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LESSONS ON PROVIDENCE (6)
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28
2 Corinthians 9:8-15

Acts 17:22-29

 

“God is able to make all grace

abound toward you…”

 

LESSONS ON PROVIDENCE (6)
The doctrine of providence is one that points to the divine sufficiency of God which, according to Thomas Ridgley, promotes and encourages us to “seek happiness in him alone,” a lesson that the Book of Ruth reinforces through the life of Ruth and Boaz.
 
God as the sufficiency of the trusting Ruth. This is seen in Ruth, a Moabitess, of which nation the LORD commanded saying, “An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even into their tenth generation…” (Deut 23:3). Yet, when urged and pressed upon by Naomi to return to her own people and her gods, she refused (Ruth 1:16-17). She chose to cleave to faith, and by faith, to her mother-in-law, accompanying her not out of any prospect or allure of a better future, but committing herself to the LORD such that the testimony she bore was that she had come to trust under the wings of the LORD (Ruth 2:11-12). As she came with Naomi into a land in which she was a stranger, she lived in the land by faith and in accordance with the laws of the LORD whom she had come to trust. She appropriated and made use of the lawful provisions given by the LORD, going out to glean and living in obedience and love with her mother-in-law.
 
God as the sufficiency of faithful Boaz. This is seen in Boaz, an Israelite living among his people during the period of the judges, being a mighty man of wealth at a time of wilfulness, yet living in conformity to God’s Word and laws. He was a man of faith in a time when corruption prevailed. He trusted in God and did not pervert or distort justice, even when presented with a proposal of marriage by Ruth. He abode by all provisions of the law of God, dealing with integrity, courtesy and courage. He actively pursued what was right and acceptable in the sight of God during a time when the norm was that “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judg 21:25), because “in those days there was no king in Israel” (Judg 17:6).
 
THOUGHT: The sufficiency of God is enough for those who trust in Him.

PRAYER: (Read James 5:13-15.)

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