Ruth 2:3

Her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz.

Gleanings in the field of Boaz

1. I learn, first, from this subject, how trouble develops character.

2. Again, I see in my text the beauty of unfaltering friendship.

3. Again, I learn from this subject that paths which open in hardship and darkness often come out in places of joy. And so it often is that a path which starts very darkly ends very brightly. When you started out for heaven, oh, how dark was the hour of conviction--how Sinai thundered, and devils tormented, and the darkness thickened! All the sins of your life pounced upon you. After a while you went into the harvest field of God’s mercy; you began to glean in the fields of Divine promise, and you had more sheaves than you could carry, as the voice of God addressed you, saying, “Blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered.” A very dark starting in conviction; a very bright ending in the pardon, and the hope, and the triumph of the gospel. So, very often, in our worldly business or in our spiritual career, we start off on a very dark path. We have to ford the river, we have to climb the mountain, we have to storm the castle; but, blessed be God! the day of rest and reward will come.

4. Again, I have to learn from my subject that events which seem to be most insignificant may be momentous. Can you imagine anything more unimportant than the coming of a poor woman from Moab to Judah? Can you imagine anything more trivial than the fact that this Ruth just happened to alight--as they say--just happened to alight on that field of Boaz? Yet all ages, all generations, have an interest in the fact. So it is in your history and in mine; events that you thought of no importance at all have been of very great moment. That casual conversation, that accidental meeting--you did not think of it again for a long while; but how it changed all the phase of your life.

5. Again, I see in my subject an illustration of the beauty of female industry.

6. Once more; I learn from my subject the value of gleanings. It is all the straws that make the harvest, it is the pence that make the pound, and it is all the opportunities of doing good that make a life of usefulness if rightly employed. Elihu Burritt learned many things while toiling in a blacksmith’s shop. Abercrombie, the world-renowned philosopher, was a philosopher in Scotland, and he got his philosophy, or the chief part of it, while as a physician he was waiting for the door of the sick-room to open. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

Great issues out of little things

It was strikingly remarked by Pascal that “if the nose of Cleopatra had been a little longer or shorter it would have changed the history of the world.” The cackling of geese once saved Rome. An apple failing from a tree suggested to Sir Isaac Newton that great law by which he unlocked the mysteries of the starry firmament and shed a new light on the whole creation of God. The lifting of the lid of a common tea-kettle by the steam generated within it set James Watt upon a train of thought that led to the invention of a steam-engine, which has revolutionised our whole manufacturing industry and multiplied human intercourse a thousandfold. A reed of an unknown species, borne to the feet of Columbus by the Atlantic wave awakened in his mind the conjecture that there must be another continent; and this issued at length in the discovery of America. A little bird, flying from the mouth of the cave in which Mohammed is concealed, misleads the soldiers that are seeking his destruction; and this influences the character of religion and the history of our race for many centuries over the larger portion of the earth. Pharaoh’s daughter, coming down to the waters of the Nile to bathe, finds a smiling infant in its floating cradle among the bulrushes, and becomes God’s unconscious instrument in saving the life of one who is to deliver a nation from cruel bondage, to ascend Sinai and speak with God, and to conduct the million hosts of the chosen people, amid miracle and wonder, to the borders of the promised land. Ruth’s “hap is to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz”; and this eventually raises the poor stranger to affluence, and brings her name into the golden genealogy of the Saviour of men. (A. Thomson, D. D.)

The stranger in the harvest field

1. We see how God raises up friends for His people if they really need them. If you are poor, perhaps you could tell how, when times were hard the Lord has sent you a friend in your distress. Or, in some gloomy hour, when your heart has been ready to burst with inward grief, some kind Christian friend has called upon you, into whose ear you made bold to pour all your troubles, and found unspeakable relief.

2. We may learn, too, from this part of Ruth’s history, what a happy thing it is to put ourselves under the shelter of God’s care. Happy, happy, those who are thus dwelling “in the secret place of the Most High, and abiding under the shadow of the Almighty,” who can say, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him will I trust.”(Bp. Oxenden.)