GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
RUTH 3:16b-18
Then Ruth told her everything that the man had done for her. 17 She said, “He gave me these six measures of barley. He said, ‘Don’t go empty-handed to your mother-in-law.’” 18 Then Naomi said, “Wait patiently, my daughter, until you know how this turns out. The man will not rest until he has settled the matter today.”
The adverb reqam (רֵיקָם, rhymes with “stay calm”) means “emptily,” a turn of phrase that isn’t the way we usually speak. We would say “empty-handed.” The word chosen by Boaz and now repeated by Ruth is key to the whole story. Naomi was emptied, item by item, until she felt that she had nothing at all left. The famine caused her to leave behind her family and friends. The her husband died, leaving her with her two sons in a foreign land. They married, but then the sons died, too. Then her daughter-in-law Orpah left. Naomi was almost entirely empty.
As Ruth retold her story to the excited Naomi, she retold his words, sentence by sentence. The statement, “Don’t go back to Naomi emptily” resounded in the little house. Naomi was no longer being emptied by the Lord. Now she was beginning to be refilled, and these six measures of barley were just the beginning. They would have put the measures into containers (they couldn’t just leave it all in Ruth’s shawl), and perhaps Naomi thought of each measured container as a promise: One for leaving Bethlehem. Another for losing Elimelech, her husband. A third for poor Mahlon, Ruth’s husband. A fourth for Kilion, and a fifth for Kilion’s widow, Orpah, who stayed in Moab. “And the sixth, hamot?” Ruth might have asked, using the affectionate term for mother-in-law. “The sixth is a promise of a baby to come!” The two women would have laughed—and laughing was something Naomi hadn’t done in a long time. A very long time.
That was the promise, but they had to wait out the morning, to see what Boaz would do. Would the other kinsman choose to redeem Ruth? If so, it was God’s will. But she hoped that Boaz would be able to marry her. He was already looking after her. She was already under the shelter of his wings.
Those women were blessed. God was watching out for them, and God’s servant, Boaz, was pursuing the matter and would not rest until it was settled. And on top of it all, they recognized God’s hand at work. How blessed we are to know that God’s work in our lives is no secret; that he wants us to see his redemption. His will is not that we will be empty, but “filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:11). And you are filled with the same fruit of righteousness. Let Jesus’ victory equip you with everything good for doing his will, since our service to God gives him thanks for what Jesus has already accomplished.
You are filled with the Easter victory! Christ has risen, and we will rise, too.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota