Introduction

Taken from the book, Reflections on the Book of Ruth, by A. B. Saint

The great literary authority of the 18th century was a man by the name of Dr. Samuel Johnson. It is said that in a London club he introduced a reading which he read to his friends. He did not divulge the fact that it was indeed taken from Scripture but led them to believe he had just lately met with it. Settling down to listen, his hearers therefore assumed it had just been composed. After the reading there was much applause as they offered much praise for its simplicity and beauty. It was only then that Dr. Johnson informed them that it was the story of Ruth which he read to them, taken from a book which they despised. He had read to them from the Bible. 

Over the centuries the ground in which the book of Ruth is set has been well worked as would one a field. In point of fact, the story is set against a backdrop of agricultural scenes. It is all to do with Rural Life. It is full of open-air scenes. Read on into the narrative and you will find yourself out in the open-air with the wind in your face and the sun beating down upon you. Read this simple but profound narrative and you will find yourself going back in time, back to nature, and enjoying albeit a hard way at times, a simpler way of life. No grocery stores in those days, for if you didn’t sow your seeds you didn’t reap a harvest. 

This book is peppered with those agricultural terms for us rich in type and symbolism, such as the time of seed sowing and the time of reaping and bringing home the harvest. In these passages of Scripture, you are met with both the reaper and the gleaner. The reaper goes out first and with his scythe or sickle in his hand gathers in those much needed sheaves of corn known as the harvest yield, whereas the gleaner follows behind and harvests what grain has been left behind.  

If you recall, the Lord revealed to Moses that the corners of the fields were not to be wholly reaped, just as in the vineyard not every grape was to be gathered in but left for the poor and the stranger. Did you know this custom still goes on even today in some parts of the world?

The book makes reference to the barley harvest also known as the Passover harvest because of the time of its yield. In type it is a picture of the Paschal Lamb and the Salvation He brings. The barley harvest always preceded the wheat harvest by several weeks. Then comes the wheat harvest indicative of that season of Pentecost announcing the time of the infilling of believers.

The work of winnowing is spoken of, where the wheat was either reaped by the sickle or pulled up by the roots. It was then bound into glorious golden sheaves of corn and either carried manually or loaded into carts where it was transported and taken to the threshing floor and at a time when it was free from rain, was winnowed by a fan or broad shovel which threw the grain high up into the air where all the strawy bits were blown away by the wind. 

That circular spot familiarly known as the threshing floor comes into view in the book of Ruth, symbolically seen or known as the place of separation, judgement, and chastening. In type this is where most often the perfecting of the saints is done. Here is where the chaff will be removed. It is here where the process of the stripping away of the flesh is outworked. The bible is a spiritual book. It is a Living Word which speaks to those who will read and hear. What did our Lord say: “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”  Matthew chapter 11 verse 15.

Secondly, it is also a book about Relationships for each character introduced to us has a story to tell. Completing the picture, it is a story about Romance, Redemption, Restoration and Rest. What begins with famine ends in fruitfulness and what begins with restlessness ends in rest.

Taken from the book, Reflections on the Book of Ruth, by A. B. Saint