LIFE ON THE ALTAR

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

Chapter 5

So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her,
which returned out of the country of Moab:
 and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of the barley harvest.
Ruth 1: 22

Even being an invisible third party in this story we must conclude that it was with some mixed feelings, even perhaps with a little foreboding, that Naomi and her young companion reached their final destination and entered into the city of Bethlehem. But actually, as we ourselves know, their steps will bode well for them, but Naomi at this time does not realise this, for the future is yet veiled. 

Causing quite a stir it would seem, they entered the city, and Naomi saw both familiar as well as some unknown faces looking back at her. People tell us that ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder but too much of it makes it wander,’ but it would suggest in her case that the ten years she was away was not too long for her memory to be forgotten by those who knew her.

In the greater scheme of things ten years is not a long time. In the space of a normal or usual lifetime, ten years is nothing and yet in those ten years disaster can strike which of course it did for this pious woman. Naomi was now returning home as a pilgrim. She must have kept something of a bright testimony even in pagan Moab for Ruth to exclaim: “Thy God shall be my God.” However, life brings its changes with it and none more so than for poor Naomi.

I usually read from the King James version of the Holy Scriptures, but some bible renditions imply that amongst the mixed gathering, it was actually the womenfolk who cried out: “Is this Naomi?” Was their cry only one of surprise at seeing her after such a long time, or had hardship and sorrow etched such lines upon her face and altered her appearance that it caused them to ask such a thing? Hopefully, none chided with her for the choices her husband had made, and I concur that we also should never berate anyone unless we ourselves have walked in their shoes.   

Had she not gone through enough? Even she herself says: “I went out full and the Lord hath brought me home empty.” She recognised she was home but minus those who made up her own personal domestic scene, her beloved family. Not one thing did she seek to hide from those who gathered around her as she poured out her complaint of how the Lord had dealt bitterly with her in that when she had departed ten years earlier to that place which was called Moab, nothing had gone right and now she was bereft of both Elimelech and her two boys.  

At that time in Jewish history, it was often seen that an early death was in itself nothing more than the result of a judgement from God. Refusing to be called Naomi which means ‘pleasant’ her request goes forth that from now on she is to be known as Mara which means ‘bitter.’ At this point in her history, she was still suffering from anguish of soul. Apart from her daughter-in- law Ruth, her little world had collapsed around about her.

Those ten years had not added to her but had rather taken from her. To Naomi, those ten years must have been to her as those forty years in the wilderness endured by others gone before. Something had gone terribly wrong and now she felt she was paying the price. Notice however there was no bitterness in her heart towards God, rather, in one sense she was speaking in spiritual terms from the knowledge that when a soul turns its back upon the Lord and seeks to go its own way a bitterness of heart and life will accompany such actions and produce a bitter harvest in its wake.

Along with the key features of Relationship, Redemption and Rest which we find in this profound little book it is also very much about the Return. It weighs very heavily within its pages. I can well remember when first reading and becoming interested in the book of Ruth how the word ‘return’ would be highlighted over and over again to me. In point of fact, it would be difficult to miss this tiny yet thought provoking word as it appears some twelve times in the first chapter of the book.

This ‘returning’ here is seen both in the aspect of a physical return and also a spiritual return, much like the story of the Prodigal Son who one day came to his senses and returned home, not only to eat the food served in the household, but returned to enjoy fellowship again with his Father.

Naomi was now acutely aware that Moab had been a bad idea from the very beginning and was not the place to anchor herself any longer. To a great degree her season in Moab had brought her nothing but sorrow, heartbreak and loneliness in its wake and she knew she must now return to the place the family should never have left from the very beginning. Leaving the old life, she made up her mind to make the return trip to Bethlehem-Judah. Failure, desperation, and the inability to now fend for herself were some of the leading factors which brought her back home, and isn’t this often the case with us all? For the child of God, instant remedies and quick fixes are not always necessarily the way forward. In Christian terms ‘any port in a storm’ is not acceptable. Ideally in any storm or crisis we must not run away from the problem but instead run to CHRIST. 

The book of Ruth is an ancient story as we know and it holds within its pages great spiritual meaning, and even though at this point it would seem that God Himself as a Person is hidden in its pages, yet in a remarkable way through the lifetimes of ordinary people such as Naomi and Ruth, it can be seen that He is lovingly nurturing, arranging and ushering in His future plans for His people.

Of course, we do not know the day or the hour when Naomi and Ruth reached their destination, but we do know the season. Is it not true that there are seasons for everything?  The book of Ecclesiastes readily agrees with this and in chapter three we have quite a lengthy list set before us. For Naomi it was the season to move out and it just so happened that it was the beginning of the barley harvest………………

Amongst the other books which I have on my bookshelf is one by Andrew Bonar, that great Scottish theologian and close friend of the equally renowned Robert Murray McCheyne. To be honest, because of the demands of time, I haven’t yet fully immersed myself in his book on Leviticus although from time to time I have dipped my toes into the gold of its inciteful waters. I initially purchased the book because it was recommended to me by another, and from what I have read so far I am in perfect agreement that it appears to be a very good and solid read. Not everyone has a love for the book of Leviticus, maybe because it dwells heavily on the subject of God’s Holiness and man’s sin and yet contained in these same pages is the unfolding of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ shining through. Why am I at this point in our story referring us to the book of Leviticus? Well, to be honest it was the reference to the beginning of the barley harvest over in the book of Ruth which led me there. 

In the 23^rd chapter of Leviticus, God, speaking to Moses, tells him to proclaim unto the people concerning the feasts or the festivals, even holy convocations of the Lord. He begins with the Sabbath and the Rest which it brings which is a type or foreshadowing of that Rest which is found only in Christ and the Salvation which He offers through the Work of the Cross.

Bonar alludes to some who have expressed that Israel’s feasts represent the very Course of Time. What does he mean by this? Simply this, Earth’s Days from Creation right down to the Final End. He well remarks that the Passover Feast is the first to commence this Course of Time. Passover – that which represents Christ, the very Lamb of God who shed His precious blood for the sin of the whole world. The Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world forms the start and on the 8^th day of the Feast of Tabernacles, closes it.

Rest was the very thing Naomi wished and prayed for in regard to her two daughters in law. What a precious thing for her to desire for those two women she had come to love and respect, but how much more, how much greater the Rest which the Lord Jesus offers. What a beautiful invitation He offers us in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 11 and verse 28 when He cries out: “Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you Rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

This is not that Rest which follows the cessation of work, but this is that Rest which lies in the knowledge that all has been done which can be done to secure our souls and both our present and our future in the Beloved. Bonar makes, I think, a very great and profound statement in his book when he declares: “We should notice that a people delivered is essentially connected with the Passover.” How true is this! All those who say this Rest is procured by works alone is in error and knows not the truth. 

We well remember way back in Exodus chapter 12 at the time of the Passover, where the people prepared to leave Egypt with all of its bondages and prepared to move forward towards the Promised Land. Is this also not a picture of us who were slaves to sin, and did we too not recognise the very Blood of Christ, and did we not apply His Salvation which comes through His death for us upon the Cross? Did we too not make urgent haste to leave the bondage and slavery of this present world and enter into Christ’s Rest? Are we not ourselves on our way to the Promised Land? Did not Christ come down to also deliver us and is Christ not also before us on our journey heavenward?

How amazing and what perfect timing God brings about here in that these two Old Testament women arrived in Bethlehem-Judah at the beginning of the barley harvest. This was a pivotal moment in the agricultural year and the new corn was just ripening at the season which is referred to as the Passover Celebration.

This is such Passover as speaks of Redemption. In point of fact, Joshua chapter 5 and verses 10-12 readily tells us that the very first week in which the Children of Israel entered the Land of Canaan, this crop was ready to be harvested. In a similar way just as the old Israelites made their way out of Egypt with loins girt, feet shod and staff in hand, so Naomi and her younger companion Ruth entered into the harvest soon to be. Those ten plagues in Egypt must have seemed to Naomi as those ten years spent in Moab. Leaving behind dismal memories they were now ready to partake of the corn of the new land.

At the time the women entered Bethlehem-Judah, heads of corn both green and yellow were waving in the breeze. It was those which had yellow heads that were chosen to be the firstfruits. These were to be eagerly made up into a bundle and then brought to the priest who would hold the bundle high in the air and wave it before the Lord immediately following the Passover. This waving action from side to side over the land anticipated a good harvest to come.

It is interesting to note that as the Feast of Firstfruits was the third day from Passover, so did not Christ arise from the dead on the third day? Spiritually speaking, Christ is seen by us as the First Ripe sheaf, for was He not cut off and was He not raised from the dead? Was He not accepted by the Lord, and shall we not also be? The promise of the full harvest was seen in Him. Although they did not know it at that time, when Israel first entered into the Land of Canaan the first thing they did as they waved the sheaf was to herald the Resurrection of a risen Saviour! How poignantly does Bonar express this when he says:

“The Paschal Lamb in Egypt showed deliverance begun; this showed it finished!” What does 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verses 20-23 tell us: “But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward, they that are Christ’s at His Coming.”

It was to be a new day for Naomi and Ruth, from now on blessings would begin to pour upon these two souls. Naomi, jaded and backslidden, feeling that God did not love her anymore and had actually abandoned her weighed heavily upon her. She felt the effects which came from dwelling for so long in a strange land, and feeling out of step with her Lord had caused her to grow weary. At this point a question must be asked. Who amongst us has not at times felt like this woman only to find that God has not departed from us but with loving arms has reached out to us? It was never in the plan of God that Naomi was to make the return journey home alone, for God had prepared a companion to travel with her, and what a companion Ruth proved to be. Moab now behind her, Ruth was now also a seeker of heavenly things. Resting now in the House of Bread they could now eat the new corn of the Land. 

THOT: There is something to be said about coming home isn’t there?

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