The Setting of Ruth in History

Barclay F. Buxton was the father of Alfred Buxton, one of C. T. Studd's son-in-laws who went with him to the heart of Africa as a missionary. He was cofounder, with A. Paget Wilkes, of the Japan Evangelistic Band, that remarkable group of missionaries that saw such wonderful works of God in Japan. The following is from chapter two of Buxton's booklet The Book of Ruth: Its Message for Christians to-day:

"The Book of Ruth begins with:

"Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled."

"So this book carries our thoughts back to the previous book of Judges. It happened when the judges ruled. There is spiritual truth and teaching in that.

"In the last verse of Judges we read:

"In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes."

"That was characteristic. The Holy Spirit emphasizes the same fact in Chapter xvii. 6, Chapter xviii. 1, and Chapter xix. 1. Thus again and again the Holy Spirit shows us that man was doing as he thought fit and not as God had commanded. Consequently there was no standard of conduct in the nation. All this is full of meaning and instruction to us to-day.

"You know the sorrowful story that is told us in the Book of Judges of apostasy and getting away from God, and of all the awful results that followed. Turn back to Judges ii. 10:

"There arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which He had done for Israel."

"Such was the time when the Judges ruled. It says, verse 12:

"And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt."

"And from this time to the end of the chapter, you read of the characteristics of that time. It was a time of apostasy, of backsliding from God, of going their own way, of following their own devices in general; and therefore it was a time of deep moral corruption. Some of these stories in the Book of Judges we hardly dare read, for they speak of such terrible depths of moral corruption amongst the people of God, in spite of all that God did for them. There was awful moral corruption and terrible sin going on, and as a result there was strife and envy among themselves. Strife followed on strife amongst the very people who should have loved each other: strife and envy to such a degree that at last at the end of the book, one tribe is almost exterminated by the other. Such is the fruit of apostasy and of backsliding from God.

"Those days 'when the Judges ruled' remind one of the sixth chapter of Genesis. Turn to the eleventh verse:

"The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth."

"Because the days of the Book of Judges speak of just the same kind of corruption, you expect when you have come to the end that God's judgment will be poured out, as we read in the sixth chapter of Genesis. Surely some judgment like the Flood will be poured out because of all this apostasy and guilt and wickedness, and strife and envying? But instead of that you find the Book of Ruth, which tells us that even though all this is going on, God is working. It tells us that God is a covenant-keeping God. That God will stand by His promise, and will bless wherever He finds hearts ready to be blessed. So we turn away from the awful sin and corruption, and bloodshed and iniquity at the end of Judges to the story of peace and blessedness and redemption in the Book of Ruth.

"I think that this well may be a comfort to us in these times. We live in times of iniquity, and in times of suffering such as perhaps have never been on the earth before. Think of the awful suffering in Russia. Think of the awful apostasy that existed there between the wars. A nation set themselves against God, against Christ, and against all religion; so that awful sin and iniquity and corruption reigned, even among the children. Think of the awful state of suffering in the Balkan States. Think of the suffering among the Armenian people, whom the Turks set out to massacre and destroy. Think of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Holland, Norway, Yugoslavia since. These days are indeed days of suffering, because they are days of apostasy, and days of sin and corruption. Yet by these two books of Judges and Ruth, we may know that God is at work at such a time, and is planning to fulfil His promises, and that we shall see the glory of the Lord filling the earth as the waters cover the sea. We shall see Satan turned out. We shall see a new heaven and a new earth. We shall see sin cleansed away. We shall see the Lord reigning, and honour and worship given to Him throughout the earth. We may well praise God for that. In fact, we shall see the story of the book of Judges changed into that of the book of Ruth.

"It may be that there are some who in their own hearts are passing through a time like the story of the Book of Judges, a time of backsliding from God, with all the bitter fruits of backsliding. May God meet you, and turn the story of your life from the story of the Book of Judges into the story of the Book of Ruth, that you may be redeemed indeed from all backsliding and its consequences. God shows that there is a way of redemption for any backslidden soul; and any such an one may find real union with Christ, and real rest at His feet. So let us realize the Good News through this Book of our redemption."