The Gleaning

And her mother-in-law said to her, "Where have you gleaned today? And where did you work? Blessed be the one who took notice of you." So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, "The man's name with whom I worked today is Boaz".

Ruth 2:19

The events that are recorded for us in the Book of Ruth revolve around harvest time and the gathering in of the grain. It was because of a poor harvest that Elimelech and Naomi and their sons had left Bethlehem in the land of Judah to come into the country of Moab. And it was because God had sent bread that Naomi returned. And the time of their returned is described in chapter 1 as the beginning of the harvest.

There were at least two immediate problems that needed to be overcome when Ruth and Naomi came to Bethlehem. The first was where they were going to stay: the question of their accommodation. The Bible doesn't tell us where they stayed but it's clear that they found a home where both of them were able to live, for the moment at any rate. The second problem was the problem of their sustenance and the problem of food and provision. And it is really in connection with that problem that Chapter Two deals.

In this second chapter, as we saw, we are introduced to another person in these circumstances under the providence of God, a mighty man, a man of wealth, a man who was related to the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. And so much is Boaz going to take a central role in the events that unfold in this great book, that you would be forgiven for renaming this book the 'Book of Boaz'. From this point onwards he becomes absolutely crucial and absolutely central to all the events that are to transpire in the life of Ruth. But it's not the Book of Boaz; it's the Book of Ruth. And it's the Book of Ruth because this book tells us of God's special provision for Ruth through Boaz, through this mighty man of wealth. Boaz was a man to whom Naomi was related only through her late husband. And yet that connection was enough to secure provision.

It was because of this family connection that a door opened, and Ruth was able to go into the fields of Boaz and to glean ears of corn. We read in this chapter about the special provision which Boaz made for her, and how Boaz came to her and spoke to her and counselled her to stay in his field. "Go not to any other field", he said. "Don't go from here. Stay here by my maidens. Let your eyes be on the field that they reap, and go after them. I have charged the young men that they shall not touch you" (2:9). And Ruth recognises the grace of God and the bounteous provision of God before her here in the fields of Boaz. So when she comes home at the end of the day, with a bag full of corn that she is able to make into flour and then into bread, Naomi asks her, "Where have you gleaned today?" in the knowledge that the blessing of God has accompanied Ruth.

This chapter tells us a very interesting thing about Ruth: she occupies a two-fold position at this point. We are told in verse twelve of this chapter that she has a place under the wings of God. And we know from Chapter One and the events that unfolded in Moab and on the road to Bethlehem that Ruth had indeed turned her back on Moab and on the gods of Moab, the idols of Moab, to put her trust in the one living and true God. She had come to trust under the wings of the Lord God of Israel. And because she was under the wings of Jehovah, she was also gleaning in the fields of Boaz.

It is important that we see the link between these two things. There is an intimate connection between them. Under the wings of Jehovah she is enjoying a provision and a bounty and a blessing that is given to her through the fields and in the fields of Boaz. God has brought her to put her trust personally in himself, in Jehovah, the Lord God of the covenant. And God shows that his blessing is upon Ruth by making this rich provision to her when she comes into these particular fields to glean and to gather corn. Under the wings of God and in the fields of Boaz is where Ruth's soul is provided for, by the bread of life that God has sent down to her from Heaven.

You see, it is invariably the case that when a person comes to trust personally in the living and the true God for salvation, that person will be found looking for spiritual bread. Just as trust in Jehovah made a gleaner and a gatherer of Ruth, and left her seeking and searching in the fields of Boaz, so it makes a gleaner and a seeker of us too. If we come to trust in the Lord, we will search. We will seek and search for Christ, for the living bread which came down from Heaven. Our trust is in the God of the covenant, and the sustenance that our soul needs is to be found in a particular place. "Search the Scriptures", Jesus counsels us in John 5:39. These are the fields of Boaz to us -- the Word of God, the preaching of the Gospel, the fellowship of God's people.

Jesus taught as much in his parables. What is the Kingdom of Heaven? It is like a man sowing seed, with different results (Matthew 13:1-23); it is like a field where good seed is sown, but tares grow up among the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30); it is like mustard seed growing in a field (Matthew 13:31-2). Peter talks of God's people being 'born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible' (1 Peter 1:23) which Peter identifies as the word of God, and contrasts with the grass of the field which withers as soon as it is grown. God is a planter! Indeed, this is an important image in the word of God, from the Old Testament picture of the believer's soul as a "well-watered garden" (Isaiah 58:11; Jeremiah 31:12), to Jesus' image of himself as the true vine, and his people branches in the vine (John 15:1-8). The fields of Boaz are an apt metaphor for the work of salvation in the hearts and lives of God's people.

What is the church? It is where sinners gather in Gospel fields in order to gather bread! The church is nothing but a gathering of poor, empty, needy sinners, gleaning in the fields of God's provision in order that their souls might be fed, because their trust is under the wings of Jehovah. Do you know why God's people search the Scriptures? It is because they are trusting in Jesus Christ, sheltering under the wings of Jehovah and seeking him in the Bible.

What is the place and purpose of Boaz in the Book of Ruth? He is the one who will undertake the duties of kinsman-redeemer on behalf of Ruth. We shall explore the implications of this later; but the essential symbol of this role is that he is the one by whom alone she can be provided for. And there is a Boaz in the Bible, a kinsman-redeemer, who has opened for sinners the vast provision of Gospel blessing. And he enables us and invites us to come, and to put our trust in the Lord, by gleaning in His fields. I know there are people who say "I can be a Christian without going to church, and I can be a Christian without going to a prayer meeting, and I can be a Christian without having fellowship with any of the Lord's people." But God has joined these two things together intimately in the experience of his people. Those who are truly trusting under Christ's wings are gleaning in Christ's fields. And those who are truly seeking the Lord will find the Lord, and they will find shelter under the covering of the wings of the Lord God of Israel. There is an intimate connection between the gleaning of which 2:3 speaks, and the refuge of which 2:12 speaks.

So the question that Naomi put to Ruth, when she came back this first evening to her home is as relevant and pertinent for us as it was for Ruth when she was asked it. Where do we glean? Where have we been gathering today? What does going to church, reading the Bible, singing the praises of God, mean for us? Is it a sign that we are trusting under the wings of Jehovah? Our profession to be trusting in God is seen in our diligence in gleaning in his field.

Now I want to look at this day of gleaning in Ruth's experience, and there are really three things that I want to talk about. I want to talk about barriers, about bundles, and about blessings in the field of Boaz.

Barriers In the Fields of Boaz

I want to talk first of all about barriers, because I think that there was one special barrier before Ruth at this particular point. She had come out of the land of Moab, following Naomi. Her heart was changed; the interests that she once had, she no longer had. Things that once occupied her attention, suddenly were of no consequence. Things that were once all-important now had a very secondary, insignificant place in her thinking. All that she wanted was to come into the inheritance of the people of God. All she wanted was join with them, and to say to know the blessing of what she expressed there when she said to Naomi, "Your people shall be my people; your God, my God."

But do you know that there was one great barrier between Ruth and what she wanted? There was one great stumbling block in the way, and unless it was dealt with she could never have a place among God's people. And it was in the very law of God itself. It was the fact that that she was a Moabitess.

I think, in fact, that the writer of the Book of Ruth is at pains to remind us of this problem. In this immediate context Ruth is not simply called Ruth. Time and again the maiden-stranger is given her full description as 'Ruth the Moabitess'. You find her described in this way in 1:22 and 2:1, and then in 2:6 as "the young girl from Moab". Why is this fact emphasised? Simply because it represents the one great thing that could prevent Ruth from coming into the inheritance of God's people.

God had spelt this out very clearly in his law, in Deuteronomy23:3, when he said that "a Moabite or an Ammonite shall not come in to the congregation of the Lord, not to the tenth generation." That's what was written in God's infallible, authoritative, unchanging, holy, sovereign law. And it was that law that now pointed the finger at Ruth and said "You can't come into the inheritance of God's people. You are a stranger to the God of the covenant. By nature, you have no claim on the God of the covenant." So there is a small clause in God's holy law that is large enough to prevent Ruth from coming in to enjoy what she wants to enjoy among the people of God. She wants in. But God says she cannot come in.

To borrow Paul's statement in Romans 8:3, there was something here that the law could not do, because it was weak through Ruth's flesh. There was something that the law was incapable of doing, and that was of admitting Ruth into the company of God's people. The reason was not because there was anything wrong with the law, but simply because of what Ruth was by her very nature. The law of God -- the law which was holy and just and good (Romans 7:12) -- was weakened by Ruth's flesh. All her natural ties were with Moab? Moab was in her blood, she was a Moabitess and she had come from the country of Moab. And therein lay the problem.

And in essence, that is always the problem. Our way back to Paradise has been blocked by the fiery sword of God's absolute justice and holiness (Genesis 3:24). Paul's argument in the New Testament is not that we can try our very best and perhaps find peace with God. His argument is that no matter what we do, how we act, the way we think -- everything about us is tainted by sin. The flaming sword is turning every way, and every aspect of our lives is found to be at fault. There is none righteous, and there is nothing about you or me that is righteous. The problem is not in God, nor is it in the law of God, nor is it in the nature of God. The problem lies with our own nature, corrupted and tainted as it is because of our estrangement from God.

That is what Paul is arguing in Romans 8. There is something that the law cannot do, because it is weak through our flesh. The law itself has no inherent weakness. Perfect lawkeeping is the basis for eternal life. God related to man at the outset on the basis of such a covenant, which theology subsequently called a covenant of works. And although some have questioned the legitimacy of that form of description, it summarises the arrangement of the Garden of Eden. Indeed, both before and after the Fall, God's grace to man is mediated through law, and specifically through law-keeping. Adam, who represented the whole human race, was told that on the basis of his doing some things and not doing other things he would enjoy unbroken fellowship with God. He would know life in its fulness. But instead of being confirmed in a state of purity and of life, he sinned, and, because he was the representative of the human race, the whole human race sinned too.

The result is that we are all in Ruth's position. Our nature is what prevents us enjoying full communion with God. Our sin prevents our access into God's presence. We are sinners by nature and we are sinners by practise and we have more of Moab in us than we care to imagine. And God says of sinners that they cannot come into the same tent as Him. That's how the psalmist puts it in Psalm 24:3, "Who may stand in God's holy place?" Who can share a tent with God? David is alluding there to the Hebrew emphasis, I think, on hospitality: give someone a place in your home, or a seat at your table, and you have established a bond. But who can share table with God? Who can dwell in his tabernacle?

The same psalm answers the question: "only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies" (Psalm 24:4). And how can we judge whether our actions are acceptable or not? Only by weighing them and assessing them in the light of the law of God. God's law is not simply a set of his standards -- it is also a revelation of his character. Those who share space with him must be like him. And the reality is that God's law stands before us, condemning us, driving us away, closing the door, building a barrier, erecting a wall. It says that we cannot have life because we are sinners, because we are 'carnally minded' and therefore at enmity with God (cf. Romans 8:6; 1 Corinthians 2:14).

Our problem is that Moab is in our very thinking, in our whole life and interests, and in the motivation for all we do. To be 'carnally minded' is to be spiritually dead, and those who are spiritually dead cannot come into the inheritance of the people of God. What is Ruth to do? She had said to Naomi, "I want this more than anything else." But God's law says to her "You cannot have it. You cannot have it because you are a Moabitess." This uncompromising law of God places this stricture before her. Judah is a no-go area for a Moabitish damsel.

But, you know, the glory of God's grace shines through his law. That is something that is not emphasised half as much as it ought to be. We regard God's law as something bleak and dismal, something negative and disabling, something that hinders and curtails. Yet the law is as much a revelation of grace as of holiness, of love as of justice. And the same law that said that Ruth could not come into the congregation of the Lord also made provision for her to come in!

Is that not wonderful? The same God who, in his law, declares Ruth's inability, also, in the same law, opens a door of grace for her. While Deuteronomy 23 spells out the reasons why she might be excluded from the community of Israel, Deuteronomy 24 opens a a way for her to come in. Deuteronomy 24 contains the laws regulating the harvest. There God said to his people: 'when you go to harvest your corn, don't cut the corners of the field. Keep them for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. If you drop anything when you're gathering in the corn, don't pick it up. It's for the stranger, for the fatherless, for the widow. And when you come to take in the grapes, and you shake off the grapes from the branches of the tree and the grapes fall into your basket and there are some left on, don't pluck them off. They are for the stranger, for the fatherless, for the widow' (see Deuteronomy 24:19-22). And the reason this law is incorporated into the deuteronomic code is in order that God's people will remember that they too were once strangers, and that by his grace God brought them out of Egypt's slavery and into Canaan's liberty.

And the amazing thing is that Ruth qualified on these three counts! She was a stranger in Bethlehem, she was fatherless in Bethlehem, and she was a widow in Bethlehem. I think it is one of the most glorious things in this great Book or Ruth, that the very law that prevented her access, was the same law that provided her access. It is the law that says there is a provision here for strangers, for the fatherless, for the widow. God remembers the poor and the outcast, and he reaches out to them to bring them into his covenant.

Paul's teaching in the New Testament is that the same law whose effect was weakened by our disobedience, so that we could not enjoy the blessings of God's salvation, has been fulfilled for us by Jesus Christ. There is no breach of law, no injustice at all, in the way God saves. By nature we are excluded from the covenant community, but in the death of Christ God has upheld his law and put honour on it. Everything that required to be done was done. Everything that justice demanded was given. The debt was paid. The righteous one stood in our place, bearing sins in his own body on the tree. He, in the words of 2 Corinthians 5:21, was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Hugh Martin, the great Scottish theologian of a past day, described this as 'imputation and counter-imputation' -- our sins were reckoned to Christ's account, and his righteousness to ours. He is regarded by God in the light of our law-breaking, and we are regarded by God in the light of his law-keeping. The same law that keeps us out has also provided a way of bringing us in. Listen to this: "The law of Moses could not save us, because of our sinful nature. But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful. God destroyed sin's control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully accomplished for us who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit" (Romans 8:3-4, NLT).

So, for Ruth, barred as she was from the covenant community because of her natural ties to Moab, God found a way. He opened a door. His salvation was for the impoverished, the outcast, the stranger; they could glean. That's all Ruth could do. So she did what she could, and she gleaned. Do you know that's exactly the way the Gospel comes to men and women? The law of God says to us that by nature we are alienated from God and strangers to the commonwealth of Israel and the covenants of promise (Ephesians 2:12). But the same Bible that condemns us as sinners and says that we have no right of access to God, tells us that there is something here for sinners. Why should Ruth perish outside when a door of opportunity beckons? Why should sinners die in their sins when a door of Gospel opportunity invites them to make use of what Christ offers as the way to God?

There is something else. Gleaning was a harvest thing. You could not glean at sowing time, or at growing time, or at watering time. You could only glean at reaping time. You could only glean when the work of the harvest was almost over. The law that provided access for Ruth did so on the basis of a finished work! All the sowing had been done, all the watering, all the tending, all the looking after the field, it had gone. This was the end. It was on the basis of a finished work that Ruth was able to come into the inheritance of the people of God and realise her dream of making Naomi's people her own.

And the Gospel offers eternal life to us on exactly the same basis -- on the basis of a finished work. The seed has fallen into the ground and died; it is now bearing much fruit (John 12:24). As Isaiah put it long ago, the Messiah is to see of the travail of his soul (53:11). His death was not in vain. The work was planned in eternity, executed in time, and completed on the cross. There is a finished work.

When I come to the cross, that is what I am going to find there -- a work completed. The man of sorrows has laid down his life for sinners. And because of his great, finished work, there is now an abundance of harvest, bread enough and to spare for strangers to glean. Have you heard the condemning voice of God's law saying to you "You cannot get in"? And the sweet, winsome, warm sounds of grace coming to you through the Gospel and saying there is a finished work that opens the gate to sinners. That burning, turning sword has plunged into the heart of Jesus Christ, and his blood can cleanse from all sin. God does not ask you to understand great doctrines, or to grasp deep theology -- he asks you to come and glean in his field. The provision is there, for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. Christ did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Matthew 9:13). Christ asks you to come as a stranger, he asks you to come as fatherless, he asks you to come as a widow, with all your sadness, sorrow and loneliness, into the fields of Gospel provision. In the great words of the so-called Marrow Men in seventeenth century Scotland, "There is a dead Christ for you to come to". I know that the Christ of Calvary is now alive at the father's right hand; but at the heart of the Gospel there is this, that Christ is dead at Calvary for sinners. They can come to him there. Blood is shed, and hope is offered. Death claims Christ and life flows to us. He thirsts that we might drink. He dies alone that we might glean. He is the bread of life come down from Heaven, and the Gospel points us to Calvary and says, "Come and glean". Grace overcomes the barriers. Mercy has triumphed over judgement (James 2:13).

Bundles In the Fields of Boaz

But I also want to talk about bundles. Ruth discovered something very precious when she went into the fields of Boaz, and that was that Boaz knew her. Boaz had already seen her, and, unknown to Ruth, was making enquiry about her.

In fact, we have a very beautiful picture of Boaz here in these fields in Bethlehem. Did you ever notice for example that no other name is mentioned in these fields, but the name of Boaz? There were many servants there, many reapers, many people, working and employed in these fields. But all we know is the name of the overseer, the name of Boaz himself. And is it not the the same with the Gospel? The only name worth knowing is the name of the redeemer, the name of Jesus Christ. In all the industry of the church of Jesus Christ of the world, His name is supreme. Who is the Creator of Heaven and earth, the King of the Ages, the Jehovah of the Old Testament, the great 'I am' of Moses and the Messiah of the prophets? He is the one of whom the angel said "Call his name Jesus" (Matthew 1:18). Paul said, "We preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord" (2 Corinthians 4:5). Is it not a characteristic of Paul's ministry that he is constantly striving to draw a veil over himself so that men will be left hearing of one name? His great purpose in proclaiming the Gospel is that men will be left looking to the one person who is central to the whole of Gospel of grace, Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of sinners.

The only name in these fields worth knowing, then, was the name of Boaz. But then there is something else that I want to underline: I want to emphasize how Boaz comes close to his reapers. He comes from Bethlehem and into the field where his reapers are gathering the harvest. He speaks with them as he walks among them and he says "The Lord be with you," and they answer "The Lord bless you" (2:4).

You will recall what John saw of Jesus in the Book of Revelation: he saw Jesus, and juxtaposed with the description of his glory is the statement of his position: he was bright as the sun for brilliance, yet he was standing in the middle of the golden lampstands (Revelation 1:12-16). These lampstands represented the church, and the Lord of glory was standing there, there he spoke to John, and there he spoke through John to the churches. That is how it is in the church of Jesus Christ: Christ is with his people, and he is walking with his people, and he is talking to them; and he is blessing his people, and his people are blessing him. There is a personal contact, a personal communion. Boaz does not act like a distant overseer, an absentee landlord. No, for Ruth he is "a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1)

And then I want you to notice the personal interest Boaz takes in Ruth. He knows all about her. He counsels her not to glean in another field, but to stay in his. That is what Jesus is like. He takes a personal interest in us. He says to us "I have called you by your name; you are mine" (Isaiah 43:1). And his is the only field worth staying in. It is in the Gospel that we will find what our souls need. It is from him that we will obtain what our lives lack. In the place where the Gospel is preached, where the people of God gather to love him and to feel his name, Jesus says, is the place for us to be.

But I want particularly to talk about bundles. You see, unknown to Ruth, Boaz had spoken to his reapers and had said to them to give her special protection and special care; and he had also told them to let handfuls of corn drop on purpose for Ruth to pick up. The law did not require that of him. All the law required of him was that he did not cut down the corn in the corners of the field, and if any corn dropped accidentally when it was being reaped, it was to be left on the ground. But grace always abounds extravagantly. So Boaz says to his reapers: 'let handfuls fall on purpose'.

Why was that? First, these bundles fell because of the abundance of the harvest. Where once there had been famine, now there was plenty. So much was that the case that Boaz could spare bundle upon bundle for Ruth to gather. The whole was his: the whole field, and all the corn. Bundles were nothing to Boaz. But what a difference a bundle made to Ruth!. She had nothing at all. She had no claim on the field, no claim on the ground, no claim on the corn, no claim on the food. But out of this tremendous richness, handfuls dropped for her.

It is one of the great teachings of the Gospel that there is enough in Christ to satisfy the needs of every and any sinner who comes to him. There is an absolute and unconditional guarantee that whatever our need is, and whatever our condition and situation may be, there is a fullness in Jesus to meet the needs of all. Does John not tell us that it is out of his fulness that we received, and grace for grace (John 1:16)? Does not Paul say that his God is able to supply all our need out of the riches of his glory by Christ (Philippians 4:19)? I am saying that the fields of Boaz are full to overflowing, while the fields of Moab offered nothing but loneliness and heartache and grief. What a contrast between the fields of Moab and the fields of Boaz! Ruth buried a husband in the fields of Moab, because sin always ends in death. The fields of Moab gave her a place to bury her dead. But he fields of Boaz overflowed with abundance, gave her all that she needed, and more. These bundles of corn were the signs of an extraordinarily plenteous harvest. And the Christ we preach, the Christ who is offered in the Gospel, is extraordinarily full for poor, needy sinners to come to Him.

But these bundles were also signs of a personal interest and love that Boaz had for Ruth. He said about her, "Let her glean, and look after her, and let her come and sit with my maidens so that she'll have enough and be sufficed and leave. Let handfuls of corn fall on purpose so that she'll glean, and she'll take them home." There was a personal interest here, and every time Ruth picked up a bundle, she could say "This was for me." It was not just one or two ears of corn that she obtained, but a handful dropped on purpose every time, with the precise intention that she would pick them up.

How often God has done that in in our experience? Perhaps there were times when you were feeling at your lowest point, and you did not know where to go, and God's providence had pressed you into wits' end corner. You did not know where you were going to turn or where you were going to get guidance or where you were going to find direction in your life What happened? God went out of his way to make specific provision for your need, dropping bundles of blessing on purpose for you. Maybe you heard an appropriate sermon, read an appropriate book, heard an appropriate verse -the word of God was tailored to your very situation, and in the quiet of your soul you rejoiced and said "God went out of his way to do this for me!"

In times of sorrow, he gave you comfort; in times of darkness, light; in times of weakness, strength. Times when at the point of your very need, God dropped a Gospel promise, His word took wings and it flew right into your heart and into your soul bringing peace and you were able to say "This was a handful dropped on purpose for me." Times when you were sad and sorrowing, and when you were mourning and when tears flowed and when you were cut off from the fellowship and the friendship of those you loved, God sent his word your way with the express purpose of lifting you up, and giving you strength and comfort, and he dropped a handful on purpose for you.

But what a tragedy it would have been had Ruth left these bundles lying on the ground! She had her own responsibilities to attend to. Boaz was the provider, but Ruth was the gleaner. I wonder if it's possible for us sometimes to leave God's bundles of promise and blessing lying on the ground? To have the word of God there beside us, with all its glorious sufficiency and fullness, and yet never to make use of the opportunities and blessings God sends your way. Let's make sure we are diligent gleaners in the fields of our Jesus-Boaz!

Blessings In the Fields of Boaz

For Ruth, there were barriers that were overcome, bundles that were dropped on purpose for her to pick up, and there were blessings that she enjoyed in the fields of Boaz. Let me mention just two of these.

Ruth, first, enjoyed the blessing of sufficient food. We are told in 2:18 that Ruth came home to her mother-in-law, Naomi, and she was 'sufficed'. That is a great word: it means that she wanted nothing more, and she needed nothing more, and she lacked nothing. She had the blessing of sufficient food, because she took the corn with her and she measured it out, and beat it and made flour out of it, and with the flour she made bread, and she ate the bread, and there was enough to satisfy her when they she and Naomi sat down for their evening meal.

That is God's promise -- the promise of absolute sufficiency. God's people may go into eternity with very little of this world's provision. Many, many saints have traversed the long path of life's pilgrimage with little or nothing of this world's riches, honours, fame or prosperity, but they had all that they needed because they had the Lord. They were 'sufficed'.

Let me put it this way. God has only one Saviour, and God is satisfied with the one Saviour that he has. I think that faith in the soul of a sinner is the echo of God's satisfaction with Christ. The soul that trusts is the soul that says, "I am pleased with Jesus too." He is all-sufficient, nothing can be added to him and we dare not detract anything from him, all that I need, all that I want, all that I long for, it's there, in Christ. Ruth gathered what she found, and made use of what she gathered.

She also had the blessing of a daily provision. Naomi could ask her 'Where did you glean today?' At the end of the day she could say "Right up to this moment the Lord has helped" (cf. 1 Samuel 7:12). And that great word of confidence and thanksgiving looks forward to help for another day, and grace for another day, and bread enough for another day. Even although we do not know what tomorrow may bring, this we do know: that his grace is sufficient for us every single day!

Our lives are full of change and uncertainty. But here is the one great blessing for all who come to Jesus: the promise of a daily supply of grace. And that grace will keep me in life on the mountain top as in the depths of the valley; it will strengthen me and comfort me and console me; it will keep me in life and in in death

There is daily provision in the fields of Boaz for those who will glean there. So where have you gleaned today? Are you feeding on the finest wheat, trusting your soul to the only saviour? Do you know anything about feeding off the table of the Gospel and the bread of life? Let the fields of Moab go, since the fields of Boaz beckon!

© Iain D. Campbell 2001