Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 134 · May 14
Sit Still
“Then said she, Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall: for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day.”
A woman stands in a doorway at first light with six measures of barley tied up in her shawl, and nothing at all to do. Her mother-in-law tells her, "Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall."
Ruth has worked hard ever since she came to Bethlehem, gathering leftover grain behind the reapers in a country that was not her own. Now Naomi tells her to sit. There is a nearer relative with a claim on her, and that claim has to be settled between men at the town gate. Ruth has no place in that conversation at all.
She can be still because someone else is moving. "For the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day." In the dark, Boaz had promised with an oath: "as the LORD liveth: lie down until the morning." He kept his word. He went straight up to the gate, gathered ten of the elders and settled the matter. Ruth sat still because Boaz would not.
When you are waiting on something you cannot touch, remember that your Redeemer does not rest until His work is finished. "He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." You can sit still, because He is at work.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 134 is Morning Prayer (Psalm 5:3).