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Boaz and Ruth


[Above] Rembrandt's pen and brush drawing of Boaz and Ruth, 1645.

Naomi said, "I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?" (Ruth 1:21)

But later Boaz blesses Ruth with six measures of barley and says, "You must not go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law." (Ruth 3:17)

Same Hebrew word in both passages. The Lord is no one's debtor. He fills the empty. Sometimes when our dreams don't come true, we think we have nothing. But we forget that with Christ we have all things, and will never be empty-handed.

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