Ruth 2:3 And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging to Boaz… It was strikingly remarked by Pascal that "if the nose of Cleopatra had been a little longer or shorter it would have changed the history of the world." The cackling of geese once saved Rome. An apple failing from a tree suggested to Sir Isaac Newton that great law by which he unlocked the mysteries of the starry firmament and shed a new light on the whole creation of God. The lifting of the lid of a common tea-kettle by the steam generated within it set James Watt upon a train of thought that led to the invention of a steam-engine, which has revolutionised our whole manufacturing industry and multiplied human intercourse a thousandfold. A reed of an unknown species, borne to the feet of Columbus by the Atlantic wave awakened in his mind the conjecture that there must be another continent; and this issued at length in the discovery of America. A little bird, flying from the mouth of the cave in which Mohammed is concealed, misleads the soldiers that are seeking his destruction; and this influences the character of religion and the history of our race for many centuries over the larger portion of the earth. Pharaoh's daughter, coming down to the waters of the Nile to bathe, finds a smiling infant in its floating cradle among the bulrushes, and becomes God's unconscious instrument in saving the life of one who is to deliver a nation from cruel bondage, to ascend Sinai and speak with God, and to conduct the million hosts of the chosen people, amid miracle and wonder, to the borders of the promised land. Ruth's "hap is to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz"; and this eventually raises the poor stranger to affluence, and brings her name into the golden genealogy of the Saviour of men. (A. Thomson, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech. |
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