Poul Madsen
THE BOOK OF RUTH
THE significance of the story of Ruth lies in the fact that it tells of happenings during those distressing days when the Judges ruled. From time to time during that era God brought help to His people through these individuals who did their specific tasks by faith but who mostly proved faulty characters whose work was limited in its duration.
Apart from the inspiring and admirable Deborah, I do not find among the great judges those qualities of character that I could wish to see. In certain points I can look up to them. They were brave when the Lord sent them. They were active in the tasks committed to them. But as regards holiness and likeness to the Lord, they seem to me to have proved sadly lacking. We are told that it was by faith that they accomplished their great deeds, but we feel that their personal relationship to the Lord tended to remain superficial.
We turn from the book of Judges to this little book and here we encounter three unheroic characters, Boaz, Naomi and Ruth, who came to no prominence but were "the quiet in the land" (Psalm 35:20). Their story is recorded in the Holy Scriptures because, in the long run, theirs was the most significant and lasting service to God and to His people. From their lineage came the king David and later great David's greater Son. Their story gives us the other side of the book of Judges and it shows how God answered the cry of Israel not only by giving them those who became public figures by their acts of deliverance, but by sending them -- even from Moab -- those who could be described as the quiet in the land.
These very ordinary people were not great figures in their own lifetime, but God has kept their record for posterity: they were hidden from the eyes of men but they counted much for Him. And so it is today. I am sure that there are modest saints here in Denmark who count more for the Lord than some of us who are on the platform and in the public eye. I think of some farmers or business men who resemble Boaz in that nobody publicises them, but their names and their godly behaviour arc recorded in the heavenly books. There are unrecognised devoted women who will be found to have meant much to God's purposes when the final story is told.
