Page 133 - BACK TO BETHLEHEM

daughter, do not fear. I will do for you whatever you ask, for
all my people in the city know that you are a woman of
excellence.” Ruth needed to learn about rest.
That brings us to the final stage. What can the last stage
be except marriage and union and the fruit of that relationship?
And so Boaz marries Ruth. I love Ruth 4:10. “Moreover, I
have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, to be
my wife in order to raise up the name of the deceased on his
inheritance, so that the name of the deceased will not be cut off
from his brothers or from the court of his birth place; you are
witnesses today.”

Since this is the consummation and everything has been
moving toward this marriage, let me speak of the
consummation and the fruit of that relationship. Ruth 4:13, “So
Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her.
And the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a
son.” Ruth blessed the world by giving birth to Obed; to give
the world Jesse; to give the world David; to give the world
Psalms through David and to give the world a Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Fruit is always the outworking of a relationship.
It is the result of union. Christians need to learn that fruit is
something that is produced naturally through a very personal
and intimate relationship; it is not something that is artificially
put on.
In the history of redemption, who have been channels
for the greatest blessings in the church world? It’s been those
who have come back to Bethlehem. It’s those who have most
known Him. It’s those who have walked in an unbroken union
with Him. It’s those who have known for sure that He has dealt
with everything that stood in the way and, like Ruth, have
become an oasis in the desert in this dark and immoral world.
Those are the ones that produce fruit in the Christian life. God
creates in them and out of them, the Life and character of Christ,
an oasis in the desert, and the world is blessed.