Four Periods in Ruth

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 three of Buxton's booklet The Book of Ruth: Its Message for Christians to-day:

"As you read the four chapters of Ruth you will see that there were four periods in her life.

"In the first period she was an outcast from God. She was a Moabitess, and therefore under the curse of God, as we are told in Deut. xxiii. 3:--

"An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever."

"As the Moabites were under the judgment of God, Ruth was also under that judgment. You and I in the same way were under the wrath of God. Until Christ is received as Saviour, we are

"strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world."

"Our position is just the same as Ruth's, outcasts from God, and under God's awful curse.

"Then there was a second period in Ruth's life. She married an Israelite, and therefore she became an Israelite herself; and as an Israelite, legally in the covenant of God; and God accepted her in that relationship. But even though she was legally an Israelite she went on living in Moab. How many there are who are living just like that. They have called upon God for mercy and grace, and God has brought them into His covenant, but they are still living down in Moab, away from the privileges that they might have. They do not come up to the Temple of the Lord and draw near to Him. They do not see the sacrifice laid on the altar for them. They are still living in the country of Moab. That was Ruth's second period.

"Her third period was when she came up out of Moab, into the land that flowed with milk and honey; and began to know her Redeemer. It was far happier than the other stages, for she began to know peace, joy and prosperity.

"The fourth stage was the best of all. She was united to her Redeemer and belonged to Him and He to her. This brought her blessing and hope and home; as it were, heaven upon earth.

"There were those four periods in her life. We are each living in one of those periods, and we may well judge ourselves, and see where we are. Am I under God's judgment? Have I become a child of God? Have I separated from the world to Him? Am I one with my Redeemer? Let us know where we are spiritually, then we can in intelligent faith lay hold on the Word and Promise of God, and find a full redemption."