With increasing frequency, FATHER has been giving me the topics to write on in my dreams. In addition, there has been increasing precision of the hour in which HE wakes me up. It’s like an alarm clock set at precisely 6 AM, 5 AM, or 3 AM. Unless I am scheduled to travel or have an early meeting, I never set an alarm clock. FATHER takes care of that.
The Book of Ruth has a wonderful theme of being redeemed by the Kinsman/Redeemer for Ruth was a Gentile who would be redeemed by a Jewish man named Boaz. The Book of Ruth is always read at the Feast of Pentecost, one of five read at the Feasts:
- Song of Songs (Passover)
- Ruth (Pentecost)
- Lamentations (the ninth of Av" an annual fast day which commemorates the destruction of both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem)
- Ecclesiastes (Feast of Tabernacles)
- Esther (Purim)
The book starts out “Now it came to pass in the days” which occurs five times (grace) and denotes an impending time of trouble followed by a happy deliverance. Ruth is married to a sickly man who soon died and she is left with her mother-in-law Naomi. Still being young, Ruth is urged by Naomi to stay in Moab with her parents but Ruth insists that she remain with Naomi. Both women travel to Bethlehem. In Ruth chapter 1:
16 But Ruth said:
“Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you;
For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge;
Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God.
17 Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried.
The LORD do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me.”
Ruth effectively said “I am all in”!
Thirteen famines are recorded in the Bible and this event takes place during the fourth famine. Each and every famine occurred to prevent the seed of Abraham to come forth and fulfill the Promise. The first recorded famine in Genesis 12:10 required Abram to journey to the land of Egypt. This famine caused Naomi and Ruth to return to Naomi’s home of Bethlehem. When a famine occurs, it is not business as usual and we must go outside “the box” and be sensitive to where FATHER wants us and has us do to overcome the famine. “Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.”
As many know, the barley harvest represents the harvesting of overcomers, the Remnant dedicated to FATHER. This story is specific to redeeming those who are “all in”. The 2nd chapter begins:
1 There was a relative of Naomi’s husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech (GOD is my King). His name was Boaz.
2 So Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field, and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor.”
We see that Boaz had been blessed by FATHER and had great wealth. He was fulfilling his calling and had been a good steward over all that he had accumulated. When wealth is accumulated for the right purpose it is a blessing. Boaz was not a man of greed for he gave to those in need:
3 Then she left, and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.
The gleanings were provided for the poor according to Leviticus 19:
9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.
The corners (or wings) of the field were to help the needy and Boaz was fulfilling the Law accordingly. FATHER’S Divine Intent of Love made sure those in need, especially in a famine, would not go hungry. We are to be our brother’s keeper and our abundance should not be hoarded up when others are in need. If we have an attitude to “get in order to give”, FATHER will respond. But if we have the opposite intent to “give in order to get”, we will be in constant scarcity. Boaz spoke to Ruth:
11 And Boaz answered and said to her, “It has been fully reported to me, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know before.
12 The LORD repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.”
Ruth’s faithfulness was to be rewarded by accessing the Presence of FATHER under HIS wings- the four corners of HIS Presence represented by the cherubim above the Ark. Ruth was a stranger and a widow from a foreign land yet Boaz fully embraced her. HE redeems her and marries her, they become one. Her willingness to fully submit to the leading of THE SPIRIT positioned her to become grafted into the Kingdom and ended up as the great grandmother of King David, the result of her being “all in”.
There are two books with the names of women: Ruth (a Gentile woman marries a Jewish man) and Esther (a Jewish woman marries a Gentile man). Both women were “all in”. Are you?
PS- Even during a famine, Boaz was being blessed enough to provide for those he did not know.