Divine Appointment

And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.    —Ruth 2:3

I spent a few days last week in the woods of western Michigan with my Uncle Joe at his primitive cottage. Uncle Joe joined the Navy right after high school. He went to basic training and then on to advanced schooling as a naval electrician. During some rough housing in the barracks, he broke his glasses. Joe’s eyesight was very poor. I always remember him wearing those coke-bottle thick lenses. When the doctor checked his eyes, he asked him how he ever got into the Navy in the first place. He was immediately given an honorable discharge.

Upon arriving home, Joe went to the courthouse to sign his discharge papers. While there, he just happened to meet an old friend who told him a steel mill in Ohio was hiring, “Just go down the hall and sign up.” Joe signed up, took an aptitude test, and was hired on the spot. Joe moved to Youngstown, Ohio and raised his family. He retired from US Steel many years ago.

Thinking about that chance meeting with his friend at the courthouse, I asked Joe if he ever thought how completely different his life might have been if the timing had been even a few minutes different. I don’t believe that moment at the courthouse was a chance happening; rather, it was a divine appointment.

The Book of Ruth tells the tragic story of Elimelech and Naomi. Famine comes to Israel. Elimelech, his wife, and two sons move to Moab to find food. Elimelech dies. Both of the sons marry, but after about ten years, both sons die leaving Naomi and her two daughters-in-law to helplessly fend for themselves.

Upon hearing the famine had ceased in their hometown, Naomi and her daughter-in-law, Ruth, return to Bethlehem and begin scavenging the leftovers behind the barley harvesters. Ruth has one of those chance encounters with a man named, Boaz. “And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech” (2:3).

Naomi and Ruth’s lives completely change as a result of that choice to glean in Boaz’s field. As events unfold, Boaz agrees to buy back Naomi’s lands and marries Ruth to raise up an heir for Elimelech and Naomi. If you check out the genealogy in chapter 4, Ruth and Boaz have a son named Obed. Obed became the grandfather of King David. As you may know, King David became the ancestor of Jesus.

Uncle Joe’s chance meeting with his friend was no coincidence, but a divine appointment. Joe, his family, and future generations have been changed by that one moment. Ruth, Naomi, Jewish history, and the entire Christian world were affected by Ruth’s “happening” to glean in Boaz’s field. Here again, not a happening but a divine appointment.

Think back over your past. Praise God for those divine appointments in your life. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to those everyday chance happenings that might really be God’s divine appointments. God is at work in your life each and every day. Live expectantly and keep alert to open doors and opportunities to serve. Nothing just happens. God has a plan and a purpose for your life.