Ruth 3:3 Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes.
Naomi, mother-in-law of Ruth, advised her to wash, put on perfume and get dressed in her best clothes before she presented herself to the kinsmen redeemer Boaz. Ruth was a young Moabite widow who accompanied her Jewish mother-in-law from Moab to Bethlehem. Widows wore grieving grave clothes after the death of their husbands. Their clothing was to announce to the world that they are widows. There was no flush, flowers or fragrance in the garment of a widow. She had to grieve for the dead, the rest of her life and her future was doomed. Furthermore, a Moabite according to the Mosaic Law could not enter the Israelite camp for about 10 generations. This means she could not remarry or raise children for the Jewish clan. The only prospective career for this widow was a foreign prostitute! However, God made an exception for a woman who chose to put on the ‘Perfume of Godliness’. Ruth 2:12 “May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
Naomi advised a fully grown young woman to wash, perfume and get dressed! There are no unnecessary details in the Bible. These are three redemptive steps to victory.
Three steps of spiritual redemption:
1. Past: The past must be washed away from our memory, conversations and lifestyles. If the past is not washed away, it will blind the present and bridle the future. Ruth was introduced to Boaz as a widow, Moabite and illegal immigrant who piggybacked on her mother-in-law into Israel. This stigma had to be washed away. The world will name and blame, terrorise, stigmatise and penalise us through the window of our past. Wash away the doubts, derailment mentality and defeats with the blood of Jesus.
2. Pedigree: We might not be from a prestigious lineage of prophets, priests or preachers. Ruth was from a cursed ancestry of incest and iniquity yet, she put on her best bridal clothes and relinquished the widow’s garments. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth (1 Corinthians 1:26). Yet, once we are in the family of Christ and we put on Christ, we belong to the family line of Jesus Christ. We have the DNA of Jesus in us. Take off the grave, grieving and widowed clothes and put on Christ.
3. Perfume: Fragrance is a timeless accessory and a finishing touch to any outfit. The bride will have a repulsive effect if she puts on the best bridal gown, yet smell bad. Perfume is extracted by crushing, similarly, our spiritual fragrance is squeezed and spread by our reactions, response and replies when we are crushed, humiliated and belittled. The world around Ruth slammed her with slander and the smell of death but she put on the perfume of life and sweet fragrance of hope on her. The greatest test is not to choose Christlikeness over evil but to respond, smell and emit the fragrance of Christ, when tested, tricked and tempted.
Put on the fragrance of the promise, power and purity of Christ at all times.
2 Corinthians 2:14b (TPT) Through our yielded lives He spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere we go.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, let me permeate the smell like Christ at all times. Let no unwholesome words come out of my mind or my mouth. Amen
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