the Lord. That is
what Naomi said to Ruth. Ruth 1:15-17, “’Behold, your sister-
in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; return after
your sister-in-law.’ But Ruth said, ‘Do not urge me to leave
you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will
go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my
people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and
there I will be buried. Thus may the LORD do to me, and
worse, if anything but death parts you and me.’!”

What a tremendous thing! As soon as Naomi decides to
go back to Bethlehem, God begins using her for blessing. The
curse is already being turned into a blessing because God had
put Bethlehem in Ruth’s heart. Ruth also wanted to go to
Bethlehem, and God begins to use her.
The second step is the courting by Boaz as kinsman
redeemer who is a picture of Christ. After returning to
Bethlehem, Ruth began to glean in a field of grain owned by a
kinsman of Naomi’s deceased husband, whose name was Boaz.
Boaz courts her, and he woos her, and he tries to win her heart
and romance her unto himself. He charges his servants to watch
out for her safety. He instructs his reapers to drop handfuls on
purpose so she can gather and so she can glean. Ruth 2:1 says
that he is a mighty man of wealth. He is a kinsman who is in
every way qualified to redeem her. He loves her. And though
he is strong, and though he is rich, and though he is qualified as
a kinsman, and though he is willing, we see that his hands are
tied. He can only go so far.
The third step is appropriation. Ruth must appropriate
Boaz. Ruth must reach out and take that mantle and pull it over
herself, and say, “All you are and all you have I claim as mine.”
The simplicity of faith is that she just had to claim it. That is
what springs God into action and allows Him to create out of
her an oasis in the desert.
The fourth step is grace. Grace is what God does. Law
is what man does. Right from the beginning of the book, Ruth
was a doer. She was doing, doing, doing, and doing. Boaz had
to tell her that he would do for her. Ruth 3:11,“And now, my