Reading: Ruth 1:1-5;
4:11-17; Matthew 1:6-16.
Here we are in the presence of
a, if not the, all-governing, all-comprehending,
all-encompassing truth, which is that God from the beginning has
worked, and does ever work, on the line of His Son. His Son is
God's starting-point and ending-point in all His works. Christ is
the beginning, and Christ is the end of the work of God. Christ
casts His shadow forward and backward over all the ages. If at
any time we ask: 'What is it that explains the government and the
ways of God?' whether they be in the nations, or in the people of
God as a whole or in individual lives, there is always one answer
- from God's standpoint that answer is Christ.
God's
Answer in all Things is Christ
What lies behind all God's
government and all His ways? What has God always and only in His
eye and mind in His activities, wherever they are, whatever they
are? The answer is the same - Christ. What is behind His dealings
with us individually or together? There is only one answer, and
that answer is His Son. His Son is going to be the answer and the
explanation of every activity of God. God has confined Himself to
His Son, has bound Himself up with Christ, will not do anything
apart from Him, but will do all things in relation to Him. If God
is ever found to be against us, or the world, or any particular
course, decision, situation; or refusing to countenance
something, judging it; it is because He sees that in some way the
interests of His Son are involved in an injury. On the other
hand, if we would find God committing Himself to us, free to go
with us, we must ourselves be wholly committed to His Son. There
must be on our part the same singleness of committal, devotion,
interest, zeal and jealousy for the Son of God as there is with
God Himself. That is where we shall meet. We shall meet God in
Christ and God meets us in Christ. Just in so far as Christ has
His place, and is really our concern, not in mind, in thought and
in word only, but in action and in spirit, so shall we find the
Lord.
That is a great general truth
which sums up and comprehends the whole Bible as a book of the
history of the ages of this world.
This little book of Ruth is a
classic illustration of that truth. We start with Bethlehem and
we end with Bethlehem. We start with God disapproving, in
judgment, not in evidence at all, not committed, and we end with
God there in fulness of blessing. Where is the end? It is Christ.
Bethlehem - Obed - Jesse - David - then a leap - and it is
Christ. All that is in this book, which is a beautiful little
gem, is really an illustration, almost a matchless illustration,
of this truth: Get on the line of Christ and everything will be
all right in the end. There may be tragedy, failure, and lots of
other things, but get on the line of Christ and the end is all
right. It comes out like a romance in the end, for all is well.
But not only is it an
illustration of this general truth which we have just enunciated.
It is an illustration of the meaning of Christ as God's way to
that happy end.
The
Reaction of God in a Dark Day
The first thing we see here is
that because of Christ God reacts to a state of spiritual
declension, weakness, breakdown, failure and tragedy. This book
contains a reaction of God in a dark day. It opens with a dark
day. We know what it was like when the Judges ruled, and all
about that period of four hundred years. It was indeed a dark
day, a day of declension, weakness, failure and spiritual tragedy
in Israel, and the opening of this book just shows how it was
working out in famine and death. But God does not leave it there.
He reacts, and He has done so again and again against those
conditions in history because He has His Son in view. It is a
good thing that God never gives up His Son and never gives up His
purpose concerning His Son. Here we see the turning of the tide.
When we open the book it is as though the tide had gone far, far
out. Everything is stark, bare, naked and unpleasant to look
upon. The tide has gone out, and then there is that oscillation
that we know when the tide is about to turn - something is going
to happen, and in this book the tide is turning. We go from here
into Samuel, the book of transition and recovery. Here in this
book the tide is turning - on what ground? What is it that
governs the turn of the tide when things have gone out just about
as far as they can go and everything seems to be lost? God has
His Son in view. The tide is always made to turn by the heavenly
government in relation to Christ. It has to be more of
Christ and not less. 'This won't do for God. Get into line with
God's end, His Son. Things may go far out and far down, and it
may look as though everything is lost; but, no, if you are on
that line, the tide is going to turn. God is going to bring it
back, and perhaps it is going to be a higher tide than ever
before.'
God is governed by His Son. We
shall only lose everything if we get off God's line on to the
line of, well, our ambitions, things, or whatever of the many
substitutes or alternatives there may be for Christ Himself; we
will lose out. Get right into line with Him and the lowest tide
will turn and come rolling up again, perhaps to cover more ground
than ever before.
The
Increase of Resurrection
That is the story of Ruth: the
turning of the tide because at the end there is One in view with
God. Note: Christ as God's way always does come back with greater
increase than ever before, for the end is not less than the
beginning, or at any time since; it is the fulness of Christ. But
Christ as God's way always comes back with this increase on the
principle of resurrection. God holds very truly to His law of
resurrection. With Him resurrection is resurrection, not
resuscitation. It is God's own act, which none other can perform.
Now this book is first a story
of death. We read the first five verses and see that there is
death in the land, death threatening everyone. This family,
afraid of death, thought to find life somewhere else, and only
found death; the husband and two sons died. Notice the words at
the end - "a restorer of life". That is the key.
This end of God is by His own mighty work of resurrection, and
with Him that is the way of Christ. You are so familiar with that
truth that I wonder if you really do sense what it means. Listen
to it again: God is the God of resurrection, Christ is the very
embodiment of that unique work of God, resurrection. Get on to
the line of Christ and you are on the line of resurrection. It
just must be so. He is the resurrection and the life. Get on to
the line of Christ and you are on the line of God in this unique
way, that is peculiarly His own way of life and power.
In Christ
Every Embargo Removed
Then, again, here is such
comfort for us. Christ as God's way means the removal of every
embargo, and the very curse itself is dismissed when you get on
the line of Christ. Ruth, the Moabitess -and you know the embargo
put upon the Moabites: "...a Moabite shall not enter
into the assembly of the Lord... for ever" (Deuteronomy
23:3). Remember, Balaam was hired by Balak, the king of Moab, to
curse Israel, and when Balaam was unable to curse directly, he
taught Israel to commit fornication. How? by marrying Moabitish
women. And here is a man, a leading man in Israel, marrying a
Moabitess under God's blessing, bringing her into the sanctuary
of God, over against the embargo! Is it not strange? How can you
account for it? Only in the words spoken to Peter from Heaven: "What
God hath cleansed, make not thou common" (Acts 10:15).
The Cross has done something. In Christ every embargo is removed,
every curse is destroyed, and there is a way into the sanctuary
of God for those who would otherwise have no way, but would meet
the judgment of God and be under the curse. Get on the way of
Christ and there is no embargo, no curse, no forbidding, no
saying 'No, never!' The way is open. There is a lot of comfort in
that, but I hasten to the last thing which I think also has a
real word of comfort.
Human
Failure Turned to Divine Glory
Christ as God's way means the
turning of human failure into divine glory. Yes, Elimelech made a
tragic mistake. He went to the land of Moab, and Moab was a
hereditary enemy of Israel, a thorn in Israel's side. Elimelech
went down there and you see what resulted, what he involved his
wife and his sons in. What a tragic mistake! What human failure!
We could say a lot about it. He knew better - or he ought to have
done. But there you are! under the stress of life - and how many
people do the wrong thing when spiritual conditions are at low
ebb! they go and do something because of the state of things in
which they find themselves. Well, we will not be too hard, but,
nevertheless, here is human frailty, human mistakes, human
weakness involving much trouble on the natural side. Is there any
one of us who can say: 'We have not made mistakes'? I do not
know. I did once hear a dear servant of God say: 'In thirty-eight
years I have never been allowed by God to make a single mistake.'
Well, I envy anyone who could truly say that! The Lord's servants
have made mistakes, and they do. Paul made mistakes. I am not one
of those who believe that Paul did not make a mistake when he
went up to Jerusalem against all advice, counsel and pleading,
and became involved in a compromise, and all the rest. Ah, but
the point is this: If our hearts are really on the line of
Christ, not on our own line for our own ends or interests, then
God over-rules our mistakes for His glory.
You see, we cut
into a Scripture with which we are so familiar. We divide it and
do not finish it - "To them that love God all
things work together for good", and there we stop. But
the rest is: "...even to them that are called
according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). What is
His purpose? It is centred in His Son. Get on the line of the
purpose of God concerning His Son and weakness, failure, mistakes
(and this is no brief for going and making mistakes and doing
wrong that good may come) are over-ruled by God for good. There
is glory at the end.
And so this story
begins with failure, breakdown, mistake, and tragic consequences
in human life, but it ends in that same family with glory, with
joy. "The restorer of life". It is on
the line of Christ, you see. Get on to that line, and with all
our faults, our failures, our mistakes and our tragedies, it will
be all right in the end because God is concerned for the glory of
His Son. If we are too, that is where we shall find Him.