The Book of Ruth
83. The Housebuilder
Rev Keith M Watkins

Ruth 4:11a. "And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said, We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel."

The people and elders of Bethlehem not only witnessed the marriage of Ruth and Boaz. They also prayed for it: for the bride, for the bridegroom, and for their future children. Their first prayer was for Ruth, the bride: "The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and Leah, which two did build the house of Israel". By asking the Lord to make Ruth like Rachel and Leah, they wanted her to build the family of Boaz like Jacob's two wives built the house of Israel. They wanted Ruth to be a housebuilder - the mother of a family.

From Rachel and Leah, together with their two handmaids, not only Jacob's house, but also the whole nation of Israel, had been built. Jacob's sons had founded the 12 tribes of Israel, who were now a multitude like the grains of sand on the seashore. Now let Ruth the Moabitess also be used to multiply the people of Israel. Let her be like the wives of Jacob and build a large family for Boaz. Let her become a mother in Israel, a housebuilder with many children.

Bearing children was of great importance to the Israelites. They wanted every new wife to become a mother. They understood that having children is one of the main purposes of marriage. Marriage, in which the husband and wife become one, is from the Lord, and through it He seeks children, especially godly ones that would know and serve Him (see Malachi 2:15). Every child born to God-fearing people like Boaz and Ruth will grow up in the Lord's Church, under the sound of the truth. Realising this, it is no wonder that they prayed for Ruth the bride to become Ruth the mother.

Although despised by many, motherhood remains a main purpose of marriage today, as Paul shows us: "I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house" (1 Timothy 5:14). Young people entering marriage should remember this. Brides should seek to become mothers, to build families. We should still pray for brides, especially those within the Church, that the Lord would make them mothers like Rachel, Leah and Ruth, whose children would enlarge the Church and thus fill the house of God. Let all brides seek to become housebuilders!

This leads us to think of Ruth as a picture of the Church. As Ruth was the bride of Boaz, so the Church is the bride of Christ. And just as the people prayed that Ruth would build the house of Boaz, like Rachel and Leah built the house of Israel, so we should pray that the Lord's bride would build His spiritual house - His Church.

Of course, Jesus said that He will build His Church Himself (see Matthew 16:18), but He loves to use His people in the process. When sinners are born again, they become living stones in His spiritual house (see 1 Peter 2:5). Only Christ Himself, by the work of His Holy Spirit, can do that. That is how He builds His kingdom. But ordinarily He uses the witness of His Church in this construction work.

The Saviour uses His bride in the great work of building His Church in different ways. He does it by calling men to preach the everlasting gospel. Through the work of the ministry, in which His truth is proclaimed with authority and sinners are called to faith and repentance, the Lord Jesus saves those who believe. Sinners are united to Christ through faith, and "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). Usually, they hear through a preacher, for "how shall they hear without a preacher?" (verse 14). The Lord uses the preaching of His servants to bring people to Himself. That is why Paul spoke of himself as a "masterbuilder", of all ministers as "labourers together with God", and of the Church as "God's building" (1 Corinthians 3:9,10). So we should pray for the ministers of the Word, that the Lord would use their labours to build His house.

Preaching is not the only way that the Lord uses His bride to build His house. He can use all His people, however private and humble their callings may be. He says to every member of His Church: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). Christians are "the light of the world" (verse 14). In the midst of this world's spiritual darkness, the light of the grace that is in them must not be hidden away, and it cannot be. It must shine! And it will shine, by the "good works" of their godly, gracious and holy lives. And when it shines, what will happen? By God's grace the eyes of some people will be opened and they too will start to glorify God. Through the daily witness of God's people, sinners will come to know Him as their own Father.

All God's people have the duty of "holding forth the word of life" (Philippians 2:16). Some do this by preaching, but all must do it by their daily witness, as they live "without murmurings and disputings" (verse 14), "blameless and harmless" (verse 15). Their lives are so different to sinners all around them, and through that light others are sometimes drawn to their Saviour and also become part of the Saviour's house. So we should pray for all believers, from the very moment they are united to Christ in the union of the gospel, that He would use them to build His house, the Church.

Another way the Lord uses His bride to build His house is by giving them children, whom they are to raise for Him. Christian parents are to bring up their children "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4). By biblical parenting, by spiritual training, by unceasing prayer, by rightly using baptism, Christian parents are building the Lord's house. When the Lord adds His power and grace to their endeavours, and their children are saved and become members of the spiritual house of God, Christian mothers become like Rachel and Leah, who built the Church of God in the Old Testament. We should pray for brides that the Lord would give them wisdom and grace to train up their children in the way that they should go, and that they would become the Lord's children too.

So Christ uses His Church to build His spiritual house. This is why the Bible sometimes speaks of the Church as the mother of believers: "the mother of us all" (Galatians 4:26). The believer describes the Church as "her that conceived me" (Song of Solomon 3:4), because it was through the Church's witness that the new birth came.

So, as they prayed for Ruth, the new wife of Boaz, that she would build her husband's family, we should pray for the bride of Christ, that she would build her Husband's family, the Church. Sinners should begin such prayers as soon as they are united to the Saviour. From that moment they become the wife of Christ, let them seek also to become mothers soon. May the Saviour use them to build His Church. May they become spiritual housebuilders!