Ruth 4 "Life Happens, Praise God!" - Rick Graumlich

The story of Ruth is a story about how life it happens.

Life happens.

We praise God for this.

God shows his goodness and his kindness as we move through life.

And ultimately, he shows his goodness and his kindness to us by bringing the Messiah.

See, life just it does just take place.

And it does so in odd ways.

And what I mean by that is it just kind of drives along, it happens along.

Life just begins to happen and unwind.

And even if you're the kind of person who you want to stay in the same house and you want to stay in the same job, and you want everything to stay the same, you want your friends to stay the same, and you're content for all that to remain for 50 more years.

Even if you're like that, life happens.

It moves along.

Jobs, responsibilities, kids, relationships, all these things have a way of moving us along, and in rather unexpected ways.

In the story of Ruth, the story covers a relatively short time in chronology in the story of the Bible, and we see a lot happening in these people's lives.

And life just kind of moves them along.

A famine caused Naomi and her husband, her two sons, to move from Bethlehem over to Moab.

Naomi's husband dies, her sons die.

She's left with these daughters, two daughters-in-law, who end up one going back to her family, one coming with her to Bethlehem.

Ruth, a Moabite woman who's one of these daughters-in-law.

Her husband dies, and her brother-in-law dies, her father-in-law dies, she ends up going to a foreign land.

Living, see?

Boaz, this man, this other character in the story, this worthy man, a man of high character.

He's a rich landowner.

Most likely, Boaz is also a widower, a widower.

Life just kind of seems to happen for these three characters that we're following in the story.

It just kind of moves them along.

No one set out for these things to be this way.

But yet the Lord brings these things along.

And as we kind of see these three characters and how their life begins to unflow in this or to flow in this story, it's easy to see that something is pushing them, moving things.

There's two questions that we need to ask ourselves as we read through this book and as we read, we conclude it here in chapter four.

What is that kind of force?

Now we're not here to just kind of take guesses, right?

But if we're honest with ourselves, there's a lot of the culture around us who would say, well, maybe it's just like something like karma.

There's just some kind of karma out there, and you know, it just kind of gives, it takes, it's kind of dividing and it's balancing the scales and it's working out for how these things work out.

Or there's some kind of power, other power in the universe.

And somehow that power just kind of works and moves things.

Or it's the energy.

It's the energy in life.

Or the vibes.

Maybe the vibes are just being sent out, and this is what's getting all this stuff done.

Or maybe it's their creator God, the God of the universe, who set all things in motion, who is good and who can be trusted.

And that is what the book of Ruth shows us that God is good and that he can be trusted.

Does God care about what's going on?

Does he realize what's going on?

We see in chapter one of Ruth, in these dark times, in this broken-hearted situation, that there is hope, even in the midst of darkness.

Hope that Naomi didn't know about, that Ruth didn't know about.

There is yet hope.

In chapter two, we see that there's mercy that is shown to Ruth and to Naomi.

Mercy they did not deserve, but nonetheless, mercy that God provided and gave to them.

How they, when they trusted God, he provided for them.

In chapter three, we see how true love displays selflessness and it displays trust and honor.

We see that through the way that the three characters interact and show love one to another.

And now in chapter four, we see how God continues to answer the question of how his goodness plays out.

One, he provides rest for Ruth, provides rest for her and for Naomi.

And two, by providing a son that will be in the lineage of David and eventually of Jesus, the Messiah.

And he also provides this good gift by giving the people of Glim a glimpse of how God works and how he is at work to make all things work together for the good.

See, in God's working, in this reality that life is happening, it just kind of happens.

No, God is at work, and God uses people.

So let's begin and see how God uses people.

Verse 1.

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, my friend, and 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 as well.

Now I just want to pause there.

So it's interesting.

Boaz, you know, we know at the end of chapter three, what's the last thing that Naomi says to Ruth?

Boaz is going to get this done, right?

He's not going to rest, he's going to see to it today.

And so he picked the story back up.

What's Boaz do?

He goes to the city gate.

This is where kind of business is done, so to speak, where the leaders gather, where things are adjudicated and worked out in this community.

And he's waiting.

And look who happens to come by.

But the very person who he needs to talk to, who is first in line to redeem Elimelech's land and his relatives.

That's a pretty nice little coincidence, right?

Coincidence, like how Ruth ended up gleaning in Boaz's field by happenstance.

And how a famine that was going on in Bethlehem just happened to end when Naomi was left as a widow and without sons.

It's a nice, nice little coincidence there.

So Boaz goes to the gate and he gathers ten of the elders of the city, and he has them sit down, and he's just getting after business.

He says, Listen, you're first in line.

If you want to redeem it, it's yours.

Here it is.

And the guy says, Yeah, I get some land, I'll get out of the deal, I will redeem this.

Sounds like a no-brainer to me, right?

Now it's interesting, this idea of redeeming land.

We've talked about this a little bit as we've gone through, Ruth.

But in uh, there's this idea of leverett marriage in the old covenant.

We don't see very many instances of it working out, but essentially, when someone dies without without um descendants, it's the responsibility of someone in that clan, that extended family, to redeem the land and that family so that the brother who died, his name would be carried on through his descendants.

And so this is what Boaz is coming to the city gate to do is to kind of work out this these first redeem or first in line to redeem the land and the relatives.

So he has this whole conversation, and the guy says, Yes, I'll take it, right?

Which is kind of a bummer.

But then verse 3, it says, Then he said to the redeemer, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of the land that belongs to our relative Elimelech.

So I thought I would tell you 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 beside me, besides you to redeem it, and I come after you.

So this tension is building.

You see, Boaz's intent here is one to continue to be a worthy man.

He's saying, Listen, I have a desire for this, I have an interest in this in this woman and what happens with this family, but you're first in line.

I'm not here to subvert the Jewish tradition or the law.

I'm here to do what's right and to offer you kind of first rite of refusal, so to speak.

And the guy, he says, I'll redeem it, right?

Naturally, of course.

And it's just like, ah, Bummer.

I thought Boaz was the guy.

You know, in chapter two, in like the romance and the Hallmark movie, was kind of playing out, and they're in the fields, they're talking, and this guy's gonna redeem it.

It's a bummer.

But Boaz being smart and clear and quick, he just reminds the guy, now listen, just so you know, if you take the land, you you take Ruth as well.

You're gonna take this woman to be your wife.

And the guy, this is what it says in verse 5.

Or, sorry, verse 6, he replies to Boaz, 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.

Boaz gets the girl, right?

It's a happy ending.

He gets the land, he gets the responsibility, all these things.

But it is interesting why this guy didn't, we don't know why he didn't redeem the land and Ruth.

Um, it doesn't say it doesn't say his name, right?

It's kind of left out there.

But it is interesting.

There could be a very some various reasons.

One, he didn't want to take on the responsibility of a wife and potentially children that he would have to care for.

But he does say that it would put his inheritance in jeopardy.

So there's something there that he didn't want to put in jeopardy, so he passes his right on.

And here Boaz is coming in to just make things legal and get things taken care of.

Look at verse 7.

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 redeemed said to Boaz, Buy it for yourself, he drew off his sandal.

Then Boaz said to the elders and to all the people, You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belongs to Elimelech, and all that belongs to Chilon and to Molon.

Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Melon, 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 are witnesses this day.

Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders, see, the crowd had begun to gather begun to gather here, okay?

We are witnesses, they reply.

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 Ephroth Ephrathath 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.

Shu was exchanged, witnesses were present, and the marriage union was formed.

This is quite literally just a marriage ceremony we see going on here, as odd as that feels.

And then the elders begin to give this blessing that Ruth would be like Tamar and give birth to who gave birth to Perez, and just so you know, this is a relative of Boaz.

So they're speaking about Boaz's family.

May Ruth be like your great, great, great, great, great grandmother, who was faithful, who the Lord provided for, and who from that family came Perez, the head of the Judean clan.

And there's also this charge given to Boaz.

We see this that he is commended to be a worthy man, to act worthily, which we believe from what we can see so far, he did.

So it feels kind of odd, like this guy is displaying this characteristic all the time.

Everyone knows he's a worthy man.

And their charge, though, is act worthily.

So there's a great little piece of marital advice here.

Which is wonderful.

It's pretty straightforward.

Act worthily and have kids.

Now we know that having bearing children is up to the Lord.

He is the giver of life.

And so we know through the throughout the story of the Old Testament, especially, times when people were barren, like Rachel or like Leah was.

A barren time.

And so we know that in the midst of all that, this is all under the hand of the Lord.

That he is the one who provides these things.

But we are the ones to act faithfully for what he has done.

So here now Boaz is married to Ruth.

Naomi is taken care of.

Now we don't know, they don't know what's to come.

Will children come?

Will they not come?

Who's to know?

But let's remember the beginning of the book of Ruth.

How Naomi kind of paints a picture of this affliction that God has brought and says, afflicting God.

If you're not a Christian, I want to ask you a question.

Why do good things happen to bad people?

Why do good things happen to bad people?

Not bad things happen to good people.

Why do good things happen to bad people?

According to the Bible, God is really good.

He made us to know him and to love him and to enjoy him.

But we have rejected his loving leadership in our life, saying, I'm going to do this my own way.

Although it might appear for a moment we're receiving God's leadership because it's kind of a coincidence.

I enjoy being a good person because it makes me feel good.

But when no one else is around, am I a good person?

See, we prefer our own way.

We're committed to ourselves rather than to God, and this is called sin.

And so we're sinners because of this.

So why does God give good gifts to bad people?

He's gracious and he's kind and he's merciful.

So this passage, I think, also just begs the question: what do you think about marriage?

This is all about marriage, this union.

Everything's been driving this whole story to this point of marriage.

What do you think about marriage?

About having a family?

About these good gifts that God gives.

What do you think about a government?

A government, especially that's free or mostly free of corruption.

These are good gifts that God has given.

I think this story highlights these things.

That these are gifts for us to enjoy, to not reject as we seek to honor and glorify God.

And not reject so that we can worship ourselves, but rather to worship him by enjoying what he has given us.

We should appreciate the good gifts that God gives, and we should praise him for it.

And there is even better gifts that he has to give.

We'll wait and see as the passage plays out.

But what does this also mean for Christians?

Life is a gift from God.

Naomi began with this bitterness.

But God is bringing joy and life to her.

God gives good gifts.

He's a gracious provider.

These elders around the city are functioning as a good government.

They're bringing public order, a good gift of marriage.

There's countless other good gifts and blessings that you and I need to be reminding ourselves of.

Because these things, although we interact with them, and they're for us, marriage, children, family, even government, they're not about us.

They're not for us to just bask in and enjoy for our own sake.

But rather, they are given to us that we would enjoy them for the glory of God and enjoy Him and praise Him for what He's given to us.

And how good He is and what He's done for us.

See, it's good to realize that your life in some ways is similar to this story.

What I mean by that is it's it's not over.

Where we've been progressing with this story, with Naomi and Ruth.

And you see where when there's this darkness and there's bitterness, there's hardship, and then you see some points where they're like, we're not sure how we're gonna eat.

They travel back to Bethlehem, it's it's coming home for Naomi, it's foreign for Ruth.

They don't know what's gonna happen.

And here they're just going to glean in a field.

And the Lord provides for that day abundance of grain.

And then as the story unfolds, the Lord begins to provide and provide, but they did not know that.

And so similarly, you guys are going in through life and you don't know how your story is going to end.

You don't know what the Lord's going to do, how he's going to provide.

Maybe you're somewhere in chapter one where it's just darkness.

It's bitterness.

It's empty, and you're just confused, and you don't even know what to do next.

Maybe you're somewhere in chapter two where things are beginning to sort themselves out, but you're still not sure how to take care of your house or your family.

You're just working to try to put food on the table for that day.

See, we need to be careful.

We don't make a mistake in assuming what God is doing or how he's going to finish our story.

We must remember what God has done.

We must remember how gracious has God been to you.

How has he supplied all of your needs in the past?

How has he shown up for you again and again?

How has he graciously revealed sin in your life?

Maybe it was humbling and humiliating, but how gracious of him to tear down things in your life that are keeping you from walking with him.

How loving for him to put hard things in your life that would stretch you and grow you.

You do not know what the Lord is bringing about.

So we faithfully trust him and lean into him.

Remember what God has done.

Just call these things to mind often and repeat them as a way to kind of steward your heart, to calibrate your heart, to praise him in the midst of hard things.

So when life is just kind of, again, happening and it seems to be carrying you along, and you're like, I don't know what's going on or why these things are happening.

It is God working in your life graciously, lovingly.

So submit to that.

And trust him.

Trust him.

Yield to him and to his will.

How wonderful that in the garden of Gethsemane, through tears, Jesus trusted the Father.

That his will is best and that his will be done.

Praise God for that.

And I pray as a church that we will be a place that is continuously encouraging you to trust God, to trust him, trust him, keep trusting him.

I don't have the answers.

I can't say, well, God has revealed the blueprint of your life to me.

And just trust me, it's going to be pretty good.

I don't know how tomorrow's going to unfold.

I don't know that if the Lord allows us to gather next year for this, before Christmas day as a church, who is still going to be here and who won't be here?

I don't know that.

And neither do you.

But what you have and what I have is God's word, which reveals his will for our life and how we can trust him.

We can grow in our faith.

We can grow in our obedience.

We can grow in our joy.

And this is what God has lovingly and graciously.

Done for us.

So we see this through, we see this same thing through Boaz's marriage to Ruth.

The blessing of just trusting God.

And God blessed him, He blessed them with a son.

Look at verse 13.

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, the women said this, Blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a redeemer.

And may his name be renowned in Israel.

What a blessing.

He shall be to you as a restorer of life, 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 began and became his nurse.

And the woman of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, A son has been born to Naomi.

And they called him Obed.

He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Obed means servant.

It's kind of a short form of the name Obadiah.

Obediah means a servant of Yahweh, a servant of the Lord.

This servant.

What an appropriate name for this little guy who would give, be the grandfather to David, to King David.

As active as Boaz and Ruth and Naomi were in the story, you realize that God was behind all these things.

He's moving things along, he's bringing life and he's bringing blessing.

Naomi in chapter 1, verse 9, prayed for God to provide a home and a husband for Ruth.

And she was in Moab saying, Go back, find a husband, find a home.

That's her prayer to God for this.

And God answered her prayer.

How faithful.

In the midst of all the darkness of chapter 1, all the death and all the sorrow, she calls unto the Lord for Ruth, and God will provide a husband and a home.

And that's exactly what he did in exactly the opposite way, the opposite way that Naomi was thinking.

This was not what Naomi had planned.

This is not what she was thinking at all when she prayed and asked God to provide for Ruth.

The Lord is at work and he is sovereign.

But also notice how Naomi doesn't just sit around.

She doesn't just sit, she's active.

She's thinking and moving and pushing on doors and praying for God's provision.

Now you and I, we're very limited and finite.

We cannot begin to grasp who God is.

We have such limited language for describing who God is, but he's good.

He's kind and he's gracious and he's sovereign.

We know that we're called as Christians to be engaged, to be going, sharing the gospel, to be working, to honor the Lord, to walk in obedience.

We don't just sit and wait for him to bring these things to us.

But we also know he's sovereign.

How else would Romans 8.28 even work out?

For we know that the plans, for we know that those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

How would this passage even work out?

How would Romans 8.28 be possible if God was not sovereignly orchestrating these things?

And so even as you feel like life's just happening and it's confusing and you don't know what's going on or why these things are going on, the Lord is behind these things.

He's calling you to action, he's calling you to faith and to move, and he is working in the midst of that.

What a joy, church, to go into our workplaces, to go gather with our families, to be intentional, living for Christ, sharing the gospel, knowing that God is behind all these things, that He is working out His plan, and that His plan is better than our plan.

So much better than our plan.

We can trust that.

So as we step forward in obedience, God is sovereignly at work.

I hope that you see this in the story of Ruth.

God graciously and mightily at work.

And as you look at your own life.

If you're a Christian, thinking back about however long you've been a Christian, two years, a year, 40 years, has God has He not been at work in your life?

Has He not been graciously working in you, maturing, providing?

He is at work.

He's gracious to do these things.

Ruth's name would never be forgotten.

It's listed here in the lineage of David.

It's also listed in Matthew chapter 1, verse 5, in the lineage of Jesus.

Matthew 1:5

And so we come to these last few verses that have all these names.

And there's seven generations that are listed before Obed, or before Boaz.

Boaz is the seventh, that honored seventh position.

And this isn't an exhaustive lineage from Perez all the way to David, but it shows God's goodness in bringing King David.

There's 700 years in this lineage listed out.

700 years.

The Lord is at work.

700 years where he's graciously, graciously preparing and providing for his people.

We talked last night in the story of Mary, how there was 400 years since when Mary received the message that she would give birth to the Messiah.

It had been 400 years since they'd heard anything.

But God was not absent, he was not missing, he did not forget, he was gracious and kind.

And that's what this book shows us that God is merciful, he is just and he is at work.

He brings hope in the midst of great darkness.

He shows kindness and mercy to those who do not deserve it, that he will accomplish his will.

How amazing, brother or sister, that the Lord is not trying to accomplish your will.

That he's not thinking, how do I take this person's will and work it out because that's what they want?

In this person's will and work it out with because that's what they want.

How unloving as a parent would it be to just try to satisfy and please all of your children and give them whatever they wanted.

That's insanity.

Like literally, you're insane if you think you can do that.

A good parent, a gracious parent, is someone who says, I know what you need.

I know what you need.

And I'm going to lovingly, graciously, and kindly provide that for you.

The last thing I want us to think through is just the significance, or rather the insignificance, of when Ruth showed kindness to Naomi.

Ruth's husband had died, or brother-in-law had died, or father-in-law had died, and she clings to Naomi.

It's back in chapter one in Moab.

How insignificant is that?

Like, I mean that'd be like someone living in Texas who decided to move in with their family to take care of their parents.

Or someone, you know, living in England who decided to change jobs so they could help with a neighbor who's elderly or something.

We would never know about it, let alone to be honest, care about it.

It seemed so insignificant.

But in the midst of that, the Lord used it.

And so there's so many things that just seem insignificant.

And to be honest, for most of those things, we don't get to see how big the Lord uses those things.

The Lord, I don't know that Naomi, especially, but even Ruth would see King David come about.

But they don't know these things.

But God used them to build his people.

So, church, think for a moment.

How will your small faithfulness be used to bless others?

And to bless those who come after us.

How our faithfulness as a church in declaring God's word faithfully, week after week, year after year, is going to be a blessing to our community and to our children and to those around us for the glory and edification of God.

It seems so simple and so little and insignificant, gathering together and opening the word and going through a liturgy that we go through.

It shapes us, it brings life and truth, and it blesses others.

It blesses others.

See, Boaz was a redeemer who needed redeeming.

Christ is the greatest redeemer.

And he is the redeemer that Boaz and you and I need.

Obed was a son of promise who would bring about eventually another son of promise, King Jesus.

The Christ, the Messiah.

David would grow up to be a great king of Israel.

But Christ is the greatest king of Israel.

Christ is the life that we should have lived in its perfection, in the death that we should have died for our sins.

But God loves us.

He's moving and active.

So we trust him.

We pursue him.

Like Boaz and Obed and David, we fall short and we are in need of him.

Ephesians 2, 4 and 6, 4 through 6 says, but God being rich in mercy, because of the great love which he has loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ.

It is by grace that you have been saved.

It's by grace that God has poured out his loving mercy upon us and upon Naomi and upon Ruth and upon Boaz.

It's by grace that we can know God, that we can even know to repent and follow after Him.

Because He has redeemed us.

1 Peter chapter 1 says, Knowing that you were redeemed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Redeemed not with perishable things such as silver or gold.

But hear this, but you have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, that the Lamb who was slain, who was without blemish or spot.

That is our Redeemer, church.

He is the one we look to, to no one else for salvation, to no one else for clarity.

He guides our life, he brings life, he sustains life, and he has come for us.

Praise God.

Let's pray.