Ruth - The Sacred Marriage of Trust and Redemption

This podcast is the Ministry of Grankway Baptist Church.

For more information on our church, please visit Grandparkway.org.

Now I know what you're thinking.

Neil is here.

Why is Lance uh preaching?

Uh because that's how we roll now.

That's why.

Uh my name is Lance Williams.

I'm the spiritual formation pastor here at Grankway.

It's always a privilege and a pleasure to uh proclaim the word, to preach the word before you.

Uh and today we're going to continue on in our series uh in Ruth.

We'll finish it up next week.

And then I don't know if you've seen the slide.

On uh July the 8th, we're gonna do communion in here.

If you've never done communion with us, we did it a little bit differently, but it'll be great.

So we finish up Ruth in the next couple of weeks.

Uh and as I mentioned, we'll be in Ruth chapter 4 today.

Ruth 4 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, there's one on the end of your row, just ask your neighbor to pass it down.

And I believe that we are on page 224 of that particular Bible at the end of the row, and that is where we're gonna be uh for the rest of our time together.

Well, we've got three chapters to catch up on really quickly here in the uh as we set up Ruth chapter four.

Uh, and it we can do that really easily in the Bible.

All we've got to do is go back to the headings of the book we're in.

And again, we're in Ruth, and uh all we gotta do is look at the headings.

The first heading is Naomi was widowed.

The big picture there is that uh Naomi was married to a man named Elimelech.

And Elimelech, his name meant my God is king.

They moved out to Moab.

They had two sons, Melon and Kileon.

They moved out to Moab, where Malon and Kileon married two Moabite women, and their names were Orpa and Ruth.

The Bible says that ten years passed, and all three men died, leaving three widows in a foreign land during a time of famine.

Surely they were in desperate need of someone to intervene for them.

And Orpa goes on her merry way, and Naomi's trying to send out Ruth as well.

But the reality is this Ruth clung to Naomi, her mother-in-law.

And somewhere in here, we get the understanding that Ruth converted to the God of Israel, to Yahweh.

We understand that based on verses 16 and 17 of chapter 1, where she says, Hey, my God will be, your God will be my God, your people my people.

Where you go, I will go.

It's a wedding vow of sorts.

It's one that my wife and I actually said to each other, Hey, let what God is bringing together, let no man separate.

And so uh Ruth says that to Naomi and pleads with her to stay with her, and so she uh relents.

And Ruth goes back to Bethlehem with Naomi, the house of bread during a time of famine where they go to get fed.

They had no idea by the end of this book how fool they'll be.

So that's Ruth's uh loyal to Naomi.

Naomi and Ruth return to Bethlehem in chapter two.

Uh Ruth just happens to be in the fields where Boaz that Boaz owns.

You remember that?

It was the providence of God all over the story, just these rhetorical devices that the author uh of Ruth really starts to give us, and we'll look at a couple more of those.

She just happened to be uh in the field, uh, but there's just a little clue into no matter what the author uh is telling us, and no matter how we read it, the true reality is that God's sovereignty is all over the story, and we'll talk about that today.

Then last week we saw uh Naomi uh telling Ruth exactly how to win a man.

Uh you've seen the movie How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days.

This is how to win a guy in a night.

Uh go make your intentions known.

All you got to do is go lay down at his feet, ask you, ask him to spread his garment over you, uh, which is a symbolic gesture out of Ezekiel.

We looked at that, hey, just hey, you're basically proposing to him.

Make your intentions known to him.

You'll marry him.

And Ruth and Boaz.

They don't commit any sin that night.

There's no scandal to speak of, there's no gossip at the city gates because they're both full of character.

And Boaz just says, hey, we can do this, but there's someone nearer.

And it gave us this great picture of a redeemer, which is going to be a huge important aspect of our day-to-day as we talk about the sacred marriage of trust and redemption.

What will these two things yield?

With one, without one, the other surely never takes place.

The sacred marriage of trust and redemption.

We pick up on the story here in chapter four.

After Ruth and Boaz kind of have their midnight rendezvous, uh, it wasn't like the one that you or I uh may have had in the past.

It was one that was pure and sinless, and one that was uh full of character, full of integrity.

And Boaz takes care of Ruth and feeds her for many moons to come.

And the harvest was right.

And he sends her out before the dawn could come, so as no one could get a bad impression of what they were doing.

And then we pick up on chapter four.

Let's read it together.

We'll read the first twelve verses, and again we'll end the book of Ruth next week.

Says this chapter four, verse one of the book of Ruth.

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, friends, 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.

So they sat down.

You love how he's in control of the whole situation.

Good old Boaz, man.

He's got a reputation that that that goes far beyond his fields, but to the city, to the city gate.

Verse three.

And then he said to the redeemer, Naomi has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech.

And so I thought I would tell you if it of it, and say, Buy it in the presence of these 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.

So good so far for him.

Verse 5 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 and his inheritance.

Then the Redeemer said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance.

Take my right of redemption for 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 belong to Elimelech, and all that belonged to Kilion and Malon.

Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Malon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead and 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 were witnesses this day.

Then all the people who were at the gate and the eld and the elder 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, and may you act worthily in Ephratha 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.

Now we read that, and we're lost from the get-go.

Because we are right in the middle of this beautifully rich and textured cultural legal matter.

How romantic that they're at the city gates where all business takes place.

Redemption here is not just about this romance, it's about practical matters, as true romance truly is.

And so we see in chapter 4, verse 1, uh just this rich texture of redemption.

And to get a good picture of it, before we even dig into the text, uh we need to go back to the Old Testament and understand really what's going on here.

And we've we've recapped, but let me just refresh our minds.

Ruth is a widow and she's a foreigner.

She has no way of, she's basically relegated to gleaning out of the fields of a rich man.

Except for there is this one clause in Jewish law found in Deuteronomy 25 that helps us understand a little bit about the situation that we find ourselves here in Ruth 4.

Deuteronomy 25, verse 5, all the way to 10.

Deuteronomy 25:5

I'll read this and then we'll dig right into the text of Ruth.

But it kind of gives us some background and some understanding of what's going on culturally.

He says, if brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger.

Now let's pause right there.

So if you're married and your husband has a brother and your husband dies, Jewish law is saying it's better for you to marry your brother-in-law.

Hello?

Is this a good thing for you?

Marry your brother-in-law.

And this is what the Jewish law is proclaiming for us, and it'll be better for you to do that rather than a stranger, to take on new customs, to learn new family traditions, to experience new crazy Christmases or whatever else.

Not that I know anything about that.

My family's giggling harder than y'all.

Verse 5, let me read it again.

If brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger.

Her husband's brother shall go into her and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.

And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.

And if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, this should sound familiar, and say, My husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.

And then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him.

And if he persists, saying, I do not wish to take her, then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, check it out, and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face.

Come on! Who knew that was in there?

And she shall answer and say, So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house, and the name of his house shall be called in Israel the house of him who had his sandal pulled off.

I can think of worse insults.

Unless we understand the culture behind this whole sandal thing, which we'll get to in our second point.

But this gives us unbelievably rich texture to what we're reading and understanding here today.

Let's go back to the book of Ruth.

Ruth 4:1

Chapter 4, verse 1.

Our first point really is this.

We're gonna look at this sacred marriage of trust and redemption.

What does trust look like?

We're gonna see what trust looks like.

And he has a name in the story and how important that name is, and his name is Boaz.

What trust looks like is found in verses one to six, which I won't read again, but here's the reality Boaz is a man that we could just really drill down hard on his life and see a man of integrity, see a man and a life, the way he did his business, which is this is a business transaction.

He was shrewd and wise, but overall a man full of integrity and character, all because of whom he trusted, and the God of the Bible.

If we want to see what trust looked like, we can look all about the faith and the life of Boaz.

And Boaz goes to the city gates in verse 1.

Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there.

So he's going, he's left the threshing floor, and the next morning he goes to the city gates.

Why that's important, we already know that's where they do all their business transactions, but it's also the place where everybody that lives in the city has got to travel by to get out to the fields.

Remember, it's harvest time in a time of famine, no one's missing work.

No matter how sick you are, you're out there.

And so Boaz goes and sits down for the Redeemer.

And I love the Bible because he shakes us up right here in verse 1, and he says, And behold, the Redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken came by.

That's just sarcasm dripping from the page for all of us.

Behold, like it's some big surprise that he would show up, that a man of trust and integrity would lead the threshing floor without committing a sin, take care of Ruth beyond what his duty was, go to the city gates, and oh, it just so happened.

Remember?

Behold, there he was.

If we want to see what trust looks like, we've also got to have a really good understanding of the sovereignty of God.

In fact, a life that trusts in God can only be fully expressed with a rich understanding of the sovereignty of God.

And what you might be thinking to yourself, okay, that's a lot of words.

What does sovereignty mean?

Here's what sovereignty means.

Basically, it's just this it was a simple expression of the sovereignty of God is that God alone has the right to work and to do and to do his will, to do all things according to his good pleasure.

Let me read that again.

God alone has the right to work and do all things according to his will and his good pleasure.

Sometimes we think the sovereignty of God should include us at the center of the definition.

We're included, but it's his will and his pleasure and his good doing.

And we get to be included in all of that.

And so a man who trusts in God, a life that trusts in God, can only be fully expressed with a rich understanding of the sovereignty of God.

Great expression of this is actually found in the last book of the Bible.

I'm not going to turn there.

You don't need to turn there.

I just want to refer to it.

It's going to come up on our screen.

Revelation 4, 11 says this Worthy are you, O Lord, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.

For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.

That's just a one little verse, a great summary of what everyone will sing for all eternity around the throne room of God.

Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.

For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.

And we can see that and hear that, and we can basically have one of two reactions: one of fear or one of trust.

You created all things, all things are happening according to your will.

I'm good with that, or okay, but what about that?

What about X, Y, or Z?

What are the things that happen in the news this week?

Good things and bad.

What about I'm going on vacation tonight at 11, gonna drive through the night, and there's a hurricane stirring in the Gulf.

What's up with that?

Hello, I'm going to Florida.

You know this, Jesus.

I gotta drive through it or sit in it for a week.

What's gonna happen?

I don't know.

But I got Revelation 4.11 screaming at the top of his lungs with the name of Boaz and Ruth 4, directing my path.

You see, you live where you live with the neighbors that you live because that's what God wanted.

Uh four years ago when my wife and I moved into our home, uh, got a great deal, foreclosure, whole deal.

I mean, God totally hooked us up.

Uh, not that he doesn't, because he does.

Uh, but he hooked us up, and so we move in, and uh, I remember one of the first nights we were there, I was looking at my yard, which had died, uh, because it was vacant for a year.

And so my whole front yard, we had to resod and all these other things.

But we're I'm sitting out there and my neighbor pulls out of his driveway, my next door neighbor, great guy.

Uh he was uh driving his blue Mustang with the top down, and I just commented on the mustang.

I was like, man, good to have a good neighbor here.

I love the car.

And he just goes, actually, it was my son's.

I said, It was your son's.

He said, Yeah, he died last year.

I said, I'm so sorry.

He said, Yeah, it was a tragic accident at home.

And he started to tell me the details of this accident, unbelievably sad, unbelievably tragic.

Uh, and we started to talk about it a little bit.

And I said, Man, David, I I what's your son's birthday?

I want to celebrate his life with you.

And he goes, It's December 6th.

I said, You'll never believe this.

My birthday is December 6th.

And he goes, you know, that brings up another question of mine.

The sovereignty of God.

I was like, Yeah.

And so we've sat in the hot tub at his house and talked about the sovereignty of God.

Uh, since then, we've kind of had this slow unpacking as I go and I try and make appointments on important days for him at his office.

He's a he's an eye doctor.

If you need one, he's a good one.

Uh and so uh uh what the sovereignty of God.

We can choose to chalk that up to luck, which I think is an offense to God and the nature of God, or pigs that can fly, or circumstances, or whatever.

We also could go back to the Bible and Ruth.

We could also go back to Revelation, we could also go back to Acts 17 where he says, God will determine the very places that men will live.

Ha!

I had no idea when we purchased that home before ever seeing it, that on one side we had a widow with now four children.

Across from us, we had another elderly widow who I just now was able to exchange my number with her.

She called me the next day.

And then on the other side, you've got this blended, mixed family full of wounds and hurts and unanswered questions.

Yeah, Acts 17 is true, Ruth 4 is true, Revelation 4, all true.

The sovereignty of God, of life that uh a trusting life can only be fully expressed when we fully and richly understand the sovereignty of God.

Because if we believe God is sovereign, then our mind can quit running.

The what ifs all of a sudden fall away and the crazy theoretical situations that you think you may find yourself in one day don't exist.

Instead, God's sovereign and he's good.

No matter if there's pain or joy along the way.

Both are true.

And so we see a man who is fully trusting because he has a good understanding of the sovereignty of God, because hey, they could have connived and planned the night before on the threshing floor.

They could have, he could have gone up to the city gate and seen the Redeemer and just let him go by.

He could have done a million other things than what he did.

But because he was a man who trusted in the sovereignty of God, he risks it all if only to gain God's blessing on the whole thing.

So we go back to Ba to Boaz, I almost called him Baz.

Uh he didn't play for the Sooners.

Uh back to Boaz, and we find him uh catching up with the Redeemer.

And behold, the Redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken came by.

So Boaz said, Turn aside, friend, sit down here.

Is that what your translation says, friend?

My friend.

The Hebrew is very peculiar when he talks about the man's name.

Actually, there's no name at all.

And the Hebrew is basically it's an idiomatic expression saying, Mr.

So-and-so.

The Hebrew is actually Polonial Moni, if you need to know that.

Which when I hear that, all I hear is my friend in seminary walking around because he had to verbalize everything to learn it.

And so we had to go through the book of Ruth in Hebrew, and we're reading the book of Hebrew, and we knew that this polonial money was important.

We didn't really quite know why.

And he's just walking around with this Italian accent going, Poloniamoni, Poloniamy.

I'm like, oh my gosh, every time I read Ruth 4, I think Poloniamoni.

But the Hebrew just says, Mr.

So-and-so, we're gonna call him Mr.

Nobody.

Mr.

Nobody in Boaz, we understand what trust looks like.

With any good story, there's a hero.

With an even better story, there's a foil to the hero.

And Mr.

Nobody is that foil.

See, the author is trying to give us a clue.

We miss it in the English, but in the Hebrew, it's clear as day.

That they're just saying, hey, Mr.

So-and-so, your name doesn't even deserve to be written down in this story.

You fail.

And we're gonna read why.

It's not just that they just happened to not include his name, it was purposeful.

Mr.

So-and-so.

It's not, hey dude, hey cap, what's up, bro?

Mr.

So-and-so.

Come over, sit down.

Mr.

Nobody, Mr.

Redeemer.

We're gonna call him Mr.

Nobody for uh, well, because it's fits for more than anything.

But Boaz starts to lay out the terms in this whole idea of trust and this whole idea of this legal transaction that's about to take place.

Verse 3, he says, hey, everybody sit down.

We're about to be witnesses to this thing.

He says the Redeemer, Naomi, he lays out the terms for him.

Naomi has come back from the country of Moab, he's selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative, Elimelech.

So he's a relative, he's a closer redeemer than Boaz, and he's saying, Hey, there's a piece of property for sale, you probably could get it on the cheap.

Interested?

Let's keep reading.

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'll redeem it, redeem it.

But if you will not, tell me that I may know that there.

Is no one beside you to redeem, and I come after you.

And he said, Mr.

Nobody says, I got it.

I'll redeem it.

I'll purchase it.

Naomi, you're not calling her bitter, even though that's the name she prefers.

She's got a parcel of land, she's selling it.

I can get it for cheap.

I'm on it.

Boaz, being the shrewd businessman, is okay, you're good there, but let me keep going.

Verse 5.

Then Boaz said, The day you buy the field from the land from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth, the Moabite.

Uh-huh.

What?

The Moabite, the foreigner, the one that doesn't belong in Bethlehem.

Hmm, all right, strike one.

The widow of the dead.

Hello, what?

She's a widow.

She's going to expect something from me?

Remember that Deuteronomy 25 passage?

This whole redemption thing is more than just redeeming land, it's also redeeming Naomi, who by all accounts is older, much older, can't have any children at this point.

And Ruth, who's much younger, can.

All of a sudden we start to realize that Mr.

Nobody's looking at Ruth and going, okay, there's going to be some things expected of me.

This might cost me more than just that piece of land out there.

We keep reading.

The widow of the dead.

In order to perpetuate the name of the dead and his inheritance.

And then the Redeemer said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance.

Take my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it.

Mr.

Nobody's response here is quite telling.

This is gonna have major problems for me.

My own inheritance is at risk now.

I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance.

We want to look at what trust looks like and the sacred romance and the sacred marriage of trust and redemption.

We've got Mr.

Trust, which is Boaz, and Mr.

No Trust, which is Mr.

Nobody.

He says, I'm all about me.

I can't do it.

Beautiful window into his character.

He's just got this basic baseline of his life is self-preservation.

And Boaz, I don't even know if that's in his life at all.

And not to mention the two women that had no hope but to be redeemed.

So why didn't he redeem the property and Ruth?

Perhaps he was already married.

That would have been the most gracious conclusion we could come to, but the fact that they called him Mr.

So-and-so, Mr.

Nobody, that would give us a clue is the fact, no, there's more than that.

There's more than the fact that he just can't.

He's choosing not to.

The cost of the initial redemption would have been bearable if the future yield was worth the investment.

Feeding Naomi and Ruth would have been too costly, certainly, and then Ruth would have demanded that they have children.

The law demanded that Ruth he have children with Ruth, and that firstborn wouldn't take on Mr.

Nobody's name, it would take on Malon's name.

Because remember, it's to perpetuate the line of the dead.

Genealogy in land meant everything for the Jews.

That's why in the first chapter of Genesis verse 28, the first command to all of humanity be fruitful, have lots of kids, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.

Genealogy and land meant everything to them.

And Mr.

Nobody is sitting here going, I'm good.

I don't want any part of this.

This costs me too much.

When Ruth starts having other babies, all of a sudden all my kids, all their inheritance is going to start to be dwindled and disintegrating almost into nothing because all these kids are going to take what I have.

I'll pass.

Mr.

Nobody sets for us this great foil to Boaz, who's all about trusting and a rich understanding of the sovereignty of God.

Boaz shows us what a man that trusts in God and sovereignty's plan looks like.

Mr.

Nobody shows us what it what it looks like to look after your own interests.

At the expense of a life of faith, trust, and abandonment to the sovereignty of God.

Let me ask you this.

What's your tendency these days?

Self-preservation or abandonment and trust in the sovereignty of God.

One is a life that's full, and the other is not.

Your decisions these days, are they based on self-preservation?

And by the way, there's nothing wrong with a healthy understanding of priorities.

But that's not what we're getting from this text.

We're getting from this text something much, much more damaging.

We come up against something we don't desire, something we don't prefer.

What do we do?

We act in the interest of ourselves or in the interest of what God has in mind and the best interest of someone else.

What's your tendencies these days?

That is what trust looks like.

Let's take a closer look at what redemption looks like.

And just by way of reminder, uh, before I read verses uh seven to ten.

Actually, no, let me read verses seven to ten, and then we'll talk about uh the reminder.

Verse seven to ten, see what happens here is that when we look at what redemption looks like in our second point, uh, really it's this it's a parenthetical statement.

The author's kind of taking a break.

He starts to tell us the customs to which we're invited.

Verse 7 says this.

Now, this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging to confirm a transaction.

The one drew off a sandal and gave it to the other.

And this was the manner of attesting in Israel.

So when the Redeemer said to Boaz, Go buy it for yourself, he drew off his sandal.

Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, Your witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belong to Elimelech, and all that belong to Kilion and to Malon.

Also Ruth the Moabite and the widow of Malon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead and his inheritance.

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.

Redemption obviously is this great motif in the book of Ruth.

And just like I said, by way of reminder, we look at a kinsman redeemer, a redeemer that will step in and make payment for that which really has unbelievable worth to it.

Four requirements of a kinsman-redeemer.

We learned this last week.

Wanted to put him back up here.

He must be a kinsman, he must be a relative.

He must be free himself.

He can't be a slave.

He must be able to pay the price.

He's got some money in the bank to be able to do this.

And finally, the most important in our story, he must be willing to pay the price.

Mr.

Nobody met all the first three.

When it came to number four, he was not willing.

And Boaz steps on the scene, and it's clear he is more than willing to take on whatever expense, whatever cost would come with redeeming Naomi, the land, Ruth, descendants.

Whatever may come next.

Boaz is the man in this story.

And we read this in verse 7, and we kind of get invited in this rich texture of the culture where he talks about this sandal again.

We don't really know why the sandal's there.

We don't really know why the law demanded that a sandal is there.

Certainly it was to shame the person that was denying his right, but I think that was more of the spit in the face.

I don't know if you've ever been spat on, but it's shameful.

There's shame associated with that.

I remember in high school I was spat on by somebody.

And I didn't do anything.

And years later, under the sovereignty of God, I knew why I know why now.

Because the guy that spat on me is in jail for murder.

Literally.

And uh thank God for grace.

That wasn't even a believer there.

But to be spat on, there's great shame there.

What's the deal with the sandal?

It goes back to Genesis 38.

I can't read it mainly because it's way too scandalous.

The Bible is full of scandal.

Genesis 38, and I'll refer to it here in a little bit, but it's very deep and rich in tradition in the Jewish ways.

But if we look at the Old Testament, we can see this: that the sandal coming off all throughout the Old Testament signifies reverence and deference.

When you take your sandals off or your shoes off in the Old Testament, it signifies reverence and deference.

We get our first picture in Exodus 3, where Moses is approaching the burning bush, and what does God say?

Remove your shoes, young man.

You're on holy ground.

Reverence.

Not to mention a complete posture of submission.

Okay, Lord, I've been running.

I've been running.

You got my attention.

In 2 Samuel 15, we see David.

Many, many years later, we see David, who's on the Mount of Olives, pleading for God to intervene in a situation which he has no control over.

And you find him barefoot.

It's when Absalom leads a coup over the throne of Israel, the throne of David, and he's trying to become king.

Instead of David killing his own son, he flees out to the Mount of Olives.

And he's on the Mount of Olives, and it's there that he's pleading with God barefoot.

Just a little bit of a detail there.

No sandals on.

And so we see Mr.

Nobody taking off his sandal.

He's just saying, I remove my right.

I now reverentially defer to Boaz as the Redeemer.

Well, it's no wonder Boaz jumps up and says, Oh, oh, did you see it?

Did you see it?

He took his sandal off everybody.

Witnesses, you witnesses, witnesses.

No tag backs, no takebacks.

He took his sandal off.

I'm not going to spit on him, and neither will Ruth.

We're good.

That's the culture that we kind of find ourselves in.

Boaz, of course, jumps at the chance.

He doesn't care what cost there is because he's got this beautiful young woman that he's going to take as his wife, and it doesn't matter that her mother-in-law, his new relative, wants to be called bitter.

Doesn't matter to him.

The cost is not too high for Boaz.

And he jumps at the chance.

Boaz reminds us that no matter what baggage we carry in this life, God has chosen to redeem us.

The cost was not too much for him.

And he gave his one and only and perfect son.

He is our relative.

He is our brother.

Go put those four requirements back up.

This is Neil talked about last week.

He is our kinsman.

He is free.

Free from sin.

He must be able to pay the price.

Certainly, he's God.

And he was willing to pay the price.

Greater love has none than this, that we lay down his life for his friends.

God's love?

Of course he's going to do it.

When he chose to redeem us, he invited us to trust him so that we could live in this sacred marriage of trust and redemption.

And so we get to our third and final point, and then I'm done.

What does trust and redemption yield?

Verse 11 and 12 says this.

Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, We are witnesses.

I got you.

I got your back, Boaz.

I saw him.

He took his sandal off.

I saw it was pretty clear.

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 Ephratha and be renowned in Bethlehem.

May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.

Because the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.

A life yielded to the sovereignty of God in full trust.

Beautiful redemption can take place.

These witnesses obviously saw all of this, and they start to pray prayers over Ruth and Boaz.

Now remember, they're in Bethlehem, and you got these elders that are there.

They're obviously important in the city of Bethlehem.

They're Jewish, and they do some really peculiar things.

They start to plead to Yahweh to bless a Moabite.

How do I know it's Yahweh?

Just a little Bible study tip.

And that's just how they translate it.

They don't say Yahweh, but when you read in your Bible, L-O-R-D, and it's all caps, that's the name of Yahweh.

When it's L-O-R-D and it's lowercase, that just means master or Lord.

And so we see right here in verse 11, may the Lord, may Yahweh make the woman a Moabite widow.

What an unbelievable statement of blessing.

These people would accept her.

Why?

Because of chapter 1, where she says, Hey, your God will be my God.

Your people, my people.

Her faith, her demonstrated faith throughout the first three and a half chapters here.

It's relentless.

It's fully abandoned to the sovereignty of God where she steps into a field and just happens to be Boaz, and then, hey, Naomi, you've kind of been bitter for a little while.

What should I do?

Oh, will you go and do this?

Okay.

This prayer after prayer of blessing.

And then they do something really quite interesting.

They appeal and invoke memories of three Jewish women.

Rachel and Leah, those are the first ones.

Rachel and Leah were Jacob's wives.

You remember this story?

Back in the book of Genesis?

Rachel and Leah, and it says right here in the book of Ruth, he says, who together built up the house of Israel.

And what he's saying here is that through Rachel and Leah, and oh, by the way, their maidservants, Bilhah and Zilpah, they had the twelve kids, the twelve sons that we know as the twelve tribes of Israel.

When he says he built up, who together built up the house of Israel, these were the twelve sons by which would be raised up and they would take over the entire land of Israel.

And so Israel was originally divvied out between these twelve tribes.

Judah had a little spot, and Gad had a spot, and Issachar, and the only people that didn't have a little spot was Levi, because his descendants were supposed to be priests.

But through these twelve sons were the land was allotted, priests and kings were ordained, and all of a sudden, what we now hear on the news of Israel all started back with Rachel and Leah and Jacob.

Well, no wonder they're going, hey, your house, it should be like them.

May it be like Rachel and Leah, who, by the way, were not the model of fidelity or morality, but redeemed.

Because somehow in the sovereignty of God, God used Jacob, the man whose name meant deceiver, to build a nation.

And bring us all into faith later on.

So you got Rachel and Leah, and then the third one is Tamar.

She's certainly not the model of fidelity either, but just out of Genesis 38, I referenced this earlier.

Here's the scandal.

Tamar is left a widow, much like we find Ruth, and Judah is her father-in-law, and he won't give, well, he has, that's part of the scandal, but she finds herself in a situation where no one's going to marry her.

She's getting older and she gets desperate.

And instead of trusting in the sovereign plan of God, she takes things in her own hands.

And what does she do?

She poses as a temple prostitute on the side of the road and convinces Judah, her father-in-law, to sleep with her.

This is all in your Bible.

And so Tamar convinces her father-in-law Judah to sleep with her in a huge scandal.

Judah's like, hey, what is the deal?

We need to take her out.

We need to do what the law says.

And all of a sudden she produces basically his ID and Social Security card.

Hey, remember when you left these with me?

Okay, my bad.

Judah takes a step back and says, Blessed are you.

You got more integrity than I even thought of.

So Tamar starts to be blessed.

And it's, by the way, through that scandalous relationship that Perez is born.

I think I read in here, and may your house be like the house of Perez?

Like that?

Well, we're seeing it through the lens of an earthly perspective.

And the author of Ruth and God is inviting us to see it through a redeemed perspective.

Yeah, because God said that's the way he wanted it.

There's no reason.

They weren't moral enough, and so God said, Oh, you're trustworthy.

Let's use Tamar.

No, absolutely not.

God just chose to do it.

The sovereignty of his will, for he works all things for his pleasure.

So you got Rachel and Leah and Tamar, not exactly the models of fidelity, but redeemed.

And so all the people at the gate say, Boaz, I want you to be like Rachel and Leah and Tamar.

And he's going, okay.

But the practical implications of it is, I want you, we pray to our God, the Lord of heaven and earth.

We call him Yahweh, and we know you know him, and we know she knows him.

We pray that she has so many kids you can't even stand it.

That their descendants would rise up one day.

And the conclusion of our story will be next week.

Did it happen?

We'll see.

But the book of Ruth, the book of redemption, reminds all of us of what's important newness, renewal, not wounds, not what we did terribly wrong, not the fact that we made a decision one day and took things in our own hands, and because we did, we've got years and years of consequence.

That's not what the book of Ruth, and dare I say, not what the Bible is about.

And that's certainly not in the heart and in the nature of God.

Instead, at the heart and the nature of God is redemption.

God doing for you what you cannot do for yourself.

The New Testament calls it grace.

When we understand that, we can live lives that are absolutely abandoned to the sovereignty of God.

Live lives of trust, live lives that are redeemed.

And then all of a sudden, people will look at our lives and say, Man, may you guys bear so much fruit.

More fruit than you can even ever fathom to count.

This book of redemption, renewal, newness all reminds us of the nature of our good and gracious God.

Purchasing and undeserving, conniving, planning, self-preserving, Mr.

Nobody like heart.

He says, no cost is too great, I'll take it.

I want the field, I want the bitterness, I want the aloneness, the loneliness, I want it all to be mine.

Where are you at today?

Go back to my previous question.

Where's your tendencies?

Get to the cliff and kind of just go, no, I'm good.

He's not trustworthy.

Wherever you go, I'll go.

Where are you at today?

You look at your life, your decision, are they marked by Mr.

Nobody or Boaz?

And can the witnesses of your life look at you and pray for more for you?

I've got a friend who lives up in Conroe.

Lots have been taken from him lately.

Good, upright man, does business right.

Somebody came along, switched a contract here or there, cost him lots of money.

More money than I'll probably see in my whole life.

I look at that and I rub shoulders and elbows with a man like that, and I say, Man, I just pray for God's blessing to be poured out even more abundantly on you.

Or you get to the point where you've maybe got a family member or maybe it's you yourself, and somebody's praying, hey, I just hope and pray that you come to the end of yourself.

So that you don't end up like a Mr.

Nobody, that no one even remembers your name.

You're not the biggest thing that was ever created.

You're certainly not the center of the world.

How are people praying for you?

Most likely depends on how you're living your life.

Mr.

Nobody, a boaz.

Ruth.

Naomi.

If you guys could stand with me, let me speak a word of blessing over you.

As you know, we hold our hands out like this.

At the center of your God and his nature is redemption.

No matter what your future circumstances are and how foggy they may be, no matter what wounds you are, you have, no matter how deep they cut you, he's a redeemer.

He can redeem anything and anyone.

And if he's redeemed you, he's calling you to trust, to go out and be the redemption of God for all those you find in your fields.

In the name of the Father and of the Son, of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.