UNDER HIS WINGS

Transcript

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Hello everyone, this is Pastor Dean Thompson with a word of hope Encounters with grace under his wings a full reward be given thee of the Lord, under whose wings thou art come to trust. Ruth chapter two verse twelve. Ruth is a Moabitus, and that word carried real weight in Israel. Moab descended from Lot's incest, opposed Israel in the wilderness, and was explicitly excluded from the assembly. For a Moabite widow to glean in an Israelite field was to occupy the lowest possible station, dependent on the covenant law that allowed the poor and the foreigner to follow the reapers and gather what was dropped. Gleaning was hard, humbling uncertain labour, and a young foreign widow in the fields was vulnerable to harassment. Boaz, a man of standing, would have had very would have had every social license to ignore her. But instead, Boaz shows Ruth extraordinary kindness, protection, provision, dignity, and a blessing that names exactly what she has done. She has come to trust under the wings of the Lord. That image of sheltering wings becomes one of Scripture's tenderest pictures of refuge. And there is a beautiful beautiful irony. The Hebrew reader would catch. The word for wings canaf is the same word for the corner or skirt of a garment. Later Ruth will ask Boaz to spread his skirt, his canaf over her, and Boaz, the kinsman redeemer, will become the answer to the very blessing he prayed. He becomes the wings under which she finds refuge. Grace welcomes the outsider and covers the vulnerable. Ruth had no claim on Israel's God by birth, only by trust, and trust was enough to bring her under his wings. When we take refuge in God, we often find that He answers our need through the very kindness of his people, and that the shelter we pray for arrives with hands and a face. The Redeemer spreads his garment over those who have nothing but their trust. O God, we come to take refuge under your wings, bringing nothing but trust. Please cover us with your garment. You are our redeemer. And let us find in you a full reward. Amen. God bless you, brothers and sisters.