Ruth 2:12: “The LORD repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.”

May 7th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Ruth had surrendered herself to God in the first chapter. This verse in chapter 2 was a prayer, or a blessing, spoken over Ruth by Boaz, her kinsmen. It acknowledged that the rewards in her life were from the hand of God, and were a result of her surrendering to Him. How often do we stop to consider this truth for those who have surrendered to Him? Once we surrender to Him, then everything, everything, we have is from His hand. Oswald Chambers said it this way:

Once this is done [surrendering], the remainder of your life will exhibit nothing but the evidence of this surrender, and you never need to be concerned again with what the future may hold for you. Whatever your circumstances may be, Jesus is totally sufficient.

Boaz also used a familiar picture of God’s protection found in the psalms to assure Ruth that God was taking care of her. “Under whose wings” is a picture of safety and refuge:

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me!
For my soul trusts in You;
And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge,
Until these calamities have passed by. (Psalm 57:1)

There is an enormous gap between what we think we can do and what God calls us to do in His kingdom. Our ideas of what we can do for Him, or even what we want to do for Him, are trivial and insignificant in comparison to God’s ideas for us, which are huge and completely beyond our ability to accomplish. This fact helps us, when God’s desired results come about, to be only slightly tempted to take the credit ourselves because we remember that it was impossible for us to have accomplished it on our own.

“LORD, have Your way in us today. Do Your work as You see fit; we surrender afresh to Your direction and will.”

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Ruth 2 KJV

¹ And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.  ² And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter. ³ And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech. ⁴ And, behold, Boaz came from Beth-lehem, and said unto the reapers, The LORD be with you. And they answered him, The LORD bless thee  ⁵ Then said Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers, Whose damsel is this? ⁶ And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, It is the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab: ⁷ And she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves: so she came, and hath continued even from the morning until now, that she tarried a little in the house. ⁸ Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens: ⁹ Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them: have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? and when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn. ¹⁰ Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger? ¹¹ And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore. ¹² The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust. ¹³ Then she said, Let me find favour in thy sight, my lord; for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens.   ¹⁴ And Boaz said unto her, At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn , and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left. ¹⁵ And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not:  ¹⁶ And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them , that she may glean them , and rebuke her not. ¹⁷ So she gleaned in the field until even, and beat out that she had gleaned: and it was about an ephah of barley. ¹⁸ And she took it up, and went into the city: and her mother in law saw what she had gleaned: and she brought forth, and gave to her that she had reserved after she was sufficed. ¹⁹And her mother in law said unto her, Where hast thou gleaned to day? and where wroughtest thou? blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee. And she shewed her mother in law with whom she had wrought, and said, The man’s name with whom I wrought to day is Boaz. ²⁰ And Naomi said unto her daughter in law, Blessed be he of the LORD, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen.  ²¹ And Ruth the Moabitess said, He said unto me also, Thou shalt keep fast by my young men, until they have ended all my harvest. ²² And Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter in law, It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other field.  ²³ So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and dwelt with her mother in law.