The Book of Ruth is a little, four chapter book packed with lessons! The lineage of the Messiah comes through Ruth and Boaz, so the book is significant. However, as we read through the book, there is no mention of miracles, nothing about the hand of God moving things, no promises from the Lord. In fact, the only mention of God is where Naomi tells everyone how treacherously God has dealt with her.
But as we read through the little book, clearly God is working in their lives—Ruth just “happened by chance” upon the field of Boaz, a near kinsman who can help them? In the Hebrew it reads: “her chance/happening to happen upon the field.” In Proverbs (16:33; NKJV), we are taught that the lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD—there is no such thing as chance, only the providence of God. That is very comforting to believers, right?
Although the book doesn’t claim any events to the miracles of God, the entire book has to be a big miracle or a series of little ones! The entire lineage of the Messiah hangs on the events in Ruth!
Most of us may not see a Red Sea Miracle in our lives even though they still happen; for example: last week there was cancer, this week the doctors ran through a series of tests, but they cannot find the cancer, it’s gone! Praise God, right? As God had spoken to Moses, many of us may not hear the Lord say, “Go here and do such and such.” How many times have we thought or said, “Wouldn’t it be easier if God just told me what He wanted me to do?” I’m not saying those miracles don’t happen today, but the Lord doesn’t need to use Red Sea Miracles to move in our lives. He can use life and ordinary events to shape us and to grow us in Christ, to teach us who He is and how much He loves us.
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.
Proverbs 16:33 NKJV
As we read through Ruth, it is the same thing—Ruth is faced with life and she makes decisions, presumably with prayer. As Ruth’s story unfolds, we see God directing her life through “chance.”
If we were able to interview Ruth, what would her testimony sound like? “We were destitute, but the Lord provided food. We had no way of getting Naomi’s land back, but the Lord provided a kinsman to redeem it. I was a foreigner in the land, with no hope that I would have a husband or children, and God provided both!”
Even when there doesn’t seem to be anything big happening in our lives, no spiritual mountaintops, no Red Sea Miracles, God is still working in our lives, using life and circumstance to guide us and grow us.