A Redeemer, a Son and a King

A reading this evening is taken from the Old Testament.

We're in the book of Ruth, Ruth chapter 4.

Ruth 4 · chapter mention

! We're going to read the whole of that chapter.

I think on the larger pew Bibles, it's page 224.

Someone pointed out to me some of the new Bibles we have.

It's not page 224, but I'm sure you'll be able to find it.

Well, hopefully.

Ruth chapter 4, reading from verse 1,

Ruth 4 · chapter mention

and we read to the end of the chapter at verse 22.

Let's hear and read together in God's Word.

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. So they sat down.

Then 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 belong to Elimelech

and all that belong to Kilion and to Malon.

Also Ruth, the Moabite,

the widow of Malon,

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,

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.

So Boaz took Ruth

and she became his wife.

And he went into her

and the Lord gave her conception

and she bore a son.

Then the woman 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.

He was the father of Jesse,

the father of David.

Now these are the generations of Perez.

Perez fathered Hezron,

Hezron fathered Ram,

Ram fathered Aminadab,

Aminadab fathered Nashon,

Nashon fathered Salmon,

Salmon fathered Boaz,

Boaz fathered Obed,

Obed fathered Jesse,

and Jesse fathered David.

This is the word of God.

Well, I'm Chris,

and we are in the last of our short series

on the book of Ruth.

And you'll remember,

we have covered Naomi,

the story of Naomi,

where she left the land

that God had promised to his people

with her husband and her two sons.

And they traveled east,

away from Bethlehem.

And they traveled into the land of Moab.

And they were there for 10 years.

And in that time,

both Naomi's husband and her sons died.

And she was left destitute

in a strange land among a strange people.

And this becomes then the tension

for the book of Ruth.

It's called Ruth.

But really we're focused on Naomi.

What's going to happen to Naomi?

And you remember over the last few weeks,

despite her loving daughter-in-law,

Ruth,

coming back with her,

leaving everything that she knew,

her land,

her people,

her family,

her gods,

to come back with Naomi.

When Naomi arrived back in Bethlehem,

she said,

I'm bitter and I'm empty.

But as we went through the book,

we saw that by using Boaz

and by using Ruth,

God starts to fill up empty Naomi.

She first of all receives food.

There was a famine in Bethlehem.

That's why we had to leave.

And she now has grain.

She's got provision day to day.

And as we left chapter three,

we saw that she was moving towards

another kind of seed,

an offspring.

But tonight,

what we're going to see,

that while Naomi's emptiness

is being reversed,

God will continue to fulfill Naomi

through Ruth and Boaz.

But amazingly,

by blessing this poor widow

in Bethlehem,

God is working his plan

to redeem the whole world.

We're going to see how God cares

so deeply for his people

in spite of their lostness,

their loneliness,

their suffering,

their poverty.

No matter how rudderless

your life feels right now,

no matter how heavy the weight feels

that you've carried into church

with you tonight,

no matter how random

or inconsequential you feel

like your life is

compared to other people around you,

know that the God of Naomi,

the God of Boaz and Ruth,

is the God who takes every strand

of every story of his people

and he weaves them

all together for good.

Ruth feels like a book.

When you read it at first,

it feels like a book

about ordinary people

doing ordinary things.

So we've got a widow

who kind of travels home

looking for food and security.

We've got a young girl

who moves to a new town

and meets this older guy.

We've got love

and we've got marriage.

But when you slow down

and when we consider

that God's hand is at work

in every turn,

every moment,

every step of this journey,

we realize that Ruth

is actually the extraordinary story

of God at work in the ordinary.

So we've got three sections tonight

in our quite long chapter

that we're going to work through together.

All which might seem ordinary

at first glance,

but when we look at them carefully,

we see that they're all anything but.

So three parts

and the first part

is no ordinary land deal.

So the end of chapter three,

where we left off last week,

we were left on a bit of a cliffhanger.

Now Ruth had gone into the threshing floor

and she'd met with Boaz

and she had,

in a very unorthodox manner,

proposed to him.

And Boaz has said,

yes, I'll marry you.

I'll be your redeemer.

The Hebrew word goel.

I'll be your kinsman redeemer.

I'll be the one

who will look after you

and not just you,

but also your mother-in-law,

Naomi, as well.

But.

And these are the words

that no one ever wants to hear.

There's someone else.

There's a closer relative

and he has the legal right

to redeem Naomi's land

before I do.

It's not a romantic scene

in that sense,

but it's a custom of the time.

Leviticus 25 tells us

about this situation

there's a,

it speaks about a kinsman redeemer,

a goel in Hebrew.

And if an Israelite

becomes so destitute

that they have to sell their land

or they have to sell themselves

into slavery

to work off their debt,

it falls on a close relative

to,

they're obligated

to pay to redeem them

if they can.

So this is what's happening here.

And at the end of chapter three,

Naomi says to Ruth,

listen,

Boaz will do exactly

what he says he will do.

This is a guy

who gets things done.

He's going to do it

the same day,

in fact,

is what she said.

And so when we join chapter four,

the first verses of chapter four,

this is the same day

and Boaz has gone

to the city gate.

And the city gate

is the place

where everyone would pass by.

Everyone would be traveling

in and out this one gate.

And so it became the place

where meetings took place

and decisions

for the community

were made.

And Boaz is looking

for someone.

He's looking for this

closer relative.

And wouldn't you know it,

he just happens

to walk by.

In our Bibles,

it says that Boaz

calls him friend.

He says,

hey friend,

but that's not really

what he calls him

at all.

The Hebrew is

peloni almoni,

which I think sounds funny

in my Inverness accent,

which means something

like someone, someone.

Maybe we should read it

as so-and-so

or such-and-such.

In our house,

we used to read

the Enid Blyton book series,

The Far Away Tree.

And there's a character

in that called

Mr. What's-His-Name.

So in my mind,

Boaz is saying,

what's your name?

Come here,

sit down.

I need to talk to you

about something.

And he does.

And Boaz also calls

10 of the elders

of the city together.

And he makes them sit down.

He asks them to sit down,

giving us a glimpse,

I think,

of Boaz's stature

in the community.

People listen

when Boaz speaks.

And Boaz

is bringing these guys together.

But what's he really doing?

What's Boaz doing here?

So he's kind of,

he's called

a defendant

and then he's got himself

a panel of witnesses.

He's creating

a court case

for us to follow.

Leviticus tells us

that there was strict laws

about land ownership

because the land

ultimately belongs

to God.

And Boaz says

to what's his name,

you have got first right

to buy this.

The land's yours

if you want it.

But if you don't want it,

let me know

and I'll redeem it.

And of course,

the man jumps

at the chance

to have more land.

He says,

yes, absolutely.

I'll redeem the land.

That's fine.

No problem at all.

He thinks to himself,

I would imagine,

well,

I'll redeem the land.

I'll have to pay for that.

But when I redeem the land,

I'll get Naomi as well.

But once I've cared

for Naomi

and once Naomi dies,

the land's going

to become my inheritance.

The land's going

to benefit my family.

My sons are going

to get this land.

I don't know

if you've ever

bought a new build house.

Maybe sometimes

you go and look

at the show home

and they say,

and by the way,

we'll throw in

free flooring

or we'll give you

turf for your garden

too as a little bonus.

Well,

Boaz hits Mr.

What's His Name

not so much

with a bonus

but with a catch.

And he says,

if you buy the field,

you get Ruth as well.

Now,

this is a reference

to leverage marriage,

another provision

that God has built

in to Israelite society

to protect land

and to protect people.

In Deuteronomy chapter 25,

Deuteronomy 25 · chapter mention

it says,

if a man dies

without any children,

his brother

is to marry his widow

and the firstborn child

will be raised

as if it is the son

of the man who's died.

And that's a way

of preserving the name,

preserving the land

through family lines.

When Mr.

What's His Name

hears about Ruth,

he loses his appetite

for the deal completely.

It's true that Ruth

was a Moabite.

She's an outsider.

And she's from a land

that are Israel's enemies.

And Boaz kind of

makes that clear.

He says,

Ruth the Moabite.

But it seems like

the man's more concerned

about paying for something

that he's not going

to fully benefit from.

Perhaps he thought that,

well,

Naomi will come with the land,

but she's an old lady.

She's not going to have

another son.

The land's eventually

going to be mine.

But Ruth,

well,

she's young.

She might have a child

and then the land

will go to that man,

not to me,

not to my offspring.

There's something

at stake for me here.

And what we see

with Mr.

What's His Name

is a complete contrast

to what we see

from Boaz.

Mr.

What's His Name,

the other redeemer,

he's got the money

to redeem

Naomi and Ruth.

He's already said

that he would purchase

the land.

But he's not wanting

to fulfill

the duty

of a kinsman redeemer.

He doesn't want

to give a son

who is then going

to take that inheritance

away from him.

Ruth would be

the heir of her husband.

Ruth's son would be

the heir of her husband.

And Mr.

What's His Name

is happy to help

to a point.

He's happy to help

right up until the point

where it's going

to cost him something.

Just a few verses

down in the story,

we see reference

to Judah and Tamar.

And this is another episode

that happened previously

involving Leveret marriage

or what was supposed

to be Leveret marriage.

But it's one of the most

scandalous

and cruel episodes

in the whole

of the Old Testament.

And both these episodes,

Mr.

What's His Name

and Judah

and Tamar,

they make Boaz's

sacrificial,

redeemer,

redeemership,

shine even brighter

in the darkness.

Boaz willingly

bore the cost

of redeeming

Naomi and Ruth.

He was happy

to sacrifice

his own position.

Boaz doesn't act

out of ambition

in any way,

but out of

chesed love,

that faithful,

steadfast love

that we've spoken

about throughout

the series

that people show

towards one another

in this book,

often called kindness

in the ESV

and which God shows

towards His people.

In the book of Ruth,

we've mentioned this

before as well,

people's names

are significant.

I think it's

therefore significant

that Mr.

So-and-so,

Mr.

What's His Name

isn't given a name.

His self-serving

behavior means

he's not going

to be remembered

as opposed to Boaz

because his name

is going to be remembered

as part of the most

important family

that there's ever been.

But as well

as not leaving a name,

Mr.

What's His Name,

I think,

stands as a warning

to us.

He clings

to what he has,

his material possessions.

They're more important

to him

than serving other people,

than caring

for the poor,

or the afflicted,

the dying cast,

even though these people

are members

of his own family.

What's your version,

I wonder,

of the Kingsman

Redeemer's refusal

tonight?

Where are you willing

to show generosity

up to a point?

Show generosity

right up until

it costs you

something.

Are you willing

to care

and serve

and even love

other people

as long as it

doesn't impinge

on your own comfort

or your time

or your convenience?

Or like Boaz,

do you go looking

for ways

to bless other people

even when you

already know

it's going to cost you?

Because the gospel,

the good news

that Jesus came

is the announcement

that in Jesus

someone's stepped

forward for you

when nobody else

could or would.

Boaz's commitment

is a picture

of Jesus'

commitment

to his own people.

So Mr.

What's-His-Name,

he takes off his sandal,

which is the custom,

and he says to Boaz,

the land and the Moabite,

they're all yours,

you can have them.

And Boaz calls

the elders

and all the people

who are there

and he says,

you're my witnesses.

And not just of the deal,

not just that this

is an agreement,

but also to the purpose

of the agreement.

He says,

to redeem the land

and to continue

the name of the men

who had died.

And then the witnesses

pray a blessing

on the now

formally engaged

couple,

Ruth and Boaz.

They say,

may the Lord

make the woman

come into your house

like Rachel and Leah.

And we see

two things here,

I think,

with Rachel and Leah.

So Ruth the Moabite

is coming into

Boaz's house.

This is an outsider,

somebody from

a strange land,

but who's shown

faithfulness to Israel's God,

the true God.

And now she's becoming

a member

of the covenant family.

She's entering

Boaz's household.

But secondly,

the people pray

that she'd be blessed

like Rachel

and Leah

because these

are the women

who are responsible

for giving Jacob

his 12 sons.

Jacob,

who was later

called Israel,

his 12 sons,

the 12 tribes

of Israel.

And the story

of these two women

all revolves

around fertility,

about having children,

providing children.

And they do that

in different ways

if you've read the story.

And then we understand

that this prayer

is needed

because Ruth

was married

back in Moab.

We're not sure

how long she was married

for,

but we know

that she was married

and they lived

in Moab

for 10 years.

Women,

children

are incredibly important

in this society,

having children.

A husband and wife

are likely to start

having children

as quickly as possible.

But Ruth

and Malon,

her husband,

they had no children.

So prayer

is really needed here

because the suspense

is even higher

than at the threshing floor

in the night

when Ruth came

and proposed to Boaz.

It's even higher

the suspense now

than when the Redeemer,

Boaz asked the Redeemer,

will you redeem

the land in Naomi?

Is there going to be

a child?

There's an air of suspense.

So we see that

this is no ordinary

land transaction.

And now we're going to see

that there is a child,

but this child

is no ordinary child.

We see this

in verses 13 to 17.

From the end

of chapter 3

until over halfway

through chapter 4

is one day of time.

But now,

the timeline,

it speeds up

really significantly.

So in verse 13,

we experience

what must be

the best part

of at least a year

from Boaz and Ruth

getting married

until a baby arriving

in one verse.

So there's all this tension

when the people prayed

that Ruth

would get pregnant.

And then we get

an idea of the significance

of the fact

that Ruth is pregnant,

I think,

from the language

that's used

in verse 13.

Because it says,

the Lord gave her conception.

And of course,

the Lord gives

every conception.

He is the one

who makes all things

work together.

But this is only

the second time

in the whole

of the book of Ruth

that God

has been

implicated directly

in the action

as the subject

of the verb.

This is a God-given

child.

And then I think

it's really interesting

that Ruth

and Naomi

have just been married,

they've just had a child,

and the focus

immediately pivots

away from them

and back to Naomi.

In verse 14,

the women say,

blessed be the Lord

who's not left you

without a goel,

without a redeemer.

But who is the redeemer?

Because it's not

talking about Boaz anymore.

It's talking about

the baby

that's on her lap.

He's the one

who's going to provide

for Naomi

in her old age.

He's the one

who's going to continue

the family line.

The neighborhood women

say in verse 17,

a son has been born

to Naomi.

Well, he's been born

to Ruth,

but this is Naomi's son.

And they say

in verse 15,

he'll be a restorer

of life to you.

You see,

in having a son,

Boaz and Ruth

haven't so much

started a family,

they've rescued one.

The child is Ruth's,

but he's the heir

to the Elimelech family

inheritance.

And he's the one

who's going to carry forward

this family name.

It looked like this family

was about to die.

We were at the end

of the line.

But through this child,

the family line's

been resuscitated.

Naomi,

the one who wandered

away from the Lord,

from the land

that God promised

to his people,

and came back

claiming to be empty,

now has her hands full.

And she's got

the two kinds of seeds

that are so important

in the Old Testament.

She's got grain,

which meant food,

but she's also got offspring.

And now,

through Boaz

and Ruth,

God has filled Naomi up.

And notice as well,

that it's not Ruth

and Boaz,

the parents,

who name the child.

It's not even his grandmother

who gives him a name.

It's the women

of the neighborhood.

And they call him Obed,

which means servant.

He's going to be the one

who serves Naomi

in her old age.

But he's also

going to play

another role,

an even more

significant role.

You see,

in Ruth's story,

Ruth's story

is Naomi's redemption.

God answered

Naomi's prayer

in grief

with much more

than she asked for.

She wanted to go

back to Bethlehem,

back to her hometown.

She just wanted to be

among the people

that she knew.

But she received

a grandson.

Maybe there's

some of us here

who feel like Naomi

in chapter one.

We feel like

we've been traveling

for a long time.

We feel like

we have lost

everything that we had.

We feel empty

and lonely and afraid.

But this story

reminds us

that God is at work

constantly

in people's lives,

even in the pain,

in the suffering,

in the loneliness.

The things that we

sometimes have to go through

that we wish

that we didn't.

One of the dangers

when we look at

Ruth like this,

for us,

is that we look at

the way that Naomi

has been restored

materially,

and we think,

if we keep our faith

in God,

then everything

I've ever lost,

I'm going to get

that back.

Whether that's

your home,

or your job,

or your fortune,

or even a person.

But that's not

what the book of Ruth

is about.

God's not a repairman.

He's a creator

and a restorer

and an artist.

One of the

persistent patterns

in Scripture

is that God

answers prayer

at a register

that's much higher

than the prayer

itself.

Naomi prayed

that Ruth would

find rest,

and what she ended

up getting

was a covenant line

that would lead

to Israel's king.

This book

is about God's

covenant love,

and how it's shown

to people

that extends

beyond individuals,

to the whole

of Israel,

and to the whole

world.

So we're going

to live by faith.

We live by faith

in the God

who keeps his promise,

and who ultimately

is going to bring

restoration that

far exceeds

anything that we

could have asked

for.

Okay.

Thirdly,

briefly,

no ordinary

ending.

So I read

as I was

looking at this

passage that

some people

used to argue

that this

genealogy that

stuck on the

end of Ruth

was a later

addition,

and it's kind

of to strengthen

the link between

the story of Ruth

and the coming

King David,

but I mean,

I don't think so.

Notice that at

the beginning

and the end

of Ruth,

there's a

parallel,

the first

five verses

and the last

five verses,

they parallel

each other.

So we begin

with 10 years

in exile,

and then we

end with 10

generations of

the tribe of

Judah that

culminate in

David.

At the start

of this

preaching series,

I said that

the book of

Ruth is named

after Ruth,

but it's actually

about Naomi,

Naomi being

emptied and Naomi

being filled up.

But this genealogy,

it reminds us that

whoever the main

human character

is in this

story,

whoever the

name,

the book is

named after,

the story is

about God.

It's about his

steadfast love,

this never-ending,

pursuing love that

God shows towards

his people.

But it also shows

us something else.

this genealogy,

which features

Perez, who was

born to Tamar,

the Canaanite,

Salmon, who was,

that's Boaz's dad,

who's born to

Rahab, who was a

Canaanite prostitute,

and Obed, who's

born to the

Moabite Ruth.

It reminds us that

God's steadfast love

isn't just for his

people Israel, it

extends to

outsiders, and

reminds us that it

extends across the

whole world.

So this genealogy is

not a tag-on at the

end of a story, this

is a covenant

record.

It shows us God's

guiding hand at

work across all

people, all times,

for all of history,

even when we can't

see it.

And it shows us that

God is desperately

committed to his

people across

geography, across

race, across time.

The story of God's

redemption in Ruth

has always been much

wider than Naomi, or

Ruth, or Boaz, or

we thought.

Whenever, whatever

your background, however

many times you've been

to church, however well

you know your Bible,

wherever you come from

in the world, these are

not restrictions on

receiving God's

blessing.

all we have to do is

come to him.

Tonight we read about

Elamela's ancestors,

Jacob and Rachel and

Leah.

But the real story, the

story that Ruth is a

part of, started way

before them.

God called Jacob's

grandfather, Abraham,

and he said to him,

leave your land, leave

your family, leave your

people, leave the

gods, and go to a

place that you don't

know, just like Ruth

did.

And God told Abraham he

was going to make him

the father of many

nations.

He was going to bless

him greatly with land

and with offspring.

And like Ruth in

chapter one, Abraham

believed God and he

went.

But even before Abraham,

at the very beginning,

when Adam and Eve, they

disobeyed God in the

garden and they fell

and sin came into the

world, but God made

them a promise.

And he said, there's

going to be a seed, a

son who's going to

redeem you from the

curse.

You see, the book of

Ruth is a story about

individuals being blessed

by God.

But that story is part

of a much bigger,

broader family story

through which God

blesses the whole

world.

That's why it was so

precarious when Elamela's

family line was nearly

extinct.

This is God's chosen

line of salvation.

But then through Naomi,

through Ruth, through

Boaz, through Obed, God

saved that family.

And now we see that this

redemption runs all the

way to the royal house of

David and beyond David.

Because we know that just

like Ruth ends with the

genealogy, the New

Testament begins with

one.

Jesus Christ, the son of

David, the son of

Abraham.

Jesus is the redeemer who

stepped forward at the

city gate when there was

no one else to defend you.

He's the one who pursued

his bride, the church,

even before we knew what

to ask him.

Jesus is the one born of a

woman so that he could be

born under the law so that

he could redeem those who

are under the law.

Jesus is the son of David

who arrived as an Obed,

as a servant.

He gave himself for his

people.

But he's also the true and

the final king who defeated

his people's greatest enemy

to set them free from the

bondage of sin.

And who's returning to

gather his people to

himself and to provide a

blessing that far exceeds

anything that we could have

asked for.

So this is it.

That's the book of Ruth.

The book of Ruth is a book

of God's steadfast love to

his people.

A love that remains faithful

across generations, across

people groups, across

blessings and tragedies, but

which is fulfilled in a

person, a redeemer, God's

son, King Jesus.

King Jesus.

Let's pray.

Lord God, we praise you.

We thank you for the book of

Ruth and the reminder it is

to us that your hand is at

work in all things.

You could providentially control

things, but you're sovereign

power.

And Lord, because of your

chesed love, your faithful,

steadfast love towards your

people, you sent your son,

Jesus, who came willingly

into the world, who lived

as a servant, who died for

his people, but who rose

again in triumph and who is

coming again, Lord, to judge

the world and to take his

people to himself.

Lord, help us as we think

about going back to the world

tomorrow and to work,

continue our holidays, going to

school, wherever we're going.

Help us, Lord, to have our

eyes fixed on Jesus.

And we pray these things in

his name.

Amen.