Ruth was helpless, yet from her position of helplessness, she humbled herself to cry out for help. She did not cry out randomly; instead, she directed her cry towards the only one who could help her situation, Boaz.
Boaz, as a kinsman redeemer to Ruth, was in the position to hear her cry and answer her needs. He had already begun to assume the position of her redeemer, and her cry to him for help would not fall on deaf ears.
Join us as we continue to look at the story of Jesus through the Book of Ruth and see how the story of Boaz and Ruth paints a beautiful foreshadowing of the love of Jesus for His Church.
Ruth was helpless, yet from her position of helplessness, she humbled herself to cry out for help. She did not cry out randomly; instead, she directed her cry towards the only one who could help her situation, Boaz.
Boaz, as a kinsman redeemer to Ruth, was in the position to hear her cry and answer her needs. He had already begun to assume the position of her redeemer, and her cry to him for help would not fall on deaf ears.
Join us as we continue to look at the story of Jesus through the Book of Ruth and see how the story of Boaz and Ruth paints a beautiful foreshadowing of the love of Jesus for His Church.
Welcome to drippings from the honeycomb, the official podcast of Another 12 ministries. We are so glad that you have decided to join us as we enjoy the sweetness of God's word, one verse at a time. Welcome to episode three of our journey through the book of Ruth, as we take a look at the Christmas story, the story of Jesus. And we do it through the Old Testament book of Ruth. Now, again, I want to reiterate that Ruth is such an interesting story, not only because it sets up this incredible image of the kinsman redeemer, but also because it is a story about two real people who are in the line of the Messiah who would be the ultimate kinsman redeemer for the human race. And that's what makes it such an incredibly beautiful story. One that really teaches those of us who follow Jesus Christ, what the heart of God is towards us. It provides a real clear look into the love that drove him to enter the world that drove him to serve us. And that drove him to go to the cross. By way review, Ruth has come with her mother in law from Moab Ruth is a Gentile woman, amoa bitis, who was married to Naomi son, a Jewish man, their family had fled from Israel to escape a famine. And we know as we looked at in episode one, that famines in Israel were always a result of God's judgment, God had instructed the nation of Israel that they were to follow Him and that if they didn't, one of the ways he would punish them would be by famine. So this family in fleeing had actually been running from God. They were not humbling themselves. They were not being obedient to God, they were running from God, seeking to escape his judgment rather than to repent. And in the process of doing that, the husband and both of the sons died, leaving three women widowed. And we come to this place where Naomi is sending her daughter in law's back and Ruth refuses to go Ruth stays with her. And then we saw them come from Moab to Bethlehem, we saw that even though it's not recorded in the text. God's mercy to these women on this difficult and dangerous road from Moab to Bethlehem is evident because they arrived safely in Bethlehem. And not only do they arrive in Bethlehem safely, they arrive in Bethlehem during a time of harvest. And so God's sovereignty is just completely visible throughout the pages of this book, as we see him align events to meet the needs of these two women. And more than that, not only is there a harvest happening, when Ruth goes to glean, she ends up gleaning in the field of the kinsman redeemer for Naomi's family, and the Scripture definitely paints the picture of happenstance. Now, obviously, there's no happenstance. This is a play on words, obviously, the author of this book, whoever wrote this book, is pointing to the fact that in human terms, this just kind of was chance, luck, it happened that she was in the right field. But obviously, the deeper point that Scripture is making is that it's too much of a coincidence for this to have just happened. God clearly is scripting events behind the scenes here and is going to work his will in bringing the light of the Messiah through this family. So there's no accident that any of this happened. God is sovereign. And he is orchestrating events. Here. He is working behind the scenes. And of course, we saw that when Ruth comes into Boaz field, he notices her immediately and he wants to know who she is and why she's there. And when he finds out that she's connected to this family of Naomi and Elimelech Elimelech, who was Naomi's husband who has passed away, he immediately steps in as the provider for this family. He instructs Ruth to come and glean in his fields. He tells her to stay by his female servants, he orders his male servants to strew good harvest in front of Ruth so she will have a better take from the gleaning and he also instructs them to leave her alone. Don't bother her. If she cleans in the wrong place. It's okay let her be. And so immediately we see Boaz completely unbeknownst to Ruth, stepping in and caring for her. He's already fulfilling his kinsman redeemer responsibilities, even before Ruth knows who he is. As far as Ruth is concerned, this is just an extraordinarily kind man who is helping her. She does not know until after she goes and talks with Naomi about who he is that he is actually someone charged with the redemption of this family in a crisis. So we see Bo as taking on his responsibility, even before there's any pressure on him to do it, he willingly takes up his responsibility, he willingly is seeing to the provision of these two women of this family line because don't forget, it's more than just the two women. This is about family lineage, this is about preserving a line that is going to be stamped out unless somebody steps up. This is a no hope situation. If someone cannot redeem this family, the name of Elimelech dies, the name of Naomi's husband is gone. It's a race from the earth. There's no other way to save it. So this is more than just two women needing food, needing shelter needing a provider. This goes down to family lineage, which was a big, big deal in ancient Israel a big deal in the ancient world period. But especially a big deal in ancient Israel, because your family lineage was tied to your land inheritance. And if you lost your family lineage, then the inheritance went with it. And this is such a great picture of the loss state of humanity after the fall. You know, when God created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, he gave them the earth He gave them charge over the Earth and the universe, to rule it to tended to care for it, to oversee it to steward it for good. And when man sinned, he fell from that position, he lost that position and his position, our position as humans is hopeless. There's no way back, our family line has been cut off our tie to our creator had been cut off, and there was no way for humanity to cover that gap and get back to God. It was going to have to be something that God did. And so we start to see this picture in Boaz of Boaz taking up his Redeemer responsibility completely on his own. He's the one who finds out who Ruth is. He's the one who takes the initiative. He's the one who steps into the role of provider, he doesn't tell her who he is, he doesn't say, hey, look, I'm your kinsman redeemer, everything's going to be okay. He is the one who instead asks who she is. And when he finds out, he treats her with extravagant kindness by stepping into his Redeemer role, unprompted. And this is absolutely a picture of the Trinity stepping into their role as Redeemer without being prompted. It starts in Genesis three, God could have slain Adam and Eve in the garden, God could have destroyed them and said, Okay, we're going to just burn this universe up, we're going to start over, we're going to make sure that Satan doesn't come into it, we're going to eliminate all evil, and then we're going to do it again. But he doesn't do that. Because He loves His creation, because God doesn't make mistakes. See, God had a plan from before time began. And he stepped in and provoked to make right the wrongs. And he starts by clothing, Adam and Eve, punishing the serpent punishing Adam and Eve and then explaining that one will come one day to take the cursor away. There will be an intervention by God into human history that will eliminate the curse that will break the power of this hopeless situation. And so this picture of Boaz just mirrors that beautiful story. And it mirrors that beautiful story of Jesus who humbles himself and comes to earth in the form of a baby who is born into humanity who serves humanity, who dies for humanity, who rises again and is continuing to intercede before the Father for humanity. This kinsman redeemer concept is so perfectly portrayed in this story. And it was done so specifically by God so that we would have this beautiful picture of how much he loves us. So we have Ruth and Naomi, Ruth has gone back. She's brought back all this food. Naomi is wondering, where did you glean today? How do you have this much food that you brought back with you? And when Ruth shares with her, Naomi immediately recognizes what is happening, somehow, beyond all hope, their kinsman redeemer is beginning to step forward to take responsibility for them. And so she instructs Ruth, how to go about petitioning him to complete the redemption, petitioning him to step forward and marry her and raise up a line to Elimelech. Naomi's dead husband, this is important because if Boaz marries Ruth, any children they have have, especially sons that would carry on the family lineage will not carry on his own lineage they will carry on Elimelech lineage. And this is what we refer to in the Old Testament as leveraged marriage, it is the idea that a kinsmen someone within the family will step in as a husband and procreate with the widow in order to preserve family lineage. But it's definitely a negative for the family member that steps in, it's a negative because his line won't be continued, any children of that marriage will bear the line of the dead husband. It's a negative financially because it's now splits his inheritance, whatever he's going to leave to his posterity is going to be split. So if he had a wife, and he had children, and then he married this widow within the family to raise up a line of succession for her dead husband, now his inheritance must split between the two. So this is a serious negative for the family member that is a redeemer, it's going to cost him dearly. And so both as his immediate obedience, immediate stepping forward to take on this role, is extremely significant. And the only devices this plan with Ruth to propose this marriage solution to ask Boaz to save them, essentially is what's going to happen. And she tells Ruth, go up to the threshing floor, the harvest has been gathered in there threshing out the barley that has been gathered. In other words, they're separating the grain from the stock so they can burn the stocks and taking the grain, it's a lot of work, they're going to be sleeping in the fields to make sure their harvest isn't stolen from isn't taken by someone else. So they're going to be sleeping on the threshing floor, go there, laid his feet and uncovered his feet so that he'll wake up. And when he does wake up, ask him to save us ask him to be our Redeemer. And so we pick it up in route three, verse eight, nine, where it says, At midnight, the man was startled and turned over and behold, a woman lay at his feet. He said, Who are you? And she answered, I am Ruth, your servant, spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer. Now, before we get into the beauty of what Ruth actually asks him for, it's important that you understand that the idea of uncovering his feet was very intimate. This was a very intimate concept, the feet could have meant anything from just the feet, to all the way up to the waist. And so this idea is that Ruth is saying to him, take this part of your robe, this portion of your clothing that covers you in the most central part of your body, and throw it over me, this is a petition for him to cover her with marital and physically intimate protection. This is a petition for him to marry her and raise up offspring with her. It's not just a ceremonial marriage, marry me and take care of me. But there won't be any relationship between us. This is more than that. This is saying, marry me care for me and raise up children to further my husband's line because he is dead and can't do it. And why Boaz specifically, because he is in the position of being a redeemer. See, it wasn't just anybody who could do this. It had to be someone who occupied the position of Redeemer, they had to have that status, they had to be connected to this family in such a way that they were qualified to be a redeemer. Now the idea of spreading wings over somebody, this civilization of incredible intimacy, protection, covering provision. This stems from a beautiful concept of God putting his wings over Israel. And there are two specific passages that I think are incredibly beautiful. The first one which was actually penned by Ruth's great grandson, King David. He wrote this, he said, He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust, for He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions and under his wings, you will find refuge His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler. Now this concept of Ruth needing this kind of protection, Ruth meeting, this kind of provision really echoes in those words of David who knows what he was thinking about exactly when he wrote those words, but I can tell you this much. There is no accident that Ruth asked Boaz to spread his wings over her for protection. He and David wrote about the almighty spreading his wings over his children. There is a an incredible civilization in that, this idea of protection under the wings of someone more powerful, and God himself when he spoke of Israel, in Ezekiel 16. And he talks about his deep and intimate love for Israel used this language. And this chapter is beautiful, I would encourage you to read Ezekiel 16, because it shows God's faithfulness and love for Israel. But in verse eight, God speaks this way. He says, When I passed by you and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you declares the Lord. And you became mind. This amazing picture of a man who loves this woman so much, that he puts the seal of his protection over her. He says, you will be with me and I will protect you and I will provide for you, and I will elevate you up. And I will give you every good thing that you need for life, for happiness for joy, so that you can thrive and be the very best version of who you can be, so that you are loosed from any cares and concerns of the world, and you can fulfill the greatest measure of your potential. And that is exactly what this picture of casting wings over a bit truth means. God did not cast his robe over Israel to limit Israel, Israel only limited itself through its own sin, God cast his robe over Israel to elevate Israel. That was his whole point to bring her to this pinnacle of beauty, pinnacle of excellence, pinnacle of righteousness and holiness before him so that everyone who looked at Israel would say the favor of God rests on that. You see, Ruth made this petition and through it recognized a few things. She recognized her Redeemer, and the love that he had for her. And in that she recognized her helpless position. She made herself humble, and she understood she could not change your opposition, she was powerless to make any changes, she needed someone to act on her behalf. So She appealed to the one who could, she remained completely obedient. She followed Naomi's instructions to the letter, then she follows Bo as his instructions to the letter, because when he responds to her, he gives her some detailed instructions, and she follows them. And then she waited with confidence. What a picture of Jesus Christ Jesus who covers the sin of the world, by throwing his blood over it. He stretched out his wings over his people, he paid for their redemption, by doing something they had no ability to do for themselves. He stepped into that role volitionally of his own motivation. No one begged him to take that position. He just took it. They were looking for their deliver. When he came, they rejected their deliver. But it didn't matter. He did it anyway. He took that role and fulfilled it. While he was being persecuted for doing it. Jesus displays the ultimate love for His people, by sacrificing himself by doing for them what they cannot do for themselves. God inspired the author of Scripture, who wrote Ruth, to give us this astounding look at what a kinsman redeemer looks like, so that when Jesus would do what he did, everyone who reads the scriptures could look back and say, Hey, I've seen that before. I've seen that before, not in his pure form, not in his greater form, not in his far reaching of a form. But I've seen it in the actions of Boaz, in the story of Ruth. And I know that Jesus is the fulfillment of all of that Jesus, who came from the line of Boaz and Ruth fulfilled the ultimate picture set up by Boaz and Ruth. And we, those of us who believe in Him, are the beneficiaries of his redemption. We are the beneficiaries of His love. So as you contemplate the love of Jesus this Christmas season, the love that drove him out of heaven, this is what we celebrate. During Christmas. It's not just that Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem. That's what we sing about. That's what we talk about. That's why we give one another gifts to celebrate the greatest gift. But don't forget that before he was born before he was in Mary's body Love drove him to lay down the splendor and majesty of his position in heaven and humble himself to be born in a stable, it was love that drove him here. It was love for us. It was love for those who did not love him back. Just like Boaz demonstrated incredible love to a Gentile woman who was gleaning in his field who didn't even know who he was. So God demonstrated incredible love by sending Jesus and Jesus demonstrated incredible love by coming willingly to those who didn't know him. To those who didn't love him. To those who ultimately hated him so much they put him on a cross. But in spite of all that Jesus spread his wings over lost and dying world that he loved giving them hope, giving them a future and redeeming them from a hopeless fate I hope you enjoyed this episode of drippings from the honeycomb. 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