Ruth: Faithful | Associate Pastor: Matt Armstrong

Well, good morning.

Morning.

My name is Matt.

I'm an associate pastor here at Redeemer.

And it's my joy to get to bring the word to you this morning.

Please pray for Russ and his family as they are taking July off, as is their custom for rest and refreshment.

This morning we're continuing in our July series in the book of Ruth.

And it's been really fun to dive into this Old Testament book.

I've heard from various people here.

Some who love this book are very familiar with it and are enjoying this series, and some who are being introduced to it for the very first time.

And that's that's kind of exciting as a pastor to know that some people are walking through this book for the very first time because it's uh it's so full.

It's like you know, if when you hear someone reading one of your favorite books or seeing a movie for the very first time, you're like, oh man, I kind of envy you in that.

Um, because there's so much to be gleaned from this beautiful little Old Testament book.

And uh chapter three is no different than the chapter that we're on this morning.

So let's jump in.

We're gonna walk through this chapter, making observations and points as we go along.

So let's jump in.

First, our first point this morning is that in our three main characters in this book, Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz, we see faith working through love.

We ended uh chapter two.

Sam preached to us last week from chapter two, uh, and we saw there that Naomi and Ruth are getting settled in Bethlehem.

This is where Naomi is from.

Ruth is uh a foreigner, she's a Moabite, um, kind of an enemy of the Jews, but has come into Naomi's family through marriage.

Um, and they are both widows.

Uh Naomi is Ruth's mother-in-law, and they find themselves widowed in a patriarchal society where they really have very little opportunity themselves.

And so uh Naomi sends Ruth out into the fields.

This is an agrarian culture, and it's harvest time.

And so, uh, and in fact, Old Testament law, if you read the Old Testament law, uh God actually gave to the Israelites this command that as they harvest uh their grain during harvest season, they are intentionally not to go meticulously and pick everything up, but to leave some for those poor who are in need.

And so this is who Ruth is, and this is what she's doing.

She goes out into the field and she's gathering, and she uh gains the attention of a landowner named Boaz.

And Boaz takes an interest in Ruth.

She's heard he's heard of her uh because Naomi is his kinswoman, his kin.

They are related.

And um Boaz offers Ruth sort of an unusual kindness.

Uh he says to her, uh, Ruth, I know that you've come with your mother-in-law, you've shown her a great kindness.

Feel free to glean from my fields.

Don't go to other fields where you might be taken advantage of.

Stay here.

I'll instruct my workers to watch over you, to care for you.

Uh stick around.

And so she returns home joyful, and Naomi is encouraged.

Um, this is a big deal to them, this kindness that's being shown.

Uh, and as we'll see, the fact that Boaz is uh Naomi's kinsman.

So Naomi concocks a plan.

She sees uh the an opportunity here.

Um, and it's really a risky plan.

It's a delicate plan.

It has to be pulled off just so if it's gonna work.

She tells Ruth to wash, put on some fresh clothes, put on a little perfume.

Uh she's gonna go and meet Boaz in the dead of night.

Um, that's why this passage is one of the most controversial in this book, and people have made a lot of hay from what we're about to see.

But really, everything's on the up and up.

We'll see that.

Um she tells Ruth to go in the dead of night to the threshing floor.

They she knows somehow that Boaz is going to be working day and night, and he'll sleep in the threshing floor by himself because he needs to protect his commodity, his grain from anyone who might come and steal from him, because this is a multi-day process.

Um, Naomi wants to get Ruth and Boaz alone for her plan to work.

She is to go and to wait to observe Boaz from a distance, kind of hidden.

After he's eaten and drunk his full and he goes to bed content, she's to sneak in after he's asleep, uncover his feet, uh, and then lay down at his feet.

Now it's no wonder that scholars have had a heyday with this picture.

I mean, where does your mind or imagination go when you think about a man alone in the threshing floor and this single woman going in, uncovering his feet?

What's that all about?

And then lying down there, waiting for him to awaken.

And Naomi says, eventually the chill from being uncovered is gonna wake up Boaz.

And when he sees you, you need to make your intentions known.

You're no longer a widow in mourning, but you are an eligible bride.

And you need to ask him to marry you.

Whoa.

Now, this this might be hard for us to understand, right?

We live in a day and age where it's still pretty unusual, I'd say very unusual for a woman to propose to a man, but it's not unheard of, right?

That that happens, we see it.

Um, you know, 30 years ago, 50 years ago, very unusual.

2,000 years ago, crazy go nuts, right?

This is this is uh super duper unorthodox.

And it was risky and in fact dangerous because though Boaz had publicly shown himself to be kind of faithful and kind, who knows what he would do in the privacy and under the dark of night.

He very easily could have taken advantage of her and discarded of her if he wished.

Now, on the other hand, he was known to be a pious man, and so this very forward act of proposal could have offended him, and he could have sent her home shamed, uh crossing these borders of culture.

And so what we're about to see here is the climax.

This is the pinnacle of action in the book of Ruth.

Because Ruth takes Naomi's advice and she heads towards the threshing floor.

What's gonna happen?

But before we move on, we need to ask the question: why are they doing this?

Why would they risk so much in this moment?

Because if things don't go according to plan, things could get much worse for both Ruth and Naomi.

Why would Naomi risk asking Ruth to go through with this?

And why would Ruth risk going along with it?

Well, the answer is love.

Love is what motivates them.

Naomi knows that Ruth needs a husband.

As her mother-in-law and only existing parent in this situation, it's her job to secure a husband for Ruth.

Right?

This is the this is the time of arranged marriages.

Uh Ruth would, it would have been, again, unheard of for her to go and seek her own marriage partner.

And so Ruth knows Naomi knows uh what could be in store for Ruth if and when Naomi dies.

Not only would she be alone and a widow like Naomi is, but she's a Moabite in an Israelite town.

Not good.

And Ruth, why does she go along with this?

Well, she does it out of love.

Love for her mother-in-law, love for Naomi, the same love that that bound her together with her back in Moab and uh influenced her to return here to Bethlehem to be with her.

Uh, where you lodge, I will lodge.

Your God will meet my God, and where you die, I will die, Ruth said.

And she knows that more than anything in the world, what Naomi longs for in this situation is an heir, is someone to provide a son for her deceased husband.

Now that may sound very Game of Thrones, it may sound very strange to us in our day and age, because this is not, that's not really where we get our value or worth or how we see our legacy.

But in this day and age, it was huge.

It was huge.

We we saw in chapter one that Naomi came home and and the women that knew her said, Is this Naomi?

And she said, Don't call me Naomi, call me Mara.

I'm bitter.

Because I left full.

I had a husband, I had two sons, and now I come home empty.

And the Lord has brought me home empty.

She was incredibly angry.

And Ruth knew that what would make Naomi full again would be an heir, a son born under her lineage.

And the only way that could happen was to go to a relative, a kinsman redeemer.

Sam talked about this last week, and we won't go into too much detail, but Old Testament law provided for uh a close relative.

If a if a if a husband or a father died, a close relative could come and assume his land, his family, and take responsibility for it.

And part of that was something called a Leverite marriage, which is where he would actually uh provide a child through his deceased relative's wife.

And that sounds weird, and we won't get too into that, but it's it's it's important for the story.

So, what's going on?

She wants, she loves Naomi, and that's what we see here.

And so now we'll see uh that Boaz responds with equally surprising love.

Let's let's look at verses 8 through 11.

At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet.

He said, Who are you?

She answered, I am Ruth, your servant.

Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.

Don't miss it.

She just proposed to Boaz.

He said, What's he gonna say?

Right?

We're on the edge of our seat.

Are you are you?

Okay, you should be.

May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter.

You have made this last kindness greatest greater than the first, and that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich.

And now may, 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.

This is amazing.

Things could not have gone better.

Ruth must have experienced incredible relief in this moment.

Boaz was given eyes to see Ruth for who she is.

This is the same word.

He calls her a worthy woman.

This is the same word used to describe the ideal woman in Proverbs 31, if you're familiar with this chapter.

He sees the sacrifices that she has made as a Moabite, again, a foreigner towards his relative Naomi, and he praises her.

He will take up the mantle of kinsman redeemer.

He comforts her and tells her, Do not fear.

Her sacrificial love has been received and will be rewarded.

Now, before we move on, I just want us to pause and I want us to praise Ruth with Boaz.

One of the reasons this story is so powerful is the trinity of love that's on display.

Naomi for Ruth, Ruth for Naomi, and Boaz for them both.

We're meant to admire and seek and want to emulate these people.

They have deep character.

They're willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of others.

They show faithfulness, kindness, and courage in the face of adversity.

Now, at Redeemer and in any good Christian church, we emphasize, as Abby did earlier, that we are sinners in need of grace, that we are far worse than we actually first understood.

But God's love and care and grace is more than we could have imagined.

And all that is absolutely true.

And God desires for his people to desire holiness, to seek holiness, to see the character and the beautiful virtue in these three, and seek to emulate it for his glory and for our good.

Okay, let's keep going.

This brings us to point two, waiting on Providence.

Let's keep reading in the story.

When Ruth came back 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, 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.

And she replied, Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out.

For the man will not rest, but will settle this matter today.

So Ruth returns home successful.

Not only has Boaz promised to do as she's asked, he gives her a promissory note, these six measures of barley.

It's almost like a bride price to say, look, I'm giving you this small gift as a retainer for the gift that I'm going to give you.

But what I love about this moment is that as much as Naomi and Ruth have risked, and as much as Boaz has responded, responded beautifully, they still have to rely on God's providence.

What does Naomi say to Ruth in this moment?

Yes, my plan worked.

I knew it.

I thought this through, and I'm amazing, and woo! No, she says, wait.

Let's wait.

We've done all that we can.

Now we must wait to see what happens.

No matter how much good we do, God's people must still wait and rely on the goodness and faithfulness of God.

I was talking to someone about this part of the story this week, and it reminded me of how I was, we were taught in seminary about the great eternal debate about God's sovereignty and human responsibility.

We often think about these two things like American football, right?

You've got two teams, you've got God's sovereignty and human responsibility, and they're both on the field, but they can only occupy their own part of the field, right?

Some people see it as 50-50, some people see you know God taking up 10% of the field and human responsibility being 90%, and some people see it the other way around.

But that's not how Scripture talks about these two real-life realities.

Scripture talks about it more like a soccer field where both teams are all over the field all at the same time.

And that's what we see here in this story: that Ruth and Naomi are taking risks, and Boaz is taking up the mantle of responsibility and acting with integrity and courage.

And yet, even as they do that, they acknowledge and they credit their future, their well-being to the Lord.

As the Proverbs says, the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

And we see that beautifully carrying out in our passage.

Alright, final point.

Excuse me.

Just making sure you're awake.

Alright, last thing I want us to see before we close, and that is how Ruth shows us Jesus in a beautiful way.

Now it's easy for us to look to Boaz, right?

He's the kinsman redeemer.

He's the one who will meet Ruth and Naomi's needs.

And all that is absolutely true, and we'll probably look more at that next week.

But I believe Ruth, in a unique way here, shows us the beauty of Jesus.

I came to this through wrestling with what Boaz says to Ruth as he praises her.

He says, This kindness coming to him, Boaz, and seeking marriage, is a greater kindness than the first.

Well, what was the first?

The first kindness was Ruth returning with Naomi back to Bethlehem, both as widows.

She, like Orpa, the other daughter-in-law, could have returned home and Naomi would have returned alone.

That was great faithfulness on Ruth's part to stay with Naomi.

But here Boaz says, this is even greater.

Why?

What is he saying?

What he's saying is it's one thing for a daughter-in-law to return home with her widowed mother-in-law, right?

You made sure she wasn't alone, you accompanied her, you are her companion.

There you go.

But once you got there, you'd say, Hey, I need to get married, I need you to find me an eligible bachelor, somebody I find attractive, somebody that would be a good match, somebody we can have kids together with.

That would have been perfectly understandable.

But what Boaz says is that not only have you been faithful to Naomi in returning with her, but you are willing to sacrifice even your own desires for marriage and children.

Again, so powerful and so important in that day and age, out of love for your mother-in-law.

You're willing to go to the kinsman, redeemer, the only one who could provide what Naomi so deeply longs for.

To be filled again, to be provided with an heir to her deceased husband.

It's through this choice that she could again become full as opposed to being empty.

Boaz is amazed because she is showing profound faithfulness, the profound faithfulness of an Israelite, but she's a Moabite, right?

It'd be one thing.

He'd say, I'd be amazed if you were an Israelite daughter-in-law, serving her Israelite mother-in-law, but but you guys are enemies.

What you're choosing to do, this kindness, doesn't make sense.

And I believe there's an echo here of what Paul writes in Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

He's speaking about Jesus.

He says, one would scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die.

But God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

What Paul is pointing out is that there was nothing lovable about us in our sin.

We were enemies of God, we were sinners, we had turned our backs on God, and yet God's love for us is in this amazing grace that even for us sinners, he was willing to come and take on flesh and die for us.

See, Ruth points us back, she is the foretaste of the Savior to come who would who would come and go before the Father on our behalf and would plead for us and ask the Lord's kindness and faithfulness not just to provide for us, but to draw us in to his family.

See, the story of Ruth is the story of Jesus and our story.

We are Naomi, we are those who are poor and destitute that we could not save ourselves.

And yet Jesus came and interceded for us.

And because of his kindness and faithfulness, we are now children of God and heirs according to the promise.

Ruth's amazing love for Naomi was a foretaste of this beautiful love.

But here's the thing.

Unlike Ruth, Jesus' story didn't work out.

Ruth went to Boaz and he responded beautifully.

Jesus went as our representative and was beaten, was tortured, and was executed and died.

The father, in fact, turned his face away from the son so that his face was turned towards us.

You see, Jesus is the greater Ruth who willingly came to love his enemies, to advocate on our behalf, and even to die for us, so that we might be received, that we might be loved, that we might become children of God.

And so just as Boaz praises Ruth for her amazing faithfulness and love, so we so much more praise Jesus for his love and sacrifice and faithfulness to us.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Our Father in heaven, uh, Lord, what an incredible story the story of Ruth is.

Uh, and thank you for the way that it shows us in a more, even deeper way how you have loved us.

Lord, we were uh without hope in this world.

And yet, even while we were sinners, while we were your enemies, you died for us.

Lord, we thank you.

We rejoice in that sacrifice.

And we pray with thanksgiving in Jesus' name.

Amen.