SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
SPEAKER_01: You can understand and empathize with Mary, at least, if you have ever felt deep within you a heaviness, a weight of some kind.
SPEAKER_01: For for you kids, maybe, maybe it's when you got into a fight with your brother or your sister, and you just felt like they were wrong, and you were right, and it just hurt you.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe a good friend at school did something or said something that just made you feel terrible.
SPEAKER_01: You feel this heaviness inside of you.
SPEAKER_01: Now I got mom and dad's attention too, didn't I?
SPEAKER_01: Moms and dads know exactly what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Any any kind of thing in life feels like it's it's a pressure, it's a weight that sometimes it feels even hard to stand up, right?
SPEAKER_01: So you can understand then how young teenage Mary would feel giving birth to a baby that kind of was out of nowhere.
SPEAKER_01: Not even at home, but in Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: On a floor of a house, on the floor no less where all of the animals were kept.
SPEAKER_01: What hope is there in that?
SPEAKER_01: What what Mary only understood in her mind, but maybe not so much in her heart yet, was that that heaviness, that weight that she felt in that moment, was also the hope of her redemption.
SPEAKER_01: For she gave birth to her redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to Job.
SPEAKER_01: Has not man a hard service on earth?
SPEAKER_01: And are not his days like the days of a hired hand?
SPEAKER_01: Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hired hand who looks for his wages, so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery, misery are apportioned to me.
SPEAKER_01: When I lie down, I say, When will I get up?
SPEAKER_01: But the night is long and I am full of tossing till the dawn.
SPEAKER_01: My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt, my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh.
SPEAKER_01: My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and come to their end without hope.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that my life is a breath.
SPEAKER_01: My eye will never again see good.
SPEAKER_01: Sounds hopeless, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Remember that Job had had everything stripped away from him.
SPEAKER_01: And there's this there's this back and forth between what he knows to be true, but within what he feels to be reality.
SPEAKER_01: And reality to him is heaviness, weight, pressure of life.
SPEAKER_01: So if you feel that this morning, you're in good company.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the interesting thing.
SPEAKER_01: We speak often of God's glory.
SPEAKER_01: We remember the angels appearing to the shepherds in great glory and singing praises to God in the heavens at night.
SPEAKER_01: So bright that the shepherds are trying to figure out what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: Where'd this light come from?
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what the word for glory means in the Old Testament?
SPEAKER_01: It's the word that means weight or heaviness.
SPEAKER_01: It's something that is immense and heavy and weighty, but in a glorious and massively impressive kind of way.
SPEAKER_01: How ironic is it then that that same term is used to refer to the heaviness and the weightiness of life in a sin-cursed world.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth and Naomi came to Bethlehem, much like Joseph and Mary.
SPEAKER_01: They came with a weight, with a heaviness, wondering about their redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Last Sunday in the first chapter of Ruth, we encountered the tragic need for redemption in the life of Naomi and by extension her daughter-in-law, Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: I've heard from some of you that the sermon last week didn't have much of a conclusion, or that you were left hanging.
SPEAKER_01: If that's how you felt, then I'm really glad because I accomplished my purpose.
SPEAKER_01: That was my goal, because that's where the first chapter of Ruth ends.
SPEAKER_01: It ends almost hopelessly.
SPEAKER_01: Just you go off a cliff and it's done.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth chapter 1 encapsulates the at least at least 10 years of time in 22 verses.
SPEAKER_01: And that says something to us as listeners of this story.
SPEAKER_01: How would you write out the last 10 years of your life?
SPEAKER_01: How would you present to someone you've never seen or never heard from before?
SPEAKER_01: How would you describe the last 10 years of your life?
SPEAKER_01: Would you be able to encapsulate it in 22 verses?
SPEAKER_01: For Ruth and Naomi, those ten years are encapsulated in suffering and heaviness and weightiness.
SPEAKER_01: The story, as it's composed, makes us feel helpless.
SPEAKER_01: Just like the end of the book of Judges, it's a story of tragic wanderings away from God.
SPEAKER_01: Two women endured tremendous losses.
SPEAKER_01: They're almost hopeless, and you know you've almost reached the bottom of the barrel when you only want some bread.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where chapter one ends.
SPEAKER_01: But a slim beacon of hope existed in that dark, sin-cursed world.
SPEAKER_01: Naomi, calling herself Ms.
SPEAKER_01: Bitter, returns home to Yahweh's land, bringing with her a young Moabite woman.
SPEAKER_01: And that woman, Ruth, committed herself to Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: And not only to Naomi, but to Naomi's covenant God.
SPEAKER_01: That's a morsel of trust and faith in the times of the judges when there was no king and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.
SPEAKER_01: And they just happened to return at the time of the barley harvest.
SPEAKER_01: That's a convenient time for those who have hit rock bottom and find hope in a mere slice of bread.
SPEAKER_01: Last Sunday's sermon didn't have a conclusion because the conclusion of this story doesn't happen until the very last sentence.
SPEAKER_01: So, in one sense, this is a four-part sermon that doesn't have a conclusion until around 5 p.m.
SPEAKER_01: on Christmas Eve.
SPEAKER_01: Now I know you're going to come back next Sunday, right?
SPEAKER_01: Good.
SPEAKER_01: But that first chapter of Ruth is also helpful to remind us that we are all like Ruth and Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: In some way, we all have that heaviness, that weightiness of life that is desperate for a ray of hope.
SPEAKER_01: We all need rescue and deliverance and redemption.
SPEAKER_01: We may not initially recognize it, just as Ruth may not have understood her need for redemption in Yahweh while she was growing up in Moab.
SPEAKER_01: She may not have known that she needed to trust in the Lord and to be eternally redeemed through faith in him.
SPEAKER_01: It was only, though, through the tragedies of life that she turned to him by returning to Bethlehem with Ms.
SPEAKER_01: Bitter, also known as Naomi, if you missed last week.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, we see our need to turn to faith in the God of Naomi and Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: It may be a first-time turning in trust to the only one who can rescue us in their time of need.
SPEAKER_01: When we recognize our sin and its curse, or it may be a return, a turning back, as when God's people find themselves entrenched in doing what is right in their own eyes, and then through God's tender mercies, they find themselves crushed and at the end of themselves with nowhere else left to turn.
SPEAKER_01: This story encourages us to see hope from God's hand in the promise of his provision, even if all we can see is a slice of bread at the end of the road.
SPEAKER_01: And so we return to him in faith and trust.
SPEAKER_01: So part one relayed the tensions of doing what is right in one's own eyes while teasing us with a sliver of hope in Yahweh visiting his people with bread.
SPEAKER_01: Two impoverished women, desperate for redemption, alone and unprotected, return from their tragic wanderings to a place lacking righteous character.
SPEAKER_01: Is that where you would want to go?
SPEAKER_01: We're left with the question: will they find anything besides a bit of barley to make a few slices of bread?
SPEAKER_01: Now we pick up in chapter 2 this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 2 and chapter 3, we are introduced to the idea of a redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: And not just a redeemer, but the kind of man he is.
SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bible, I encourage you to follow along with me as I read all of chapter 2 and chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Now, Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.
SPEAKER_01: And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose eyes I shall find favor.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Go, my daughter.
SPEAKER_01: So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers.
SPEAKER_01: And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and he said to the reapers, May Yahweh be with you.
SPEAKER_01: And they answered, May Yahweh bless you.
SPEAKER_01: And Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, Whose young woman is this?
SPEAKER_01: And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, She's the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.
SPEAKER_01: She said, Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.
SPEAKER_01: So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.
SPEAKER_01: Then Boaz said to Ruth, Now listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field, or leave this one, but keep close by my young women.
SPEAKER_01: Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them.
SPEAKER_01: Have I not charged the young men not to touch you?
SPEAKER_01: And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.
SPEAKER_01: Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, Why have I found favor in your eyes?
SPEAKER_01: That you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner.
SPEAKER_01: Just pause there for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Notice every time so far in this chapter, Ruth is mentioned as the Moabite woman, the Moabite woman, the young Moabite woman, the foreigner.
SPEAKER_01: She's a young lady who doesn't belong, friends.
SPEAKER_01: We have to pick that up.
SPEAKER_01: But Boaz answered her.
SPEAKER_01: And how you left your father and your mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before.
SPEAKER_01: May Yahweh repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.
SPEAKER_01: Then she said, I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, even though I am not one of your servants.
SPEAKER_01: Now at mealtime, Boaz said to her, Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine.
SPEAKER_01: So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her roasted grain, and she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over.
SPEAKER_01: When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young man, saying, Let her glean among the sheaves, and do not reproach her, and also pull out some from the bundles for her, and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.
SPEAKER_01: So she gleaned in the field until evening.
SPEAKER_01: Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.
SPEAKER_01: And she took it up and went into the city.
SPEAKER_01: Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned.
SPEAKER_01: She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: And her mother-in-law said to her, Where did you glean today?
SPEAKER_01: Where have you worked?
SPEAKER_01: Blessed be the man who took notice of you.
SPEAKER_01: So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, she's a foreigner, she doesn't know anybody.
SPEAKER_01: She said, The man, the man's name with whom I work today is Boaz.
SPEAKER_01: And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, May he be blessed by Yahweh, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Naomi also said to her, This man, this man is a relative of ours.
SPEAKER_01: He is one of our redeemers.
SPEAKER_01: And Ruth the Moabite said, Besides, he said to me, Yeah, keep close to my young men until they've finished all the harvest.
SPEAKER_01: And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, It's good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, lest in another field you be assaulted.
SPEAKER_01: So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests, and she lived with her mother-in-law.
SPEAKER_01: Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, My daughter, should I not seek rest for you that it may be well with you?
SPEAKER_01: Is not Boaz our relative with whose young women you were?
SPEAKER_01: Look, he's winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor.
SPEAKER_01: Wash therefore and anoint yourself, put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor.
SPEAKER_01: But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.
SPEAKER_01: But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies.
SPEAKER_01: Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth replied, Okay, all that you say I will do.
SPEAKER_01: So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her.
SPEAKER_01: And when Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain.
SPEAKER_01: Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down.
SPEAKER_01: At midnight the man's feet were cold.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, he was startled.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what startled him, we don't know.
SPEAKER_01: He turned over and behold, a woman lay at his feet.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Who are you?
SPEAKER_01: And she answered, I am Ruth, your servant.
SPEAKER_01: Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, May you be blessed by Yahweh, my daughter.
SPEAKER_01: You have made this last loving kindness greater than the first, and that you have not gone after young men, whether rich or poor.
SPEAKER_01: And now, my daughter, do not fear.
SPEAKER_01: I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman.
SPEAKER_01: And now it is true that I am a redeemer, yet there is a redeemer nearer than I.
SPEAKER_01: Remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good.
SPEAKER_01: Let him do it.
SPEAKER_01: But if he is not willing to redeem you, then as Yahweh lives, I will redeem you.
SPEAKER_01: Lie down until the morning.
SPEAKER_01: So she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another, and he said, Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Bring the garment you are wearing and hold it out.
SPEAKER_01: So she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her.
SPEAKER_01: Then she went into the city.
SPEAKER_01: And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, How did you fare, my daughter?
SPEAKER_01: Then she told her all that the man had done for her, saying, These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, You must not go back empty handed to your mother-in-law.
SPEAKER_01: She replied, Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest, but will settle the matter today.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Seems to me like there are two kinds of people when it comes to novels.
SPEAKER_01: There are those people who really get drawn into the details of the story in between the introduction and the conclusion, and they want to know all the twists and turns, the ins and outs.
SPEAKER_01: Then there's the rest of us who put up with the middle part because we just want to see how the story turns out.
SPEAKER_01: This is the middle of the story.
SPEAKER_01: This is the middle of the story that sometimes we feel like we just have to get through to get to the end.
SPEAKER_01: Just tell me how it concludes.
SPEAKER_01: Tell me the good part at the end.
SPEAKER_01: I'd like to do that, but I'm not going to.
SPEAKER_01: If you were listening, Scott already mentioned it for you in his prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Not going to tell you because we need to feel the weight of these two chapters to be able to really grasp what happens at the end.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth gleaned barley from the fields.
SPEAKER_01: Going behind the reapers, she reached out and she picked off the heads of grain off the stalks that didn't get cut by the reapers.
SPEAKER_01: It was tedious work.
SPEAKER_01: But it's the only way for Ruth and Naomi to have food to eat.
SPEAKER_01: There's much for us to glean in these two chapters, as Ruth gleaned in the fields, but there's far too much for us this morning.
SPEAKER_01: So I've directed our focus to what I think our storyteller highlights most significantly.
SPEAKER_01: And that is the Character of the participants.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look first briefly at the character of the participants in chapter two.
SPEAKER_01: A chapter that we might be able to label as.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, I'm confused here.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's last week's slides, guys.
SPEAKER_01: Can I get this week's slides?
SPEAKER_01: We can label this chapter provision, if you're taking notes.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter two, we can label provision.
SPEAKER_01: For in it we find Ruth and Naomi finding provision through grain.
SPEAKER_01: There is an undying hope woven through this chapter.
SPEAKER_01: Because our story began with no bread in Bethlehem, the house of bread.
SPEAKER_01: Now we're back in the house of bread at a barley harvest, which comes first in the early summer before the wheat harvest.
SPEAKER_01: But that provision for all of the people became the means for God's provision for these two destitute and hungry women.
SPEAKER_01: With this chapter on provision, we see Naomi, Ruth, and a new character, a relative named Boaz.
SPEAKER_01: And we also see some references to Yahweh, the God of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: So what does the storyteller tell us about these characters, these participants in the story?
SPEAKER_01: What can we learn about them?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we learn first that Ruth is faithful.
SPEAKER_01: She's dedicated and she's hardworking.
SPEAKER_01: Do we have that up there yet?
SPEAKER_01: Not yet.
SPEAKER_01: Close.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth is faithful, dedicated, and hardworking.
SPEAKER_01: She trusts in Yahweh while laboring to do all she can.
SPEAKER_01: We might say that a parallel is Philippians chapter 2, verses 11 and 12 in our New Testament times, where it says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth is faithful, dedicated, and hardworking while trusting that God is working.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, this story is placed right after the book of Proverbs in some ancient collections of the Hebrew Scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: That tells us that some folks believed that Ruth embodied the ideals of the Proverbs 31 woman.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not surprising given what we read of her in this chapter.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth is committed to Naomi, submitting to her as the family matriarch, as it were.
SPEAKER_01: Even though it's only the two of them.
SPEAKER_01: Needing food, Ruth asks permission to pick up leftover grain from the harvested fields.
SPEAKER_01: Today we might say, hey, mom, can I can I go out into the potato fields and the beet fields and see if there was something left in the field?
SPEAKER_01: It seems there was a large community field, like a modern community garden, where families were responsible for a portion of the field.
SPEAKER_01: It says in verse 3 of chapter 2, Ruth set out, went, and gleaned in the field.
SPEAKER_01: One field.
SPEAKER_01: And Ruth picked grain all day long.
SPEAKER_01: Then she took her gatherings to the threshing floor.
SPEAKER_01: She beat the grain out of the stalks.
SPEAKER_01: She tossed the grain into the air so that the chaff would be separated from the grain by the wind.
SPEAKER_01: The grain falls to the ground.
SPEAKER_01: She gathers it up.
SPEAKER_01: And we're told it was about an ephah of barley.
SPEAKER_01: That's about six gallons worth.
SPEAKER_01: So imagine a five-gallon bucket that is topped off, clear to the top, and overflowing.
SPEAKER_01: She processed enough to fill up and overflow a five-gallon bucket in one day's work.
SPEAKER_01: It would amount to approximately 30 pounds of grain, enough to make 30 modern-sized one-pound loaves of bread.
SPEAKER_01: That's all you have to eat.
SPEAKER_01: That's not going to last too long for two ladies.
SPEAKER_01: Our storyteller, though, informs us that Ruth continued to do this hard work daily through the barley and harvest, wheat harvests.
SPEAKER_01: And interestingly then, Boaz appears to know something that we've only heard once.
SPEAKER_01: On the return to Bethlehem from Moab, Ruth told Naomi, or Ms.
SPEAKER_01: Bitter at the time, that Yahweh would become her God.
SPEAKER_01: She said, Your God will be my God.
SPEAKER_01: And now in chapter 2, verse 12, Boaz tells us that Ruth has come to take refuge under Yahweh's wings.
SPEAKER_01: Remember how Jesus stood weeping before the city of Jerusalem, saying, How often I would have gathered you together as a hen would gather her chicks.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth, Boaz says, is known to trust Yahweh to provide for her and to protect her all throughout her labors.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth is a faithful, dedicated, hardworking woman.
SPEAKER_01: We also learn that Naomi, Naomi has a morsel of faith that appears to be growing.
SPEAKER_01: And not only is it growing, but it seems as though her bitterness is starting to wane and she's beginning to be protective of Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: Naomi was still embittered in chapter 1, verse 21, when she blamed Yahweh for taking away everything from her.
SPEAKER_01: Much like Job said, Yahweh's hand is against me.
SPEAKER_01: He's become my enemy.
SPEAKER_01: Naomi says that God had caused all of this calamity on her.
SPEAKER_01: She told everyone to call her Mara or bitter.
SPEAKER_01: But now look what she says in chapter 2, verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: She says, May he be blessed by Yahweh, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead.
SPEAKER_01: There's an uncertain grammatical detail here that I think is an intentional ambiguity.
SPEAKER_01: May he be blessed by Yahweh, whose kindness?
SPEAKER_01: Who is whose?
SPEAKER_01: Is it Boaz or is it Yahweh?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: It's ambiguous.
SPEAKER_01: It's not clear.
SPEAKER_01: The question we have to ask, is that intentional or is that unintentional?
SPEAKER_01: For many reasons, I believe that it is intentional.
SPEAKER_01: Whose kindness has not forsaken the living and the dead?
SPEAKER_01: Is it Boaz or is it Yahweh?
SPEAKER_01: I think it's intentional because the storyteller wants us to see the kindness in Boaz and the loving kindness in Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: Naomi understands that Boaz has been kind to Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: But she also believes that Boaz is kind because of Yahweh's faithful, loving kindness.
SPEAKER_01: Her faith is growing.
SPEAKER_01: She's endured a weighty, painful, sorrowful season of life.
SPEAKER_01: But Mara's bitterness is beginning to subside as Ruth labors and brings home grain, and bread is once again found in the house of bread.
SPEAKER_01: And so no longer Mara, Naomi, starts to trust in Yahweh once more.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you felt that.
SPEAKER_01: That time of harshness and weightiness, and you're just hoping for the light at the end of the tunnel.
SPEAKER_01: And when that light starts to shine, there's hope that grows.
SPEAKER_01: The last three verses of chapter two show us something else about Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: She was protective of Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth is a foreigner in Bethlehem, just as Naomi was in Moab.
SPEAKER_01: She's an outsider.
SPEAKER_01: And as a young single woman who's an outsider, that would put her in a dangerous position in a world of ungodly characters.
SPEAKER_01: It appears that Ruth either misunderstood Boaz, which is possible there might be some language difficulties there, but it was either that or she was overtrusting.
SPEAKER_01: Look at chapter 2, verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz says, look, don't go out to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women.
SPEAKER_01: Keep close to my young women.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz told her to stay close to his young women for safety.
SPEAKER_01: There's safety in numbers, he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: But Ruth told Naomi in chapter 2, verse 21, he said to me, You shall keep close by my young men until they finish all my harvest.
SPEAKER_01: What's going on there?
SPEAKER_01: Now look how Naomi responds in gentle correction in verse 22.
SPEAKER_01: It's good, it's a good thing, my daughter, that you go out with his young women.
SPEAKER_01: So she kept close to the young women of Boaz.
SPEAKER_01: When Ruth and Naomi came back from Moab, all that Naomi was thinking about was herself.
SPEAKER_01: She was embittered.
SPEAKER_01: But we begin to see a shift in Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: Where she's no longer just thinking about herself, she's thinking about protecting Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: That says something, doesn't it, about the character of Naomi?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, she's been weighed down, she's been pressed down, and the hand of God has felt very heavy against her.
SPEAKER_01: But when she feels a little bit lighter, she begins to notice that she needs to take care of Ruth too.
SPEAKER_01: In a short recounting of what amounts to an entire summer.
SPEAKER_01: We are told a great deal about another character named Boaz.
SPEAKER_01: In many ways, Boaz is the opposite of the people of the times of the judges.
SPEAKER_01: What do we know about the judges?
SPEAKER_01: It was a time when there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
SPEAKER_01: In many ways, Boaz is the opposite of that.
SPEAKER_01: He's not a judge, but he towers over most of them in the quality of his character.
SPEAKER_01: And it's no wonder that Naomi trusts him at the end of chapter three to do what is right.
SPEAKER_01: We learn that Boaz's character towers over everyone who's doing what's right in their own eyes.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 2, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: He is a man of great worth.
SPEAKER_01: That is, he is a worthy man.
SPEAKER_01: We might say he is a weighty man, and that he is a mighty man.
SPEAKER_01: He's looked up to, he is someone who is valued, he's someone who is not doing what's right in his own eyes, but is doing what is always consistently proper in the eyes of God.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 2, verse 10, he is a man of loyal love.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11, he is a knowing man.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Naomi says, Why should you take notice of me?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11, Boaz says, All that you've done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me.
SPEAKER_01: He knows, he knows her story.
SPEAKER_01: He knows how she's been supporting her mother-in-law.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13, he's a kind and comforting man.
SPEAKER_01: Verses 14 through 16, he's a providing man.
SPEAKER_01: He gives her more than she has, she's gathered together.
SPEAKER_01: And in the storyline, we see that he consistently displays the character, not of those who are doing what's right in their own eyes, but he displays the character of Yahweh, the one who is a refuge for his people.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just point this out to you now and we'll come back to it.
SPEAKER_01: If you look at chapter 2, verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz says, May God repay you for what you've done, and a full reward be given you by Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.
SPEAKER_01: He understands, listen, you've come here because this is God's land, and this is God's people.
SPEAKER_01: This is the right place to find refuge.
SPEAKER_01: Now look how Naomi turns that around.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, Ruth turns that around in chapter 3, verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: She says, I am Ruth, your servant.
SPEAKER_01: Would you spread your wings over me?
SPEAKER_01: Why would you, why would you ask someone to spread their wings over you if their wings were terrible?
SPEAKER_01: Ruth begins to understand.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz is a man of towering character.
SPEAKER_01: He's not like everyone else in the times of the judges.
SPEAKER_01: But we have to recognize the one in the background of this story.
SPEAKER_01: God never takes the foreground in the story.
SPEAKER_01: That is, he's always operating in the background.
SPEAKER_01: You never see him stepping out in front, making sure that things happen, or speaking, or directing.
SPEAKER_01: He's always in the background, providentially arranging situations such that his will is always accomplished.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 2, verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field that belonged to Boaz.
SPEAKER_01: The Hebrew word there is chance.
SPEAKER_01: She chanced upon the part of the field belonging to Boaz.
SPEAKER_01: Do you think she just really chanced upon it?
SPEAKER_01: No.
unknown: No.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know why?
SPEAKER_01: There is no chance in God's program.
SPEAKER_01: Even if you're feeling the weightiness and the pressure of a sin-cursed world, there's no chance in God's program.
SPEAKER_01: She chanced upon the field.
SPEAKER_01: This chapter shows us that Yahweh is a redeemer in whose loyal love his people may find refuge.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz says, Listen, Ruth, I've heard everything.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need to hear anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I know it all.
SPEAKER_01: I've heard the whole story.
SPEAKER_01: And I've seen how you've come day after day after day to glean in the fields, to work hard, to labor, to provide for Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: I've seen it all, and I've seen and I've come to believe that your faith is genuine.
SPEAKER_01: You have come to find refuge in the God of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what, Ruth?
SPEAKER_01: He is a God under whose wings you can take refuge.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one in whom Boaz trusts, and whom Ruth is learning to trust, and in whom Naomi's trust is growing, and he is one in whom you can trust.
SPEAKER_01: He is a redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: He is a rescuer who rescues others at significant cost to himself.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz recognizes that Ruth has come to the God of Israel for her refuge and redemption.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Israel needed to do during the times of the judges.
SPEAKER_01: They needed to look to Yahweh as their redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: And then we hear that Boaz is a close relative who can redeem.
SPEAKER_01: When everyone does what is right in his own eyes, and when there's no king to tell people what is right and what is wrong, there is one man who acts righteously with justice and mercy, exhibiting the loyal love of God toward his people.
SPEAKER_01: And this one who towers above all others in his godly character is not just a farmer, is not just a landowner, he's a redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: He's a rescuer.
SPEAKER_01: A close relative who can act on behalf of his relatives to rescue them from their tragic place.
SPEAKER_01: And so we come now to chapter three, which we can entitle Proposal.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter two, we could say, is all about provision.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter three is a proposal.
SPEAKER_01: Here we learn that Naomi cares for Ruth, acting as her provider.
SPEAKER_01: Circumstances are turned around now.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter two, Ruth is the provider, gathering in all of the grain.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter three begins with Ruth asking, Naomi asking, My daughter, should I not seek rest for you that it may be well with you?
SPEAKER_01: Ruth gleaned food.
SPEAKER_01: Her provision was temporary, it was provisional.
SPEAKER_01: Naomi's care is focused on being perpetual.
SPEAKER_01: She wants to take care of Ruth's future.
SPEAKER_01: And it may sound odd to our ears, but Naomi tells Ruth to ask Boaz to act as their redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, Ruth, I want you to go tonight to the threshing floor and propose marriage.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you don't know much about Boaz yet, other than that he's been kind to you, but I want you to go and propose marriage.
SPEAKER_01: You see, God's law said that a close relative could serve as a family redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: Elimelech, Naomi's husband, likely sold the family property, at least before leaving Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: They're starving in the famine.
SPEAKER_01: They need food, so nothing else could be done.
SPEAKER_01: They leave behind their homeland, they go to Moab.
SPEAKER_01: So Naomi then returns to nothing because the family property has now belonged to somebody else.
SPEAKER_01: But God arranged in the law of Moses that a close relative could buy back the property for Elimelech's descendants.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, but wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Elimelech's sons are dead.
SPEAKER_01: There are no grandchildren.
SPEAKER_01: So all that's left is Ruth, the Moabitus.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever purchased the property would marry Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: And any children that they had would then inherit the redeemed property.
SPEAKER_01: So Naomi instructed Ruth to make this proposal to Boaz, and Naomi did it, caring for Ruth's future.
SPEAKER_01: And then Ruth says, Everything that you've commanded me, I will do.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 6, chapter 3, she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her.
SPEAKER_01: She's just following directions.
SPEAKER_01: She trusts her mother-in-law, but more than trusting her mother-in-law, we begin to see, especially in verse 9, that Ruth is a woman of towering character herself.
SPEAKER_01: She's a woman who, like the Proverbs 31 woman, reflects Yahweh's loyal love.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Who are you?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 9, she said, I'm Ruth, your servant.
SPEAKER_01: Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, May you be blessed by Yahweh, my daughter.
SPEAKER_01: You've made this Last loyal love or kindness, your translation may say, greater than the first.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You, you are a person full of loyal love.
SPEAKER_01: Now it sounds to our ears like there's a little bit of maybe impropriety here.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not what happened.
SPEAKER_01: There is another literary play on words here.
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember back in chapter 2 when Boaz said that Ruth had come to find rescue under Yahweh's wings, refuge?
SPEAKER_01: The word for wings in Hebrew is also the word that means corner, like a corner of a blanket.
SPEAKER_01: At the end of a long day of processing grain, Boaz protects his harvest by sleeping beside the pile of grain.
SPEAKER_01: Very normal.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth comes out after dark and lifts up the end of the blanket over his feet.
SPEAKER_01: When he wakes up, surprised, she says, I'm Ruth, your servant.
SPEAKER_01: Spread your corner, your wings over your servant.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you're a redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: Again, it's a masterful Hebrew composition.
SPEAKER_01: Spread your wings refers to the corner of a blanket.
SPEAKER_01: So Ruth asks, please cover me with the corner of your blanket.
SPEAKER_01: Well, she's not going to be covered by a corner of a blanket.
SPEAKER_01: That's a picture.
SPEAKER_01: She's asking him to marry her by covering her with his blanket.
SPEAKER_01: But because the word also means wings, cover me with your wings.
SPEAKER_01: It points back to Boaz's assertion about Ruth coming to Jerusalem, coming to Bethlehem to find refuge under Yahweh's wings.
SPEAKER_01: So our storyteller is telling us, she's asking Boaz, I understand God works the way God works.
SPEAKER_01: Now would you be the means of him working?
SPEAKER_01: Would you cover me with your wings?
SPEAKER_01: As God's means of covering me with his wings.
SPEAKER_01: She's asking Boaz to be the one through whom Yahweh would provide for her and Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: And look at look at Boaz's response in verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: And now, my daughter, do not fear.
SPEAKER_01: Ladies, would you be nervous?
SPEAKER_01: And maybe afraid?
SPEAKER_01: You should be, I would think.
SPEAKER_01: It'd be normal.
SPEAKER_01: Do not fear.
SPEAKER_01: I will do all that you ask.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Not because he likes you.
SPEAKER_01: Not because he thinks you're attractive.
SPEAKER_01: But because everybody in town knows you're a worthy woman.
SPEAKER_01: You're a woman of lofty character.
SPEAKER_01: In its feminine form, worthy woman is the same term that our storyteller applies to Boaz in chapter 2, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: In the days when the judges judged and there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes, there were two individuals with towering character.
SPEAKER_01: And they just happened to meet up.
SPEAKER_01: By chance.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz was known as a man of towering character in a world of ungodly men, and in just a few short months, Ruth became known as a woman of lofty character.
SPEAKER_01: Even more, the loyal love ascribed only to Yahweh, and maybe that one time to Boaz is now ascribed to Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: You have made this last loyal love greater than the first.
SPEAKER_01: So we're beginning to see that the mark of a worthy person is the extent to which they display the character of their God.
SPEAKER_01: A truth reminiscent of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: Now we must notice one more thing from chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: We learn that more than merely reflecting the character of God, Boaz acts like Yahweh by working to rescue those who trust in him.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz says, Don't worry, Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: You don't know this because you don't know our family fully yet, but there's actually somebody who has the first rite of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: So we'll talk to him first thing in the morning, but you don't worry, by the end of this day, I will make sure that you are redeemed.
SPEAKER_01: What a guy.
SPEAKER_01: I will make sure you are redeemed.
SPEAKER_01: The storyline doesn't make this obvious, but chapter three ends with a similar tension, a similar weight to chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: It's the end of the harvest.
SPEAKER_01: The barley harvest is over.
SPEAKER_01: The wheat harvest is over.
SPEAKER_01: What's been gathered in has been gathered in.
SPEAKER_01: There's no more gleaning for Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: What she and Naomi have will need to sustain them all through the fall, all through the winter, all through the spring planting time, waiting until the next harvest.
SPEAKER_01: What little bit of grain they have would have to suffice for food, for trade, for whatever else they might need to survive.
SPEAKER_01: They were no longer destitute, but only by the slimmest of margins.
SPEAKER_01: And Naomi recognizes, she has foresight to see we can't afford to go on like this.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth may be able to support herself, sustain herself through gleaning, but she could not support both of them for long.
SPEAKER_01: Naomi has to find a way for Ruth and her to be redeemed, to have hope.
SPEAKER_01: There's a mutual reliance on one another.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth had cared for Naomi through the harvest, so Naomi sought to provide for Ruth in a way that she says would be restful for her.
SPEAKER_01: You can see that at the end of chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: She says, listen, the man will not rest.
SPEAKER_01: How did she start?
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 3, verse 1, my daughter, should I not seek rest for you?
SPEAKER_01: Now at the end of chapter 3, the man will not rest.
SPEAKER_01: Section ends with irony and a play on words.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 3, verse 1, Naomi seeks rest for Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: It's the word for Noah.
SPEAKER_01: For Noah, the name Noah.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth, I want you to be able to rest.
SPEAKER_01: It's a place of peace, of safety, of relaxation, of restfulness.
SPEAKER_01: But the chapter ends in chapter 3 with no rest.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_01: Using a different word with a similar meaning, Naomi says that Boaz has such great character that he would not rest.
SPEAKER_01: He would not let the matter rest, and therefore allow no rest to himself until Ruth and Naomi had rest through redemption.
SPEAKER_01: And yet again, we don't have a conclusion.
SPEAKER_01: We feel anticipation, we feel expectation and hope that, hey, here's a man of character, a man like God, a man who displays the character of God in a time when everybody's doing whatever they want to do.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz does not rest.
SPEAKER_01: And so, my friends, we do not rest until Ruth and Naomi rest and redemption.
SPEAKER_01: There's no conclusion.
SPEAKER_01: But there is a conclusion coming.
SPEAKER_01: But for today, you must know that the story has an application for you.
SPEAKER_01: We can each be challenged by the high character of the people in this story.
SPEAKER_01: But the one we are expected to see the most is the one who is in the background.
SPEAKER_01: In the foreground, we we see chance.
SPEAKER_01: We see things happening.
SPEAKER_01: We see coincidences.
SPEAKER_01: But the storyteller wants us to see behind that, see through that, and to see there is a sovereign, guiding, providential hand of God who is orchestrating all events to a determined end that glorifies him.
SPEAKER_01: The one we are expected to see the most is not Boaz, the Redeemer of Ruth and Naomi, but we are to see Yahweh, the true Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: He, listen, He did not rest until He provided for your redemption through the Lord Jesus, the only Redeemer who is truly worthy of praise.
SPEAKER_01: Your rest is found in Him.
SPEAKER_01: Boaz is merely a human picture of the God who would leave behind the glory of his throne to take on human form to purchase our redemption.
SPEAKER_01: And to put their hope in their boass.
SPEAKER_01: An infant whom they were told to name Jesus because you would save his people from their sins.
SPEAKER_01: Why would you not put your hope in him?
SPEAKER_01: Would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we put our hope in you.
SPEAKER_01: You are our Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: You are the one, the mighty one in whom we put our hope, and whom all of our trust is found.
SPEAKER_01: May our praise, honor, and glory go all to you, our true Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we ask that you would enable us to see through the pain and the fog and the weightiness of all the things of life, to see redemption, true hope, and you alone.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.