Pictures of Pleasant Providence

And turn with me to Ruth Chapter two. Ruth two,

All right, let me read our scripture passage for us. Now,

Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a worthy man

of the clan of Lamnaik, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth,

a Moabite, said to Naomi, let me go to the

field and glean among the ears of grain after him,

and whose sight I shall find favor. 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 a Limelech. Behold, Boaz

came from Bethlehem, and he said to the reapers, the

Lord be with you, and they answered, the Lord bless you.

Then Boaz said to his young man, who was in

charge of the reapers, whose young woman is this. The

servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, she

is the young Moabite woman who came back when Naomi

from the country of Moab. And 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. 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. Let your eyes be on

the field that they are reaping, and go after them.

Have I not charged the young men not to touch you,

and when you're thirsty, to 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'm a foreigner. But

BoA's answered 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 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 to you by the Lord, the God

of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.

Then she said, I have found favor in your eyes,

my Lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly

to your servant, even though I am not one of

your servants. And at meal time Boa said to her,

come here and take some bread and dip your morsel

in the wine. So she sat beside the reapers, and

he passed it to her roasted grain, and she ate

until she was satisfied, and she had some left over.

When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed as young men, saying,

let her glean even among the sheaves, do not reproach her.

Also pull out from the bundles for her and leave

it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.

So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she

beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about

an ephah of barley. She took it up and went

into the city, and her mother in law saw what

she had gleaned, and she also brought out and gave

her what food she had left over. After being satisfied,

and her mother in law said her, 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 had worked, and said,

the man's name with whom I worked is Boaz. And

Naomi said to her daughter in law, may he be

blessed by the Lord whose kindness has not forsaken living

or the dead. Naomi said also to her, the man

is a close relative of IRUs, one of our redeemers.

And Ruth the Moabite said, besides, he said to me,

you shall keep close to my young men until they

have finished all my harvest. And 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 to be assaulted. So she kept close to the

young women of boaz gleaning until the end of the

barley and wheat harvests, and she lived with her mother

in law. This is the word of the Lord. If

you read the Book of Judges book just before this one,

and the one in which this one is also the

same time period in which this is set, it would

be pretty common for people to read that book and

come to this conclusion. You know, for the the people

of God, a lot of bad stuff happens to them.

I mean, you got this guy Jephtha who makes a

rash vow and he ends up having to kill his daughter.

You've got Samson, who's supposed to be the leader of

the people, who gets his eyes put out and he

has to collapse a pagan temple on himself and others.

It's just just kind of one bad thing after the next.

And you get to Ruth and you read the first chapter.

Naomi has gone to Moab and her husband has died

and her sons have died. She's just gotten all emptied out.

And she comes back a decade later, and people don't

hardly even recognize her. She changes her name from Naomi,

which means pleasant, tomorrow which means bitter, and you're like, well,

more of the same, I guess. But to quote Hemingway,

the son also rises. Even though at first this book

doesn't seem like it, what God is about to put

on display is his pleasant providence. He is going to

paint for us a picture of his pleasant providence. It's

not that his providence was not effective and at work

throughout all the redemptive history up till this point, through

judges and all the rest. But what God does for

us here is paint a picture that brings a sense

of balance to our expectations about providence. And furthermore, I

think it gives us such a unique glimpse that allows

us a right sense of the pleasantness of God's very character.

So we'll call it pictures of pleasant Providence, and that's

how we'll walk through it. We'll talk about providence, providence.

It's a main theme in the Book of Ruth. We'll

talk about pleasantness. And then lastly, very briefly, pictures providence,

pleasantness and pictures regarding providence. You have to realize that

this is a main theme in Ruth. God is at work.

God in his sovereignty is moving with an invisible hand

for the people of Israel, through Naomi, through Ruth, through Boaz.

And we know this mainly because of the very last

two verses. The very last two verses of the Book

of Ruth are kind of the point. What we get

is the genealogy that's created through the marriage of Ruth

and Boaz, and what results is the dividic king. David

is the last word of the book. It's the last word.

God in his providence is arranging his blessing. But we

also see this throughout in fact, even just throughout this

one chapter. Verse one of this chapter says Naomi had

a relative of her husband's worthy man. This is Boas.

That's all it says to start, and then gets back

to the rest of the action of the story, but

he sets it. But the author sets it up this

way to say, there's this guy. Watch what God does.

Watch what God does. And then in verse two and three,

Ruth goes, and the text says, and she happened. She

happened into the field of Boa. And then by the

time we get to verse twenty, Naomi is breaking it

down for her daughter in law, saying, you know who

this guy is. He's a close relative. He could be

a redeemer. He could be one who actually who actually

restores our family. I see light here, and the author

is saying, watch what God does. In verse twelve, Boaz

addresses Ruth. He says, may you be repaid in full

by the Lord to whom you have come for refuge

under his wings, And the author is saying, watch what

God does. Naomi says of Boas, may he be blessed

by the Lord whose kindness has not forsaken the living

and the dead. And the author is saying, watch what

God does. Interestingly, when we watch how God provides refuge

for Ruth, it is by means of Boas as his wing.

When we watch how God provides blessing for Boas, it

is by means of Ruth's kindness. So you know, my

favorite kind of question around here, does Boaz provide refuge

for Ruth? Or does God? Yes, which just goes to

illustrate God's providence is often mediated through God's instruments, usually

being God's people, And in this case, in this case,

God's instruments are quite pleasant. In this case, God's instruments

are quite pleasant. God's instruments of providence aren't always pleasant.

Remember Joseph's brothers, And yet Joseph says, but this was

so that many would be saved Paul's imprisonment. Paul says,

I'm in prison, but I know that this is so

that the gospel would go forth. The believer's persecution in

the Book of Acts, and they're caused to scatter from Jerusalem,

and the author just points out this is so that

the Gospel would go forth Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends

of the earth. Our Lord's own crucifixion not a pleasant

instrument of providence, But sometimes the instruments of God's providence

are quite pleasant. Joseph found favor with Pharaoh, was elevated

to the second in command, Esther was made queen for

such a time as this, pictures like Ruth and Boaz

should bring tremendous balance to our expectations of God's providence.

As Thomas Watson said, if you look at the inside

of the workings of a clock, you'll see that some

gears go backwards, some gears go forwards, and yet the

hands are always moving in perfect progress according to their design.

This is true in our lives as well. Sometimes the

work of providence is very unpleasant and it seems like God,

You're doing everything backwards here, and other times it's quite pleasant.

But in any case, God's perfect plan is making its

perfect progress according to his perfect design. It's common, I think,

for some of us to see the unpleasant circumstances of

life as disconnected from God's providence, like why would God

allow this? Why is God making this so hard? What

could God possibly be doing with this? But for some

of us crossway, it's God's pleasant instruments that we are

overly suspicious of. Oh, we know we should rejoice in tribulation,

but do we possibly know how to rejoice in pleasantness?

That God is using plenty an abundance for his purposes

as well? I mean, is abundance ever an instrument to

providence or wealth or plenty or fullness or satisfaction? Can

God use what is pleasant for his purposes? And pictures

like Ruth too show us he does. And that should

bring tremendous balance to our expectations of God's providence, that

we can have joy in the trials that God brings

and have confidence in the pleasantness that God also provides.

And that is a key theme in our book as well,

not just providence, but also pleasantness. Let's look at it.

Maybe the best way to highlight that theme is to

contrast the conditions of chapter one and chapter two. Right.

Chapter one, Naomi is bitterly empty. Chapter two, Ruth and

Naomi are pleasantly satisfied. They've returned to Bethlehem, which means

house of bread, and there is plenty of bread. Naomi

has changed her name to Marraw Naomi, which means pleasantness.

She's changed her name to Marrow, which means bitterness. And

you might notice that throughout the book the name change

doesn't stick. Maybe most pleasant is the picture of Ruth

and Boaz, whom some have called the ideal man and

woman in the Old Testament. I mean, you can kind

of see it right. Boaz is coming back from town.

He's waving at all as workers, the Lord be with you,

The Lord bless you. Who's that there is Ruth, who

many commentators have suggested is like the original Proverbs thirty

one woman. Yeah really, I mean she's the you know,

the Proverbs thirty one woman, the hard working, generous, original

girl boss of the Bible closing real estate deals. Look

it up. Ruth probably isn't ready to close any real

estate deals yet, but I bet after she marries Boaz

she does a lot of that. But let's look at

how the text highlights God's very pleasant providence through Boaz.

I mean, Boaz is God's pleasant providence first of all,

in that he is obviously looking to the Lord. He

is obviously looking to the Lord. The first words out

of his mouth the Lord bless you. The Lord be

with you. These are This is the greeting he has

with his workers. And in verse twelve, when he speaks

to Ruth, he says, the Lord repay you for what

you've 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. Boaz is focused on

the living God, and accordingly Boaz is a man of

worthy character. It's another aspect to the pleasant providence that

God has for Ruth through Boaz is a man of

worthy character. That's the first thing we hear about him.

In verse one, boas he's a worthy man, which means substantive,

not flighty or flaky, a serious person who the community

knows can be counted on to follow through on things.

That's what the term worthy means in this context. Next chapter,

Ruth is also then known as a worthy person. You'll

just see it when we get to it. I guess

next week, Boa says, all the townspeople know you are

a worthy woman. Substantive you can can't be counted on

to follow through on things, which is interesting because you know,

some people have said the character is who you are

when no one is watching. Might better say character is

who you are when everyone has been watching for a while.

I gotta say this just because Ruth and Boaz are

often used for like dating instruction, probably poorly, but it

just goes to show that, like young people, you don't

know a person's character in isolation. You know a person's

character in community. It ain't what they show you, it's

what they have been showing everybody that tells you who

they are, all right, get all dad Boaz is God's

pleasant providence, also in that he is generous and kind.

Verses eight and nine show how he says, look, stay here,

be protected. Listen. You never have to bring water or

even draw water again. Verse eleven he says, I know

your works. I want you to have a full reward.

Verse fourteen says here is bread and wine. In verse

fifteen and sixteen, he says, make her work easy, make

her work light. Does this pleasantness sound familiar to you?

Some of you might say, yeah, that sounds familiar to me.

It sounds like my spouse, It sounds like my parents,

It sounds like sounds like my boss at the job

I have right now. In other words, you say, yeah,

that pleasantness, that pleasant providence of God sounds familiar because

I'm living in a season of God's pleasant providence right now.

And others of you might say, yeah, that sounds familiar.

It sounds like the kind of spouse I have pray for,

but I'm still single. It sounds like the person I

used to have in my life but they've passed away.

It sounds like the kind of situation I've I don't have,

and I think most of us would say, yeah, this

sounds familiar, because it sounds like the kind of pleasant

satisfaction that has been a sometimes feature in some areas

of my life. But I'd be lying if I said

that it's an always everywhere feature. I'm glad we can

be honest, because when church folk talk about God giving

us pleasantness, we need to be careful. We need to

be careful not to pretend that what God has for

us is always everywhere pleasantness in every area of our lives.

We need to be careful not to forget Joseph's enslavement

and Paul's imprisonment, and the Church's persecutions, or Our Lord's crucifixion.

But when we talk about God giving us pleasantness, we

also need to be careful not to forget Joseph's promotion

and Esther's coronation, the Church's expansion, and Our Lord's resurrection.

It may be true that what Christ has for us

is not pleasantness always end everywhere, but He does have

pleasantness for us essentially and ultimately, and that for us

should resonate from God's pleasant providence through Boaz. We should

recognize that guy that we have Christ, the bread of life,

the fountain of waters, the protector of the sheep, the

rewarder of good works, the one whose yoke is easy

and burden is light. Yes, our expectations of providential circumstances

should be balanced by scripture. But what scripture also shows

us is the essence of what Christ has for you.

The essence of what Christ is for you is so pleasant,

no matter the circumstances. He is sweetness to the soul.

And yet so often we look right past him, searching

for something that we think will be more pleasant, Like

the crowd who was pressing him to miracle some more bread,

and he pressed them right back to see him as bread,

to know that whoever feeds on him, he will also

live because of him. And even now Christ is pressing

you to trust him, yes, for present current providential pleasantness, circumstantially,

but most of all, most centrally, to trust him for

the most pleasant satisfaction of all that you would in

your heart by faith feed on him. He is your bread.

Does God have pleasantness for you? Christian? The answer is

an unequivocal yes. Pleasantness is not just a sometimes feature.

Pleasantness like this picture right here, is yours always essentially

an ultimately in Christ, even if the circumstances don't look

at all like this Ruth and Boaz picture, which brings

us to that last theme, pictures the pictures of the Bible.

You know. Sometimes the Bible gives us promises like there

is now therefore no condemnation and for those who are

in Christ Jesus, that's a promise. You can say, praise

the Lord. You can take it to the bank, you

can cash it for face value. That is a promise

from God. And what you're meant to do with promises

from God is trust them. Other times the Bible gives

us principles like a soft answer turns away wrath, but

a harsh word stirs up anger. That's a principle from God.

It's not a promise. It doesn't mean that every time

you speak gently to someone they can't possibly get mad

with you. It's a principle. And what should we do

with promises from God? Trust them? What should we do

with principles from God? Trust them as principles. And I

think a real step of maturity in handling the scriptures

is to realize we can't over promise the principles but

we can trust them. Nonetheless, we walk by them. And

still other times the Bible gives us not promises and

not principles, but rather pictures like the picture of Ruth

and Boaz, And in it we see God's providence, We

see God's steadfast love, we see God working to see

his plan of redemption. It's a sure from God. What

do we do with promises from God? We trust them.

What do we do from with principles from God? We

trust them. What do we do with pictures from God?

We trust them too, But we trust them as pictures.

Just as we not we should we we should we

ought not over promise the principles. We need not over

principalize the pictures. Like you know, if you'll be bo As,

you'll find your Ruth. That was only girls, okay, girls,

you know this one. If you'll be Ruth, you'll find

your Baas. Okay, that was that was more okay. It's

just it doesn't land fifty to fifty, does it? But

yet this picture from God is one we trust because

it shows us God's good providence, and it shows us

God's commitment to redemption. And it shows us a redemption

from God that results in pleasantness of soul through Jesus Christ.

It shows us through this picture the character of the

God that we are trusting, and from him we receive

grace and mercy and adoption and eternal life with him.

That's what we see