Ruth 4:1-22
May 10, 2020 • Ruth 4:1–22
Audio Transcript: Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic church Brookline. My name is Jan. I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic. Hopefully you've got a nice mask like I do. I got this from my dad. My only problem with this thing is, fogs up my glasses so can't see a thing. Happy Mother's Day, everyone. Here in the beginning, just a quick announcement. Could you do me a favor? If you're watching on Facebook right now, could you please hit the share button? I hate to ask. Feels like self-promotion, but it's basically the easiest way to share the gospel ever. Just press that button. Or if you're watching on YouTube, hit the subscribe button, and like, and comments and all that. It helps us get the word out. Also, if you are visiting, welcome. If you're not part of the Mosaic Brookline community, we'd love to connect with you and we do that through the connection guide. The link will be down in the comments on the Facebook Live premiere. And then also, we have another connection card either on our website or in our app, which you can get in the app store or Google Play. Just search for Mosaic Boston. We're so glad you here. Happy Mother's Day. We're so thankful for our moms. We love our moms and we're praying for them. We're thinking and honoring all the mothers in our community. And this day and age, mothers are clearly, clearly essential workers. More work than ever. Salary has not increased. I see this with my own wife, Tanya. She's an incredible mother to our four daughters, working harder than ever. So we're praying for you. I'm praying for the fruit of the spirit in your life, in particular, patience. As we pray for our mothers, we also pray and honor those who are pregnant today in this crazy season to be pregnant. You are already mothers and we're praying for you, for the Lord to strengthen you and comfort you and sustain you and bless you and the child. We're also thinking of those who would like to be mothers and are not. Jesus didn't have children. St. Paul didn't have children. There's many great, godly people in scripture who didn't have children. And from God's perspective, spiritual children are as important, if not more important, than physical children. I know many strong, powerful young women in our church who have seen people come to faith through their ministry. Those are your children, and we are to be fathers and mothers to them. Also for anyone who's lost a child, we pray for you, and God the Father knows what you're going through, what you've gone through. He too has lost a child. So here in beginning, I would just like to pray for all the moms and bless them in the name of Jesus Christ, by the power of the spirit. Would you pray with me? Heavenly father, we're so thankful for the gift of life and we're so thankful for the gift of new life. Lord, we're so thankful for our parents, our fathers and mothers, they're alive. Lord, we pray for them. We pray that you bless them today, in particular the mothers. You told us to honor our fathers and mothers, so we honor our moms today and the moms in the community, moms of physical and spiritual children. I pray that you give them wisdom and knowledge and discernment to raise up these children in the knowledge of the Lord, love for the Lord. Holy Spirit, I pray, fill them with your power, with your fullness, with your love and comfort and wisdom. And I pray that through their ministry at home, what an important ministry that is, what a calling that is. Lord, I pray that you through the spirit bear much spiritual fruit in their lives. Lord, and help us be great children to our parents, to our moms, to honor them well as you've commanded us. And Lord, bless our time in this tremendous book, brilliant book of Ruth. We thank you for the time that you've given us in it, and I pray that you bless the preaching of holy scripture and we pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. If you are tuning in today, if you're new, we've been going through the book of Ruth, all three sermons. The previous ones are online, and we'd love for you to listen to those. They've been a blessing to our community. Next week we are starting a new series through the book of Philippians, so definitely come back. Philippians is a timely book. The title of the series is inner peace in utter chaos, and St. Paul is writing this book about joy and peace that transcends all understanding and he's writing it from prison, from quarantine. Today we're finishing Ruth. We're in Ruth chapter four. The title of the sermon is The Heart of the Deal, not the art of the deal, but The Heart of the Deal, and at the center of the chapter is a transaction between Boaz and another gentlemen and Boaz is motivated by his heart. He's motivated by love. The story of Ruth, it is a love story, but more importantly it's a story of redemption. Redemption and love are inextricably intertwined because at the heart of redemption is sacrifice. At the heart of love is sacrifice as well, and that's where they meet together. It's not just a love story of hormonal surging love like rom-coms. It's a love story of sacrifice and of redemption. It's a story of costly sacrificial love. And the story of Boaz and Ruth and the whole book of Ruth, it's a prequel to Jesus. Both Ruth and Boaz, they point to Jesus Christ and his redemptive love and that's what we'll talk about today. One of the reasons why we love the story of Ruth, it's such a great story because it points to a greater story. Jesus Christ takes the stories of our lives and when we give him our lives, he takes the tragedies and triumphs and he weaves it into the ultimate tragedy; the death of Jesus Christ, and then the ultimate triumph, which is his resurrection. Every true story, every powerful story has the same arc; creation, fall and redemption. Think of the greatest stories that you've ever heard, the greatest books you've ever read, the greatest movies that have a lasting impact on your life. If there's no redemption, if the story just ends with loss, fall. If the story is just a descent into lossness, like Camus' The Stranger, Beckett's waiting for Godot, you're left with emptiness. You're left with a pit in your stomach, a bitter taste that you can't get out of your mouth. We long for an ending that's happy, that's full of joy and enduring Christianity is the universal explanation of reality, therefore if we take this our creation fall, redemption and we through it look at the stories that have had a lasting impact, shown endurance and popularity, they all use the same pattern and this can be statistically proven. Of all the books that have ever written, the most popular books of all time, number one is The Bible. Over five billion copies published and so many more now with apps, et cetera. Number two is the writings of Mao Tse-Tung, more than five billion copies as well. The Bible has been valued for its blessing to the largest religious group on earth and the history of the earth, and Chairman Mao's book has been popular because it's been printed as governmental propagation within the largest nation. Then come the Quran, the Book of Mormon, the Chinese Dictionary, Boy Scout Handbook, all around a hundred million, but if you look at pure literary works of fiction, Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities, 200 million. The Little Prince, 200 million. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, 150 million. The Alchemist, 150 million. Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, a hundred million. Tolkien's The Hobbit, 100 million. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, 80 million. All of them creation, fall, redemption, and they try to give a glimmer of restoration. Uncle Tom's Cabin, Gone With the Wind, Ben-Hur, all the stories that have endured and were massively popular, same exact arc. And that's why we love the book of Ruth. Same exact arc. The heart of the book is a story of redemption. What is redemption? Just to define our terms, redemption is a pattern of debt and repayment. A debt was owed and it was repaid by someone who paid it at a personal cost to themselves. It's loss and reclamation, it's deliverance upon payment. It's rescue from bondage or enslavement or destitution. And most popular enduring works, more or less, they have a Christ-like Redeemer at the heart of it. Dostoevsky and Brothers Karamazov through Father Zosima, this is what he say;, men are always saved after the death of the deliverer. This is the heart of Christianity; that we are lost, that we are spiritually destitute, in poverty, ostracized from the presence of God. And a Redeemer comes in, a kinsman Redeemer, someone just like us to represent us and pay a debt that we owed. The context of Ruth chapter four where we find ourselves is chapter three. Interesting chapter. As we learned last week, Ruth proposes that Boaz propose. Boaz goes asleep, he wakes up and the first thing that he does is he wants to handle the situation so that he can marry Ruth, but there's an obstacle. He's not the first person legally in line to marry her. We'll talk about that. There's another guy who's got the right to marry her. So, the text is actually a legal transaction before court, so to speak, and Boaz has to handle some business before going on the honeymoon. So would you look at Ruth chapter four with me? I'll read verses one through 12 now and the rest later. Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the redeemer, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by. So Boaz said, "Turn aside, friend; sit down here." And he turned aside and sat down. And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, "Sit down here." And they sat down. And he said to the redeemer, "Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. So I thought I would tell you of it and say, 'Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people.' If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me, that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you." And he said, "I will redeem it." Then Boaz said, "The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance." Then the redeemer said, "I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it." Now, this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging. To confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was the manner of attesting in Israel. So when the redeemer said to Boaz, "Buy it for yourself," he drew off his sandal. Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, "You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day." Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, "We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman." This is the reading of God's Holy and infallible authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points. To frame up our time, first Boaz the Redeemer. Then we'll look at Ruth the Redeemer, and both point to Jesus Christ; Jesus the Redeemer. First, Boaz the Redeemer. In verse one, Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. Boaz wants to marry Ruth, but he wants to do it in the right way. He wants to do it honorably. He wants to do it righteously. He wants to do it biblically. And there's an obstacle in the way, but he's motivated by love. And when you love, obstacles are turned into opportunities and whatever the cost, whatever the sacrifice, whatever needs to get done, you will do everything you can. You have to biblically, morally, righteously, legally to be with the beloved. One of the things that we're dealing with at the church is lot of young couples had wedding plans for this season and things have had to change. Wrenches have been thrown into plans. My brother, Vlad the drummer, who's usually behind me during worship band, shout out, Vladdy, and Sarah were supposed to get married at the end of May. The banquet hall that they had scheduled they said, "We can't do any meetings." So they've had to adapt. They've had to overcome and they're having a ceremony. It's going to be smaller ceremony. I can't wait to preach at it, do the homily. And I'm also the best man. Can't wait to do the best man speech. I know so many stories, oh so many. But this is one of the things that we see is that love is willing to sacrifice. Love is willing to adapt and overcome. The other thing that we see here is in this relationship, as Boaz wants to marry Ruth, who sacrifices more? Is it Boaz or is it Ruth? It's Boaz. Boaz has to make the greater sacrifice financially and personally and emotionally and socially. And actually, we see this pattern throughout scripture. And no matter how much our culture fights this, it's still true that the man leads with sacrifice. Who pays for the engagement ring? The man does. That's always been true, no matter what our culture says, because it's written on our hearts. So but Boaz goes to the gate. Towns were on hilltop, so he went up to the gate. The gate was a combined town hall and a courthouse and archeological studies show us that along the walls next to the gate were benches and whenever anyone came to the gate and sat down, that meant this person had to do, wanted to do some official business. Boaz spent the previous night at the threshing floor and the text insinuates that he didn't even go home. First thing that he does as he wakes up, as he goes and handles some legal business. So he sees the gentlemen, this Redeemer friend gentlemen. He says, "Turn aside, friend. Sit down here." Great move. Good start. Disarm the guy. Proverbs says, "A soft tongue will break a bone." He says, "Friend, sit down. Let's chat." Verse two and he took 10 men of the elders of the city and said, "Sit down here." So they sat down. He gets a quorum of witnesses in order to officiate or in order to confirm the decision, the contract that will be made. It says, "And behold the Redeemer," or friend, and he calls him the Redeemer. This gentlemen, according to Leviticus 25, it was his obligation to redeem Naomi, to redeem Ruth, to redeem the land. He was spiritually obligated as the closest living male relative to Naomi and Ruth to take care of them. Did he know that Naomi and Ruth were there? Of course he knew. We see this in chapter one that as soon as Naomi comes back to Bethlehem, the whole town knew. In a small town, everyone knows your business as well, maybe even better than you do. He had known that they were there. Why didn't he do anything? Well, that's really the problem here. He didn't do anything. Scripture gives us different categories of sin. There are sins of commission where we do the wrong thing, and then there are sins of omission where we don't do the right thing. Scripture says, "He who knows what is good to do and doesn't do it is in sin." This man knew his obligation according to the law was to take care of Naomi and take care of Ruth, but he doesn't. And we see that he commits the same sin that Adam committed in chapter three of Genesis; the sin of cowardice or the sin of not doing his duty, not fulfilling the job that God had for him. There's weakness and there's cowardice and there's a lack of leading, a lack of intention. Ruth chapter four verse three and then Boaz said to the Redeemer, "Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech." The backstory is Joshua, when he comes into the promised land, one of the things that he did was divide the promised land amongst all the families. And God knew that there would be ups and downs in life. And because of the vicissitudes in life and because of the variations in ability and variations in diligence of work ethics, some families would lose their land and enter into poverty and end up selling their land or leasing it out. So God made two, and these are very interesting laws, to offer these families a second chance. The first was the year of Jubilee. God said every 50th year, whoever has bought the land, whoever has leased the land, has to give it back to its original owners. It was after the seventh segment of seven years. After 49 years, the 50th year, that's the year of Sabbath. That's when land goes back. But before the 50 years were up, land could be bought back, but only by a kinsmen or someone related to the family. The reason why God gave these laws, and I love the theology here and how practical it is, because in God's vision, he didn't want society to be characterized by incredible divergences of the richest and the poorest. He didn't want the top, top, top, top 1% and the bottom, bottom, bottom 1%. He wanted people to give, if you're wealthy, to give generously, to provide meaningful work for those at the bottom to help them rise up. These laws are meant to keep families together so the land stays in the family. Now, scripture says that Naomi was selling her parcel of land. She was selling that little piece of portion of the promised land. And by the way, this piece of land was never meant to permanently leave the family. So, something happened. When Elimelech and Naomi, when they left the promised land, most likely that they leased the land out to someone else. They gave someone else the ability to use the land while they were gone, probably for some on the front end and made some kind of deal that when we come back we would like to purchase the land back from it. Now, this whole leasing, there's a word for it. It's usufruct. I'm sure you know this word. It's an SAT word, if you studied it. Here is the challenge of the day. Chicken wing, usufruct. Who can spell it quickly right now? You get a chicken wing, and I am good on my promises. So usufruct is from the Latin, you get to use the fruit of the land. So, what Naomi is doing now is she isn't giving the land away to someone forever. She wants someone to buy back the land that she had leased before she left, and she wants that person to be a kinsmen Redeemer, whoever buys this land. So, this kinsmen Redeemer gentlemen would take a lump sum of money, pay the current users of the land, and this gentleman would come in and use the land in order to sustain himself, but also Naomi and Ruth, and raise an heir so that by the time the heir gets to legal age, that land goes to the heir. So that's what's going on. Ruth 4:4, Boaz says, "So I thought I would tell you of it and say, 'Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you.' And he said, 'I will redeem it.'" Now, this is fascinating. It's fascinating because Boaz is so committed to God's law. Despite the fact that he loves Ruth, he is willing to give her, he's willing to sacrifice his own desires so that she is cared for. He loves her enough to sacrifice the possibility of marrying her. And what's fascinating is this gentlemen, he's thinking about making a great deal. He's thinking with a deal. Boaz is thinking heart of the deal. For him, this gentleman thinks, "Oh my, I buy this land and I can use it. This is a tremendous investment. I'm so glad. I'm redeeming. I'm buying it." And Boaz is so shrewd that he didn't lead with what he says in verse five. He led with, "You get the land," and then brings in a stipulation. This is verse five. "Then Boaz said, 'The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.' Then the Redeemer said, 'I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.'" So you can imagine the scene. You can imagine Boaz handing a contract to this gentleman, this Redeemer friend, and he says, "Great, let's make a deal. Sign here. Sign here. Initial here." Pages flipping, pages flipping, pages flipping. "Oh yeah. By the way, last page. Along with the land, you have to marry Ruth and you have to start a family with her. And if a son is born to you, that son will not carry your last name. He will carry the last name of Ruth's previous husband." So with the land, you have to care for Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law. What's her name? Mara. Bitter. She used to be sweetheart, turn a little sour, so you get her thrown in with Ruth. You have to have a child. Three mouths to feed and when the child gets to legal age, you have to give everything up to him, and that child also gets to split the inheritance of your other children and everything there. As soon as this guy hears all this, he says, "Oh, no. No thank you. I don't need to do this." When he thought the deal would benefit him, he was all for it. As soon as he counted the cost and realized what kind of loss it would bring him, he backs out of the deal. Boaz here is incredibly shrewd and one of the things that we see with Boaz, scripture says he's a worthy man. He knows God, he knows the law, but he also knows people. There's a godly wisdom that he's developed by applying God's word in his life over the long haul, over decades. He's built himself up spiritually, emotionally, theologically, financially. He was ready when God presents him with the situation. He strategically invested his time in the previous seasons so when the new season of opportunity presents itself, he is more than ready. When you're a single man or a single woman, it's not an opportunity to extend adolescence until marriage. And too many men, especially young men, they think, "Okay, marriage is going to turn me into a man." No, no. What turns you into a man is submission to God, to his word. What turns you into a man is fighting the good fight of faith on a daily basis, fighting your sinful desires, fighting sins of omission and commission. What makes you a man of God is time with God. It's walking with God. Boaz was ready when God said, "I'm giving you my daughter." I did this little thing last week where I said, "Here's all of my standards. Here's all of my tests that I'm going to make any potential suitors for my daughters to go through. Here are my standards." Some of them are superficial for comedic effect. Homiletical effect, you know that. Okay, you get that, but the most important ones? They're true. Are you a Christian? Do you love God? Do you fight your sin? Have you led yourself well? Have you protected yourself from sin? Have you provided for yourself? Have you pastored yourself? Well, if not, how are you going to do those things with my daughter? God does the same thing with his daughters. If you want to marry one of God's daughters, you need to meet the standards that God has for a man of God, and Boaz was working on that. He was working on that for decades. He was becoming the man that God wanted him to be, so that when God brought him into the situation and when he introduced him to Ruth, he was ready. He was ready to pastor her, to provide and to protect because he's done that with himself. That's my just pastoral and brotherly encouragement to the brothers in the church, to the sisters in the church. Don't waste the season. Use the season to build yourself up in the Lord, build yourself up for whatever the next season is, marriage or not. And God definitely does bless that. Ruth 4, 7 through 10. Now, this was the custom of the former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging. To confirm a transaction, one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was the manner of attesting in Israel. So when the redeemer said to Boaz, "Buy it for yourself," he drew off his sandal. Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, "You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day." He signs a contract with the gentleman. That's what's going on with the sandals. Kind of weird, but what he's doing, signing a contract. He's signing a contract with another believer. Now, this is just biblical wisdom in terms of doing business with people. If you're doing business with an unbeliever, you sign a contract. If you're doing business with the believer, you've got to sign at least two. It's important. Why? Because the world is fallen. Things take longer than anticipated, cost more. Things tend to go bad. I've seen this practically that when deals go bad or business goes bad, in the church community, the right hand of fellowship quickly devolves into the left fist of disfellowship. So don't do that, sign contracts if you're doing business with one another. Ruth 4, 11 through 12. Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, "We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman." What's fascinating here is they welcome Ruth into the community. They welcome her into the house of God, into the people of Israel. She was an immigrant. Wrong race, wrong faith, wrong language, wrong everything, and she trusts in the Lord and they welcome her into the community. So to speak, they're naturalizing her. If you're an immigrant and you've gone through naturalization process of becoming a U.S. citizen, you know how meaningful that is. I know how meaningful it is. I've gone through it. My wife has gone through it. Basically saying, "You're one of us. You were an outsider. Now you're one of us." And they bless her and they invoke the names of Rachel and Leah. This is important because Rachel and Leah were barren just as Ruth was up to this point, and Leah was the mother of Judah, the ancestor of the tribe of Boaz and Naomi. Why is Perez mentioned here? First of all, Perez is the ancestor of Boaz, but he's also a product of one of these Leviticus 25 Levirate marriages between Tamar and Judah. The problem was, Judah did not fulfill his obligation. He backed out of his obligation. He was passive and not fulfilling the obligation in the same way that this Redeemer friend was passive. And Tamar pretends to be a prostitute, seduces her father-in-law, kind of a story, and Perez is an ancestor of Boaz, and Boaz did not. He did not follow in his ancestor's sinful patterns, sinful decisions. He broke the generational sin by following God. This is important, because if you did not come from a family of believers, if you were not raised in the faith, if you have seen pattern of generational sin in your own life, if there is a legacy of sin, you don't have to follow in those footsteps. By grace through faith, God can redeem you from that. That's what we see here. So Boaz, he makes the decision to marry Ruth. All of her liabilities, all of her debts now belonged to Boaz, and all of Boaz' money, all of his finance, all of his wealth now belong to Ruth. All she has is his. All he has is hers. There's a transfer of debt and a transfer of inheritance. Praise God. Boaz is a Redeemer, but we also see that Ruth as a Redeemer. Look at verses 13 through 17. So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel. He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him." Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, "A son has been born to Naomi." They named him Obed and he was the father of Jesse, the father of David. Ruth does for Naomi what she could not do for herself. That's what a Redeemer does. Boaz does for Ruth and Naomi what they could not do for themselves. That's what a Redeemer does. Naomi had nothing. She couldn't work the fields, was too elderly, can't have kids, so no family. Economically, spiritually, emotionally without hope. No family, no land, no name. And Ruth says, "I will do everything I possibly can. I will sacrifice everything I need to sacrifice to redeem you from this situation." She practices chesed, which is kindness. It's sacrificial love and she also redeems Naomi and everyone in the community realizes this and they said, "Naomi, do you not see what a treasure your daughter-in-law is? She is better than seven sons." Why is this important? Because in ancient Jewish customs, ancient Israelites, for them, seven sons constituted an ideal family. This is one of the most shocking texts in this ancient scripture, where they're saying, "Your daughter-in-law is better than ideal family." The original audience would have had goosebumps at this point. Orpah left Naomi. She was left destitute. Ruth stayed and what Ruth said was, "Your people will be my people and your God will be my God. Wherever you go, I am going to go. I'm going to immigrate with you." Here's the thing about immigrants. I come from a family of immigrants. You immigrate from one place to another. My family went from the former Soviet Union to the United States. You go from one place to another in the hope of a better life, in the hope of more freedom, in the hope of more prosperity. And Ruth is saying, "I know I'm going to a land where I will always be looked at as an outsider. I will be ostracized. I don't look the same as everyone. I'll always have an accent. No one will welcome me into the community." She was willing to immigrate for a worse life and she expected that eyes wide open. She said, "I'm becoming a follower of God because God is true. She's basically becoming a Christian because she believes in this as true, not because there's a promise of better life here on earth. She would rather live worse materially, socially, economically. She would rather live worse than live better in a lie. She says, "I'd rather go where I have access to God's people." Ruth knows that if she leaves Naomi by herself, Naomi was likely to perish. So if Naomi is going to have a life, Ruth has to lose her own. If Naomi's going to have a name, Ruth has to lose her own name. If Naomi's going to have to get land and we'll have a family, Ruth has to give up everything; her family wealth, everything. She impoverishes herself so Naomi can eventually prosper. She suffers outside the gate. She becomes an alien and a stranger. She leaves the familiar to go into unchartered territory. As a result, Naomi is redeemed. Ruth also along with redeeming Naomi, redeems Boaz, and Boaz says as such. Ruth 3:10. And he said, "May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich." The key, the secret to a loving marriage, an enduring marriage, a marriage that gets better with time like fine wine, the secret is recognizing the other person's sacrifice for you. Recognize it, name it, call it out. Talk about it. Thank you. I'm so thankful. As soon as you start feeling entitled, that is the first step to being pulled apart from one another. Sacrifice and recognize the sacrifice of the other. Ruth sacrifices to redeem. Boaz sacrifices to redeem. The Lord blesses them, gives them a baby son. In the previous marriage, Ruth didn't have children, and God here in their honeymoon gives them a baby. Point three, Jesus the Redeemer. Both of them point to Jesus Christ. Where do I get that? Verse 14, "Then the women said to Naomi, 'Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a Redeemer.'" Who are they talking about? Are they talking about Boaz? That's what it sounds like. Let's keep reading. Without a Redeemer. "May his name be renowned in Israel." Whose name? Boaz' name is already renowned in Israel. 15, "He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age." Is that Boaz? Boaz has already done the restoring. He's already done the nourishing with the grain and with his love. Let's keep going. Restorer of life and nourisher of your old age. "For your daughter in law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him." Who are we talking about? You see what's going on in the text? Who's the him? You were just talking about a Redeemer. You were talking about restore, a nourisher. We thought it was Boaz and then it says, "You have given birth." She, Ruth, has given birth to him. What is going on? What's going on is this baby is pointing to the ultimate Redeemer. This baby is a child born in Bethlehem, pointing to another child born in Bethlehem. Ruth 4:17, "The women in that neighborhood gave him a name, saying, 'A son has been born to Naomi,' and they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David." Obed means servant of the Lord. There's another one who's called servant of the Lord. This is talking about Jesus Christ. It's a prophetic passage. Naomi is redeemed by Ruth. Ruth is redeemed by Boaz. Boaz and Ruth have a child who is the ancestor of a king who will redeem all of Israel. That's King David, and King David, he was promised by God, on your throne, King David will sit my son for all of eternity. Who is that talking about? It's talking about Jesus Christ and that's why we have a genealogy at the end of the book. That's why the happy ending of this book points to not just redemption. It points to restoration. Verse 18, "Now these are the generations of Perez. Perez fathered Hezron. Hezron fathered Ram. Ram fathered Amminadab. Amminadab fathered Nahshon. Nahshon fathered Salmon. Salmon fathered Boaz. Boaz fathered Obed. Obed, fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David." The book isn't about Ruth primarily. It's not about Boaz primarily. It's not about Obed primary. It's not even about David primarily. It's about Jesus Christ and it's about us. Ruth and Boaz lived their lives in view of eternity. They lived for the long term. They lived to leave a legacy, not have a good time. The choices that we make by the prompting of the Holy Spirit have ramifications far beyond our greatest, wildest dreams. God graciously provides Boaz to redeem Ruth. God graciously provides David to set Israel free, and God graciously provides Jesus Christ to set the world free, set us free. The way that you become a Christian isn't to say, "I want to be more like Boaz," or, "I want to be more like Ruth." Those are all great aspirations, but that's not where it starts. Where it starts is we say, "You know what? I can't be like them by myself because they weren't themselves. They weren't what they turn out to be by themselves. All by the power of the Holy Spirit, and was all by grace through faith." The way you become a Christian is to truly believe in the one who went outside the gate, as Hebrew says. To the one who was truly ostracized, to the one who truly suffered, to the greatest alien and the poorest person spiritually speaking; Jesus Christ on the cross. He was cosmically homeless, cosmically alone, cosmically spiritually destitute. As he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus Christ was forsaken by God the Father so that we would never have to be. The gospel we see from Ruth is that Boaz sacrificed everything to get Ruth, just like Jesus sacrificed everything to get us. And Jesus doesn't just redeem us from physical debt or from the debt of sin. He doesn't just save us from the captivity to Satan. He saves us from death. One way or another, everyone searches for a way to make themselves right, to justify themselves. And even in a sense, pay a ransom for what they've done, and to pay a ransom to find a rescue from death. In some societies, that payment comes through ancestor worship. That's how you try to overcome death or pay that ransom. Other societies like ancient Egypt, immortality came through elaborate burials or mummification. We live in a culture where we try to pretend death isn't a thing. We try to extend life as long as possible, remain as youthfully looking as possible, but death is coming and we need to think about it. Deep down in our souls, we understand there's got to be some kind of payment for our sins, some kind of payment to overcome death. Be it through works, and it's always ... This is what it boils down to in any other religions. Always works. Hinduism is devotion to the gods and living according to one's dharma. Buddhism, control of passions to attain nirvana. Either Jewish theology, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Shintoist, Taoist, Confucians, atheist. It's all work-based righteousness. Here's how I justify that I am a good person, that I am worthy, that if there is a God, he definitely needs to let me in to heaven. He needs to give me eternal life. That's what he owes me. And someone could push back and say, "Isn't Christianity about works?" Not in its foundation, not in its essence. The rules that God gives us about how we are to live, one of the primary goals of those laws is to expose our sin, expose our brokenness, expose our need for redemption. Galatians says, "The law was our tutor bring us to Christ." The way that we are redeemed by Jesus Christ is by grace through faith, believing and repenting, and Christ's sacrifice is accounted to us. Our debt is paid, and not only does he pay our debt, he offers us his inheritance. I love the word inheritance. I love the idea of inheritance; that you just get this surplus of cash, of whatever, this windfall financially. That's what inheritance is. But there's also a tinge of sadness to inheritance, because for you to get an inheritance, someone else had to pay for it and someone else had to die. And Jesus Christ to cover our debt and offer us an eternal inheritance, he had to die as a sinless substitute. As sinners, there's nothing we can do to redeem ourselves, and for someone to cover our sins, they had to be sinless, a sinless substitute. Not only that, to cover the sins of all of humanity who would turn from their sins and believe in Christ, that Redeemer had to be divine. So Jesus, the sinless human being, our kinsmen Redeemer, was also divine and he alone can save us. As C.S. Lewis said, "The central Christian belief is that Christ's death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start." Everything we read in the old Testament, it all points to Jesus Christ. The greatest redeemer doesn't save himself. He save others. The greatest redeemer doesn't just pay money to save. He gives the greatest thing he has himself, which is his life. Jesus is greater than Boaz. Jesus Christ is our kinsmen redeemer through the incarnation because he became one of us. Jesus paid with a sinless life to redeem our sinful life. Jesus isn't forced or obligated to do it. He willingly laid down his life out of love just like Boaz out of love redeems Ruth. Ruth says and does nothing in this redemption process. Redemption to her was a gift and she lovingly, willingly accepted it. Would you today accept the gift of grace, the gift of redemption? You do that with a quick prayer or a long prayer. Just pray. Just talk to God. God, I am a sinner. I've fallen short of your standards. I've committed sins of omission and commission. God, I haven't loved you with my whole heart, soul, strength and mind. I haven't loved neighbor as my self. Lord, forgive me. Lord, redeem me, and Lord, I want to be in a loving relationship with you. Romans 3:24. "And are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Redemption is only in him. It's a gift. Receive that gift today. And if you do, would you let us know? Would you follow up via the connection card? We'd love to connect with you. We'd love to help you take the next steps of following Christ as Lord and savior. Last, Bible trivia. Question for the chicken wing. We see Boaz, we see Ruth, we see the elders. What was the first ... the guy who was first in line to redeem Ruth and Naomi. What was his name? Type in the comments section. He doesn't have a name. He's called friend and he's called redeemer. His only lines are verse four, "I will redeem it." Verse six, "I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance." And verse eight, "Buy it for yourself." The guy who is so focused on himself, the guy who was so focused on his life now, the guy who was so focused on the short-term loses eternal impact, misses out on the blessing of becoming an ancestor of Jesus Christ. He wanted to keep his name, keep his line, keep his legacy, and his name isn't even mentioned in the book. But you know whose name is mentioned? Ruth, because Ruth was willing to give up her name, give up her legacy, give everything up, deny herself and follow Christ, follow God, and she becomes an ancestor to the one who has a name above all names; Jesus Christ. Do you want your name to be remembered? Connect your name to his. Become a Christian and live for him. Weave your story in with his and he'll make your story as good, if not better, as the story of Ruth. What a story this was. We're so thankful for it. I can't wait to be in heaven. I can't wait to meet Ruth. I can't wait to meet Boaz. What a couple. What a story, pointing to the greatest story. Ruth in this story celebrates Mother's Day with the birth of a baby. Naomi celebrates Mother's Day by becoming a grandmother, so happy Mother's Day, everyone. God bless you, praying for you, love you. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we're so thankful for this book. What a rich book it is. What a blessing it's been to our souls, to our community. I pray, Lord, help us follow Christ our redeemer with more vigor, with more passion, with more zeal, knowing that the decisions we make to follow Christ have an impact not just in our lives, not just in the lives of our families, not just in the lives of our community, but they have an eternal impact. Make us godly people who follow Christ who are saved by grace through faith, make us men like Boaz and women like Ruth. Make us more like Christ, the ultimate Redeemer, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Ruth 3:1-18
May 3, 2020 • Ruth 3:1–18
Audio Transcript: Hello. Welcome to our online service, Mosaic Boston Brookline. My name is Jan. I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic, along with Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy. We're so glad you are tuning in. Here in the beginning, I want to tell you a story. The story is of my third daughter, Katarina, who is also known by Ekat, AKA Katya. Three names, three separate personalities. Katarina is her Russian personality. She grew up speaking Russian at home. We recently discovered that she speaks fluent English without us ever having taught her a lesson. On top of that, we realized that she doesn't just speak English. She can speak valley girl English. And we found this out because Tanya, my wife, opens up her phone, and she finds a video of Ekat recording herself. And she goes like this. "Hi guys. My name is Jasmine. And I'm from Australia. And I'm a Christian and I love God. And by the way, can you guys comment and subscribe and like below?" First of all, we have no idea that she watches YouTube videos. We need to do a better job with that. Second of all, I say all that to say, please comment and like and subscribe. I hate saying it, but it helps us spread the good news. Okay. Let us pray before the preaching of God's Holy Word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the gospel. We thank you Holy Spirit that you are with us. We thank you, Jesus, that you satisfy us, that you give rest to our restless hearts, that you fill us in times of emptiness. Many of us are running low. It's almost as if we're running on fumes that pray today, fill us and refill us both spiritually and physically bless our time and the Holy Word. And I pray you continue to build us up, continue to build up the church and continue to build up your kingdom during this time. We pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. So, if you're tuning in with us, this is the third week in the Book of Ruth from ruin to redemption, the story of tragedy turned into triumph, of despair that leads to deliverance, from ruin to redemption. And today, we find ourselves in chapter three. One of the things that we've noticed is that the story isn't just about Ruth. The story isn't just about Naomi or Elimelek, or Boaz. The story is about God, as the divine director orchestrating the story, the details behind the scenes, the divine matchmaker, brings people together. And Ruth is an incredible woman of God as we've learned. She's got noble character. She's a woman of excellence. The word in Hebrew for hesed means kindness. She's a woman of kindness, willing to sacrifice her own desires for the one that whom she loves. She's a hard worker. She's strong. She loves sacrificially, cares deeply and serves selflessly, and she knows that God is in charge. She knows that God is guiding the events of her life. And that's a very unique view of life. That God is in control. That God is sovereign. That God is directing the details of our lives. The story goes during the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the '60s. There were competing and conflicting views of God transmitted from the space capsules to Earth. Yuri Gagarin was the first Russian cosmonaut. He was the first human being in space who reported back from his trip in 1961. And he said, "Землю вижу бога не вижу. " I see the earth. I don't see God. I didn't see God from space." We don't know if it's true, if it was Soviet atheistic propaganda. Then in 1968, the American crew, the first manned mission to the moon radioed a different message, not that they had seen God, but that they had seen God's handiwork. They saw God's majesty. They saw God's fingerprints, spellbound world was watching them the first lunar trip and they heard how the three Apollo 8 astronauts took turns reading from the Book of Genesis. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. These views are completely different. They're completely diametrically opposed. They're conflicting views of reality. Which one is true? Which one of these polarized views is true? Well. We look at our world. We look at the details of our lives. We look at Holy Scripture. We have the testimony of the Holy Spirit. We have the person, the work of Jesus Christ. We believe that God is and that God continues to orchestrate and he is sovereign, and we can find hope in that message today. Today, we are in Ruth chapter 3. Would you look at the text with me. It's a puzzling, curious text, so brace yourselves. Ruth, chapter three. 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? Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor." Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do. And she replied, "All that you say I will do." So, she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her. 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. Then she came softly, and uncovered his feet and lay down. 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'm Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant for you are a redeemer." And he said, "May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman." Now, it is true that I am a redeemer, but there is a redeemer near than I. Remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good. Let him do it. But if he's not willing to redeem you, then, as the Lord lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until morning. So, she lay at his feet until the morning but arose before one could recognize her. And he said, "Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor." And he said, "Bring the garment you're wearing and hold it out." So, she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. Then she went into the city. And when she came to her mother-in-law she said, "How did you fare, my daughter?" Then she told her all that the man had done for her. Saying, "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.'" She replied, "Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but we'll settle the matter today." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word and he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. What just happened? If this is the first time you're reading this chapter, what in the world is going on? Seems so strange? Well, it's strange because the chapter begins with the advice of Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law. Now, here's the thing about mother-in-laws and their unsolicited advice. There's a lot of things about mother-in-laws and their unsolicited advice, in particular when the son is not in the context to provide context and to provide nuance to the advice. So, you got to take it with a grain of salt. More than that, you got to take it with six bags of grain of salt. That's point one. That's the point of the ... Be careful with advice from mother-in-law's deep biblical wisdom here, because this advice is actually foolish, potentially sinful. She's advising Ruth to take a turn from the straight and narrow, to go serpentine, to go around the straight and narrow and this wrong turn could potentially lead calamitous consequences. It's sinful advice. But this chapter reveals something really important. This is really deep. It reveals the complexities and the contradictions of our hearts, even the hearts of believers. And it also shows a God who by sovereignty, super intense our sin, and uses it ultimately to fulfill his plan. Because God's plan always comes to fruition. The chapter is composed of three scenes, it's like a scene in a movie. It's like a season in three parts and there's terrific cinematography here. And the action is broken down by three parts of the day. Verses one through five is the opening dialogue of Naomi. After Ruth has just come home from working all day in the field. She's exhausted. It's late afternoon, early evening. The sun is setting. The shadows of the afternoon are setting in. And Naomi has a plan. And she proposed that plan to Ruth to secure a husband for her, but the feeling is foreboding. As the sunsets, there's darkness and it feels as if this plan is tinged with darkness as well. It's a terrible plan. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The next scene is verses six through 13, it's the dark hours of the night, once Boaz has fallen asleep. Everything's dark, he's fallen asleep. Cue the scary cello music. I don't know why cello music is scary, but it is. It can be potentially. And you see the spiritual tension. You see moral alarm, as her heart is beating. Our hearts are beating. We're like, what is about to happen? Is it going to be as bad as I think? And then verses 14 through 18 is the final scene. What happens when the sun comes up. And there's a palpable sense of relief. Boaz is a good guy. He's a godly man. And Ruth is a worthy, kind, godly woman. And what we learn here is that God can't be outmaneuvered, even by conniving Machiavellian mother-in-law named Naomi, who nicknamed herself Bitter. God's plan always comes true. That's what I want to talk about today. Three points, number one, sin in believing hearts, two, rest for restless hearts, and three, fullness for empty hearts. First of all, sin in believing hearts. Naomi's advice in the very beginning was good advice. Once she heard that Ruth on her first day in the fields, actually met Boaz she said, "Stay close to him. Stay close to his women. Stay under his wing, under his protection." And obviously she knows what's going on, that Boaz is a kinsman redeemer. He's a distant relative. He can redeem Ruth and Naomi. He could solve all of their financial problems. However, time has elapsed from day one to now this is the end of the barley harvest, about seven weeks. So, we go from end of April to probably mid-June, something like that. And now, Naomi's getting worried. Boaz isn't hustling. He's not showing initiative. He's not making moves. We don't know why. Perhaps it's because he's older. He liked Ruth in the beginning. He took a liking to or he noticed her. He had nice conversation with her, but it's barley seasons, it's harvest season. He's got to work hard. Also, he's older, and it would be unseemly to make the first step as a much older man. So, we don't know why he didn't hustle, but we see that Naomi is getting impatient. Could this be the one? Well, why isn't he making moves? Should we help? And by the way, the Lord's bless them financially, has provided for their needs. He's given them a ton of grain that will last them probably over a year. And Naomi says, "I don't want just grain. I want to main for my girl, Ruth." That's what's going on. It's not ideal, right? The situation isn't ideal. One of the things that you need to learn about scripture is when stories are presented, narrative is presented, you got to ask the question, is this prescriptive? That this is how we are to act? Or is this descriptive of how we shouldn't act? And there's a lot of examples in scripture. Noah gets off the ark, gets drunk and naked, weird story. Descriptive or prescriptive? Descriptive. David commits a sin of adultery. Descriptive or prescriptive? Peter cuts off the ear of a servant in the Garden of Gethsemane. Descriptive or prescriptive? Descriptive. And as the stories are described, we need to interpret those stories through the prescriptive texts and that's how we interpret scripture. Ruth 3:1, Naomi, her mother-in-law said to her, "My daughter, should I not seek rest for you that it may be well with you." She's seeking rest but she's restless. She's seeking rest restlessly. Her desire with the rest is security and peace and provision. Ruth 3:2a, she says, is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were? So, Naomi knows about God's provision for widows in the God's love, provision for rest. And she's now starts thinking maybe I need to intervene. Maybe I need to force the hand of God by forcing the hand of Boaz. God's taking too long. We need to do something. Something happens when scripture presents the script of texts, where the real of what happens false so short of the ideal, God often intervenes with grace. When the real does not meet the ideal, there's grace available to turn the real into ideal. What's the ideal for a young woman like Ruth? The ideal is for her, obviously, to be born in a solid Christian family, a family that loves God, submits to God, that teaches God's word. The ideal would be for her to have a father who cares for her and who teaches her and a father who actually vets her potential suitors. Now, I preached this text in 2015 when things at home ... My daughters are younger. Now, I'm getting to the point where this rant that I'm about to go on is beginning to be real. And here's how I am going to proceed. Here's how I am going to vet potential suitors for my daughters. I am going to grill them. Sit down in a chair. We're about to take a four-hour polygraph examination and hair follicle drug tests. Tell me about your family. Tell me about your upbringing. Tell me about your faith. Tell me about your theology. Tell me about your church participation. Are you a member of a church? If you're not a member of a church and you're not committed to the bride of Christ, then why in the world do you think you can be committed to a bride? That's number one. Give me your pastor's phone number, number two. Tell me about what you do, your education, your job, your craft, your ministry. How much do you make? Honestly, I want like taxed ones. How much have you saved? What's your debt? What's your credit score? Where do you live? If you live in your mom's basement, that's already a red flag because scripture says the man shall leave his father and mother before cleaving to his wife. Do you workout? This is really important. How much can you deadlift? Squat? Bench? How fast can you run a 40? How healthy do you eat? How healthfully do you eat? Do you have any habits hazardous to your health? What's your height, weight, IQ, dental records, background check. Can you pass a TSSCI? I want to see God's skills and life skills. Ruth didn't have a dad like that. And Naomi isn't doing the vetting for her. Naomi isn't giving her godly advice. It's good intention and we understand her heart. And she's seemingly motivated by love. She wants the best for Ruth, cares deeply for her. But whatever her motives, she is too impatient. She's trying to outrun God's providence, trying to run ahead of God's providence. And that just doesn't work. A lesson we can draw here is that the single people and their parents and friends, be careful of an unhealthy obsession to get married. It could lead to trouble. Follow God, learn to be satisfied with Christ and whatever your life stage. That's what gives true satisfaction. If you're not satisfied with Christ now, you won't be satisfied in your marriage later. The way you prepare yourself to be in a godly marriage, to learn, to be satisfied with Christ, learn to follow him. Ruth 3:2 through 5. This is the advice. See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do. And she replied, "All that you say I will do." Remember that last part, all that you say I will do. No matter how you slice it, and I've read every commentary on the text. No matter how you slice, no matter how you interpret, this is distressing counsel. It's both risky and it's risqué. Is she saying what I think she's saying? Yeah. She's saying get dolled up and wait until he gets lubed up. That's exactly what she's saying. It's advice that is fraught with moral danger. Twice we've already learned from the lips of Boaz and from the lips of Naomi, that this is a dangerous culture for a young woman. That there's a danger of being assaulted. So, Naomi says, "Stay close to Boaz's people." Boaz says, "Stay close to my people so you don't get assaulted." And now Naomi, driven by impatient sends her single, young, vulnerable daughter-in-law into a vulnerable situation, into a threshing floor, at night, alone. This is alarming. And by the way, threshing floor was a place of indiscretion in that culture. What's going on here? What's going on, Naomi? What's going on in your heart? What the text is teaching us is you can take the woman out of Moab. But it takes a while to take the Moab out of the woman. You can take a person out of Moab, but it takes a while to get them out. We can get the Moab out of them. She's giving her pagan advice. This isn't godly counsel of believing mother. This is a plan that was saturated with prayer. You can't cut corners and expect God's blessing. And this is the way of Moab that was a very sexually confused culture. And this is the way of our culture. We live in a culture that's also confused. We've lived in this world for so long that we think the world is as it ought to be. It's not. What's normal isn't normative. How things are isn't how things should be. So, we need to always, always look at our decisions, look at our plans, look at our strategy through scripture and with prayer. Holy Spirit, what are you telling me to do? The lesson here for all of us is be suspicious of yourself. Question yourself. Don't give yourself the benefit of the doubt. You need to know that, yes, even though you're a Christian, yes, you have a regenerated heart and you have the Holy Spirit. Yet, we're still in the flesh. And our decisions, our plans always have a tinge of the flesh in them. So, you need to be suspicious of yourself. Watch. Be on guard, scripture says. Fight the good fight. Make sure that sin doesn't flare up with renewed vigor. And it happens when we begin to fall asleep, when we put our guard down. The punch that knocks you out is the punch that you don't see coming. Jesus says, watch and pray because the spirit, the will, the desire, perhaps strong the flesh is weak, sin crouches at the door. The desire is for you, but you must rule over it. Be careful of the flesh in our decisions. God got you out of Moab, perhaps he got you out of sinful life, but it takes a lifetime to get Moab out of us. That's why we need daily time with the Lord. We need daily time with Holy Scripture. That's why we need community. That's why we need the church. That's why we need accountability. So, that's point one. Sin in the believing's heart. Point two is rest for restless hearts. So, this is the second part, the second scene of this season of this film, so to speak. The sun sets, verse six, so she went down to the threshing floor and did justice her mother-in-law had commanded her. 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. Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. And at midnight, the man was startled and turned over and behold, a woman was at his feet. So much going on here. First of all, I want to say the word drunk doesn't mean that he was drunk. It's that he had drunk, that's just grammar in English. It's that he had some wine along with the grain as they were celebrating. And there is a godly way to celebrate, sanctified way to celebrate. But scripture does say that has to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. So, he's lying down, he's sleeping. She comes, she uncovers his feet. His feet get cold. He wakes up and he startled, behold a woman lay at his feet. We see his initial reaction proves that he's a godly man. His very first initial reaction is what. He asked her a question. Who are you? And that's a good question. That's actually a mark of a godly man. Ruth 3:9, and she answered, "I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer." Pause, pause. What was the thing I told you to remember? Type in the comment section? Whoever types the first gets a chicken wing. I owe Natalie VanDusen a chicken wing. You can redeem it from me. What did she say to Naomi? She said everything that you tell me, I will do. Something changed here. This isn't the script. That's not what you're supposed to say, Ruth. You're simply supposed to proposition yourself. You're simply supposed to present yourself. And something happened along the way when Ruth changed the script. She goes off script. Was that Ruth or perhaps as her heart was beating, as she begins to realize potential consequences of this decision, perhaps you start praying and asking for wisdom and guidance from the Holy Spirit. I submit to you that it's the Holy Spirit that changed the plan. It's the Holy Spirit that changed the script. She doesn't just present herself. She says, spread your wings over your servant. This is a euphemism for proposal. Spread the corner of your garment over me. It's the phrase that God uses metaphorically to describe his relationship, his covenant relationship with his people, Israel. In Ezekiel 16a. He says, I will cover you I will forever cover you. I'm your cover. I'm your refuge. I'm your shelter. I'm your rest. I'm your peace. And that's what she's asking for. Naomi's plan, seduce him. Ruth's plan with the Holy Spirit, I'm offering you the opportunity to propose. I'm proposing that you propose. That's basically what she's saying. And I love this part of the story because I love it when God's sovereignty overrides our sinful will. I love that. It's part of God's grace, that he keeps us from ourselves, that he keeps us from our own desires. This is what it means Lord, don't lead me into temptation, meaning Lord, I'm led into temptation, please lead me away from temptation. If you're struggling with sin in this season, don't just fight it on your own. You got to fight it by the power of the Holy Spirit, asking the Lord to fill you on a daily basis and to protect you from sin and temptation. And this is a highly irregular situation. It's a woman proposing to a man. It's a younger woman proposing to an older man. It's an immigrant proposing to an Israelite. It's a field worker proposing to an owner. In the world's eyes, Boaz and Ruth are completely incompatible. But that's because the world's eyes only see the superficial. In God's eyes, completely compatible. They're both people have said kindness. They're both people of worth. They're worthy. They add worth to the people around them. They're both God-fearing people of integrity. They love God. They love his people. Lesson here is, single people beware as you think about marriage. Beware of paying too much attention to superficial compatibility. And then married couples, continue to deepen the relationship that matters. Continue to deepen your ability to see character and worth and traits that God cares most about. Continue to deepen not just a physical relationship but a spiritual heart to heart, soul to soul relationship. And also, I love how smart Ruth is. She's sharp. Verse 12, as she's proposing to him, proposing that he propose, she uses his words and this kind of tongue in cheek like a wink. Like remember when you said that? And she uses words from Ruth 2, chapter 12, the Lord repay you for what you have done and a full reward be given to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. That's Boaz talking to Ruth and say, may God bless you because you have placed yourself as a little eaglet under the big wing of Papa Eagle God and you are going to be protected. And then Ruth says, would you mind being an instrument of God's wing? Would you cover me with your wing? And God's wing is over your wing. Would you fulfill your obligation and she says, "You are a redeemer." She plays that card. You're the redeemer. It's your job, start doing some redeeming. And by the way, Boaz just woke up. He worked all day, then had a nice meal, a couple of drinks. He just woke up in the middle of night and she drops this new con ham. And obviously, this isn't the first time he thought about this. He's been praying about this. He's been praying for the Lord to show what his will is. Verse 10, he said, "May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. And now it is true that I am a redeemer." Boaz doesn't take a shortcut. He doesn't go wayward from God's straight and narrow. He doesn't see this temptation as an opportunity to sin. He doesn't say, "Oh, that's great. We can be married in God's eyes." And accordingly, he doesn't take advantage of a situation. He doesn't take advantage of a situation where he has the leverage of power and influence. No. And by the way, most likely she looks better than he's ever seen. But it's dark. I don't know. But he doesn't focus on that either. What's he talking about? He says, I know you're a woman of character. I know your kindness, your hesed. This is the sacrificial love. You've shown sacrificial love to Naomi. It actually doesn't make sense to the world. Did you have ulterior motives? But he's like, no, you're kind to her. And then he uses this phrase, you are a worthy woman. We've heard that phrase before. We've heard that when we met Boaz last week, that Boaz is a worthy man. He adds worth to the people around him by blessing them and adding value to their life. And Ruth is a worthy woman. What's fascinating is, in the English Bible, the Book of Ruth follows the Book of Judges. In the Hebrew canon, the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Ruth follows the Book of Proverbs. And Proverbs 31 is about whom? It's about a noble woman. It's about a worthy woman, a woman of God. And the very last verse of Proverbs 31 right before Ruth 1:1. Proverbs 31:31 says, give her the fruit of her hands and let her works praise her in the gates. Literally, that last line is all the gates of my people know you are worthy woman, a woman of noble character. Wherever she goes, she has the reputation, the perfume, if you will, of godliness, of honor, of worth. She is a walking Proverbs 31. She embodies Proverbs 31. Oh, may God send us more women like Ruth. She's got godly courage, godly determination to live as a true child of God, a true daughter of God in a place where very few are doing that. So, that's great views, commencer character but Ruth 3:12, yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. It's a closer relative, but he says I'll take care of that business in the morning. Verse 13, remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you good, let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the Lord lives I will redeem you. Lie down until morning. He says, "I want the best for you, Ruth." That's what true love does. I want the best. And I'm willing to sacrifice my own desires. If this other guy who's a closer relative wants to redeem you, you'll find rest. If not, I'll take care of it. As the Lord lives he said, I'll do it. One way or another, you'll find rest. And Boaz here is pointing to a greater Boaz, to Jesus Christ, who sacrificed himself because he loves us so that we can find rest, to provide rest, so that he could put his arm, his wing around us in the same way that Boaz ultimately does with Ruth. Boaz points to Jesus Christ, who said, come on to me all who are burdened and heavy laden, I will give you rest. That's what we need, rest for our restless souls. A great quote from St. Agustin, Our hearts are restless until they find the rest in you. Have you found your rest in Jesus Christ? And particularly in our season where perhaps you're growing impatient. You're growing restless. God, when are you going to intervene? When are you going to provide? When are you going to redeem? And God says, I will give you rest. Come on to me. Point three is fullness for empty hearts. Verse 14, so she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize her. And he said, "Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor." He's concerned for her reputation. She probably made a mistake and coming at night to the threshing floor. But this is what love does. It covers a multitude of sins. And in relationships you need that kind of covering. In any relationship, in friendship or marriage, or at work, once forgiveness is asked for, once a person has repented, we are not to bring up their sins. There's got to be a covering motivated by love. Ruth 3:15, and he said, "Bring the garment you're wearing and hold it out." And she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. Then she went into the city. Six measures of barley, absurd amount. We're talking about 60 to 70 pounds of grain. That's like putting two medicine balls 30 pounds each on your back or one of my kids, right? That's what's going on. It's so big actually. He has to help her get it off the ground. He lifts it up. She's getting lifted on her own. She staggers back out of breath to her mother-in-law, Naomi. And Ruth 3:16. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, "How did you fare, my daughter?" And Ruth says, here's the report. Here's how I fared. And throws the bag of grain on the floor, just dumps the bag. Verse 16b, 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.'" Don't go back to your mother-in-law, empty handed. This is the punch line. And let me explain what's going on here. Boaz with this massive bag of grain, he's winking at Naomi. And he's saying, I know who's behind this plan, behind this seemingly subtle, not subtle. Behind this surreptitiously, I know who's behind it, Naomi, it's you sneaking around trying to play matchmaker. It's a message from Boaz to Naomi that I am providing. I am going to redeem, but it's also a message from the Holy Spirit through Boaz to Naomi. Why do I say that? Remember, in chapter one, Naomi changed her name when she came back to Bethlehem and she said, "Don't call me Naomi, pleasant, sweet. Call me Mara, bitter." And then what did she say? This is Ruth 1:21. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. And this is God through Boaz say, you've been empty. And you've been trying to manipulate me into giving you fullness because of your fear, because of your insecurity. You haven't trusted me to provide. Now, here's a visual aid so that you remember for the rest of your life, that when you are in need, I will always provide. He dramatizes the promise of that fact. You will no longer be empty. You actually have full and you will have overflowing. That's a promise of God. That God provides for his children. This week in community group in our Google meet community group, by the way, if you're not in a community group and you from the area, please join the community. We have awesome community groups. But we were talking about God orchestrating providence and growing and sensitivity to God's providence and we're talking about God's providence in particular when we have financial need. And it was a really relevant topic. And we were just sharing some examples and I kicked things off and I shared a story when, in 2010, so a decade ago, Tanya and I, we were living in Lanark Road in Brighton and our lamp broke in our little entryway. Our lamp broke and we needed a new lamp. So, Tanya went to Home Depot. She picks out a lamp, nice lamp is $140. She goes to the register. The guy rings it up and it comes up as one cent. He's like what's going on? Rings it up again and it says again, one cent. Now, there's a line forming. He rings it up a third time and it says one cent. And he looks at my wife and he says, "Ma'am, can you give me one cent?" So, he rings it up. She gives him the cent. She takes the receipt where it says one cent. She goes to the car in the parking lot and she calls me and she says, "What do I do? They charged me one penny for the lamp." And you already know what I did. I said, "Baby, start up the car and get home ASAP. It's a gift from the Lord." So, I shared that story. Because in that season of our life, financially we were hurting. And I shared that story. And then I said, does anyone have stories like that to share? And then this nice gal in the church says, "I've been hurting financially and I've got a complicated family situation." She said, "A friend of a friend of a friend heard about me hurting financially and sent me $10,000 this past week." Whoa, that went from one cent to 10 grand. I was like your story is so much better. And then I asked, "Does anyone have a better story?" This other gentleman who was at dental school, he said, "When I applied to dental school, I didn't even know they're doing scholarships. And then I got an email that said, 'Do you want a scholarship?'" And he says, "Sure." And he said, "How much?" And they said, "$25,000 a year, for four years, 100 grand," just answered a prayer. So, we went from one cent to $10,000 to $100,000. And then I said, "All right, we got to go 10 times more, right? So, who's got a million-dollar story?" And this gal says, "I hadn't make a decision when I was immigrating to the United States where I would live. And I felt that God said, you got to go to the Boston area. And that's when I got connected with this church. And that's when I met in community group, my husband, and he's better than a million dollars." So, it's ought to say if you've got stories like that, do share them perhaps in the comment section right now if you're doing the full live stream. The point is that God provides. That's the point. God is a good father and he provides for the needs of his children. So, be honest with those needs. Be patient in him providing and Naomi got the message from God. And her bitterness starts to evaporate starts to melt away. God says, "My time will come don't force my time. Trust me to fill your emptiness." Jesus said, "I've come that you may have life and life to the fullness, life in abundance that will overflow." Ruth 3:18, she said, "Wait, my daughter." That's funny. The woman who was impatient says, wait. She heard the message loud and clear and it resonated. "Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today." He will not rest until you find your rest. And what is God's ultimate demonstration of his faithfulness that he will fill our lives, fill the needs in our lives? Well, it's not the cross and the empty tomb. Because the tomb is empty. God fills our life with grace, with mercy and not just with barley, not just with dollars, but with himself. He offers himself to us to satisfy our souls and hungry hearts. God is for us who can be against us. He who did not spare his own son, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things. Turn to Christ today. Turn from sin, turn to him and follow his way. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word. What a delicious word this was. So satisfying to our souls. Lord, I pray that you make us godly people, worthy people, people of hesed, people of kindness, sacrificial kindness, where we make other people's business our own business and their care is our own cares and their worries, our worries. And we try to meet any way we can. Lord, we thank you for the generosity of the body. We thank you for the generosity of Christians, meeting one another's need, what a miracle that is. Lord, I pray that you continue to fill us with the Holy Spirit and equip us to serve you in whatever you've called us to do. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.
Ruth 2:1-23
April 26, 2020 • Ruth 2:1–23
Audio Transcript: Hello, welcome to the Mosaic Boston Brookline, our online worship experience week, I've lost track. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever time you're watching. We're so glad that you tuned in. Today we are continuing our sermon series through the phenomenal book of Ruth. One of the things I've been meditating on regarding preaching is in the preaching process, it feels like cooking. God often compares God's word to food, be it bread or spiritual manna or honey, and one of the challenges of preaching into a camera is I'm cooking and I don't see you eating, and that's part of the joy of cooking is seeing people enjoying the meal. However, people have been writing and people have been messaging us that God's word has been impacting them. It's been changing them, it's for nourishing them, and we are so thankful for that. God's word is powerful and God's word does nourish our souls and this is what God's word does. God's word is a feast presented to us. When we come humbly before him, we get satisfied. It doesn't just feed us. It also transforms us to be the best versions of what we are, what we're designed to be by God. And there's something about nutrition where if you eat correctly, you absorb the nutrients, etc. However, when you train, when you put your body under pressure for time and pressure and then you eat, actually you get more of the protein, more of the nutrient, there's something like that that goes on with God's word in a time of pressure that when we are going through suffering, when we are going through difficulty or hardship, and we eat God's word, it builds us up fortifies us. It makes us stronger. Diamonds are formed under heat and pressure over time. And that's what we see happening with our community and that's what I pray happens with you as well. So feast on God's word today. Today we're in Ruth chapter two. And if you are new to the book of Ruth, one of the things that you realize is it's a literary masterpiece. It's one of the most profound works of literature in all of the history of the world. And it reads in four parts like a Shakespearean play and today we are in the second part. The context is that Ruth and Naomi, Naomi is Ruth's mother-in-law. They returned from Moab. They had a really difficult time in Moab and they returned to Bethlehem because they heard that God had removed his hand of rebuke and the famine is gone and the house of bread has been restocked. Ruth has been hopeful. She has developed a new faith in the Lord. Naomi on the other hand, has grown bitter against God's hand of affliction. She actually tells everyone in Bethlehem, don't call me Naomi, which means sweet, call me Mara, which means bitter and perhaps in the season you're going back and forth between Naomi and Mara. On the one hand you rejoiced to see what the Lord is doing. On the other hand, you're bitter at the negative consequences and this is where Naomi is and she says, "It's exceedingly bitter to me. The Lord has gone out against me." She recognizes God's sovereign hand in the difficulty. It might not be directly from God, but it certainly passes through his hand. She says, "For the almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty the almighty." She says, "Has brought calamity upon me," and she doesn't realize the blessings that God has sent to sustain her in this difficult time. And that's Ruth. Ruth has incredible blessing to Naomi and God blesses Naomi through Ruth. And Naomi also doesn't know that God is in the details. God is behind the scenes, God is working. She doesn't know that God has preserved a kinsman Redeemer. And we'll get into that from Naomi's husband who will ultimately Mary Ruth and preserve Naomi's life and name. So Ruth and Naomi, they arrive in Bethlehem at the time of the barley harvest. That was the last verse of chapter one and this coincidentally was towards the end of April. And that's where we find ourselves. But there's no such thing as coincidence with God. It's always Providence. So would you look at a text with me today where in Ruth chapter two verses one through seven to begin with, and we'll read the rest of the text during the sermon. Ruth chapter two verse one "Now, Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor. And she said to her, go my daughter. 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 belonging to Boaz who was of the clan of Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and he said to the reapers, the Lord be with you. And then answered the Lord, bless you. Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, whose young woman is this? 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. She said, please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers so she came and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest." This is the reading of God's Holy and infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Five points to frame up our time together, grow in truth, grow in sensitivity to Providence, grow in capacity to bless, grow in humility to receive and grow in faith and works. The title is sermons grow in grace, and these are the five steps that we can glean from this text in order to grow in grace. So first of all, grow in true worth. Perhaps some of you have taken an economic hit. You're worried about your net worth with this whole Corona epidemic. Well, there's something more valuable and more important than a net worth. It's a true worth, a true worth from the perspective of God. And Boaz is here characterized as a worthy man, worthy, not just in terms of wealth. He wasn't just a wealthy man, he was a man of God. And the Yiddish, there's a word for a man like this. It's the word Manch. And this is exactly what Boaz was. He's wealthy, yes. He's built up a business, yes. He's worked hard, yes. He's been diligent, yes, but he's also got a great reputation. People around him love him. He's been adding value to everybody around him. He's been building everyone up around him, not just himself. God has blessed him and he has been a blessing to others, which is rare in Bethlehem at this time to find a worthy man. The book proceeding, the book of Ruth is the book of Judges. And the book of Judges there's two little episodes bookends about the town of Bethlehem. The first one is a story about the grandson of Moses who leaves Bethlehem and then leads the Danites in idolatry. And the second time that we see Bethlehem mentioned in the book of Judges is really sordid story, a tragic story about a concubine from Bethlehem. And what happened with her actually resulted in civil war in Israel and led to almost obliteration of the whole tribe of Benjamin. So this is unique to see a man from Bethlehem who is a worthy man, a godly man, a righteous man, a man who cares about the people around him, a man who uses his strength to bless others, to protect others, to provide for others. May God send more men like Boaz, like this guy. He adds value wherever he goes. His name literally means strength or Valor or warrior. And this is fascinating because Ruth's former husband, the name of the Hebrew means frail or sickly. And now we meet Boaz who is a warrior of man of God. He's a man of wherewithal, despite hardship during a famine. He capitalized on the situation, perhaps bought up some more real estate and actually got into the farming business, the barley business, and he's doing really well for himself. He's older in years. Ruth at this time is probably late twenties, early thirties and Boaz considers her a young woman. So there was an age gap. Perhaps he's in his late forties or mid fifties. We're not sure. We're not told he's not married. We're not sure why he isn't married. Most likely it's because God has been saying, "No, it's not time. Focus on the duties that I have for you. Focus on my will for you. The time will come." And there's lessons here that we can apply to ourselves. So Ruth wakes up they just moved to Bethlehem. She wakes up in the morning and she's looking for a way to provide for Naomi and for herself. And she knows, and perhaps Naomi taught her about the laws of Moses and Leviticus. The laws about gleaning God had included in the law provision for the immigrants, for widows, for orphans. And he did that by stipulating the harvesters must leave grain on the edges of the field and that farmers can't pick up the ears of grain that they drop. This is fascinating and we can glean from this theology of God's view of the economy, that God means to provide for people through work and through the blessing of other people. It's a redeemed view of capitalism, of industry, of work where people in need could come and they weren't just given handouts. They weren't just given social services or this wasn't just a soup kitchen. They were provided with meaningful work and the crucial difference between this and a handout was they did have to work and it was hard work and it was hot work. It was almost as if you compare it to today, it was like trying to subsist on collecting cans and bottles and recycling them, but it was enough to meet a means. And I just want to pause here and mentioned that God has been doing this throughout ages through the church. We see this in the book of acts and the very beginning that the church met one another's needs and we've been seeing this during the crisis. I want to thank everybody in the community who has been generously, sacrificially contributing to the COVID-19 fund. Your funds have paid for rent, they've put food on tables, they've paid for medical bills. Thank you so much, and may God bless you abundantly. So we see that God does care. He's got a heart in particular for the disenfranchised, particularly the weak and those on the fringes of society. And he writes into his law provision for the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant. And we see that Ruth qualifies on two accounts. She is an immigrant and she's from a different people and she is a widow and she is a worthy person as well. We'll deal more with her in chapter three that she too is a worthy woman. She is a Proverbs 31 woman and what's fascinating is in the Hebrew Bible, the book of Proverbs ends with chapter 31 and very next book in the Hebrew Bible is Ruth. She is a Proverbs 31 woman. She's the epitome of a godly worthy woman. It's lesson here is grow in true worth as defined by God. Second, grow in sensitivity to God's Providence to Providence. This is Ruth 2:3, "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 belonging to Boaz who was of the clan of Elimelech." So we hear that Boaz was Ruth's husbands, distant relative, and that's repeated again in the text, meaning he qualifies to be a kinsman Redeemer. We dealt with this last week and we'll deal a little more with this next week, but the kinsman Redeemer, the job was to keep the name of his relative going and you do that by marrying the widow of your relative. What's fascinating here is that in the text, this is emphasized that he's from the clan of Elimelech. It's emphasized because to the original audience, this detail queues that we are now in a romantic scene. It's as if the lights are cued and the music is queued, and now we're in a love story of developing a love story. Now for us, this little detail about Boaz being a relative of Naomi or of Ruth's husband, it doesn't cue romance for us unless you're perhaps from Alabama or Mississippi. Just kidding, but it did for them. For them, they realize, "Oh wow, there's hope for Ruth. There's hope for Naomi," and what the original readers immediately recognized is, "Wow, there's something going on behind the scenes. There's director guiding the events behind the scenes." And this phrase that she happened to come... in the Hebrew it literally says her chance chanced upon this as it turned out, as luck would have it. What a stroke of fortune that Ruth, it just so happened that she moves with Naomi to Bethlehem. It just so happened that they needed food. It just so happened that she woke up with a desire to work. It just so happened that she went to a field. It just so happened that she went to the field of Boaz who is single and he's wealthy and he's a worthy man and he loves God and he's literally the most eligible bachelor in Bethlehem and it just so happened that Ruth goes to his field and what the text is emphasizing is this is not happenstance. This is not coincidence. This is not circumstance. It's not chance. This is Providence. This wasn't serendipity. This was God's Providence. It's not just a happy convergence of events. It's an orchestration of events that God himself is orchestrating every single one of these details. Sometimes God works through his visible hand of miracles. More often than not, he works through his invisible hand of Providence. And the lesson I want to draw out here is that we need to develop a sensitivity to God's Providence. We need to look at events happening in our lives and learn to discern God's hand behind the scenes. And one of the ways we do this is by studying Holy scripture and by recognizing God's hand of Providence and Holy scripture. And then you begin to see that same hand, the same fingerprints in your life. I'll just give you a couple examples of the story of Esther. Tremendous story of a girl that goes from a nobody to a queen and she's put in a position of influence and power for a time such as this in order for God to use her to redeem his people. The story of Joseph, he goes from being sold into slavery, from jail, from captivity to becoming the CEO of Egypt. And when his brothers came to visit him, this is what he said. "You meant this for evil, but God, he meant it for good. God sent me ahead of you down to Egypt." Do we see God speak in this story? Did we see angels coming from heaven? Do we see a burning Bush? No. Ruth woke up. There was no angel. There was no prophetic word. There was no burning Bush. She woke up with a desire to do her duty, which was to provide for herself and for her mother-in-law, and God used that moment. We are to learn to see God's hand both in suffering and blessing. In suffering, Naomi saw God's hand and she said, in Ruth 1:13, "It's exceedingly bitter to me for your sake, that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me." In Ruth 1: 20-21 she said, "Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara for the almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the almighty has brought calamity upon me?" She saw God's providential hand in that. But we are to also see God's providential hand in blessing and God does a blessing. And here he's beginning to bless. I've been meditating on this idea of God's hiddenness, God's at work and every single detail in our lives, but he often remains anonymous and there's incredible humility in that. When you recognize who God is, he created everything by the power of his word and humbly stands behind the scenes and we have to develop a sensitivity and when we begin to see his hand at work, we can glorify him for his greatness. There's many of you perhaps in quarantine have been watching more television or Netflix or whatever than usual. There's a way to watch a movie or a show where you just experience the story as it's presented to you and you're just there. You're just consuming. But there's another way to watch. You can watch the movie or the show as a producer and then you start thinking about all of the decisions that are made behind scenes, about the camera angles and about the script and about the plot as it's developed. And this is what I'm talking about when I say you got to develop a sensitivity to God's Providence, and this is where pride gets in the way. Pride makes us the primary character of the story, and we're so absorbed by our own life that we can't see the hand of God's Providence and this is what the gospel does, it humbles us and then we begin to see God at work all around us. You begin to see how meaningful your life is that every detail in your life is supercharged with significance. Ruth makes a freewill choice to go to this particular field and God uses her freewill. He uses her decision in his plan and as the ultimate matchmaker brings her together with Boaz. Edward Lorenz about 50 years ago. He's a mathematician and meteorologist. He developed computer models in order to map and predict weather patterns and actually that work was a major contribution to chaos theory. This is really fascinating. If you have time to do read up on this. He discovered that when he ran data on a very, very rudimentary computer and when he ran data... he ran a few data sets and one of the data sets he ran with a number 0.506127 he ran a second one of these tests and he rounded off by accident that number 2.506 so just cuts out 0.000127 and he realized that after about a month those two data sets led to radically different weather patterns. And one of the things that he drew out of this was that miniscule statistically insignificant variables lead to massive difference in weather outcomes. And he coined the phrase the butterfly effect and I'm sure you heard of the butterfly effect and he said that a butterfly in Brazil could cause a tornado in Texas. The tiniest details in our lives have seismic implications. Scripture says that God has a book with our lives. Our lives are detailed in that book and every single one of our days is ordained before us as yet one of them has come to be. So don't worry. Give the weight of tomorrow to God. Jesus says, "Do not be anxious about anything today, has enough problems, let tomorrow worry about itself." That's a lesson we can draw from it. The other lesson is Ruth focused on her duty. She prayed and then she acted, and my question is where in your life in terms of your obedience to the Lord are you leaving out the 0.506127? Tiny little details if you fix them, if you turn to the Lord in those areas of your life, it can have a dramatic effect. Three is grow in capacity to bless. Ruth 2:4, "And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and he said to the reapers, the Lord be with you, and they answered the Lord. Bless you." And we see in this one interaction, we see how amazing this guy Boaz is. Imagine if your boss walks into work back when we go back to work. When your boss walks in and says, "God bless you. Oh my dear employees, I love you so much. May you starts benedicting them in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, God." Etc. But he does that. He's created this really happy, healthy work environment where his employees respect him and honor him and he treats them fairly. He was a pious man. He was a godly man. If you want to see how healthy a person's relationship is with God, look at the details. Look how much the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the grace of God has saturated the practical details of life, including work relationships. How did Boaz get here? He grew in his capacity to bless. We don't know how he developed his business. We don't know how big his business was, but it's large enough so that he can help others put food on the table. He's grown in a capacity to bless materially and spiritually. Verse eight "Then Boaz said to Ruth, now listen, my daughter do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women." So he's asked the question, who is this young lady? He's come from Bethlehem. He goes to this field, he immediately notices Ruth and he already knows about her. In a small town everyone knows your business as well as you know your business and he asks about her and then he talks to her. Verse nine, "Let your eyes be on the field that you are reaping. Go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn and she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner? But Boaz answered to her all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me and how you left your father and your mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The Lord repay you for what you have done and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel under whose wings you have come to take refuge." Then she said, "I found favor in your eyes. My Lord for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant though I am not one of your servants." If you watch romantic comedies, I do not, but I've learned that apparently in romantic comedy is there's a plot device called a meet cute, meet cute and it's used to introduce characters in how they meet one another. It's the moment of character meets another character and there's a romantic spark. They bump into each other ice skating or someone drops a pen, they hand it to this other person and there's a spark of chemistry. Mistaken package delivered. You bring it to the other person. All of a sudden sparks fly. This is what's going on with Ruth and Boaz. This is the very moment they meet. In any couple... a married couple like when you get to know a married couple what's the first question you ask? How'd you guys meet? And for some reason the beginning infuses the whole relationship with meaning and that's why although meeting online apparently is a thing no one wants to say, "We met online, we met on bagel and coffee or whatever that," but for them this was meaningful and we see that Boaz noticed her. Why did he notice her? Does she look her best? Obviously not. She's farming, but that's not what caught his attention as a man of worth who is concerned for his own character. Before even seeing her, he's heard of her reputation of her character and even here we see that she's humble and she's grateful. She uses the word favor twice and she begins the text by telling Naomi, I'm going to go find a field. Perhaps I'll find favor. The word favor means grace. There's no entitlement. There's no pride. She doesn't believe that anyone has to give her something. She doesn't believe she deserves anything from anyone. And she says, "I found favor in your eyes." Humility and gratefulness. Recipe for happiness. She's not looking for a handout. She's a hard worker. She's honest and he's attracted to her faith. I've heard that you believe in God. I've heard that you are faithful to God and you're faithful to Naomi. You're faithful to your people. He's recognized the sacrifices she's made. You love the people around you through sacrifice. And that right there is what he notices. So he tells her, don't glean anywhere else. This is verse eight he says, "Don't go to any other fields." In a lawless society, this is a big deal. She didn't have any protection, doesn't have body guards, she doesn't have someone to look over her. So Boaz says, "I'm taking you into the community, I'm welcoming you in. I'm giving you my hedge of protection." He's providing, he's protecting and he speaks God's word into her life. So he's also pastoring. One commentator says that Boaz is here by instituting the first anti sexual harassment policy in the workplace, recorded in the Bible. He's not a chauvinist. He's chivalrous. He treats her not like an immigrant. He treats her not like a foreigner. He treats her like family. And that's part of what it means to be a worthy person. And this is what it means to be a Christian. God said, "Love your neighbor as yourself as much as you love yourself." That's how much you are to love your neighbor, meaning treat your neighbors like family. He, says, "Help yourself to water." He gives her food and generously, verse 12 she says, "The Lord repay you for what you have done." This is what he says to her. "The Lord repay you for what you have done in a full reward. Be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel. Under whose wings you've come to take refuge." He says, you've come to Israel, you've come into close proximity to God. You're taking refuge in God's shadow. May God bless you for that and this is fascinating and he talks about reward. May God give you a reward for taking refuge under his wings. What does this mean? Does that mean this is like a paycheck or like a salary? Like God pays you for taking refuge in him? No, that's not how this works and this is why the imagery of the Eagle is so important here. God doesn't have employees. God has children so God doesn't give paychecks. He gives gifts. And this is why the imagery is so important. He says, "God is like a Papa eagle." It's a father Eagle and Ruth is like a little eaglet coming into safety under daddy's wing. And may God reward you with gifts. I love this imagery so much. I've been blessed with kids. My daughter Sophia, she loves reading. And with the whole quarantine library's been closed, she's been really blessed with a Kindle. She asked a long time ago, she said, "Dad, I want a Kindle. How can I get a Kindle? Can I get paid to wash the dishes?" And I said, "No." There's a rule in our household. There's no financial transaction for work. I'm not going to pay you for what you're supposed to do, so start washing... We are to help around the house. But you want to Kindle? Yeah, I'll give it to you as a gift. That's how it works. Do your duty and God gives gifts. That's how this works. Psalm 57:1 "A Miktam of David when he fled from Saul in the cave, be merciful to me. Oh God, be merciful to me. For in you, my soul takes refuge in the shadow of your wings. I will take refuge till the storms of destruction pass by." And I want to emphasize the word for. Be merciful to me Oh God, for because in your shadow... my soul takes refuge in you, in the shadow of your wings. God, be merciful to me because I've seen in you the source of ultimate security. Be merciful to me because you are great and you are good. And that's so different than how we often come to the Lord. We often come to the Lord and say, "Lord, be merciful to me. Send me blessings because I have been good." That's workspace righteousness, workspace salvation. We come to God, appealing to our own goodness. God bless me because I've been good. And the Psalmist says, "Lord bless me because you are good, Lord you are merciful. You are the great God of the universe." And when you come to God like this, humbly not appealing to your own righteousness, but to his goodness, he can't but bless you because he is great, because he is good, because he is merciful. We appeal to his goodness, not our own, and Ruth recognized that she hasn't earned anything before God. She hasn't earned anything from Boaz. Everything is grace, and she honors him for his generosity and she takes refuge in his generosity and the lesson here is that we are to take refuge in the generosity of our savior. And this is the message of the gospel. Even in the old Testament as well as the new Testament, God will have mercy on anybody, a Palestinian or an Israeli or a Moabite or an American. Anybody. Anybody who humbles himself, like Ruth says, "Lord have mercy on me. Not because I'm good, I'm not, but because you are good, you're the great God of the universe." This is the same language that Jesus used when he was talking about the hard-hearted Pharisees in Matthew 23:37 he says, "Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones, those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing!" All the Pharisees had to do was turn from their self righteousness from their self justification. I take refuge in Jesus Christ, take refuge in the grace of God, so I wonder, are you viewing your relationship with God as an employee boss relationship? Or God, this is what I'll do and this is what I expect. Or do you view your relationship with God as an eaglet coming to a Papa eagle and they're completely different. God's looking not for employees, but he's looking for people who will take refuge under his wings. Ruth 2:13 then she said, "I found favor in your eyes, my Lord for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant though I'm not one of your servants." She calls him Lord, so she's giving him respect. There's a toughness to him. He's strong, but then she says, "You've comforted me." You've spoken kindly to him. Boaz is both tough and tender. He's strong and sensitive. In Ruth 2:14-16 we see the generosity of Boaz emphasized again, "And at mealtime Boaz said to her, come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine. So she sat beside the reapers and he passed to her roasted grain and she ate until she was satisfied and she had some leftover. Then she Rose to glean and Boaz instructed his young men saying, let her glean even among the sheaves, 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." Boaz is a man of action. He likes Ruth and he immediately acts with wisdom and there's strategy here and I just want to pause right now and explain the strategy. This tact. He's very tactful. Perhaps you've heard of the adage that the way to a man's heart is through the stomach. Well, I think that applies to everybody and Boaz knows that the way to Ruth's heart is also perhaps through yes, generosity, but a throw, nice meal. Come, let's have a nice meal. Let's have some carbs, a little bread. Little roasted grain. Never had roasted grain, but that sounds delicious. A little wine. Let's strengthen ourselves, enjoy the community and enjoy the fellowship and then go back to work. In the ancient East. This was more significant than it is today. Today to have a meal together, a cup of coffee or lunch. Yeah. It's meaningful in the ancient East to welcome someone to your table is to welcome them into your life. It's to approve of them. It's to accept them is to say, "I want to walk this walk with you. I want to live life with you." The fact that Boaz ate with his people tells us a lot about him. The fact that he is so generous to Ruth by giving her water and a meal tells us even more and then he goes on and he says to his guys, "Let her work. And also I want you to toss grain out." And what he's saying is I don't want just to fulfill the law of Leviticus. I don't want to just not completely maximize my profits. I want to actually lose money. I am intentionally losing money to bless this person and we see radical generosity. He's going above and beyond the law and he's saying, "I don't want to just fulfill the law. I want to give grace and I want to give grace upon grace, upon grace and this kind of generosity, this kind of kindness, this reveals the heart of Boaz and it reveals the heart of God. Generosity does take finances. This is important lesson the scripture does teach us. And Ephesians 4:28 says, "Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need." God says, "Don't just work to provide for your own needs and the needs of your family, but work to have a little leftover so that you can be generous." And this is how we grow in our capacity to bless. 1 Peter 4:9 "Show hospitality to one another without grumbling." I can't wait for the quarantine to be over to start showing hospitality again. Ruth 2:17-23, "So she gleaned in the field until evening and she beat out what she had gleaned and it was about an ephah of barley and she took it up and went to the city. Her mother-in-law saw where she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied. And her mother in law said, where did you glean today and where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you." "So she told her mother-in-law with whom she worked and said, the man's name with whom I worked today is Boaz, and Naomi said to her daughter in law, may he be blessed by the Lord whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead. Naomi also said to her, the man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers and Ruth the Moabite said, besides, he said to me, you shall keep close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest. Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, it is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women less than another field, you be assaulted. So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvest and she lived with her mother-in-law." We see Boaz as a worthy man. We see Boaz as a man sensitive to the Providence of God. We Boaz as a man who has been increasing his capacity of blessing. We see the same in Ruth that she has increased her capacity of blessed through her industry and hard work. Four is grow in humility to receive. This is Ruth 2:17, "So she gleaned in the field until evening and she beat out what she had gleaned and it was about an ephah of barley." She worked all day and at the end of the day she even ground the barley, meaning she takes the opportunity that God gives her and she runs with it. She gleans everything that she can possibly glean 12 times the word glean is used in the chapter that to emphasize the fact that she wasn't too proud to stoop down and pick up what God is giving her and there's such incredible lesson here. That God gives more to those who are willing to be faithful with what he has already given. God gives her a little bit and then blesses it and multiplies it. Sometimes we miss out on so many of God's blessings because we're too proud. We pray. God give me a field. God give me a huge harvest and God says, "Hold on. Before we talk and start talking about real estate deals. How about you take what I'm already giving you? I'm providing for your needs." We see incredible humility that then leads to more and more blessing. It's humility to receive what God is giving you. Now, do you have that humility? Are you humble enough to receive what the Lord gives now and the ephah is about 29 pounds. She got 29 pounds of grain. This is a ton. Probably her biggest problem at the end of the day was figuring out how to carry this thing home in one day. She makes enough to feed her and Naomi for about two weeks and then Boaz said, "You can, you can keep doing this every day until the end of the barley harvest season." That's about seven weeks, so meaning in seven weeks, if she got as much as she got in the first day, she'd have enough food for a full year. Verse 20, "Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, May he be blessed by the Lord whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead! Naomi also said to her, The man is the close relative of ours, one of our redeemers." The word Redeemer... and we talked about this last week and we'll talk about this more next week. It's used over 20 times in this book. It's the kinsman Redeemer redeem. What it talks about in the mosaic law and the law of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, that a near relative becomes responsible for the economic welfare of a family when that family is in distress. So if the family is in debt, the kinsman Redeemer pays off that debt. If the family had to sell themselves into slavery to pay off a debt that kinsman redeemer pays off the debt and then also redeems them from slavery. He's responsible to maintain wholeness and security and the welfare of the family. And this is a hint of the gospel that God provides Ruth a Redeemer. And through Ruth he provided a Redeemer for all of Israel in King David and through David, God provided a Redeemer for all of humanity in the King of Kings, our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. And God defines love as sacrifice. Boaz sacrifices Ruth sacrifices. And that's the show is that true love sacrifices. The God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but should have everlasting life. The gospel is that you and I, we are Ruth. We are pagans and idolaters and sinners and rebels, and we come from the wrong background and we come from the wrong pedigree and we come to the Lord empty handed and needy and the Lord Jesus, he's our Boaz. He comes, he redeems, he provides, he protects and he pastors are weary souls. And the same way that Boaz doesn't just fulfill the law in providing for Ruth, he goes above and beyond and gives her grace upon grace. And scripture says that Jesus Christ comes and he is full of truth and grace and from his fullness, we have received grace upon grace, not just the law. We found favor now in the eyes of God. He delights in us in the same way that Boaz delights in Ruth. 2 Corinthians 8:9, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor so that you by his poverty may become rich." God who gave us his son, who gave us his best. This is a God whom we can trust with the rest. He's provided for our greatest need. Obviously he'll provide for our lesser needs. What's fascinating is that God isn't just the director of the story talks about God's hand of Providence. He's behind the scenes. He's not just the director. God writes himself into the story. He puts himself front and center. He becomes the main character of his own story in order to redeem us and in that story, what do we do with God? We killed him. And he allowed that to happen, to provide a way to kill our pride, to kill our sin, to kill our rebellion, and then offer us the riches of his grace. This is how I think of grace. I think of grace as an acronym. It's God's riches at Christ's expense. I like that. God's riches at Christ's expense. Grace is free because someone paid for it. That someone is Jesus Christ. Point five is grow in faith and works. We see this in both Boaz and we see this in Ruth that they believe and they pray, but then they also act and they also act it to answer their own prayers, so to speak, and we see this incredible intertwining of God's sovereignty and human responsibility, faith and works. You believe and you do. What's fascinating about Boaz is he's a wealthy man and he lived a very spiritually, apostate, morally corrupt environment, but he still by faith kept a relationship with God in a place where it's really hard to be faithful to God. On top of that, Boaz doesn't come from a great spiritual pedigree. Who is Boaz's mum? Bible trivia. If you get this right, you get a chicken wing right now. If you answer, type it in the comments section, Facebook go. Boaz's mum. Boaz's mum, her name is given to us in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. In Matthew 1 genealogy of the King of Kings, Matthew 1:1-6, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac, the father of Jacob and Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers and Judah, the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram and Ram, the father of Amminadab, Amminadab, the father of Nahshon and Nahshon the father of Salmon and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the King." From the story Rahab, Rahab was a former prostitute. Remember the story of Jericho that she hid the spies from Israel and then her whole family was saved. Rahab was Boaz's mom. Boaz doesn't come from a great spiritual pedigree, but nevertheless he believed in God and when you believe in God, when you believe in God's redemptive grace, your past does not dictate your future. Grace changes that, you're on one trajectory. This is where repentance does. It turns you from that trajectory and now you're a completely different trajectory. You're on a trajectory of blessing and Ruth was a poor Moabite woman, extremely vulnerable. She too overcame her circumstance, overcame her past with faith in God believed and they acted on that faith. They believed that God is true. His word is true. His will is good, and then they align their life with his will and it completely changed everything. They planned and the Lord established. We plan and the Lord establish and we believe the Lord establishes our works. Verse 12 and Boaz says, "The Lord repay you for what you have done. A full reward given you by the Lord, the God of Israel under whose wings you've come to take refuge!" This is a prayer. He's praying for her. May God bless you. May God provide refuge for you and Boaz becomes the answer to Boaz's prayer. We see an incredible intersection of faith and work. Sometimes prayer moves the hand of God and sometimes prayer changes our hearts and we see something similar on the cross where Jesus Christ on the cross has been crucified. He says, "Father, forgive them." People crucify him. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. They don't know what they're doing. They're still guilty. They still need forgiveness. Father, forgive them. Jesus, prays this and then he answers his own prayer through his sacrifice, the intersection of faith and works, God's sovereignty, human responsibility. Philippians 2:12-13, "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only is it my presence, but much more my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." You work it out. "For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Work out yourself to focus on your duty and then recognize that it's God who's giving you the energy. God is the one who's working through you. Sometimes we need to look to the Lord in our prayers and ask him for help and then we need to get up off our knees and use his spirit that he's given us to work. The five points if you missed them, grow and true, worth to grow in sensitivity of Providence growing capacity of blessed, grown humility to receive and grow and faith and works. Boaz and Ruth probably did not see David's greatness. He came. He was their descendant, most likely they didn't see his greatness. Most likely they didn't really understand all the blessing that God would provide through their faithfulness. God found in them faith that he used to bless not just their life, but generations beyond. G. Campbell Morgan said, "You may be God's foothold for things of which you cannot dream." So friends grow in grace because you don't know how much you will impact eternity. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we thank you for this time and the Holy scripture. What a rich word this is. What a feast you've given us today. Lord, I pray that you make us more like Boaz and Ruth, and we love them so much because they reflect the greatest character of our scripture and that's Jesus Christ. We see Christ likeness in Boaz, we see Christ likeness in Ruth. Make us a people like this and give us the power of the Holy spirit to do it. And we pray all this in Christ. Holy name. Amen.
Ruth 1:1-22
April 19, 2020 • Ruth 1:1–22
Audio Transcript: Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Boston Brookline online. My name is Jan, one of the pastors here at Mosaic and we have been praying for you, continuing to pray for you, continuing to miss you, thinking about each one of you and praying for the Lord to continue filling you with the spirit and sanctifying you. This is the seventh week that are holding an online service instead of an in-person worship gathering. As strange as it is, we're here. I've never thought we'd become a televangelist ministry, but here we are. We're at the point in the pandemic where perhaps you're there, perhaps you can relate where we're beginning to worry about some of the superficial consequences of the pandemic. We're worried about the deeper ones and perhaps you find yourself with a corona fatigue. The conversation I'm having with some people, I'm beginning to worry about things like their haircuts. I haven't had a haircut in way too long. I'm at a point where it's either a pandemic mullet or I cut my own hair or my wife cuts my hair. I'm not sure which one's worst or better. Sorry, baby. Perhaps you worried about staying in shape, gaining Corona-15, something like that. Or perhaps worried about getting back to work, getting back to life and the government has begun speaking about how we can reopen the country. And as we have conversations like that, we also want to have a conversation about how we get back from where we are spiritually speaking. And if you're tuning in, hopefully, you are worried about that. You are worried not just about your physical health or your haircut, but you are worried about the state of your soul and where we go from here. So that's why we're today starting a brand new sermon series in the book of Ruth and we are calling it from Ruin to Redemption. It's a profound story about a powerful woman of faith, a godly woman who lived not for her best life now but who lived to leave her best legacy. And that legacy actually included a king, King David, and then the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. So, would you pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word. Heavenly Father, we're so thankful for this opportunity to gather virtually as a body of Christ. And I pray, Holy Spirit, that you speak to us, that you speak profound truth into our souls. Make us a people who aren't blinded by the short term, a people who are not spiritually myopic. But give us a vision for our lives to leave legacies, to leave legacies of thousands and tens of thousands of people worshiping you. Draw out these lessons from this incredible book of Ruth and apply them to our hearts, and we pray all these in the beautiful and holy name of Jesus Christ, amen. One of the things that I've noticed with ESPN and NFL network don't have live sports to show so they've been showing replays or getting people to watch games that have been played a long time ago. One of the things I noticed is, we all know the outcomes of the games and if I know that my team, my favorite team loses, no matter how good the game is, no matter how good the good plays are, it's not very satisfying. For example, like the 2007 Pats playing the Giants, could not rewatch that game. However, if I know the ending and if I know that my team wins, no matter how bad the bad plays are, they're filled with hope because I know the outcome like for example, when the Pats came back from 28-3 against the Falcons in 26th season. Something like that is happening with the book of Ruth. The context is that the book is given to us after the book of Judges. The book of Ruth is the eighth book in the Bible right before 1 Samuel. And what we see is that at the end of the book of Judges, it's the darkest of the darkest times in all of the Old Testament. And God gives us a glimpse of hope in the book of Ruth where he says, "Let me show you the end." And the end is that the people of God win, because God's people always win. In all of the Old Testament, this is one of the brightest rays of hope that we have and actually, the very first time that the word "hope" is used in the Bible. In the eighth book of the Bible, it's used in chapter one of Ruth. And the word for hope here is much more robust than our English word for hope. The English word for hope is you hope or you wish something will happen that you really desire to happen but you have no certainty that it will. It's a very fickle hope. When Scripture talks about hope, it talks about a true reality that is coming, a foundational reality where we can anchor our souls on this truth. Holy Scriptures says that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, it's the conviction of things not seen. You see, when Scripture talks about hope, it talks about hope as truth. This is true, therefore, we can build our lives upon this. The job of faith is to work itself out of a job. The stronger your faith, the stronger your realization, that what's coming is as true as what it is today, that gives us strength to overcome the darkest moments of today. And that's what the book of Ruth does for us. It reshapes our entire outlook on life, that the best for the Christian is truly yet to come because of, as we learned last week, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we need this hope in the darkest of times, that God is still at work even the mundane details of our lives, and the ordinary details of our lives. The book of Ruth is given to us for people who ask the question, "Where is God? Where is a vision from God, a word from God, a prophecy from God?" In the book of Ruth, God doesn't speak once. However, we see God's good hand of providence, guiding the minutia, the details of the story weaving it all together. As a good director, he's behind the scenes, but it's his script and his plan of redemption is unfolding. The name of God is named 18 times in these four short chapters. So, here's what I'd like you to do in the next few weeks, read this book. Read it over and over and over. It takes about 10 minutes to read quickly, 20 minutes with meditation, 30 minutes with meditation. And it's a word of hope to us in particular as we're going through a season of loss. And life, we go through seasons of losses and crosses. But God sows his seeds of grace in winter time and they will bring an abundant harvest. And the book is named after Ruth which is actually remarkable. It's the only book in the Old Testament named for a non-Israeli. Ruth is actually in this book named five times, Ruth the Moabites. Meaning she was from a different people, a different culture, a people who worship different gods. And she's not even the main character of the book. It begins and ends with Naomi and Boaz is at the heart of the story as the redeemer. And more than half of the story is dialogue, 678 words of dialogue. Boaz has 281 of those words. Naomi 225, Ruth speaks the least, 120 words of dialogue. But when she speaks, she speaks the most profound words of faith in all of Holy Scriptures. So, would you look at the book of Ruth with me. Today, we're going to be in Ruth 1. I'm going to give you my three points prior to the texts and then with each point, we'll go through pericopes or paragraphs of the texts. The points are from Bethlehem to Moab, and that's verses 1 through 5. And then point two is from Moab to the Crossroads, and that's verses 6 through 18. And then finally, from the Crossroads to Bethlehem, that's verses 19 through 22. Here to begin, I'm going to read Ruth 1:1-5, from Bethlehem to Moab. Would you look at the texts with me? "In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion." "They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives, the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband." This is the reading of God's holy and infallible authoritative word, may write these internal truths upon our hearts. The context is the days when the judges ruled. If you read the book of Judges, it's a story of dark times. A story of serial unfaithfulness where God's people were given God's law. They were brought from captivity into the Promised Land. And God said, "If you obey me, you will be blessed. If you disobey, curses will come upon the land." And you see this cycle of disobedience that leads to idolatry, that leads to enslavement. Finally, people come to their senses and then repentance and deliverance. When you see this cycle over and over and over and each reoccurring cycle is darker than the previous one, it's almost as if there's this downward spiral out of control. And the book of Judges ends with the following verse, Judges 21:25. This is the verse preceding the book of Ruth. "In those days there was no king. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." It's almost as if this is the description of the United States today. Everyone does what's right in their own eyes. Everyone defines their own truth. Everyone defines their own morality. Everyone defines their own reality and it leads to chaos. So, we see moral chaos that leads to political instability, that leads to financial crisis. That's the book of Judges, not the United States although we see that same pattern over and over as people leave God, as people leave God's word. There's a famine of God's word that leads to a famine of food. So, we meet Elimelech and Naomi. Elimelech, his name in the Hebrew means God is King. Naomi's name means sweet. She's a sweetheart. They start as children perhaps of believers from faithful families in Israel, in Bethlehem. Something happens along the way with their faith. We're not told what it is. Something happens where their faith is shaken. And one of the reasons perhaps why their faith was shaken was because of the famine. The famine led to a crisis of faith for them, financial instability, financial crisis led to a crisis of faith. Why would that happen? Well, when we expect God to exist for us, when we expect God to give us what we define as is good or the ultimate good. And then we don't get what we want from God, there is a temptation to get angry at God, to get bitter. When we don't get what we want and when we get what we don't want, there is that temptation and I wonder if that's what happened with Elimelech and Naomi. You see, some of that bitterness with the names of their children. Their children perhaps were born in the famine surrounding the nation and the first son they named Mahlon, which in the Hebrew means sickly. And the second son they named Chilion, which means spent or frail. They named their sons sickly and frail. Why would they do that? I think it's because they were bitter at God. "God, we didn't want these circumstances. God, we didn't want this financial ruin. We didn't ask for this. If you're a good God and an all-powerful God, why would you assign this ruin to our lives?" So, they make a decision to leave the Promised Land where they had an inheritance, to leave the people of God, to leave covenant community in search of financial wealth. And this is what we see in the text that they went to sojourn in the country of Moab. And the word "sojourn" means, this was supposed to be temporary. The Scripture say that we are resident aliens. Our life here on earth is but a sojourn to eternity. There was no initial intention to settle down. It's a temporary residence. They were just visiting the country of Moab because it promised financial benefit. Ruth 1:2, it says, "They went into the country of Moab and remained there." It's supposed to be temporary, but they stayed and however well intentioned, perhaps it was. Just from a worldly perspective, this was very sensible. And it could be rationalized. Well, why would we stay here? Like yeah, we have our church. We have our community of faith but we're not living the best life that we possibly could. And by the way, this famine, it wasn't a famine that annihilated everyone because afterwards, Naomi does come back to Bethlehem and people were living, and people were prospering like Boaz. It's just that they weren't living as comfortably as they could have. So they leave. And they could justify it. Elimelech might have justified it by saying, "I need to provide for my wife. I need to provide for my kids and God isn't giving me the provision that I want." So, they go. And it doesn't seem that far away, 50 miles. We go back and visit our family every once in a while, on holidays, we'll come back. But this was a faithful decision. And here, this brings me to a short discussion about discerning God's will? How do you know God's will is for your life? And perhaps Elimelech was wrestling with this question, "What does God want me to do? There's famine in the land. We're struggling financially. What does God want me to do?" One of the things about discerning God's will through circumstances is that we need to interpret those circumstances through our God's word. You can't understand God's will unless you understand God's word, because God will never say something through circumstances that contradicts what he's already said in his word. And in God's word, God had explicitly told the people of Israel, "Do not go live in Moab. That is a land full of idolatry and paganism." And Elimelech and the family weren't going as missionaries to tell these people about God. They were going in order to get upward mobility et cetera, et cetera. So, whenever you ask, "What is God's will for my life?" First of all, you got to say, "What does God say in his word?" And then you got to go to the covenant community, brothers and sisters in your life and say, "Help me interpret these circumstances through God's word. You have the Holy Spirit. I have the Holy Spirit. There's the Holy Spirit in Scripture, let's do this together." They didn't ask. And mostly likely, Elimelech didn't even ask God himself. "God, where do you want me to live? God, where do you want me to set down roots? If it's here in Israel, despite the fact that it's hard now in the temporary, I trust that you will provide because your will is always good." This was a faithful decision. Scripture says that Elimelech dies. And we see Naomi's pain and we see her bitterness as well but she still had two sons. And we see that these two sons, they marry Moabite girls. They put down roots. And on the face of it, it doesn't seem like this is a big deal but Holy Scripture explicitly forbids intermarriage between believers and unbelievers. And this isn't a question of culture. It's not a question of race, it's a question of faith. And yes, they sinned in marrying these ladies. But you got to go back to Elimelech who made the decision to bring his children into a land full of paganism. So, Elimelech's unfaithfulness leads to generational unfaithfulness because Elimelech was worried about living his best life immediately right now, his most comfortable life right now, it leads to sin in his own life and then the sin in his children's life. And one of the things that we get from all the Scripture and one of the biggest lessons that we get from the book of Ruth is that we are not to live for our best life now in terms of our immediate comfort. We are to live lives from the perspective of eternity. We are to live lives to leave a legacy. So, they intermarry and they lived 10 years with their wives and there were no children. And from the Old Testament perspective and from biblical perspective, children are a blessing from the Lord. And we see whispers of God's hand of disapproval or God's hand of disfavor upon this family. So, the sons died and all three, Elimelech and his two sons are buried in a Moabite grave and Naomi buries her husband and she buries her two sons. Devastation, there's bereavement and loss. And now, we find ourselves in the story where there's three widows particularly in a time where without a family structure, they were especially vulnerable and the story wants us to get to a place where this is heartbreaking. What seemed as a wise sensible plan from a worldly perspective, from a financial perspective, from a physical perspective ends in devastation. Elimelech, he just wanted to take a little detour from God's path and it leads in devastation. This is what happens, friends, when we walk by sight and not by faith. When we look at the facts as they are before us instead of interpreting the facts through the truth of God's word. Earthly wisdom, it makes sense in the short term, never in the long term. Temporal provision leads to ultimate devastation. The other thing I want to talk about here is how subtly sin ensnares. You give sin just an inch, it's going to take a mile. Someone once said that sin will take you farther than you want to go. It'll keep you longer than you want to stay. And it will cost you so much more than you are willing to pay. Be careful of sojourns around God, around God's word, sojourns into sin. You might find yourself in a land far away from God ensnared and not able to come back. Elimelech, his name means God is king. And for Elimelech, God was king in name alone. When he needed comfort, he didn't seek it in God who's a refuge. He sought it in provision, physical things. Quick comfort kills. And this is a really important word for us today as we're going through a storm. One of the greatest temptations as we're going through a storm is to stop building a house of obedience on the rock of God's word, because it's difficult. Instead, we're tempted to build sandcastles of disobedience, of sin, of seeking comfort, of seeking pleasure and sin. Oh, friend, don't go there. There's a deep lesson that we can see from Elimelech. Where do they live prior to going Moab? They live in Bethlehem. Bethlehem of Judah, it's mentioned twice here in this text. It's also mentioned twice in the book of Judges. It was an insignificant little village in this period of time. However, we know from the book of Micah is that Jesus, the Messiah, is going to come from Bethlehem. Jesus, the Word of God, the Bread of Life, was going to be born in Bethlehem and that's what the word Bethlehem means. It means house of bread. So, if God names a town house of bread in Israel, it has an incredible meaning. And that house of bread was in the Promised Land, a land that was supposed to be flowing with milk and honey and there was famine in the house of bread. And that wasn't by accident. That was by God's providence. Why would God allow a physical famine in the house of bread? To show his people that they have a spiritual famine of the word of God. See, spiritual famine of the word of God always precedes a physical famine of food. You see this promise in Amos 8:11-12, that when people turn from God, it says, "'Behold, the days are coming,' declares the Lord GOD, 'when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east. They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it." A famine of God's word always leads to a famine of food. Why? Scripture says that people shall not live by bread alone but for every word that precedes from the mouth of God. As much as our bodies need physical food, our souls need to be nourished with God's word. So, we see a famine in every conceivable sense, famine spiritually and morally, of trust in the Lord, a famine of faith. Famine was ordained by God to awaken his people from spiritual sleep. It's designed to awaken. It's designed to sanctify. God designs famine often as forced fasting, to get us to a place where we realize, "Oh, my. I'm addicted to physical pleasure. I'm addicted to physical comfort. God, remove these things so that I can see you and see your will more clearly." Famine and economic crisis in general, crisis in general is designed by God to make us turn to him in repentance, to run back to God. One of my favorite quotes on this is by C.S. Lewis who says that, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience but he shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world." When God sends a suffering like perhaps he's doing today, all around the world, he does it intentionally. He does it to awaken us and he gives us the choice. You can either run to God or you can run from God. You can run to God and find blessing, to find your blessed life. Or you can run from God in search of your best life. And those two, often they're diametrically opposed. Read the beatitudes where Jesus talks about what a blessed life is. He says, "Blessed are you who are mourned. Blessed are you who are meek. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are you when others revile and they persecute you." It talks about blessing as counterintuitive, that the blessed life is often the opposite of the best life in the short term but in the long term, the blessed life is the best life. Elimelech didn't understand this. So, they moved from Moab to Bethlehem that leads to devastation and then we see Naomi moving from Moab to Crossroads and this is in verses 6 through 18. Would you look at the text with me? "Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. So, she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah." "But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, 'Go, return each of you to her mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.' Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept." They hear that Bethlehem, the house of God has been restocked with bread by God. Perhaps the people have finally turned from their disobedience and idolatry, enslaved into sin back to repentance and God delivers them. And we see Naomi and her daughters-in-law, they are moving together from this place of Moab to Bethlehem. They're on the path together. And we see that perhaps they get to the border, perhaps her daughters didn't understand the finality of the decision, the immensity of the decision to leave their homes and to go with her. Obviously, their relationships are really deep. 10 years they've known each other at least deepened only by grief. And perhaps Naomi waited until this moment where they were at the border crossing. Perhaps she waited until this moment where they see the signs. They see a sign at the crossroad. One of the signs says, pointing to the direction that says Bethlehem. The other sign points back and says Moab. And at this moment, she wants them to make a decision and this is a really emotional scene that's deeply stirring. And here you got to ask, "Naomi, why would you tell your daughters-in-law to leave? Do you want them to go with you to the people of God?" Obviously, she does. The best thing for her is for them to come with her so that she has some kind of support structure as she is rebuilding her life in Bethlehem. But she sacrifices what's best for her, for what's best for them in her mind. And that's what love does, love sacrifices. She knows that ultimately what's best for them is to be with God and to be with God's people, but she wants them to make the decision with eyes wide open. She wants them to make the decision between the blessed life and the best life, and she wants them to understand that the best life is a life full of sacrifice. It's a life full of self-denial. It's a life often full of suffering. She wants them to know that they're about to become immigrants in a foreign land. And not only immigrants, widows who are immigrants from a different culture, from a different race, from a different faith. She knows that they will always have a difficult time integrating in society, that they will be ostracized and outcast. And actually, we see glimmers of this when Naomi goes back with Ruth and the people don't even acknowledge Ruth. There's almost as if there is a conspiracy, a communal unspoken conspiracy against even acknowledging this foreigner. So, she makes them realize the decision that's before them. Most likely, you won't get remarried. Most likely, you will not have a family. Most likely, you will live in destitution. But you will be in proximity to God and his word. Is it worth it? Count the cost. Verse 10, "And they said to her, 'No, we will return with you to your people.' But Naomi said, 'Turn back my daughters. Why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back my daughters. Go your way, for I'm too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.' Then he lifted up their voices and wept again and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law. But Ruth clung on to her." And this is what Naomi is saying is from a human perspective, there is no hope. There is no hope for a comfortable life. There is no hope for rebuilding a family. It's hopeless to go back. And what she says seems terribly strange to us. And here, it's almost absurd what she's saying but she is referring to Deuteronomy 25. She's referring to God's law. She's remembered God's law. She's remembered God's word and she's referring to the levirate marriage. In a levirate marriage, when a husband dies and the wife is alive, the obligation of the nearest of kin of the husband is to marry the woman in order to keep the name alive, in order to keep inheritance in the land, in order to provide heirs. It doesn't mean much to us but it was a matter of enormous cultural importance to them. And she says, "There's no hope for any of that. There's no heirs, there's no hope of family." She wants them to count the cost, that if you'd come with me, there's no immediate guarantees of comfort. And that's very similar to coming to Christ. Christ often talks about, "Hey, before you follow me, before you follow me on a daily basis, I want you to count the cost." No one goes to war with an army of 10,000 when they realize that there's an army of 20,000 coming at them. That's why you count the cost. Do you have what it takes? Now, it's hard. It's difficult. There will be suffering. Acts 14:22, "Strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God." When we come to Christ, there's no guarantees of a comfortable life. There's no guarantees of a life free from pain and distress, of difficulty and hardship. There's no promise of wealth and health and a long life. Actually, Jesus does promise, "If you follow me, you got to take up your cross and follow me daily, that there is suffering." One of the things that our culture doesn't understand is that suffering often is a gift. It strengthens us. It purifies our character. It purifies our soul. The book of James says, "Rejoice when you meet trials of various kinds." Often, God does ordain suffering and he does it for our sanctification. He offers us eternal comfort, he does. But there's no guarantee of temporal comfort. And the world does the opposite. The world says, "There is no eternity. We can't offer you anything in eternity, so eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die." It offers us temporal comforts. But we know this even physically that if you pursue temporal comforts through food, ultimately, you will harm your health. If you pursue temporal comforts through finances, you just spend everything that comes in and live lavishly, you will bear the fruit of the consequences of that decision. We understand that in the short term, often, we are to sacrifice short term pleasures for long term comfort, for long term flourishing and God speaks not from a perspective of our life, he speaks for this perspective of all of eternity, that every decision we make, we need to make from the perspective of eternity. How is this decision going to impact my life 10 years from now, 20, 30, a thousand? How is this decision going to impact not just me, how is it going to impact my children? How is it going to impact their children? Or, from spiritually speaking, Scripture talks about evangelism as having spiritual children. The decisions that I'm making, how are they impacting eternal souls around me? Are they drawing people closer to God or farther away? We are to count the cost. In John 6, Jesus says this to many of his disciples. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "'This is the hard saying. Who can listen to it?' And after this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So, Jesus said to the 12, 'Do you want to go away as well?' Simon Peter answered, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.'" Some of Christ's teachings are hard to hear. A hard words make for sort hearts. And when our hearts are soften to God, he leads us in the way of righteousness. He leads us in the way of blessing. And the way of blessing often is counter to what the world says the best life is. So, we see that Orpah leaves Naomi. And this is interesting because most likely to marry one of the Naomi's sons, she had to at least profess faith in God and then something happens where when the cost is too high, she walks away from God. She walks away from Bethlehem and she turns to Moab. And perhaps you're in a similar situation. Perhaps you go to church or you observe Christianity because you love someone who does, perhaps it's a spouse or it's your parents. You're deeply committed to them and because you honor them, you honor what they believe. You respect what they believe. But personal loyalty or religion of a family or the tradition of parents, they're never enough to break the pull of Moab, the pull of the world. When there's a cost to following Christ, it's so easy to walk away when you weren't really following Christ but you were following someone who was following Christ. Christ to you was a friend of a friend, and that's what God was to Orpah. God was a friend of a friend. And as soon as her husband was out of the equation, she had no relationship with God. I wonder what happened to Orpah. We're not told, but I wonder what happened. As she went back, did she marry? Did she have children? Did she live long? Did she have a comfortable life? We're not told. But as far as this book is concerned, as far as the unfolding story of God's redemption, she's gone. She's out of the story. We don't hear about Orpah anymore. And this brings us to really important point. A lot of people talk about God who has a plan for your life. And it's easy to interpret that to believe that God exists for me, that God has a great plan for me, and that leads to all kinds of wrong-headed theology. Instead of asking, "Does God have a plan for my life?" You should ask, "How does my life fit into God's plan?" If you ask that, and if you make decisions based on that question, you will live your most blessed life now and leave a blessed legacy and a blessed eternity. Orpah was convinced by Naomi. Ruth wasn't, you see this in verse 15. And Naomi says to Ruth, "See your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. And Ruth said, 'Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go, I will go and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die." "And there will I be buried, may the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.' And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said, 'No more.'" Ruth clung to Naomi and same word that's used in Genesis 2:14 talked ... The Genesis 2:24 talked about marriage. And then also, this is one of the richest phrases of faith, articulations of faith in all of Holy Scripture. This is covenant language. "May your people be my people, and may your God be my God." Where did she get this idea? And she even invokes the name of Yahweh, may the Lord do so to me than more so, talking about death, if I don't follow through. Where did she get this covenant language? She got it from Exodus. Exodus 6 through 7 where God says, "I will take you to be my people. And I will be your God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." Ruth takes a promise of God, a declaration of God and she turns it upside down and she says, "Yeah, God promised that and I am taking that promise and I am declaring it. I'm owning this promise. I'm identifying myself with this God." And it's fascinating that we're not told that Ruth had some kind of audible experience or some kind of physical manifestation of God revealing himself to her, how did she know about God? Well, she learned about God from Naomi. All she had was God's words spoken from Naomi and she had Naomi's testimony. By the way, it was a faulty testimony. It wasn't a perfect testimony. Naomi knew God's word and she wasn't happy about it. Often, she even says that she was bitter but yet Naomi clung to God, and Ruth says, "I believe this word." This is where we get the true robust hope. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Where do we get this kind of faith? We get it from God's holy word. That's all Naomi had. She built her life on it and that led to incredible legacy for the future. So for that, I just want to remind you in this season where perhaps you've got more time on your hands than usual, read God's word. Study God's word. Meditate on God's word. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Don't be conformed to this world. This world is giving us all kinds of sensible messages about what it means to live an enjoyable life. In particular, those messages are really easy to accept. They resonate with us in a season of suffering because what suffering does is it makes us really selfish. This is what we see with Elimelech, what's best for me. We see this with his sons, what's best for me now? That's what suffering does. It makes us really selfish. And then the world gives us these messages of, "Hey, following Christ in obedience in your marriage is difficult. Get out. Following Christ in obedience in your singleness is difficult. Get out, et cetera, et cetera." No, friends, build your life on God's word even in this time of suffering. The other thing I just want to point out is that Naomi's testimony to Ruth led to Ruth's conversion, although her testimony was imperfect. Although her walk with the Lord wasn't perfect, but yes, she shared God's word and she shared honestly her struggles. Why am I a Christian, because I'm perfect in and of myself because I follow religiously, perfect ... No, of course. I'm a Christian because I need grace. I'm a Christian because I struggle. I'm a Christian because I need God's word in my life. I need God's spirit in my life. I need God's mercy and grace on a daily basis. We're not Christians because we have it all together. We're Christians because we don't and we need God's grace. So, Ruth turns back from her idols and she turns to God as they move from the Crossroads to Bethlehem. And suffering often exposes our faith, the strength of our faith. For Ruth, suffering strengthened her faith. For Orpah, suffering weakened or even destroyed her faith and we have a decision, will you allow suffering to strengthen your faith or will you allow it to crumble your faith? This brings us to point three, Crossroads to Bethlehem, Ruth 1:19-22. "So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, 'Is this Naomi?' And she said to them, 'Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me." "'I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?' So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest." People didn't recognize Naomi. One of the reasons why they didn't recognize Naomi is just because of the natural process of aging. The time sketches lines into our face. Tragedy does more than that, it etches lines into our faith. Crosses often they do even more than that, they chiseled lines into our faith. Her appearance was changed. Perhaps her fair color was changed. Her life tasted bitter. When we follow the Lord, God often does lead us through seasons of struggling and often I hear people say something like, "God won't give you more than you can handle." Oh, that's not true. God often gives us more than we can handle. But as he gives us more than we can handle, he also offers us grace to handle it. 1 Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation has overcome you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." God often leads us through the valleys of the shadow of death but he's right there with us if we continue to hold onto him. Psalm 34:19, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all." Naomi said, "Don't call me sweet. Call me bitter." She's bitter. She's bitter at the circumstances, but she still holds onto faith in the Almighty, brings in and invokes the name of the Almighty. And we see a glimmer of hope in her testimony. In that, she invokes the name of God and also she returned to Bethlehem. If she was bitter beyond coming back to God from backsliding, she would have stayed in Moab. But she doesn't, she returns to the Lord. By the way, this is a word that's repeated often in this chapter. This is one of the primary themes of this chapter. Eight times, we see the word "return". In verse 6, "Naomi and her daughters return from the country of Moab.' Verse 7, "They went on the way to return to the land of Judah." Verse 8, "Go return each of you to your mother's house." Verse 10, "No, we will return with you to your people. Verse 15, "Return after your sister-in-law." Verse 16, "Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you." And verse 22, "Naomi returned and with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law. They returned from the country of Moab." Why is this word used so often? Because this right here is a word that's taken from the book of Deuteronomy. In the book of Deuteronomy, in chapters 28 through 30, you can read through that text on your own. God said, "I'm giving you the law and if you obey the law, I'm going to give you a life of blessing. If you disobey the law, it's going be curses." Pick one, choose today. You want life, or do you want death? And in that same text, God says, "But then when you come to a point where you cry out to God in repentance and sorrow, in prayer and fasting, when you return to the Lord, God will welcome you. God will give you forgiveness and mercy and prosperity." And this is why the word is used. And the word "return" just means repentance. When we choose our own sinful way, they way of Moab, perhaps you've stayed there way too long, God is calling you today to return. Return to him, that's what repentance means. Come back to Bethlehem. Come back to the house of bread. Come back to the God who is bread, the body of Christ is bread. His blood is the cup, it is the wine and his blood cleanses us from all sin and shame and guilt. We see three forms of returning in the text. Orpah, she was an almost believer. She was halfway to Bethlehem. and when the cost is too high, she walked away. With Ruth, we see she's a new believer. She's following. She doesn't know what's ahead. She doesn't know all of theology but she knows that, Lord, where else am I going to go? You got the words of eternal life. And we see Naomi, she's a backslidden believer. She knew the truth, walked away from the truth. And then God awakens her with suffering and she comes back. And she understands much of the difficulty in her life is just a consequence of her sin, of her decisions. And God promises when we come to him, he offers us restoration even from those consequences. The other thing I want to point out here at the end in closing. In Deuteronomy 23:3-6, God in his law said that, "No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, because they did not meet you with bread and water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you." "But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam. Instead, the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you. And you shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever." God says no person from Moab can ever enter the assembly of the Lord. And the word "ten" here is a number of complete exclusion. Ruth was a Moabite. And even if we take this number 10 literally, there weren't 10 generations between Deuteronomy and Ruth. So, what's going on here? We read this and it seems like the prohibition is so stark. It's so unqualified that no one from Moab has access to God. No one from Moab has access to the people of God. And yet we see Ruth, this powerful lady from Moab. She doesn't just get welcomed into the Lord's assembly, she actually has a book of the Bible written after her, named after her. And not only she accepted, but she's blessed. And the blessing is so striking that she's blessed so much so that she becomes the great grandmother of King David. She becomes an ancestor of King David, the greatest king of all of Israel, and all of the history of Israel and even more than that, she becomes an ancestor of the greatest King of Kings, Jesus Christ. Well, how could this happen? How could this lady where God says, "No one from these people can ever become one of my people?" How did this happen? Well, it happened because of the grace of Jesus Christ, the same grace that's offered to every single one of us. Jesus Christ didn't just come from Bethlehem, he came from heaven. And he descended to Bethlehem and he too came to a crossroads in the garden of Gethsemane where he says, "Father, let this cup pass from me. This cup of bitterness, let it pass from me." And at that moment, he chose the hard path of obedience. He chose the path from the crossroad to the cross, and he bore our sin upon himself. He bore our curse upon himself. He dragged the cup of bitterness, of God's wrath down to the dregs and he did that for us. And he was buried and he was resurrected in order to give us life. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" Same thing about this woman from Moab. "You can't enter the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. But such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." In and of our selves, there's no hope. But because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, when we turn to Christ through faith and repentance and we follow Christ, it's a difficult path. Count the cost. But it's the most blessed life eternally and also now. The book of Ruth is a book that tells us there is a path from ruin to redemption because our God is a God of the business of redemption. The word "redemption" is used 23 times in these short chapters. We see the unloved who become loved. We see the poor restored. We see inheritance that was lost because of sin restored because the generosity of another. We see people going from bitterness to sweetness. It starts with death and it ends with life, starts with barrenness and leads to blessedness. It starts with the person in ruin and then when the person is redeemed, this person rejoices and the blessing it is to be in the presence of God. So, today, turn from sin, turn to the Lord and follow him. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this incredible book of Ruth. We thank you for blessing our time today and we pray that you continue to bless our time in this book in the next few weeks. I pray, Lord, apply these truths to our lives. Make us a people of faith, people who believe not just because we hope it's true but because we know it's true. Make us a people who understand that faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. And I pray make us a people whose lives mirror that, reflect the truth of the gospel. And we thank you that there is a path forward from ruin to redemption. We pray all these in Christ's holy name, amen.
Ruth 4 (Part II)
June 21, 2015 • Ruth 4:13–21
The German poet Goethe called the book of Ruth "the loveliest complete work on a small scale" ever written. Alexander Schroder, a literary critic, wrote, "No poet in the world has written a more beautiful short story." Like all the most captivating and satisfying stories, the book of Ruth ends with a happy ending. Boaz and Ruth finally get married. They have a baby. Naomi is comforted. The end. It's a happy ending, and everybody loves a happy ending. It might be a happy ending and we might enjoy their happiness vicariously, even if briefly. However, what does their happiness have to do with ours? So what?! What does their joy have to do with ours in 21st century Boston? How do their lives impact ours? Great questions. Join us tomorrow as we study Ruth 4:13-21, and reflect on how the happiness of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz can have an absolutely direct impact on our own joy and redemption.
Ruth 4 (Part I)
June 14, 2015 • Ruth 4:1–12
In Matthew 10:16, Jesus tells his disciples "Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." Jesus doesn't just call his followers to grow in innocence (though this is an indispensable part of the Christian life and a daily pursuit), He also calls us to grow in shrewdness, or Godly Wisdom. God's people ought to be characterized by a profound practical wisdom of how the word is designed, how things work, and how to strive in this world to bring flourishing to our lives, our family, our city and beyond. We are called to develop shrewdness in how we use our time, talent, treasure, opportunities, and all of life. Join us tomorrow as we study Ruth 4:1-12, where we learn numerous lessons about shrewdness from Boaz, as he makes some slick moves to position himself to marry Ruth, the woman he loves, and to start a family, which will ultimately be a blessing to the whole world.
Ruth 3
June 7, 2015 • Ruth 3
We've had a great time the last couple weeks reading and studying the beautiful book of Ruth together. Last Sunday, we read chapter 2, where Ruth and Boaz meet, and sparks fly. However, things seem to cool off and Boaz appears to have stopped making moves (later we find out Boaz thought Ruth was out of his league). So Naomi, Ruth's brilliant mother-in-law concocts a scheming plan, in which she proposes that Ruth propose that Boaz propose to Ruth. Got it? Join us tomorrow as we study Ruth chapter 3, where the love story between Ruth and Boaz heats up, and as their love for each other deepens, their relationship becomes clearly defined.
Ruth 2
May 31, 2015 • Ruth 2
Last week we began a sermon series through the beautiful love story found in the book of Ruth. As we look at Ruth chapter 2 tomorrow, we're introduced to Boaz who is described as a "worthy" man. We're also given a front row seat to the first time Boaz and Ruth meet and their love story begins. Clearly the book is a love story, but one of the things that struck me as I've been studying this text is how sparse the text is regarding the feelings between them. Where are the juicy nuggets?! Where's the swooning? Where's the passion?! The author isn't saying that feelings are not important in a thriving marital relationship--they certainly are! But feelings, though important, are not primary. Love is not primarily a feeling by which we are overwhelmed. The desire to love is not love itself. Love is not primarily sentiment. Love is choice. Love is a choice to sacrifice for another person. This book's timeless message of lasting sacrificial love challenges our culture's view of love as primarily romantic sentiment that comes and goes.
Ruth 1
May 24, 2015 • Ruth 1
Tomorrow, we're starting a brand-new sermon series at Mosaic Boston through the book of Ruth. I recommend you take some time today or tomorrow to read through the book of Ruth (takes about 20 minutes). The book of Ruth is one of the most beautiful stories in Holy Scripture and teaches us innumerable truths about our God, ourselves, and our part in God's sovereign and good plan of redemption. The book of Ruth gives us a glimpse of the hidden work of God during the worst of times to bring about the evident work of God during the best of times. The book of Ruth is a love story (and who doesn't like love stories?!), which foreshadows the ultimate Love Story.