The Efficacy of Prayer in Ruth

Have you ever noticed the prayers that the different characters pray in the book of Ruth? In their book, Unceasing Kindness: A Biblical Theology of Ruth, Peter H.W. Lau and Gregory Goswell point us to John Berquist, who highlights “the efficacy of the many prayers in the book of Ruth.”[1] Specifically, they identify the prayers in Ruth 2:11–12, 2:20; 3:10, 4:11–12, and 4:14–15. They helpfully point out that these prayers help us see that God is providentially working in the background of Ruth’s narrative to bring about his desired end.[2]

Let’s draw from Lau and Goswell while looking at these prayers to see how God answers them.

 

The Prayers in Ruth

Naomi prays in Ruth 1:8–9 that God would show kindness and grant rest to her daughters-in-law:

But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.

 

In Ruth 2:12, we see Boaz pray that God would reward Ruth for sticking by Naomi and seeking refuge in the Lord:

“The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!”

 

Naomi prays a blessing over Boaz for having regard for Ruth and for being a means of the Lord’s kindness in Ruth 2:19–20:

And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.”

 

Boaz prays another blessing over Ruth, once again, for seeking redemption through him, a kinsman redeemer in Ruth 3:10

And he said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich.”

 

The elders and people at the gates of Bethlehem pray in Ruth 4:11–12 that the Lord would bless Ruth in marriage to Boaz with offspring, offspring that would lead to building up the house of Israel, and that Boaz would be renowned.

Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem,  and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.”

 

And finally, the town’s women bless the Lord for what he has done for Naomi, praying that her grandson, Obed, would lead to her complete restoration and redemption in Ruth 4:14–15.

Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”

 

Prayers Answered

So here we have six prayers. And by the time the book of Ruth comes to a close, we see either explicitly or implicitly that God sovereignly answered each and every one of them. What is noteworthy is how God answers them.

First, after having prayed for the Lord to show kindness and grant rest for Ruth (1:8–9), we see Naomi initiate and orchestrate this very thing. Naomi first recognizes that in Boaz, a kinsman redeemer, God has provided a means of his kindness (Ruth 2:20). Therefore, she seeks rest for Ruth in that kindness by having her go to Boaz and request that he redeem her (Ruth 3:1–5). And, Boaz does. He marries Ruth, and Ruth experiences the kindness and rest of the Lord.

Second, after having prayed that the Lord would bless Ruth for seeking refuge under the wings of the Lord (Ruth 2:12), Boaz as a kinsman redeemer becomes the manifest wings of the Lord under whom Ruth takes refuge (Ruth 3:9).

Third, after praying that the Lord would bless Boaz who took notice of Ruth (Ruth 2:19–20), Naomi formulates a plan by which Ruth works a great kindness to not only her but the elder Boaz as well, who gets to marry the young, worthy Ruth and have children (Ruth 3:10; 4:13).

Fourth, after having prayed that Ruth would be blessed for her selfless kindness (Ruth 3:10), Boaz, once again as a redeemer, becomes a blessing for Ruth by redeeming her in marriage and providing children for her (Ruth 4:13).

Fifth, after all the people at the gates of the town pray for Ruth’s fertility and offspring to build up the house of Israel and the renown of Boaz (4:11–12), we see that through their marriage, Boaz and Ruth do produce offspring. And their offspring leads to the eventual birth of King David. And, the Lord ultimately covenants with David to build a house through him and to establish an everlasting kingdom over which David’s son will reign (Ruth 4:17–22; 2 Samuel 7:11–16). And, David, of course, give rise to Jesus the Messiah. Through Boaz’s offspring, then, an eternal house is built, and Boaz is ever remembered and renowned as not only the ancestor of King David but of the Messiah.

Sixth, after the women pray that Obed would become renown and that he would be a restorer of life for Naomi (Ruth 4:14–15), Obed goes on to become the grandfather of King David from whom the Messiah, Jesus, the one who restores all life, would come.

 

Lesson Learned

What’s the payoff here? Well, what we see is that in the story of Ruth, God delighted to use his people as a means to answer prayers and carry out his sovereign plans. And in Ruth, God often delighted to use the active faith of his people as a means to grant even their own prayer requests. We should be joyfully aware, then, that when we pray for God to advance his kingdom and his gospel, or when we pray for a co-worker, friend, or family member to come to know Christ, or when we pray that a suffering person would feel the comfort of God, the way God often delights to answer these prayers is through his Holy Spirit empowered people. He might even tap you to be the conduit of his grace, kindness, and blessing that answers the very prayer you were praying. Thus, we should pray with an expectation that God will not only work through our prayers, but that he will work through us to perhaps bring about some of the very things we pray. God delights to use the prayers of his people and their faithful actions as a means to carry out his sovereign plans.

 

Conclusion

We should recognize that our faithful praying and our faithful actions are not divorced from the sovereignty of God. Rather, the reality of God’s sovereignty and his delight to use his people as a means to advance his kingdom should bolster our prayer life and bolster our works of faith. Indeed, God has given us the Holy Spirit for this very reason, to carry on the work of Jesus through us. So let’s take our cues from the book of Ruth. Our prayers are effective, and this is by divine design. We should be a people of great faith who recognize that God delights to use us and our prayers for the advance of his glory.

 

[1] Peter H.W. Lau and Gregory Goswell, Unceasing Kindness: A Biblical Theology of Ruth, NSBT, ed. D. A. Carson (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2016), 15. FN Cf. Berquist 2008: 55.

[2] Lau and Goswell, Unceasing Kindness, 104. Here, Lau and Goswell point us to Gow (2000:176)—M.D. Gow, ‘Ruth’ in New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, eds T.D. Alexander and B.S. Rosner (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 2000), 176–78.

Does God Reward Your Works?

[From a sermon preached by Edward Veal in 1675 on Psalm 62:12. You can read the entire sermon at this link.]

Learn to admire the grace of God in rewarding your works, It is much that he accepts them and what is it then, that he rewards them? It is much that he doth not damn you for them, seeing they are all defiled, and have something of sin cleaving to them; and what is it, then, that he crowns them? You would admire the bounty and munificence of a man that should give you a kingdom for taking up a straw at his toot, or give you a hundred thousand pounds for paying him a penny rent you owed him: how, then, should you adore the rich grace and transcendent bounty of God in so largely recompensing such mean services, in setting a crown of glory upon your heads, as the reward of those works which you can scarcely find in your hearts to call good ones! You will even blush one day to see yourselves so much honoured for what you are ashamed of, and are conscious to yourselves that you have deserved nothing by. You will wonder then to see God recompensing you for doing what was your duty to do, and what was his work in you; giving you grace, and crowning that grace; enabling you to do things acceptable to him, and then rewarding you as having done them.

Take heed therefore now of rivalling God’s grace, or Christ’s merits; of inverting his praises, and ascribing anything to yourselves which belongs only to him. Set the crown upon the right head; let him have the honour of the work that hath done it, the glory of your reward that hath purchased it. Say with yourselves, “What am I, and what are my services, that ever God should thus plentifully reward them? I never prayed but I sinned; never confessed sin, never begged pardon of it, [strove] against it, but I did at the same time commit it. I never heard a sermon, received a sacrament, did any good duty, but with some mixture of coldness, deadness, distractedness. I never had any grace but what God gave me, nor acted any but what he stirred up in me. All the good I ever had or did I received from him; and therefore I owe all to him. I am a thousand ways his debtor: — for my life and being, for the good things of this life, for the means and offer of eternal life, for the knowledge of his will, conviction of sin, restraint from sin, the change of my heart, the reformation of my ways, the graces of his Spirit, the privileges of his children conferred upon me. I am his debtor for all the evils he hath delivered me from, all the good he hath offered me, wrought in me, done by me. And doth God take so much notice of such poor things? Will he indeed reward such weak endeavours, such lame performances? Must I live in heaven, that never deserved to live on earth? Must I wear the crown of righteousness, who never deserved anything but the punishment of mine iniquities? Must eternal glory and honour be my portion, who have deserved nothing better than ‘shame’ and ‘everlasting contempt?’ (Dan. xii. 2.) I have nothing to boast of, nothing to glory in. I must cry, ‘ Grace, grace.’ (Zech. iv. 7.) All I have, and to eternity am to have, is grace. The foundation of my salvation was laid in grace; and so will the top-stone too. It was grace [that] sent Christ to redeem me and grace will send him at last fully to save me. I have received all from God; and therefore desire to return the praise of all to him: it is but just that all should be ascribed to him from whom all came.”