Women in white raiment

by John Lemley

And so this loving heart gleaned through the hot hours of the day until evening, and then she beat the barley from the straw, and the result proved she had “about an ephah” (over a bushel) of barley.

With the result of her day’s labor under her arm, she hastened home, and when Naomi saw it, she asked, “Where hast thou gleaned to-day?”

Ruth replied that the name of the man in whose field she had gleaned was Boaz.

Naomi loved her beautiful, widowed daughter-in-law; and she was eager for her to have a happy home, claiming in Israel the inheritance of the departed, and so she told Ruth of the relation in which Boaz stood to her, and instructed her to claim at the hands of Boaz that he should perform the part of her husband’s near kinsman, by purchasing the inheritance of Elimelech, and taking her to be his wife. But there was a nearer kinsman than Boaz, and it was necessary that he should have the option of redeeming the inheritance for himself. He, however, declined, fearing to mar his own inheritance. Upon which, with all due solemnity, Boaz took Ruth to be his wife, amidst the blessings and congratulations of their neighbors.

The most sweetly primitive and poetic touch of all this story is the blessing of the women upon Naomi, when the babe that had been given Ruth after her marriage to Boaz was laid in the mother-in-law’s bosom: “Blessed be the Lord, which had not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel. And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age; for thy daughter-in-law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath borne him.”

Ruth, by birth, was a heathen. As such, she was excluded from God’s covenanted people. But, in her case, love was mightier than law. In the fullness of time it was shown to be the fulfillment of law. Though her people were specially interdicted, she was admitted to the first rank and led by Providence into the line of the world’s nobility. Her life shows how God values beautiful, loving character even more than great deeds. As her name indicates, she was a “faithful friend.” It was what she was, rather than what she did, that brought her the high honor of being the mother of Obed, and the ancestress, not only of David and Solomon, the greatest Jewish kings, but of Christ Himself. To a believing people like the Hebrews, who lived for the future, that was the climax of Divine approval.

What amazing results have been accomplished by women of faith. It will be well for us to study and emulate the sweet, obedient faith of this beautiful Moabitess. We must remember that it is not the quantity, but quality, of our service that pleases most our heavenly Father; not what we do, but what we are. We may never do great things, but, through grace, we can all be faithful. We may pass from the stage of action, but the splendid deeds wrought in faith will remain, shedding their influence across the bosom of a sinful world, like so many beacon lights guiding a guilty race back to a Father’s love, and the world’s final redemption.

We now come to Hannah, the last woman in White Raiment under the Theocracy. The mother of the great and good Samuel will ever stand in history as among the purest of women. It often happens that the mother is lost sight of in the fame of her son. This is quite true in the life of Samuel. He stands out the great Reformer of his time, lifting his people out of the Dark Ages of the Old Testament and leading them into the Golden Age of David’s kingdom and Israel’s pre-eminence among the nations.

But while Samuel ranks with Joseph, and Joshua, and Daniel, in the blamelessness of his life, let us not forget that back of that great life was a woman’s broken heart, a woman’s tears, a woman’s life made bitter by disappointment and humiliation, made so by a polygamous system whose fruit must ever be jealousy and sorrow—ever a sign of a low condition of social morality.

Poor, heart-broken Hannah was one of the two wives of Elkanah, an Ephrathite. However, the record does not show that she was unloved by her husband. Indeed, it appears that he tried to comfort her, gallantly asking her if he were not more to her than ten sons. But her sorrow that she had no children made her countenance sad, and took away her appetite for food. At length, however, out of her crushed heart came the believing prayer that brought her victory and consolation.