Late nights and very early morning hours are times that are dangerous to be out and about. Where you and I choose to be at midnight, one, two or even three A.M. will determine the greatest measure of safety or danger. The darkness of night is a cover for doing those things that are illegal or immoral. Drinking and drugs are done in the darkness…the darkness that people use as a cloak to cover their activities.
Where can you be found at those early morning hours before the dawn of a new day? Unless your job requires you to be out and about at those hours…you and I shouldn’t be “˜out there’. We should be at home and getting our needed rest.
People who practice wisdom and prudence are protected from being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
(NASB) Ruth 3:13b “Remain this night…Lie down until morning.”
***Boaz gave wise advice to Ruth and protected her from walking in the darkness of night.
(NASB) Ruth 3:14 “So she lay at his feet until morning and rose before one could recognize another; and he said, “˜Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.'”
***Boaz protected Ruth through discretion and from gossip. His thoughts of Ruth were for her greatest good and revealed himself as a godly man.
If Ruth had left for home, she would have been open to being robbed, molested, raped, or even killed on the road back to Bethlehem from the threshing floor of Boaz.
How often do we put ourselves in danger by being foolishly thoughtless? How often do we willfully go our own way and say “˜nothing will happen to me’? How often do we fail to warn our children to stay away from “˜friends’ who are intent in using darkness as a cover for their actions?
The consequences are never good; no matter how often we think we are “˜getting away’ with our actions, the consequences will catch up with us at some point in time.
Ruth took the advice of Boaz and stayed until just before dawn and then she left.
(NASB) Ruth 3:15 “Again he said, “˜Give me the cloak that is on you and hold it.’ So she held it, and he measured six measures of barley and laid it on her. Then she went into the city.”
***Boaz generously gave Ruth barley to take to her mother-in-law. He also implied that her timing to return to Bethlehem was safe for her to travel.
Notice that Ruth did not linger but left quickly. Boaz had again provided grain for these two widows.
How has God provided for you, a measure that is shaken, pressed down and overflowing? For what can you praise Him and thank Him today for His generosity to you?
