Ruth Amy Denham
Sept. 4, 1993
If we truly hunger after Him, we will have a desire to win His heart. There is a love that few Christian ever experience. It is an affectionate love with Christ such as occurs between husband and wife. The Bride of Christ will consist of a holy people who long to be so pleasing to their Lord, and who live so obediently and so separated from all other things, that Christ’s heart will be ravished by them.
The symbolic love between husband and wife is expressed in the book of Ruth. It teaches us a great deal about the way we are fed by seeking to win His heart.
Ruth 1:1 “There was a famine in the land” or an absence of God’s presence, and a hungering for the true Bread of God. Moab was a place of idolatry, and a seat of the scornful. Some believers have resided
in a contemporary Moab—a place of coldness, worldly pleasure and success.
Yet, a hungry remnant has pressed onward for more of God.
Naomi pictured the gospel of grace: suffering, self-denial, and the cross. The decision for the younger women to follow her would require more than mere words and emotions. Orpah was torn between two
loves, she wanted to go on but she had not cut the ties with Moab. She would always be looking back. However, Ruth wanted Naomi’s God.
Ruth 1:16-18–Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for wither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God……
By making the choice to go on, Ruth placed herself under the sheltering wings of Jehovah. She was on the way to winning Christ. From the moment Ruth crossed the border and trusted her entire life to
God’s call, she was led supernaturally by Him. When a “sudden urge” compelled her to turn into the field of Boaz, she was being led straight to the heart of Jesus. Boaz was “inspired” to check on the harvesting. Catching his eye, he told the harvesters to drop handfuls of grain on purpose for her to find. She had stolen his heart, he was ravished by her, and he had to have her near him. Boaz was drawn to him because she had come to trust the covering wings of God. Ruth 2:12: 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.
When we win Christ, we become the apple of His eye, and also win His favor. Never again will we suffer hunger and thirst in our inner man. He will provide for us. The moment that we let go of all former idols, old friends and old ways, Christ’s eyes fall upon us. That is when we win Christ. We lose the world and all its pleasures but we win His love.
This was only the beginning of Ruth’s blessings. The mighty man of wealth married the lowly servant. This is like the work of the cross; Jesus has cleared all claims that the devil has on us or our inheritances. We are free to be “engaged” to Christ! Ruth has a place in the very lineage of Jesus.
Christ became Ruth’s very life, and in the same way we win Christ by the choices we make that are pleasing to Him. We will make decisions that prove our faithfulness to Him only. If we love Him unreservedly, hungering for Him continuously, we will remember Him in every choice that we make. We will ask ourselves, “Does this please Christ”?
If we truly hunger for Jesus, we will desire to win His heart, and then to know His heart. We will abandon ourselves completely to Him and rest peacefully under His almighty care.
