Page 134 - Fundamentals Ebook

Now, Naomi was not planning to lead Ruth to Christ. You see, when
you lead somebody to Christ you usually do not say to them, “Go
back to your gods.” You usually do not use 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.