“Stay for the night.”
— Ruth 3:13a
In Ruth 3:13–14, Boaz tells Ruth to sleep there until dawn. How long will this be in our experience? We cannot say for sure, but there is a prolonged period during which the Lord is waiting for us to mature. During this time, others will misunderstand us. We will appear too extreme to them, as Jesus did when His family thought that He was “out of His mind” (Mark 3:21). Someone in our family might say, “It is one thing to go to theological school, or even to serve the Lord full-time, but don’t give yourself to the Lord in such an absolute way. Don’t be like the Lord, who gave Himself.”
Enduring this kind of suffering that the Lord Himself endured is a time of night. We are still waiting for that dawn. Even though we suffer misunderstanding, there is a kind of joy now, for we know that from this time on, besides the Lord, there will be no one else. Ruth could no longer consider marrying anyone else. She would not live for anyone else. This became her realization during that night as she lay quietly at his feet.
Adapted from Ruth: Growth Unto Maturity, page 53.
Tomorrow: “Consecrated Before the Lord”