James 4:1,2 – “The Victory of Faith”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹Where [do] wars and where [do] battles among you [come] from? [Do they] not [come] from here – out of your pleasures which are soldiering among your members? ²You lust and do not have; you murder and covet and are not able to obtain; you battle and war; you do not have because you do not ask.

As I have read a number of commentaries on these verses, the biggest thing that surprises me (but shouldn’t) is how practically everyone turns this into a “those bad people out there” passage. Practically everyone throws up this lustful, murderous, discontent, prayerless villain and concludes with “Shame on them!” Seriously??? How can anyone not see that James is talking about us! This is not some villain “out there.” He’s talking about the villain in me!

Sometimes I wonder if this isn’t at the root of why so much preaching does so little good. If the man behind the pulpit doesn’t see his own face in the mirror, if he can’t see the villain inside himself – this lustful, murderous, discontent, prayerless villain – then it is highly unlikely he’ll help anyone else see the villain in them. Reminds me of Jeremiah 8:11: “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.” The problem is that it is serious! I am of my father the devil and the lusts of my father I will do. He was a murderer and a liar from the beginning and I’ll be just like him unless the wonderful grace of Jesus invades and conquers my heart! Any victory of love and peace that He wins in this black heart is nothing short of a miracle. He isn’t just a nice addition to my life; He is my life. My hope. My help. My strength. My peace. My rock. My refuge. The villain in James 4:1-2 is me. And it takes the Hero of Grace to allow me to see it and then rescue me from it. No one less. God deliver me from me.

Hopefully having convinced anyone reading this that he’s talking about us – we shall move on.

James brought up at the end of chapter 3 the wonderful business of peace, then opens chapter 4 pondering why there is so little of it. “What causes all these fights and quarrels in your life?” He then gives the answer we all should be all too aware of  -- they come from the lusts that are actually battling inside of me. In verse 2, he expands on this problem for the very purpose of helping us see just how bad it is. What he tells us is that we humans are so driven by our lusts that we actually turn murderous . Here again the Lord would have us “beware our wanter.” At the very, very deep root of our sin problem is exactly this – our wanter. He warns us in I John 2:15,16 that our natural bent is to lust after pleasures, possessions, and applause (lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life) and it is those very things which rob us of our love for the Father. In II Peter 1:4 He warns us we have need to escape the “corruption in the world caused by lusts.” It is literally our wanter that ruins us, and that is precisely what James is trying to help us see.

Realizing all of this only helps us to see just how badly we need the Lord in our life and very specifically how true it is that “Faith is the victory.” There in II Peter 1, the particular weapon He has given us in order to escape the “corruption in the world caused by lust” is “His very great and precious promises!”  What can possibly conquer this evil, murderous wanter inside of us? Faith. Faith in very great and precious promises. Yes, I “want” things, but what if I had a God I could trust to provide them? What if way down deep, way down at the very root of my “wanting,” what if I could be convinced that the Lord will provide everything that is really, truly best for me? What difference would that make? All of a sudden, I’m not driven any more. I don’t need to be murderous. I can have peace.

Is not this very matter at the root of Jesus’ words: “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matt 6:31-33).

Jesus is calling us to truly believe way down deep in our hearts that the Lord will provide. He is saying that “the pagans run after these things” – they are driven by their wanter and they have no one to trust. They have no assurance at all that they won’t end up destitute and starving – so they must take it all upon themselves to get whatever it is they want and need. They must do whatever it takes to make sure they get their piece of the pie. But, again, that is because they have no one to trust. But we do.

Faith is the victory. We have very great and precious promises to rest our weary hearts upon. “Delight thyself in the Lord and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Psalm 37:4).

This is probably precisely why at the end of verse 2, James says, “You have not, because you ask not.” And why wouldn’t we ask? Why wouldn’t we remember to ask of God? Because our wanter is in motion rather than our faith. I like what Albert Barnes said: “The true way of obtaining anything which we really need is to seek it from God by prayer, and then to make use of just and fair means of obtaining it, by industry and honesty, and by a due regard for the rights of others. Thus sought, we shall obtain it if it would be for our good; if it is withheld, it will be because it is best for us that is should not be ours.”

That is a wonderful truth – but can you see that it is useless without faith? “We shall obtain it if it would be for our good …” Therein, I would suggest is exactly where the rub occurs. I might not get it. I want it. I may want it very badly. Rather than letting my wanter drive me, I need to simply trust God to provide it. But what if He doesn’t??? Here is the very point where I need to live my life with open hands and here is the very point I must know the Lord as my wonderful, wise, loving Father, whom I am assured will in fact provide for me all that really is good and best.

Faith really is the victory – faith in a Savior whose plans are to do us “good and not evil all the days of our lives, to give us a future and a hope.”

Lord, I have a dark evil heart. James is talking about me. But You said “Where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound.” May Your amazing grace conquer my evil heart at those very moments when my wanter would take the reins. May Your love be my hope and, in it, may You give me the victory of faith. And may the wonderful freedom of faith be the portion of my family and my friends.

James 4:1 – “Freedom”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹Where [do] wars and where [do] battles among you [come] from? [Do they] not [come] from here – out of your pleasures which are soldiering among your members?

Well, it’s time to get back to James. As I think I noted back in chapter 3, this is one of those places where I’m afraid the chapter division is misleading. The fact that we’ve “moved on” to chapter 4 implies that James is taking up a new subject. I don’t think so. He just got done comparing the effects of worldly wisdom versus heavenly wisdom and concluded with the profound statement, “The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by ones making peace.” He now asks the question, “Where do all these wars and battles among us come from?” Peace is a wonderful thing – why do we see so little of it?

I think it notable to consider to whom James is speaking. There are a lot of opinions but I find it really hard to believe he’s speaking to anyone but believers. They are particularly Jewish believers but believers nonetheless. The book is addressed (1:1) “to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations” and then to (2:1) “my brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ ...” In 5:14, he will say, “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church …” Whatever James says is applying specifically to believers and he is talking about what goes on in their lives, in their relationships in their families and their churches.

This is important because he isn’t necessarily talking about international politics or corporate policies. It is hermeneutically indefensible to use this passage to promote pacifism. One may maintain it is true that all wars and battles, even internationally, are the result of lusts and therefore wrong. But that would be an extrapolation from this passage, which is specifically addressing believers in their relationships with one another. In fact, the Lord Himself specifically says that governments “do not bear the sword in vain,” and that one of their legitimate functions is to protect their people (Romans 13:4). Nowhere was this legitimate function of government ever seen more clearly than in World War II. Both Germany and Japan had evil intentions to cruelly dominate the entire world and they would have succeeded had not our government risen up and fought against them. Not one bomb was ever dropped on the continental United States, not one bullet fired here, but only because there was literally a human wall that stood between them and us. To take this passage and any other and teach that all war is wrong would be to rob our government and our military of this very important and necessary service.

It is also important to note James is speaking to believers because he really is speaking to believers when he asks this question, “From whence come wars and fightings among you?” Yes, it is true. Wars and fightings go on between believers and in churches. Anyone who’s been a Christian for more than ten or twenty seconds won’t find that statement incredible. American churches in particular are typically consumed with their own wars and fights, much to their utter disgrace in the community. Believers are often known, not for their love to one another (John 13:35), but rather for their constant and bitter feuding.

I would suggest part of the problem is that “religion” brings out a supposed sense of “right” that we think needs to be defended. When believers are embroiled in their in-fighting either side will be quite sure they’re “right.” If they hear James ask, “Where are these wars and battles coming from?” they would reply, “From our zeal for the Lord!” Johnstone noted, “For a century and a half after the beginning of the Reformation, almost every war in Europe, whether civil or international, was partly due, and many were due almost solely, to differences of view regarding religion.” As James already warned us, our mouths are set on fire by hell and our natural wisdom is demonic – and he’s talking about believers, and now he’s telling us that the wars and battles that go on among us have nothing to do with zeal for the Lord. They are borne of our own lusts. “The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace” … not war.

Once again, he’s not talking about international politics. He’s talking about you and me. And as the Lord always does, he reduces the battle to one very important front: our hearts. “Where do wars and battles among you come from?” Good question. Where do they come from? “From the lusts that war in your members” – from inside each one of us. Jay Adams said, “The reason why you quarrel with others at home or in the church in an unnecessary, sinful way is because you and/or they have lost the battle within.”

This may sound delirious, but I think this is actually one of the most liberating truths the Lord has ever taught me – that I am my own problem. It’s so easy and may seem  desirable to see our problems coming from a million different sources, but the problem with all those things is there’s usually nothing I can do about it. If the problem is me, then with the Lord’s help, all I need to do is see it and change it. That to me is enormously hopeful. Along the same lines, the other thing I find gloriously liberating is realizing everything comes down to a love problem. All that matters at all is that I love God and people. So no matter the problem, no matter how it affects me, if somehow I can see where and how I can still love God and others, I will find the only solution that really matters!

The truth that I am my problem He has taught me before and I have been wrestling with for years. But lately and looking at James, I am seeing something I haven’t seen before: sometimes after I think I’ve handled my part of a conflict I walk away thinking to myself that the other person still has issues – and those issues of theirs still bother me. But why? Why do their issues bother me? Actually it is still because I have issues! I may want to say, “Well, but it’s just plain wrong what they’re doing.” And that may be true. But what am I saying? Am I saying that I just have this really keen sense of right and wrong, that I am some kind of champion of the right, that I’m some kind of noble upholder of justice and peace? Yeah, Don, give me a break. What James is saying is still true – that the real source of the “trouble” for me is still something in me. The truth is their issues bother me because I still have issues. The problem for me is still arising from “the lusts which are soldiering in my members.”

Once again, someone else may think I’m daffy, but I find that gloriously liberating. With the Lord’s help, I can fight me. With His help, I can love. If the real battle is entirely within me, then between me and the Lord, we can fight it. To say it is in any way someone else’s fault makes me a helpless and hapless victim. I don’t want to be a victim. I want to be free – even if it is the freedom to see that my problems are something in the end totally inside of me … and even if, in the end that means letting other people have their issues, letting them off “scot-free,” so to speak.

Where do the wars and fightings in my life come from? Really they come from inside of me. And sitting in the Lord’s lap, with His big strong arms around me, I know I can handle me. I can enjoy love and peace because He gives me the victory. He has before and He will again. Now that’s freedom! What an Immanuel gift!

Ruth 4:13-22 – “The Big Take-Away”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹³And Boaz took Ruth to be to him to wife and he came in to her and YHVH gave to her conception and she bore a son. ¹⁴And the women said to Naomi, “Praise be to YHVH, who has not caused to fail to you a kinsman-redeemer today. May his name be called in Israel, ¹⁵and he will be to you a restorer of soul and to supporting your old age, because your daughter-in-law, who loves you, has borne him, which she [is] a good to you from seven sons.” ¹⁶And Naomi took the child and she set him in her bosom and she became to him a nurse. ¹⁷And the women neighbors called to him a name saying, “A son has been borne to Naomi,” and they called his name Obed. He [was]…²²the father of Jesse, the father of David.

As I come to the end of the book, I don’t think I’ll note anything about the final genealogy. What is most significant, I think, is that it completes the book with all converging in the birth of David, and through him, of course, ultimately Jesus Himself. There is a wide variety of research and discussion about the list of names, time period covered, etc., but no defensible conclusions, so I think I just won’t spend much time on it.

I’d rather think about what someone called “the big take-away.” Obviously one could conclude the whole point of the book was to trace the genealogy of King David, but I would debate that position for at least a couple of reasons: First of all, if the whole point was simply to trace David’s ancestry, why present it in a story? Genealogies in and of themselves are a legitimate way of confirming lineage. That happens all the time and we even see that very activity in Neh. 7:64 where “These searched for their family records, but they could not find them so they were excluded from the priesthood.” It was the records themselves and not a four-chapter long story that either confirmed or failed to confirm ancestry. So I don’t think it at all defensible to hold the whole point of the book was to present the lineage of David, as important as that may be.

The second reason I cannot accept that position is that “All these things were written for our admonition” (I Cor 10:11).  The Bible is a book of discipleship. The whole Bible from cover to cover was written to illustrate for us what faith looks like and what it does not. Even if the point of the book of Ruth is ultimately to present David’s lineage, yet the Lord always records those things in a way where we can follow the lives of the people and learn ourselves how to walk with God. The Bible is always answering the question, “How shall we then live?” and always saying to us, “Here is the way. Walk ye in it.”

And so I would suggest the “big take-away” is always about our lives, about teaching us what it means to love God and love people. That being said, the book of Ruth is a bombshell of very, very encouraging and helpful truth. I say that because it allows us to see intimately into the very simple day-to-day lives of a group of believers who face all the heartaches, uncertainties, fears, hopes, joys, and blessings the rest of us share and yet show us what real integrity means.

The “big take-away” I would like to suggest is that it really is true that “all things work together for good to them that love God,” that it really is true when the Lord says to us, “Fear not, I am with thee,” when He says, “For I know the plans that I have for you, plans to do you good and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope.” The book opens in almost unbelievable hopelessness and yet, here we are at the end with Ruth married and Naomi holding a baby in her arms. The Lord, of course, knew it all along, but just like us, Naomi and Ruth suffered in the dark, as it were, with no idea how it could possibly turn out well. The book teaches us to trust God no matter what. He is always up to our good. Even as we suffer He’s giving us a Ruth. And even though faith takes us to sometimes strange and scary places, the Lord has a Boaz waiting for us there. And beyond that, the book reminds us that His plans sometimes go far beyond us. We never know when we might have a great-grandson David or find ourselves in the line of the very Messiah Himself!

The “end of the story” for Naomi and Ruth is the same end we will see one day:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!

We need to be like Ruth and simply trust the Lord and “under His wings to take refuge.” We need, like her, to make love and faithfulness our greatest virtues and let the Lord be the One who pulls it all together for our good. We need to trust Him no matter what!

Another thing that Ruth teaches us is that, even in the darkest days, the Lord still has His people. The book is set in the hopeless dark days of the Judges. And yet we meet in this book a whole group of Israelites who greet each other at work, “The Lord bless you!” and who pray the Lord’s blessings on each other. Even in our present dark days, we need to remember that the Lord has yet reserved to Himself “7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” There are always good people out there who still trust God.

Along those same lines, the book of Ruth teaches us that there are some pretty amazing people out there. Naomi, Boaz, and Ruth are three of the most exemplary people you could find anywhere. Who can help but enjoy their simple love and humility and faithfulness -- Boaz’s gracious kindness, Ruth’s resolved faithfulness, and Naomi’s constant selflessness? And probably what tickles me the most is that it’s all seen not on some stage, not in front of a big church group, but simply in their everyday workaday world – exactly where our faith ought to shine the brightest.

One interesting thought is to compare this book to our other “young woman” book, Esther. In Ruth, we see the Lord intimately involved in the very simple everyday lives of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz. In Esther, He isn’t mentioned even once. Esther is set in the very palace that was ruling the civilized world and yet the Lord isn’t even mentioned in the entire book. In Esther we see His hand at work, without being told specifically it was Him doing it. I wonder why that is? I wonder if the Lord wrote the two books to give us hope that sometimes in our troubles, He will be very present and visible, while other times it seems we cannot see Him at all – yet, in either case, He is always still there with His “plans to do us good and not to harm us.” And He will be up to that good whether we find ourselves in a palace or scratching in the dirt. Whether everyone around us acknowledges Him or whether they don’t even mention His name, He’s still there.

I guess with that, I have to say good-bye to my three friends. It sure has been a blessing to walk with them for a while. I feel like I’ve been with Jesus Himself. It’s been an exceptional blessing to see real faith lived out in such simple lives. I hope the Lord has deeply imprinted their character in my brain and I hope it makes me more like them. Most of all, I hope it helps me to remember “the big take-away” – trust the Lord, … no matter what!

Ruth 4:13-17 – “What ‘Counts’”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹³And Boaz took Ruth to be to him to wife and he came in to her and YHVH gave to her conception and she bore a son. ¹⁴And the women said to Naomi, “Praise be to YHVH, who has not caused to fail to you a kinsman-redeemer today. May his name be called in Israel, ¹⁵and he will be to you a restorer of soul and to supporting your old age, because your daughter-in-law, who loves you, has borne him, which she [is] a good to you from seven sons.” ¹⁶And Naomi took the child and she set him in her bosom and she became to him a nurse. ¹⁷And the women neighbors called to him a name saying, “A son has been borne to Naomi,” and they called his name Obed. He [was] the father of Jesse, the father of David.

I am coming to the end of this book and want to record some thoughts of what I see looking back on the entire book. Before I do that, though, there are some things in these five verses that I think bear noting.

I have lamented before that one of the perhaps unintentional and yet misguided perceptions we all seem to have is that following Christ means something big, some huge sacrifice, some “mission,” and that the commonplace, day-to-day lives that most of us live don’t really “count.” Granted there have been a few Apostle Pauls or Twelve Disciples or Mother Theresas, people called to some “great” mission. But the plain simple fact is that isn’t true of most, virtually all, people. The vast majority of God’s people will always be made up of us who simply live, who grow up, get married, raise children, work at a job or at home, who get haricuts and mow grass, who go to their children (and grandchildren’s) track meets, and simply “live.”

I believe it is gloriously liberating to realize that, from God’s perspective, all of that does “count.” When people’s plain all day everyday lives are lived in God’s presence, the fact is it is a beautiful thing. In Titus, Paul said it “adorns the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.” Read again verses 13-17 above or in your Bible. What are these verses about? Are they not about the plain, simple lives that people live every day? But are they not also singularly beautiful? And why? I would suggest to you that two things make these simple lives strikingly beautiful: God and love.

Even in the dark godless “Days of the Judges,” here before us is a community of people who hadn’t lost sight of the Lord. Everyone involved in these few verses – Boaz, Ruth, Naomi, and the neighbor women, and even back to the elders and the people gathered at the gate – sees the Lord above and through it all. “Praise be to the Lord who …” They are godly people. Dr. A. Thompson noted, “It is one of the grand aims of divine revelation to produce this state of mind [the habitual recognition of God]; and in the case of this people it evidently had produced it. Religion was an all-pervading life.… It penetrated everywhere, like the sunlight. God was beheld as the Cause of causes; His Hand was visible in every occurrence; He was a felt Presence.”

And the other thing that makes these verses beautiful is that there is so much love. Read the verses again and just notice how much love happens in just five verses! Boaz and Ruth get married and out of their love a child is conceived. The neighbor women lovingly praise the Lord on Naomi’s behalf and offer kind prayers for her new grandchild. They speak of the love they simply assume he will show his elderly grandmother, supporting her in her old age. They acknowledge Ruth’s love for Naomi and, contrary to typical Jewish exclusiveness, tell her that this Moabite girl is better to her than seven (Jewish!) sons. Then see the love of Naomi for this child. In reality he is no blood relation to Naomi at all. But she embraces him to her bosom as her own, becomes his official “nurse,” and loves him as her own. In his helpless infancy she serves him as his nurse then, in turn, in her helpless old age, he will be to her a “restorer of soul.”

So much love. So much family love. So much beautiful, simple, godly life. Would anyone not agree that the picture before us is exactly what redemption is all about? Is not redemption really about changing who we are at the very fundamental level of our everyday lives? Is it not to infuse us and all we do with love? Is it not to render us people who can be part of a community and there live a life of love, to be people who live consciously in the very presence of God, who see His divine hand in our every breath? Is not this, in this life, the great aim of redemption?

Let me offer some quotes from old writers, who lived before our modern day of disdaining faith in everyday lives:

Walter Baxendale (ca. 1878):

“Home is the most appropriate sphere for Christian usefulness. It is the place where true piety is ever tested, and false piety soonest put to the blush. It has the first claims upon the man of God, whatever his public position may be. And yet how often is this forgotten or ignored. … As master, or as servant, in the workshop and in the counting house, it is there his Christ-like character shines to best advantage; it is there, by the quiet influence which belongs to every life, the noblest testimony is borne for God. The household is hallowed, the home life consecrated, the private walks sanctified, the neighbourhood blessed by the sweet and gentle aroma of a holy and heavenly life.”

T.N. Toler (ca. 1848), speaking of Boaz’ praiseworthy and prompt attention to the promise he made to Ruth:

"Naomi, you see, had formed a correct judgment concerning Boaz. ‘The man will not rest, till he have finished the thing this day.’ To be able to place full confidence in those with whom we have to transact important affairs, to be fully satisfied respecting their integrity, ability, and energy, is a great blessing.”

When Jesus Himself wanted to illustrate faith and what it means, did He not speak about a man sowing seed, of a woman sweeping her house, of a man giving gifts to his children, a man caring for his sheep, another building a house, someone sewing a patch on a wineskin, a woman kneading yeast into a lump of dough, and so many other plain, simply all day every day kinds of lives?

Once again, I have particularly enjoyed the book of Ruth precisely for this reason – it is a simple little book about the simple all day everyday lives that godly people live; and it is a beautiful book because those people live those lives well. It’s really a book about my life and yours. All day everyday I should be a Naomi who sees the Lord in every detail of her life – even to the point of struggling with that faith when it seems He’s doing everything but blessing her. I should be a Ruth whose love makes her a faithful friend and whose faith moves her to make very good decisions even in very dark hours. I should be a Boaz who infuses his very work with love, kindness, diligence, manliness, and integrity. I should be like the elders and people and “neighbor women” who are quick to acknowledge the Lord’s blessings in others’ lives, to offer prayers of well-wishes, and simply to be “supportive” as others live their lives.

So much love. So much godliness. So much beautiful. And all that in the simple all day everyday lives of simple people. May this be our faith. And may we all be encouraged that our simple lives do “count” in the eyes of God – who wrote this very book for us!

Ruth 4:13 – “Treasure Chest”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of this verse:

¹³And Boaz took Ruth to be to him to wife and he came in to her and YHVH gave to her conception and she bore a son.

This is another verse that is easy to read and say, “Awwww,” and keep reading; but I think if one stops to ponder it a while, it is full of encouraging truth. As I thought about it and read the thoughts of others who’ve gone before me, I learned a number of things I don’t want to forget! This one verse is a treasure chest of truth to help us!

First of all, was there ever a more deserving couple than these two? They so deserve each other. Boaz was a wealthy man living in the days of the judges, when “every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” One has only to read through the book of Judges to realize what a disgusting moral pit into which Israel had fallen. Yet in spite of all that, Boaz had resolved to be a godly man, a man of genuine integrity. Then on the other hand, there is poor Ruth. She was a young woman who suffered so much. Yet in spite of all the utter hopelessness of her life she chose to put her trust in the God of Israel, to be a virtuous woman even in abject poverty. Boaz chose to trust God in spite of his wealth; Ruth chose to trust Him in spite of her poverty; and the Lord gave them to each other! For richer, for poorer, they trusted God and He blessed them for it.

Another thing I observe is that Ruth is clearly an illustration of Jesus’ words, “I tell you the truth, no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life” (Mark 18:29,30). Ruth chose to forsake all to follow Christ and she found it true, “Delight thyself in the Lord and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Psalm 37:4). Ruth left everything to trust God and He gave her “beauty for her ashes.” Oh that I could never forget the Lord is kind beyond my wildest imagination. I need only fall trusting into His everlasting arms and again and again and again He has blessed me far “beyond anything I could ask or think.” Lord give me Ruth’s heart for You!

See too how our prayers for others may come back to bless us in unexpected ways. This wealthy Boaz had once prayed over this impoverished widow, “May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge” (2:12). He prayed that prayer in pure kindness, sincerely wishing well for this needy girl, never dreaming that he himself would become God’s instrument to fulfill it. That day he had done all he could personally to see it fulfilled, allowing her to reap in his fields, urging her to stay in his fields through the entire harvest, commanding his men to treat her with respect, providing water for her to drink and food to eat. But those few fishes and loaves of kindness the Lord took and blessed and multiplied and suddenly Boaz finds her in his arms, his wife, and bearing him a son. Someone has said prayer makes us participants in God’s great plans and, like Boaz, while we pray for others, sometimes it is we who receive the greatest blessing!

Then notice too that suddenly Ruth has command over the very servants she had worked beside! The Bible says, “He raises the poor from the dust … and seats them with princes,” (Psalm 113:8). One thing I have learned from life is to build relationships with everyone, to treat people kindly no matter whether they seem to hold any “importance” or not. It is surprising how often this very thing happens. Working as an engineer, I go into wastewater treatment plants and usually work directly with whoever is the superintendent. But in the course of things, I end up one way or another working with their operators. I have sincerely tried to treat those fellows and gals with respect and many, many times, all of a sudden one day the old superintendent is gone and one of those operators is in charge! Boy am I glad then I had treated them well! Of course I should treat them well just because they are human beings,  but I would never have guessed as a young man how often that kindness would come back to bless me! It is certainly true that the Lord “raises the poor from the dust!” I’ll bet there were a few servants who were suddenly glad they had been kind to Ruth! And I’ll also bet there were a few who were embarrassed to realize things they’d said and done and now this girl is their master’s wife! Godliness really is great gain!

Another thing that one of the old commentators noted is that we are reminded in this one verse how it is the Lord who holds the keys. “The Lord gave her conception.” Oh that we could never forget that He is the Great Cause. It is ultimately Him who makes all things happen. We live in a world ruled by very predictable laws and filled with people who imagine they can “make it happen” – whatever that may be. And to some extent it is true. Certainly when you throw a ball in the air it will come back down and when a young man takes a young woman in his arms there is a good chance a baby will result. It’s “just natural.” And yet it isn’t, and many a couple has found what’s “natural” doesn’t always come so easily. A Christian doctor once told me, “I can put all the parts together, but it is God who has to do the healing.” May we depend on Him for the most seemingly minute and “natural” details of our lives, believing that it is Him who holds the keys. He holds them in great kindness but He holds them!

Lastly, and someone called this “the big takeaway” from this book, this verse reminds us never to despair in the darkness. From the very beginning of this book we saw people wrestling in the dark, starting with an awful famine and a family feeling they had no choice but to leave their home, to heart-wrenching funerals of a woman’s husband and then both her sons, to Ruth’s trusting plunge into a world of utter hopelessness. And yet, through it all, the Lord knew He’d write chapter 4, verse 13! Ruth reminds us He is the Great Cause, but she also reminds us “the Lord is good.” No matter how dark our world may appear today, may we remember that the Lord is working it all together to do us good. Let us go on trusting, go on loving and know that He has a 4:13 planned for our lives as well!

What a treasure chest!