Finding Love in the Field

By Pastor Bill Cox

The Old Testament book of Ruth is a wonderful story of God’s hand at work in the life of a young woman as she chooses to throw in her lot with the people of God.

It also shows the rich and varied heritage of King David and of the lineage that the Lord Jesus came through.

On another level, the story brings lessons about the building of lasting relationships as we become part of God’s family and involve ourselves in the work of the gospel.

I remember witnessing to a man years ago who was a long-time heroin addict.

He didn’t respond to the gospel because he said it sounded like a fairy tale. Someone unfamiliar with God’s grace might respond the same way upon reading the book of Ruth.

Part of the richness of the Ruth’s story lies in who God’s love was revealed to and the times in which the story takes place.

This was an outcast woman living in dark times who found, by the grace of God, a new family, real love and her destiny. This offers hope to the many broken lives in our own generation.

Ruth chose to reject the pessimistic outlook of her mother-in-law, Naomi, who had become embittered by the tragic circumstances of her life.

When Naomi tried to send Ruth back to the hopelessness of her pagan culture, she responded with her classic statement of faith: “Entreat me not to leave you or return 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.”

In his poem, The Road not Taken, Robert Frost wrote:

I shall be telling this with a sigh,

Somewhere ages and ages hence;

Two roads diverged in a wood and I

Took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

That is the testimony of Ruth from the day she chose the people and God of her mother-in-law over the idols of Moab.

As Peter wrote in I Peter 2:10: “In times past we were not a people but are now the people of God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”

The wonderful thing about salvation is that God takes lives sunk in chaos and barrenness and defines them with His purpose and destiny.

When Ruth began to glean grain in Boaz’s field, he left her “handfuls of purpose.”

This is a picture of the wonderful things God reveals to us as we choose to follow Him.

I Corinthians 2:9 states: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love Him.”

While this no doubt speaks of eternity, it also is a promise in this life. How little we know of the great blessing the Lord will bring our way in the years ahead as we serve Him.

Ruth’s eventual marriage to the kinsman-redeemer Boaz is a spiritual parallel to our own redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ.

On a human level, though, it is a beautiful example of God linking the hearts of a man and woman in love to one another and in service to His kingdom.

In our fellowship we have always put a premium on the uniting and raising up of couples for service in the harvest field.

If anything captures the essence of the wonderful move of God we’ve been part of for the last forty years, it is the image of a man and woman first walking the aisle in holy matrimony and then standing up to the cheers of their brethren to walk down the aisle at Bible Conference to be sent to the cities and nations of the world in Christian service.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Psalm 107:23-24: “They that go down to

the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep.”

My wife and I, as many other workers in our churches, can attest to that.

As we have given the years of our marriage to Christian service we have  experienced such a wonderful grace and dignity in our lives. What a tremendous time it has been, when we consider the broken places we were redeemed from!

Ruth’s role as the great-grandmother of King David was no accidental twist of fate, but part of God’s great plan in redemption.

When Ruth’s son, Obed, was born she received a prophetic word that the child would be a “restorer of your life and a nourisher of your old age.”

This is a picture of the unfolding story of God’s dealings in the earth which come through the lives of ordinary men and women who choose like Ruth to make “your God my God and your people my people.”