I think the book of Ruth is primarily about the importance of continuity. However it is also a very moving and charming love story and as such it illustrates some of the characteristics of love. I have looked at this sort of topic in my exposition on 'The Precious Perfume.' I hope this exposition will not be too repetitive.

(A) The Protectiveness of Love.

Boaz offered Ruth protection so long as she gleaned in his fields. No one would touch her. See Ch3vs8and9. She came to shelter under his wing just as surely as she had taken refuge under the wings of the LORD, the God of Israel. See Ch2v12.

Love does protect. Jonathan loved David and was prepared to protect him from his father, Saul. Ebed-Melech the Sudanese eunuch attached to the palace of King Zedekiah showed his love for Jeremiah when he rescued him from starvation in the muddy cistern. See Jer38 vs7to13.

I am very fond of all Laura Ingalls Wilder's books about her family. They are full of love. When locusts destroyed his wheat crop at Plum Creek Mr Ingalls walked three hundred miles to the east in patched boots to find a job. He earned a dollar a day working in the wheat-fields so that he could support Ma and his girls and protect them from destitution. Laura's Pa exhibited the masculine virtues of courage and sacrificial giving.

God's protective love is a recurring theme in the Old Testament. Moses says, "The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." Dt33v27. The Psalmist writes, God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Ps46v1. Over and over again God came to the rescue of his people and never more so than during the exodus from Egypt and entry into the Promised Land.

There is no love like the love of Jesus! He went to Calvary to protect us from the consequences of our sin. The ancient Israelites many, many, centuries before Christ sheltered beneath the blood on the night the angel of death passed through the land of Egypt. The Israelites applied the blood to their doorframes by faith. God told his people, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." Ex12v12. Today we can shelter beneath the blood of Jesus. It protects us from God's anger at sin. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! Rom5v9.

Boaz was very generous to Ruth. He told her to drink from his water jars. He gave her bread, wine vinegar and roasted grain to supplement what must have been a rather meagre packed lunch. When Ruth returns to Naomi after her night on the threshing floor Boaz gives her 40 kilograms of barley as a present. Boaz couldn't do enough for Ruth because he loved her.

When Mr Ingalls built a new house for his family at Plum Creek he took special pleasure in purchasing for his wife a new cookstove. This was a surprise. His wife, Caroline, said it was too much but Mr Ingalls retorted, "Nothing's too much for you." That is the language of love. Things don't change much. I overheard my friend Ken Boreham talking about the new kitchen that he and his wife had installed. I said to him, "A new kitchen KB. You didn't really need one. Just think, if you had made do with the old one you could have retired a year earlier." He simply replied, "Ann wanted it." He didn't say this with any rancour or even resignation. He was offering an explanation: if his wife wanted it that was good enough for him. Nothing was too much for her. Love is generous.

God's love is generous. We see this in the variety of his creation. God did not make one species of finch but dozens. In Britain there is the chirpy chaffinch, the butch greenfinch, the flash goldfinch, flamboyant bullfinch and elusive hawfinch. The germander speedwell is a gorgeous intensely blue flower - a gem of a flower. But there are numerous other speedwells and their small delicately coloured flowers are all different shades of blue, lilaac and pink.

We see God's love in Providence. In May of each year I plant a few runner beans in my garden. I have to guard against slugs and put in a few sticks for support but otherwise my contribution is negligible. All through August, September and part of October I am able to pick, almost on a daily basis, handfuls of that choicest of vegetables for lunch - such is God's generosity.

Finally God's generosity is expressed in his grace: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jn3v16.

(C) The Thoughtfulness of Love

Boaz gave orders to his men to let Ruth glean among the sheaves without telling her off and embarrassing her. They were to assist her gleaning by dropping a few stalks of barley on purpose for her. Boaz wanted to help Ruth but not in such a way as to humiliate her. Rather, he thoughtful helped her to help herself. See Ru2vs15and16.

Love is thoughtful. When Ebed Melech went to pull Jeremiah out of the thick mud at the bottom of the cistern he took along some old clothes for the prophet to put under his armpits. Some people forget the old clothes when they offer assistance!

It is difficult to buy a crabby bachelor like me a Christmas present. My uncle David bought me one or two nice presents because the love he bore his nephew meant he approached the task not as a chore but as an opportunity. I shall always value, 'The Shepherd's Calendar', by John Clare and, 'The Greatest Thing in the World', by Henry Drummond - two delightful little books.

God's love is thoughtful. In the Parable of the Tenants the landowner who planted a vineyard and rented it out to some farmers did not meet with much success when he sent his servants to collect his due. Last of all, he sent his son to them, "They will respect my son," he said. Mt21vs36and36. Last of all God sent his son to the world of men. He sent him as a baby. He sent us one with whom we can identify - a man tempted in all points like as we are.

(D) The Provision of Love

Love provides:

(a) Comfort
Naomi lost her husband and two sons in Moab but it was some comfort that she returned to Bethlehem with Ruth. She didn't return alone because Ruth loved her. It is a comfort to have somewhere there for us. I read a news report in the Daily Telegraph a few years ago about PCs Jenkinson and Castro who were stabbed in the neck in Norwood S.E. London. This is what PC Castro said, "As I lay in the street it was the loneliest moment in my life. I thought I was going to die there alone.... no one to help, no one who cared. Then all of a sudden I was no longer alone. Someone was there wrapping a shirt or something around my neck. But what I remember most was the overwhelming sense of HUMAN WARMTH." Two people had seen what had happened from their windows and ran out to help. I am reminded of the story of the Good Samaritan and the words, "When he saw him (the man who fell among thieves) he had compassion on him and went to him and bound up his wounds pouring in oil and wine." Luke10vs33and34 AV. Jesus loves us and gives us the Spirit to be our comforter - to stand by us and help us in times of need. A Christian is never quite alone. Nevertheless there are times when we need to be comforted, as the little girl said, by somebody with skin on. There are occasions when we are desperate for a little human warmth.

(b) Guidance
Naomi showed Ruth the way to acquire a husband. Boaz gave Ruth good advice about her conduct in the harvest fields of Bethlehem. Love provides good guidance. On the last day of my holiday to Japan my friend and I met up with a very charming Japanese lady and her son in Tokyo. Pauline took us to the Asakusa Kannon Temple. She had an ulterior motive because in the vicinity of the temple there was a monument to her grandfather who was a famous Japanese poet. Pauline couldn't find the monument and eventually asked a young man on a bicycle if he knew where it was. He didn't! We kept searching. After about ten minutes the young man on the bicycle found us in the crowds of people thronging the area. He had made enquiries and discovered the whereabouts of the monument. He showed us the way and made our visit to Asakusa complete. I was just so impressed by this small act of love. It reminded me of the time that I was in Tarascon in the South of France as a student. I was trying to find the Protestant church. In the end I asked a Frenchman, "Ou est le temple protestant?" I think he could tell from my halting French that I wouldn't be able to follow his directions and so he took me there. I have forgotten many things about that visit of nearly forty years ago - but not the cheerful, willing, fashion a particularly good-humoured Frenchman showed me the way. The great apostle Paul was a wonderful pastor - giving all manner of sound guidance to young Timothy including: And the Lord's servant must not quarrel instead he must be kind to everyone, able to teach and not resentful. 1Tim2v24 Paul took such pains with Timothy because he loved him as a son.

(c) Assistance
Ruth and Boaz rescued the family line of Elimelech and ensured that Naomi did not go childless into old age. Love rescues. I had just finished my walk around the Shotley Peninsula in East Suffolk and was mildly euphoric as you are after a long and enjoyable ramble. My euphoria evaporated as I tried to start my car. The battery was dead. So I began knocking on doors to ask if anyone had any jump leads. Unfortunately the only people at home were women! Now I have to say that if you have trouble with your car you very rapidly discover that there is a significant difference between the sexes. Women are no help at all! Eventually I was told to try the builders at the cottage by the church. I found them, covered with dust, barrowing rubble out of the cottage that they were gutting. They were glad to take a break. One of them towed me round and round the church car park until my car started. I offered him a £10 note. He wouldn't take it. It was a free gift. I was so pleased to be rescued and to get safely home. The Christian knows that salvation is the free gift of God that is available because Jesus loved sinners enough to die for them. Jesus alone rescues the fallen and the lost and ensures that they get safely home.

(E) The commitment of love.

Boaz showed his love to Ruth by marrying her. That is what she asked and that is what Boaz did. He was glad and wholehearted about committing himself to her. If a man is unwilling to marry a woman there must be some doubt about his love for her. There is absolutely no doubt that Boaz loved Ruth.

There is no question that Jesus is committed to sinners. He made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross! Phil2vs7and8.

His love calls for our love - our total commitment to him. Jesus expects it! Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. That is the rub - commitment to him means denying ourselves. Our commitment is inclined to be patchy. Yesterday I intended to go and see an old deaf man of 98. The sun shone and I went for a walk instead. Every day we have choices of that sort. The level of our commitment to and love for Jesus will be evident in how we make those choices.

This is what Henry Drummond says in his famous sermon on love. He puts it so much better than me!

In the book of Matthew, where the Judgement Day is depicted for us in the imagery of One seated upon a throne and dividing the sheep from the goats, the test of a man then is not, "How have I believed?" but "How have I loved?" The test of religion, the final test of religion, is not religiousness, but Love. I say the final test of religion at that great Day is not religiousness, but Love; not what I have done, not what I have believed, not what I have achieved, but how I have discharged the common charities of life. Sins of commission in that awful indictment are not even referred to. By what we have not done, by sins of omission, we are judged. It could not be otherwise. For the withholding of Love is the negation of the Spirit of Christ, the proof that we never knew Him, that for us He lived in vain. It means that He suggested nothing in all our thoughts, that he inspired nothing in all our lives, that we were not once near enough to Him to be seized with the spell of His compassion for the world. It means that -