Friday, September 10, 2010
She carried it [the barley] back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough. Her mother-in-law asked her, "Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!" Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. "The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz," she said. "The LORD bless him!" Naomi said to her daughter-in-law.
GOD WORKS TOO
When Ruth was done gleaning in the field that day, she went home with an ephah of barley. That's about 22 liters. She would get all she needed for herself and her mother-in-law.
But through her fieldwork, God gave Ruth even more than food -- in fact, more than she ever imagined. Boaz ended up marrying Ruth. They had a child named Obed. Obed had a child named Jesse. And Jesse had a child named David who became the greatest king Israel ever knew -- and who was an ancestor of the king of kings, Jesus Christ.
You see, God works too. Those fields outside Bethlehem were fields of His labor as well. When He provided work there for Ruth, He was also working to bring His Son Jesus into the world. There in the midst of the barley, the LORD was busy carrying out His plan to send Christ to the cross at Calvary; to place Him on the altar of justice where He Himself would bear the sins of the whole world. There He would act as the substitute for every sinner who ever lived; and because of His death, God could rightly say to us, "You are forgiven. Come, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."
Yes, Lord God, we remember that you have done the hardest work. Forgive us our sins of complaining, grumbling, and thankless hearts, and make us faithful to others and to you in our daily work as you have been so faithful to us in yours.
