Dark Starting to Bright Ending
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 unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.
Paths which open in hardship and darkness often come out in places of joy. When Ruth started from Moab toward Jerusalem, to go along with her mother-in-law, I suppose the people said: “Oh, what a foolish creature to go away from her father’s house, to go off with a poor old woman toward the land of Judah! They won’t live to get across the desert. They will be drowned in the sea, or the jackal of the wilderness will destroy them.” It was a very dark morning when Ruth started off with Naomi; but behold her in my text in the harvest-field of Boaz, to be affianced to one of the lords of the land, and become one of the grandmothers of Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. And so it often is that a path which often starts very darkly ends very brightly.
When you started out for heaven, oh, how dark was the hour of conviction—how Sinai thundered, and devils tormented, and the darkness thickened! All the sins of your life pounced upon you, and it was the darkest hour you ever saw when you first found out your sins. After awhile you went into the harvest-field of God’s mercy; you began to glean in the fields of divine promise, and you had more sheaves than you could carry, as the voice of God addressed you saying: “Blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.” A very dark starting in conviction, a very bright ending in the pardoning and the hope and the triumph of the Gospel!
T. DeWitt Talmage, New Tabernacle Sermons.