GENERAL SUBJECT
CRYSTALLIZATION-STUDY OF JOSHUA, JUDGES, RUTH
Message Eleven
Boaz and Ruth Typifying Christ and the Church
Scripture Reading: Ruth 1:16-17; 2:1-3, 13-16; 3:9, 12, 15; 4:1-17, 21-22
I. At the beginning and at the end of the portion of Israel's history from Joshua to Ruth are two prominent persons typifying Christ; these persons are Joshua and Boaz, who signify two aspects of one person—Josh. 1:1; Ruth 4:21-22:
A. At the beginning Joshua typifies Christ in bringing God's chosen people into God's ordained blessings; as typified by Joshua, Christ has brought us into the good land, has taken possession of the land for us, and has allotted the land to us as our inheritance for our enjoyment; Christ has gained the good land for us, and eventually, He is the good land for us to enjoy.
B. At the end Boaz typifies Christ as our Husband for our satisfaction.
II. In the book of Ruth, Boaz typifies Christ in the following aspects:
A. As a man, rich in wealth and generous in giving (2:1, 14-16; 3:15), Boaz typifies Christ, whose divine riches are unsearchable and who takes care of God's needy people with His bountiful supply (Eph. 3:8; Luke 10:33-35; Phil. 1:19).
B. As the kinsman (Ruth 2:3; 3:9, 12) who redeemed the lost right to Mahlon's property and took Mahlon's widow, Ruth, as his wife for the producing of the needed heirs (4:9-10, 13), Boaz typifies Christ, who redeemed the church and made the church His counterpart for His increase (Eph. 5:23-32; John 3:29-30).
C. According to the book of Ruth, Boaz redeemed Ruth and redeemed her birthright; hence, he became a notable forefather of Christ—4:1-17, 21-22; Matt. 1:5-6:
1. As a brother and a Boaz, you should take care of others' birthright of Christ, not only your own birthright; in other words, you should not only take care of your own enjoyment of Christ but also others' enjoyment of Christ—Eph. 3:2; 1 Pet. 4:10-11; Matt. 24:45-47.
2. Suppose some dear ones in the church life become like Ruth, losing the enjoyment of their birthright, their enjoyment of Christ; we need to have a number of Boazes in the church life to bring these dear saints back into the enjoyment of Christ.
3. The book of Ruth tells us that there was another kinsman who was even closer to Ruth than Boaz was, but that man was selfish; he only took care of his own birthright:
a. Some brothers should take care of ones who are like poor "Ruths" in the church life, but they are selfish in the spiritual enjoyment of Christ—Ezek. 34:2-23.
b. Someone who is a real Boaz and is rich in the enjoyment of Christ will pay the price to bring such saints into the full enjoyment of Christ; by shepherding others in this way, he will have even more enjoyment of Christ, the greatest enjoyment of Christ; day by day we should take care of others' enjoyment of Christ—Prov. 11:25; Acts 20:35; 1 Pet. 5:1-4.
D. Those who become like Boaz are pillars in the church life (one of the pillars in the temple was named "Boaz"—1 Kings 7:21); in the Scriptures the pillar is a sign, a testimony, of God's building through transformation in practicing the Body life—Gen. 28:22a; 1 Kings 7:15-22; Gal. 2:9; 1 Tim. 3:15; Rev. 3:12; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:11-12:
1. Those who are pillars in the church life are constantly under God's judgment (bronze), realizing that they are men in the f lesh, worthy of nothing but death and burial—Psa. 51:5; Exo. 4:1-9; Rom. 7:18; Matt. 3:16-17:
a. We must judge ourselves as nothing and as being qualified only to be crucified; whatever we are, we are by the grace of God, and it is not we who labor but the grace of God—1 Cor. 15:10; Gal. 2:20; 1 Pet. 5:5-7.
b. The reason for both division and fruitlessness among believers is that there is no bronze, nothing of God's judgment; instead, there is pride, self-boasting, self-vindication, self-justification, self-approval, self-excuse, self-righteousness, condemning others, and regulating others instead of shepherding and seeking them—Matt. 16:24; Luke 9:54-55.
c. When we love the Lord and experience Him as the man of bronze (Ezek. 40:3), He will become our extraordinary love, boundless forbearance, unparalleled faithfulness, absolute humility, utmost purity, supreme holiness and righteousness, and our brightness and uprightness—Phil. 4:5-8.
2. On the capitals of the pillars in the temple, there were "nets of checker work [like a trellis] with wreaths of chain work"; these signify the complicated and intermixed situations in which those who are pillars in God's building live and bear responsibility—1 Kings 7:17; 2 Cor. 1:12; 4:7-8.
3. On the top of the capitals were lilies and pomegranates—1 Kings 7:18-20:
a. Lilies signify a life of faith in God, a life of living by what God is to us, not by what we are; the bronze means "not I," and the lily means "but Christ"—S. S. 2:1-2; Matt. 6:28, 30; 2 Cor. 5:4; Gal. 2:20.
b. The pomegranates on the wreaths of the capitals signify the fullness, the abundance and beauty, and the expression of the riches of Christ as life—Phil. 1:19-21a; Eph. 1:22-23; 3:19.
c. Through the crossing out of the network and the restriction of the chain work, we can live a pure, simple life of trusting in God to express the riches of the divine life of Christ for God's building in life.
III. In this bright and aromatic story, Ruth typifies the church in the following ways:
A. Ruth, being a woman in Adam in God's creation and a Moabitess (a sinner) in man's fall, thus becoming an old man with these two aspects, typifies the church, before her salvation, as men in God's creation and sinners in man's fall being "our old man"—Rom. 6:6.
B. Ruth, being the widow of the dead husband, redeemed by Boaz, who cleared the indebtedness of her dead husband for the recovery of the lost right of her dead husband's property (Ruth 4:9-10), typifies the church with her old man as her crucified husband (Rom. 7:4a; 6:6) redeemed by Christ, who cleared away her old man's sin (John 1:29) for the recovery of the lost right of her fallen natural man created by God (Gen. 1:26; Isa. 54:5).
C. Ruth, after being redeemed by Boaz, becoming a new wife to him (Ruth 4:13) typifies the church, after being saved, through the regeneration of the church's natural man (John 3:6b), becoming the counterpart of Christ (v. 29a; Rom. 7:4).
D. Ruth, choosing to follow Naomi to the land of Israel (Ruth 1:16-17) and being united to Boaz, typifies the Gentile sinners being attached to Christ (2 Cor. 1:21) that they may partake of the inheritance of God's promise (Eph. 3:6).
IV. The picture of Boaz (typifying Christ as our new Husband) and Ruth (typifying the church with her old man as her crucified husband) is spoken of by Paul in Romans 7:1-6:
A. In God's creation man's original position was that of a wife; Isaiah 54:5 says that God our Maker is our Husband; as a wife to God, we must depend upon Him and take Him as our Head.
B. When man fell, he took another position, the self-assuming position of the old man (our very being which was created by God but became fallen through sin); the man created by God was a wife, but the fallen man became independent of God and made himself the head as the husband.
C. Since our old man, who was the old husband, has been crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6), we are freed from his law (7:2-4) and are joined to the new Husband, Christ, as the ever-living One.
D. As believers, we have two statuses:
1. We have our old status as the fallen old man, who left the original position of a wife, dependent on God, and took the self-assuming position of a husband and head, independent of God.
2. We have our new status as the regenerated new man, restored to our original and proper position as the genuine wife to God (Isa. 54:5; 2 Cor. 11:2-3), dependent on Him and taking Him as our Head.
E. We no longer have the old status of the husband, for we have been crucified (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:6); we now have only the new status of the proper wife, in which we take Christ as our Husband, and should no longer live according to the old man (no longer taking the old man as our husband).
F. In Romans 7:4 Paul puts together a funeral and a wedding; on the one hand, we were buried; on the other hand, we were married; we were made dead according to our old status that we might marry another according to our new status; according to our new status, we marry Him who has been raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit to God.
G. Our old man, our old husband, has been crucified with Christ, so that we "might be joined to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit to God" (v. 4); this joining indicates that in our new status as a wife, we have an organic union in person, name, life, and existence with Christ in His resurrection.
H. As the regenerated new man and the wife to Christ, everything we are and do is now related to God, and God is brought forth by us as the fruit, the overflow, of our life; this is in contrast to the fruit born to death (v. 5), which was previously brought forth by us as the old man, the old husband.
I. We are now joined to the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit; this is the joining of "the Spirit…with our spirit" (8:16) as "one spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17):
1. We should have our whole being turned to and set on this joined spirit—Rom. 8:6b.
2. We should also live and walk according to this joined spirit—v. 4.
3. When we thus live in this joined spirit, we can live out the Body of Christ to become the corporate expression of Christ for the glory of the Triune God—Eph. 1:23; 3:21; 1 Cor. 10:31; 1 Pet. 4:11; Rev. 21:10-11.